Shower rough-in complete, starting hardwood flooring

We have slowly been plugging away over here, and enjoying the milder weather compared to the bitterly cold February we just had.  After the last post I pressure tested the hot and cold water lines to the shower, and found a small leak in the cold water supply, so I fixed that up and also installed the “drop ear” fitting for the shower head.  I had to screw in a piece of 3/4″ plywood to mount the fitting onto, to get it set at the right depth for the finished wall.

Shower rough-in complete and pressure tested.
Shower rough-in complete and pressure tested.

As regards to flooring, we had a really hard time deciding what type of flooring to use.  The “best” kind of flooring to use over a radiant heat floor, is tile, but we found tile to be quite expensive and also it is a little hard on the feet.  We also looked at cork, bamboo, laminate, and other engineered floors, but we used some of this in our previous house (kitchen remodel) and were not happy with it’s durability.  We finally ended up deciding to go with solid hardwood, but pricing for pre-finished hardwood is still quite expensive ($4/sq.ft.), and we didn’t want to pay a premium for a floor we will probably wreck and need to refinish anyway.  After doing some inquiring and research, we ended up special ordering some “cabin grade” red oak flooring at our local Home Hardware, which is an unfinished solid oak flooring, for only $2.80/sq.ft.

The flooring comes from a sustainable tree farm up in Quebec and is basically their “factory seconds” so there are a lot of short boards and boards with some small defects, but it’s still a solid floor and no doubt will still look great when we finish it out.

Our current plan is to finish the flooring in the living room/kitchen area, so we can finish the drywall in there and get the kitchen cabinets set up, then we can focus on completing the master bedroom to get that squared away.  After that we will have to add a few more electrical outlets in the basement, and drywall down there (all the pink xps foam insulation needs to be covered), and we will be well on our way to getting our certificate of occupancy!

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the pictures!

One thought on “Shower rough-in complete, starting hardwood flooring

  1. I can see that you are getting closer to the finish line. Good work!!!
    I see some meatballs in your future.

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