Certificate of Compliance for house: floor coverings - ALL DONE!

Those of you who have had this signed off recently...what are the requirements? I was under the impression that as long as the service areas of floor (kitche, bathroom, toilet etc) are rendered impervious/washable that was enough, and that we could leave the uncarpeted concrete for later attention (ie when budget allowed).

Is that the case or do all areas (bedroom, living areas etc) have to be sorted, and if so, to what standard?

I think it depends on your own local council. We got full sign off with bare concrete - we have only painted a layer of concrete sealer on it to stop the dust coming up. We intend putting cork tiles down in the kitchen and bathroom - but the Inspector never even asked about the floor. New Plymouth District Council have been fairly slack with requirements on this place.

No matter what you are intending to do flooring-wise, I would strongly recommend the sealer before any furniture etc goes down. We have rugs down in various places for comfort sake, as I can't see us getting any carpet until the landscaping, carpark and driveway are sorted. There's just too much dust coming in.

Hopefully someone local will be able to tell you your local requirements, the rules aren't even vaguely consistent across the country. Our inspector didn't care about the bare "gib board and plaster look" or even the ladder to the mezzanine storage area (AKA kids room). One year on, and we still don't have a staircase, carpet, or paint on the walls (most are undercoated though).

Unfortunately, although I had suggested sealer at the beginning before we moved in, someone else didn't think it was needed [}]

If you have bare concrete, it must be waterproof (or at least "sealed" I think) to get Code Compliance in Franklin - not just service areas, everywhere, and from (my very bad) memory, it is a requirement under the Building Act.

Sealing a concrete floor is NOT something you want to do now the house is finished. You need to use really evil acid to clean it, then hose it off (!?!?), then seal (at least twice I think).

The sealer affected me so badly (smell wise, even with a very expensive respirator) I was unable to finish it myself - poor old Mum and Dad had to. By the third coat (!), they were getting pretty good at it.

That said, if I spill something on the floor and don't wipe it pretty quickly, it does stain a bit.

The sealer we used wasn't like that at all! Ours just went on with a roller - it was just a clear, plasticy sort of paint. We did sand the floor and vaccuum well before we did it, but mainly because our floor had been exposed to the weather for months before the house was sealed in, and it was filthy. It smelled no worse than the GIB undercoat going on, and dried pretty quick. We put down 2 coats. After a year of living on it, we can see where is has got a bit scratched, when spills soak into the concrete, unlike the sealed bits, where the water lies on top like on plastic. We probably need to put another layer on the heavily used areas like around the door, and in the kitchen.

Ah bum there goes money I'd rather spend elsewhere used putting carpet down first - I'd wanted to get the driveway area outside the house sealed first to stop the coarse sand being walked in before the carpet went down.

But it's one OR the other we can afford, not both.

Even making sure that you take your shoes off when you come in, the damn grit still gets in somehow!

OakhengeFarm;288135 wrote: The sealer we used wasn't like that at all! Ours just went on with a roller - it was just a clear, plasticy sort of paint.

I went with one recommended for heavy use, as my house is small so every area is "heavily used". It was clear, and smelt like oil paint, but more evil, if you know what I mean.

Well, one good thing if we bite the bullet and carpet is at least we won't have to shift the furniture (including my office [:0]) twice, once for sealing and once again later on for carpeting...

Back to the budgets...

The seal we used cost $110 (March '08) for a 20 litre bucket, which was (just) enough for 2 coats on a 91 sq m floor. Not too painful!
We used Aurora Paints Concrete Glaze - recommended for sealing driveways, so we assume that means pretty heavy duty!

Yes, I can so relate to the grit coming in, no matter how hard you try! We blame the wind. We have to sweep the floor at least twice daily, and what hides under the rugs is unbelievable. I dread to think what would happen to a fixed carpet.

No one is allowed with shoes on in our homes, although gumboots are allowed as far as the laundry once entered via the back door and only on really bad wet days.... we had this house carpeted before we moved in, although have T & G jarrah flooring in the entranceway which is sort of like a villa in that it goes down the spine of the house to all the rooms, so there is no excuse for people not to take off their shoes and dirty socks before proceeding whilst remaining dry themselves.

It always amazes me though that people expect just to saunter in with their clogs on all over the house regardless. We have had this rule ''being japanese'' for some years in our homes.

swaggie, we are shoe free as well, but no matter what we do, the stuff still gets in one end of the house is carpeted and when we vacuum you can see the damn grains bouncing all over the place [!]

golden homes built our place and the consents came in the mail. tkf

Well, have heard from the horse's mouth - of a horse in the neighbouring council, but a reliable horse - that there has been a recent case that has established the ruling that if the concrete floor was steel floated (as ours was, smooth as a baby's bum) no sealant or covering is needed for cert of compliance.

Our own council inspector said that we 'should' get service areas covered, but I've administered the rules and regs for other things long enough to know that 'should' is not 'must' as far as the law goes.

So we are proceeding with plans to tile and seal the kitchen floor (bathrooms already linoed) and apply for CoC without carpet down. That will leave us free to spend our dollars on getting the outside hard landscaping done first to safeguard any later soft coverings...

They cannot force you to put down floor coverings unless they were on the original plans submitted to the council.

We do not insist visitors remove shoes since we have had our entrance area sealed and good mats in place (unless of course they are farm or work boots etc) My theory is that natural human skin oils once on carpets are worse long term than a possible bit of loose dry dust that can be vacumed off.

arnie.m;290832 wrote: They cannot force you to put down floor coverings unless they were on the original plans submitted to the council.

That's true, but there are lots of rules (or changing rules, as Tigger has just shown ) in regards to sealing or "finishing" of concrete floors in certain areas, so there are things they can force you to do.

For example, if Tigger's floor hadn't been finished in the manner she describes, they could have forced them to do something such as sealing, or putting the floor coverings down to get their CC.

The problem as Tigger points out is how inspectors/councils/staff word things, which is why the golden rule is always to ask "Show me where it says that in the Building Act."

For example, i was told by a senior staff member at my council (not an inspector) that I must - by law - have an oven. I had no money for an oven. I was quite upset, so rang the Electrician's Assn, who told me it was a lie. I went back to council and spoke to the chief inspector, who was very happy to confirm that you do NOT need an oven to get a code of compliance.

And personally, I'd specify as little as possible! If I had my time over, I'd have specificed almost nothing, and paid the small amount of money for "amendments" to my plan.