Lately, I’ve spent a lot of boring time painting (though Jocelyn has helped me a lot with painting), cutting, installing, and wood filling trim (and still have some more to go). I’ve been coming to the conclusion that I am not a fan of finishing work.

I’ve been borrowing Jocelyn’s dad’s mitre saw almost since I started this project, but I’ve used it so much that I decided it was time to buy my own. After looking at several, I settled on a Craftsman 10″ sliding compound mitre saw. There were three of these that almost looked identical, but differed in price by about $130. The people at Sears could not tell me the difference, other than one, which was ~$250 CDN, has arms that extend out from the base, so that’s what I ended up buying. So far, I’ve been quite happy with it and would recommend it without hesitation. The laser is pretty accurate, and the positive miter stops make doing the different angles for trim very easy.

Update: Part 2 – Finishing baseboard.

I put laminate flooring in the laundry and bathrooms, because it’s relatively inexpensive and easy to maintain. Though I’ve never installed it before, it’s pretty straight-forward (and as such, I didn’t take very many pictures, I’m realizing now).

I put a basic foam underlay in first. Even though this is a basement, I already have a sub-floor that acts as a vapour/moisture-barrier, so I didn’t need the fancier (and more expensive) underlay that also does those jobs. If you are installing laminate floor directly on the slab, there are some neat products out there.

I started on one side of the room, and used a compound miter saw to cut the boards to length. With only a 10″ non-sliding saw, I could only cut about 75% of the way through a board, and then had to turn it around to make the rest of the cut, but this was not a big deal at all. I used a table saw I’m borrowing from a friend to cut the final pieces length-wise on the opposite wall from where I started.

For the closet in the bathroom, I used an 8mm tile edge strip. This gives a nice metal edge, which just slightly overlaps the laminate and protects the edge of the laminate.


The laminate ended about halfway through the laundry room closet door, which wasn’t quite enough. I only needed another inch or so, which wouldn’t have been very strong with laminate. I used a special transition strip to end it, which matches almost perfectly, and made up the extra distance.

For the transition from the laundry room and bathrooms to the rest of the basement (which will be carpet) I’ll likely be using a vinyl strip that snaps into a metal track attached to the floor (I can’t remember the name, but it’s very common). The strips have metal teeth that the carpet attaches to, and don’t go underneath the laminate at all, so I’ll install them later with the carpet, when I know what color it will be.

There is a floor drain in the laundry room, which I wanted to provide access to. I used a 3″ holesaw and some careful measurements to cut a hole for it, and right now I’m just using a standard floor drain cover. It doesn’t look bad, but I’d have no problems using something else for the cover if I can find something that would work.

It’s definitely starting to look closed to finished now.

I used circular vents for the ceilings, simply because I thought they were nicer looking than the square floor-style vents mounted upside down. There are two 5″ vents in the main room, one 5″ vent in the laundry room, and a smaller 3″ vent in the bathroom. For all but the bathroom, I just used the previously existing vent lines, but cut them shorter and used 5″ flexible duct to connect them to the vent in the ceiling tiles. This made it easier to hook up, and possible to move the tiles later without having to disconnect everything.

You can see the completed vents in yesterday’s post.

Since the bathroom didn’t exist as a separate room before I started, I had to add a new vent line for it. I thought this was necessary, just because of the way I split up the rooms – the only remotely close vent to the bathroom is around the corner in the laundry room, and if the door is closed then there is nothing.

The main ducts run just outside the bathroom door, so it was relatively easy to add a new line for the bathroom. I just added a 4″ collar into the side of the duct, and then used a reducer and flexible 3″ vent tube to bring it into the bathroom. I’m using relatively rigid pipe for this, not the thin flimsy stuff you’d find on the back of a dryer. The below pictures are older, obviously, and are from in the bathroom, looking out at the top of the doorway.