Week 109: Plumbing & Flooring

The start of the week the team finished up the roof decking so the dining area is now enclosed. The problem is that the weather has be wet so the roofing guy has been delayed so we didn’t get the actual roofing done. For now we have covered it with a tarp and we are hoping for better weather and for the roofing guy to catch up on his backlog. Dean really wants to get the roofing done before the slab is poured so we don’t have water coming into the basement. Seems like a solid plan to me.

The guys also started sorting out our front porch. It has the same curb for venting around the perimeter and needs a sloped roof for drainage. We also have the tapered posts that are part of our character retention permit so that has been a bit of a head scratcher for the builder. It has been for me too because i really can’t remember some of the details. Luckily i found a bunch of old photos and they figured out their approach. When i rebuilt them 9 years ago i must have had all of the measurements. I also usually save pieces and build from a template rather than from complete plans. They put a lot more attention to detail into it and they are a lot more solid. The roof of the porch is also now attached to the foundation with a couple of nice 4×4 douglas fir posts instead of the twinned 2×4’s my dad and i used.

The plumbers arrived mid-week and got the rough in done. This required a couple of additional minor changes as the upstairs drains must join the sewer hookup on the street side of the backflow valve. The issue is that if upstairs is behind the backflow prevention, then a blockage would end up with our drains backing up into the suite. We don’t want that. That happened to us in our first house in Kamloops and the basement tub in the bachelor suite we rented filled with.. effluent. Actually, it might have been the entire bathroom… It was carpeted. I rented a steam cleaner. Anyway, they had a core saw and cut a hole through the footings and we swapped where the 2×6 wall goes in the bathroom.

We didn’t manage to get the inspection done before the weekend unfortunately. I guess you can’t call for inspection until you are totally ready because you don’t know when the next day the inspector will arrive. Makes sense. The rough in is not really “rough” and is a lot of heavy work bedding the pipes into the 3/4 crush. Everything has to be sloped correctly so that it drains at the right speed. Too steep and the liquid flows too fast and the solids stay behind. Too shallow a slope and nothing flows. This was an issue we had with the drain for our laundry and kitchen in the old basement. I had to cap the floor drain in the laundry room because it would back up when we drained our sink or laundry. Wasn’t a big deal to cap that drain because the corner of the foundation had a hole knocked in the floor and the entire basement was sloped nicely in that direction to drain.

We also got a nice surprise when we saw that the city had come by to survey and mark things out for our water line installation. We haven’t heard anything from them recently but they had said “late January” so they are bang on schedule. The “no parking” signs haven’t gone up yet so we assume this will happen next week.

I had a bit of homework from Dean and spent a few dusty hours grinding lumps off of our foundation on Saturday and Sunday. Vancouver building code requires a layer of rigid insulation between the foundation and the framing and we want a nice tight fit so we don’t lose space. This is sort of rough work is right in my wheelhouse as it isn’t an exact science. I just put my protective gear on, my bluetooth headphones, and start my playlist. It is somewhat therapeutic to feel like i am contributing.

Sarah had Saturday off so we spent the afternoon shopping for flooring for the laundry room and the kitchen. The laundry room is going to be tile because we want something that can take a beating and not get scratched and won’t be harmed by water. For the kitchen though Sarah threw me a curveball. I have spent the last year under the impression that we were going to have a tile floor in the kitchen but apparently that wasn’t written in stone. We were on the phone in the morning with Don up in Kamloops (aka Papa Beyonce, my GDT trail buddy) and he suggested Marmoleum which is what they have in their kitchen. We are going with white cabinets and a white counter (when we can afford it) and Sarah was concerned about a neutral grey floor making the whole thing a bit austere. Don and Jamie have a fantastic kitchen with a bright floor so we decided to take a look. This stressed me out as we need to sort this decision out pretty quickly. We HAVE to move back in less than 2 months. Also, we have had tile floors for 17 years and every professional kitchen i ever worked in had tile floors. Sarah is the lead decorator though so i bit my tongue.

Marmoleum is a brand name for linoleum produced by Forbo. I was hoping to use my “authenticity” trump card but after some googling i learned that linoleum ticks both of the boxes i care about. Linoleum was invented in 1855 so it authentic for the house. It is made from linseed oil, sawdust, limestone, jute, and organic pigments making it environmentally friendly. Unlike PVC flooring, which lots of people call linoleum but isn’t, it does not off gas and doesn’t create microplastics. The challenge is that Marmoleum comes in over 300 colours. You have to understand what a nightmare this is for me. I have been wearing the same brand and style of jeans since i was 15. I have been wearing the same brand and style of socks since i was 20. Despite my love for paisley shirts as my one sartorial flourish, i don’t really do colour, pattern, or style.

We started by going to Ames Tile in Burnaby which Dean our builder had recommended. We had been discussing the cost of tile and been trying to figure out what to do and he gets a builders discount there. He also told us to look at their clearance tiles as the frequently have ends of job lots for big developers that they sell for cheap. We had been to Home Depot and found some acceptable tile at $3.86 sq ft, and found some at a local tile place we have used before at $5.99 per sq ft, and we don’t need a lot, but ever dollar matters right now. Ames was amazing. They have a huge show room and we put our name down to have a sales person talk to us when they were available. We looked around a bit but most was not really in our price range. I am sure $15.99 sq ft tile is fine for some, but not us. We did find some that came in around $6 after Dean’s discount but it really started to look like Home Depot was going to be the solution. We wandered into the supplies area but couldn’t find the clearance tile and were about to leave when a sales person called our name. We showed her the tile on the wall and talked about where we plan to use it. She gave us some tips and we finally worked up the courage to ask about the clearance area. She was a real pro and did not even batt an eye and happily took us to the display in their loading area outside where she explained how clearance works and then she retreated inside and left us to sort it out. These were our kinds of prices! After flipping through the racks we laid out samples on the ramp and when she came back out to check on us we had a couple of options for her to check. We ended up picking a tile that is $2.86 sq ft and we are pretty happy. The whole process was super easy and quick. I just have to sort out how many sq feet we need and we can order. Then we need to get a quote on installation.

The Marmoleum was a bit more of an adventure. The first place we went to only had tiles and laminate planks. We are both of the opinion that we want sheet lino for the kitchen because of water. I recall some friends having issues with swelling when their fridge leaked and soaked the floor. The second place was in an industrial area and there were actually two stores that showed up on google with different names at the same address which was odd. We got out there and drove around but didn’t see either store named on the signs. We realized though that the shop we saw, the Designer Resource Centre, must be the place. Sure enough when we went in, it has a ton of different specialty suppliers. Everything from textiles to flooring and furniture. We tracked down the flooring and were helped by a great salesman who brought out all of his Marmoleum sample books. We quickly eliminated the tile books, and narrowed down our colour range and the styles we liked. When i say quickly, i mean it was likely 45 minutes but that is pretty quick when there are 300 colours and styles. We haven’t made a final choice yet but have narrowed it down enough that we could get a quote and order some samples from the manufacturer.