Hello to new floors and ceiling

November 26, 2016 Koivisto 0 Comments

Step by step our home is coming together. We waited over 8 weeks to start with the floor tiles of the bathroom, sauna and the toilet. The new concrete floor (more in this post Basement stories) has to have a certain humidity level for tiling. If the tiling is done before the floor is dry, the concrete is still shrinking and moving under the tiles and can cause uneven end result. We had some difficulties with our floor, but in the end it turned out pleasing and the best thing is, that we have a bathroom soon. We had a better succes with our new wooden ceiling with the help of Susanna's father. On the photo above is the bathroom. Under the panels is an aluminium foil, that the steam won't go through and make damage to the structures of the building.
First step with the floor was to seal the drains and the edges. Then all the surface was covered with a waterproofing, the blue looking paint.
It's said that the first point, where people look when they are showering is the drain. So this spot in the bathroom needed to be well done and it was the starting point for all the floor tiles.
As we were filling the floor, we noticed that the walls weren't quite straight. We would have actually needed to straighten them, if we would have wanted a perfect end result. This time it was already a little late, so now the floor has some oblique lines, but the house is old and some beauty mistakes makes it only more appealing.
Last the gaps were filled. Filling with a black grout was a messy work. For the finishing touch we might have used a little bit too much water. Next time with a drier sponge and less mess.
For the ceiling in all the rooms except the working spaces was chosen panels. We are not such a fans of the traditional Finnish wooden panel ceilings, but we had the material lying around here. The main reason was the financial side of it and it's also nice to use the material, that is already here. First the panels were cut in the right length and then painted with a white transparent lacquer. The idea was to make it look fresh, but still keep the feel of the wood. The wooden texture gives a little warmth for the rooms with only concrete and bricks.
The panels were attached to the frames with a nail gun. The holes were sawed before attaching. They are for the lights, that will be later embed to the ceiling. Because of our low room height, we wanted lights, that are hanging as little as possible. We will show the lights to you soon!
The new ceiling looks nice and it suits well to the other surfaces by bringing warmth. It's also same time modern and classic.
We made some mistakes with the floor, because of our inexperience and with choosing inexpensive tiles. The quality of the tiles and how they were glued togehter could have been better. The gaps should have been 3mm, but now some of them are bigger or smaller. Our mistake was to attach some of the tiles higher and some lower. Anyhow the main thing is, that the renovation is going further and all in all we can be happy with the quality of our work.

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