There are so many flooring options for homes these days. We are looking for a waterproof solution for the entire apartment from bedrooms to bathrooms.
We have already decided that we will use the concrete slab foundation for the floor in our house.
The apartment is a different beast.
It is on the second floor and will not have a concrete floor.
Along this building journey we have a few goals:
- Build this house as affordably as possible
- Make the house as mold resistant as possible
- Create a beautiful and comfortable home
I’m home by myself this weekend so I have had more time to go down rabbit holes and eat what I want while I do it. Without getting interrupted. If you are a mom, you get where I’m coming from.
Our home needs to be “Easy to clean.”
When Aura was helping us design the house I mentioned easy to clean so many times, she finally said, “I’m writing this down, Laura Anne doesn’t like to clean.”
It isn’t that I don’t like to clean, it is that I want my space to be EASY to clean. I have so many other things I would prefer to do with my time, so I want cleaning our home to be fast and easy.
Dust is a perfect breeding ground for mold, I want to be able to run a damp dust mop on all the floors in our house without having to move furniture and rugs etc. In my current season of life this is a NECESSITY for me.
I have a thing about floors.
Tile and grout can be beautiful, however…
I find them difficult to clean.
I love wood floors, but don’t like pre-finished flooring because it has cracks.
If a drink spills in the living room the water on the surface is easy to mop up, what about the water that slithered down the cracks? It can lurk there creating a damp environment for mold to start growing.
I’m not a fan of linoleum.
It is easily damaged if something is dropped on it and I just don’t like the look or feel of it in bedrooms.
Carpets are a big no for us.
It is almost impossible to actually clean a carpet completely. The dirt and dust just hangs out at the bottom of the carpet. We may put in a couple of small throw rugs that are washable in the bedrooms or living area at some point, but I will never put wall to wall carpet in any home I ever have in the future.
Can we find a waterproof solution for the entire house that River and I can agree on?
I recognize that this seems like I’m overthinking the moisture issue.
I get it.
A year ago I would have thought the same thing.
Once you have had to throw away a majority of your belongings because of mold that has been hidden in the walls of your house, you really don’t want to go through it again.
We are looking for a solution that will be safe, prevent water from leaking into the floor, provide a seamless floor throughout the apartment and look nice.
This led me to epoxy.
And I had questions.
Can we put an epoxy floor over a plywood sub floor?
The answer is YES! Yes you can!
Will it look pretty?
There are so many color choices that I don’t think it would be a problem to find a color group that would work for us.
How long does it take to install?
It looks like it will take about a week or so to install, there is a lot of waiting involved. I think there are other floors that could be installed more quickly.
Is epoxy durable?
It seems that when epoxy is applied correctly over a surface that has been properly prepared it can last for 20 or more years. There is a possibility of some yellowing occurring if it gets a lot of sun exposure. We do have really big windows in every room, however the house is positioned in such a way that we get morning and afternoon sun and not all day sun. I feel like the exposure will be limited and we will probably pick a darker, warmer color scheme for the floors, so a slight yellowing wouldn’t show anyway.
Is it safe?
Once the epoxy floor has completely cured, the material does not pose health risks.
Epoxy is hazardous when you sand the flooring after it has cured and inhale this dust.
I found this great blog post about the dangers of epoxy and how to use it safely. I also found this one, which makes it sound much scarier.
That is the trouble with the internet isn’t it? I can find information saying it is completely safe once it is cured and I can find information saying, don’t use it, it will cause life long problems. Of course there are people that install this stuff daily without problems as long as they use the proper protective gear.
Its a toss up.
River is not convinced that we will want to spend as much money as he thinks it is going to cost.
One of the YouTube videos I found by Andrew Thron Improvements said he spent $500 on a 100 sq ft epoxy floor for his shed. Just doing some quick math and our space will be approximately 1200 sq ft so about $6000.
Ooof.
That is a lot of money.
I looked on the Leggari website and they said it would be $2-3 a sq ft to do it yourself or $5-8 sq ft to hire a professional so $3,600 would be more in line as we would be doing it ourselves. That price seems much more doable.
Maybe Andrew Thron’s was so expensive because he had to get a large amount even though he had a small space to finish?
Comparisons for 1200 sq ft of flooring:
(All prices below came from Home Depot.)
Peel and Stick vinyl tiles $1,546.20
High end, Mavericks French Oak, Engineered Hardwood $4,810.32-6,290.96
Porcelain Floor Tile $2,668.48-4,788.00
Unfinished white oak flooring $5,912.32
Pre-finished White Oak $7,915.25
I’m sure we could find a flooring somewhere in between, but for right now I’m going to keep researching the epoxy flooring and see what we can come up with, there are some beautiful finishes that I think would look really great as a floor in every room of the apartment.
Maybe $3,600 isn’t so bad as a waterproof solution for the apartment…
I am worried about the yellowing of the epoxy over time.
As I have had time to think about epoxy, I have been thinking that perhaps we should put epoxy in the bathroom and kitchen. There will be less sunlight in those rooms so the yellowing won’t be a factor.
Unfinished wood floors that we finish ourselves would look lovely in the bedrooms and living area. I think we can make the floors waterproof if we finish them ourselves. It is messier but it will be done the way we like it.
Will epoxy be the waterproof solution for the entire house that we have been searching for?
We will find out in a couple of months.
Stay cozy everyone.
P.S. My weekend home alone writing was interrupted by a power outage that lasted for three and a half days. Needless to say this post is late. I apologize.
To see what we have spent so far click here.
Read about compromises we have had to make in our design here.
Read about building our dream house on a smallish budget here.