Maintaining and fixing floors: a few handy tips

Part of having a beautiful home is having and maintaining beautiful carpets and the floor underneath them. Here are a few handy tips for removing carpet and maintaining and fixing your floors.

• Installing new carpet yourself usually isn't smart because of the rental cost of special tools, the time commitment and the risk of wrecking an expensive piece of carpet.
• But tearing out the old carpet is easier and involves much less risk.
• Tearing out your own carpet can also save you some money.
• Be sure to talk to your installer to find out just how much you'll save if you tear out your own carpet.

• You can keep phone lines, speaker wire and coaxial cable out of sight and safe from the vacuum cleaner if you install them before the new carpet goes in.
• Just staple the wire every 1 to 1.2 metres (3 to 4 feet) alongside the tack strip.
• Run it around the perimeter of the room, but not across doorways or other pathways on the floor where foot traffic will damage it.
• Don't use this trick to hide extension cords or electrical wiring.

• It's easiest to remove floor squeaks when your floor is bare.
• Drive screws into the floor joists around squeaks.
• Existing nails or screws tell you where the joists are.
• Walk around the room, pencil in hand, and mark squeaky spots.
• Make sure that any screws you drive in are 15 centimetres (6 inches) away from other screws.
• Add more screws until the squeak is gone.
• In most cases, 5 centimetre (2 inch) screws are best.
• For subfloors thicker than 1.5 centimetres (3/4 inch), use six centimetre (2.5 inch) screws.
• If you want to prevent squeaks from developing, add screws along all the floor joists.

• If your subfloor has any rotten areas, it's best that you discover and fix them.
• Rotten subflooring is common near exterior doors, especially patio doors.
• Set your circular saw depth to match subfloor thickness and cut around the damage.
• Cut along joists so the edges of the new patch can rest on them.
• Then pull out the damaged piece, cut a matching patch and screw it to the joists.
• To prevent additional damage, block the source of the water that caused the floor to rot in the first place.
• Caulking around the exterior trim and under the door sill might keep water out, but the surest fix is making sure you have proper sill flashing.

• Left untreated, pet urine stains can stink for years.
• To stop the stench, wet the area on the floor with a 50/50 mix of bleach and water.
• After five minutes, wipe up the bleach and let the floor dry completely.
• Then seal the stain with a stain-blocking primer.
• Be sure to choose a primer that's recommended for masonry if you have a concrete floor.

Keep these handy tips in mind and you'll be able to keep your floors in great condition.