Decisions: Home Gym Trim & Flooring Issues

It’s been a very frustrating past few days because I’ve been planning to get a lot of work done in the gym at home (while considering my options for master bathroom vanities since I can’t find the trim I need), and I hope to continue at full strength so that I have more progress to show you today.

Well, that didn’t happen. The last two days are a whole lot of spinning my wheels and absolutely nowhere.

After reading all your comments and suggestions about crown molding in the gym house (should i use crown molding in this room or not), I decided that I would go ahead and install the crown molding, and then decide after that if I wanted to use the curtains. But I’m also going to do something a little different that a couple suggested, and that is to bring the stripes ONTO the crown molding. It’s different, but I think that fun and unexpected touch would be great in a home gym where things don’t have to be taken too seriously.

The problem? I can’t install the crown molding!!! I don’t know what the problem is, but I nailed a piece of crown molding, and then as I worked my way to get the crown molding piece to the wall, the crown wouldn’t actually lean against the ceiling. . I pushed with all my might, and it still wouldn’t sit on the ceiling.

I can bend the crown so it sits on the wall and the ceiling, but that makes the angle of the spring completely wrong, which means the corners don’t meet.

I’ve never had a problem with crown molding before. I tried it once and it didn’t work, so I removed it and tried again. The second time didn’t work either. Generally, the only time that happens is when the ceiling isn’t very level, but this ceiling doesn’t look that uneven to me. So I don’t know why that happened, but I decided to give up crown molding.

Of course, removing the crown not once, but twice, left me with these nasty gouges in the wall that needed fixing. And you can see why I wanted the crown in the first place. Since that was my plan from the beginning, I didn’t really strive for perfection in painting the area where the wall meets the ceiling.

And that’s how it goes around the whole room. So when I leave the crown molding, I have to touch each of the stripes to make a crisp line where the wall meets the ceiling.

But due to my crown molding failing, not only was I left with an uneven ceiling area, but I was also left with these divots all over the top wall and the bottom wall where the door was.

So I broke up the drywall compound and filled those divots that pulled out of the wall with nails.

I have to admit that the whole episode was very disappointing. I waste a lot of time on that, and end a day’s work with a lot of steps in the background where I started the day was very discouraging.

So yesterday, I really needed a quick win, and spending hours and hours touching up stripes is not my definition of a quick win. So I took the advice many of you gave and bought a little trim to go over the top to cover the area where the paint job didn’t work well, and leave me with a nice, crisp top of the stripes. . . And as many of you suggested, I put the trim, which is about 1.25 inches wide and 3/8 inch thick, on the ceiling instead of the wall.

It’s a lot easier than touching up all the individual stripes, and I think once it’s broken and painted, it goes away really well, keeping the stripes as the main star of the room.

Also, I made a decision on the floor of this room. My decision was that all of it had to be replaced – the floor as well as the subfloor. I have no idea why this room doesn’t have a vapor/moisture barrier between the hardwood flooring and the subfloor like the other original hardwood flooring, but it is necessary.

And this room also has 1″ x 10″ and 1″ x 8″ boards as a subfloor as well, complete with vent holes, gaps, etc. All the parts of the house with the original flooring have it too, but those areas have a vapor/moisture barrier, so it’s not that big of a deal for me. But I can imagine that this room with no solid subfloor PLUS no vapor barrier is what contributed to the rotting of a board, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some hidden damage under the rest of the floor as well.

All that to say is that the long term plan is that this room needs a new subfloor and a new floor. BUT…there’s no way I’m doing that now. I just want these two rooms (home gym and master bathroom) done now, and there’s no way I’m going back now.

So for now, I removed the part of that one board that was completely rotted, and checked the subfloor under it. It looks like an old piece of wood, but there is no bug damage or rot in the boards. And then, instead of taking the time to repair cutting and installing a new red oak floor board, I just filled the gap with Loctite spray foam.

This foam, when it dries, is very dense and hard. And it also expands many times the original size. I sprayed it on last night before I went to bed, and this is how it looked this morning. 😀

So I just used my long, flexible serrated knife to cut off the excess flush with the floor.

Again, this brand of foam is very dense and stiff, unlike other brands of spray foam I’ve used, so since it’s so close to the wall, I’m sure it’s fine as a temporary solution. I’ll put foam gym flooring squares on top of it, and no one will know…

And then at some point in the future (maybe when we tackle our big addition), I can get the foam squares out and this floor and subfloor will be completely replaced. That will also give me peace of mind in the long run because we can check all the floor joists for any damage once the subfloor is removed.

But again, while I want this to finally be taken care of, I don’t feel the urgency to get it over with right away. So for now, the original floor will just be buried under a layer of gym foam flooring, and Future Kristi will take it from there. Right now, I just want to finish this room (and the master bathroom), and I don’t want to delay it any longer.