Hopefully you prepped for the SECONDARY reason that dogs scratch at the thresholds of doors…termites. The work of termites is clearly apparent to dog hearing and the little scritchy scritch scritch of their movement and mandibular naughtiness at the expense of our home irritates their ears. They hear it…but don’t see it…and so, like going after the gopher that ducks under the lawn, your dog tears into the wood to get at the invisible enemy within. Any time you tear out wood that has dry rot or any other defect you should prep the area with a long lasting ‘oily’ pesticide specifically for termites. I do want to compliment you on a BEAUTIFUL JOB! And absolutely splendid taste in finish! One of the more serious faux pas in woodwork that Americans and Western Europeans have adopted unnecessarily from the East and far North is the brightly painted accents of trim, doors and eaves! In places that paint is the last final solution to resist weathering I say ‘great!’ Pour it on! But where we can it is so important to restore the beauty of natural wood finish and earth tones to our environment. This is how woodwork has been done for two thousand years in warmer and gentler climates simply for the beauty of it. Forgive me for the length here but I almost exclusively restore woodwork, buildings and furniture from the 14th-17th C and am always pleased to see the natural beauty of a thing be brought out in the practical usage of a thing. The right wood, the right finish…You’re a boss woodworker!

Dig out a bed about 2” wider than the timber and fill this with level compacted sand. Place the timbers in the sand so that they do not move. Rebar doesn’t creep out or stick out when done correctly so that’s not a problem but preferences are king and you want what you want. So the sand will keep them generally in place and you may have to move them back into place if they are forced out of place by fought play or intentional movement. They are safe and should remain in place even with children walking on them or jumping on them. I have seen timbers linked together with eye hooks to keep them in line AND in sand and that makes it more difficult for one to get kicked out of place and it’s not unsightly. I have made angle iron fasteners for the bottom of timbers in jobs I have done and pointed the 30cm iron to sink into the ground. I powder coated it for appearances AND rust prevention (since they were underneath and never seen). These prevent the possible creep of a bar pounded down through the timber into the ground…though I have done this MOST and have never had one creep out. Either way I would powder coat or at least smear with tar to keep the rust from eating it away over the years. A job done well is a job done once.

Something I did was to put a 30”x30” powerful belt driven gable vent with a nice decorative front screened grill (bugs) up and inside the garage (and attic..I did 3 total) I attached a hygrometer AND thermometer (all one unit) and a snap covered on off switch for when belts need changing and I don’t want to lose fingers. The hygrometer is set for 37 percent humidity (in Mass you would be safe going with 50% to keep it from running all the time) and the temp was set to 140/80F. In the summer the peak of the garage hits 140F by 7am and either the humidity setting or the temp sets it off. If you are actually trying to use this to cool the garage you can set it for lower temps but you are going to use a LOT of electricity since the heat will constantly be high up near the fan. I would recommend putting window or wall mount fans at work level and have switch to flip them on when you are going to be in there. They are cheap at $120 each for professional units and will NEVER wear out (until your home burns down and they melt…or maybe that’s just me…and the fire was caused by something installed long before I bought the house). So that’s a thing I did to resolve both moisture and heat issues. The two in the attic of the house, Mid point and North end, were quiet and smooth operating and I never had a repeat of mildew and never overheated or overworked the air conditioning in the Summer. In 2006 this was $480 done professionally but that’s pretty meaningless now. What you are talking about with my recommendations will run about 550 DIY$ these days for the single fan and a couple window fans at level.

There’s one option I haven’t seen below and I realize you already bought the thermostat… BUT! There are some really nice wireless thermostats that don’t require pulling a new wire. What you have REQUIRES pulling a new wire. Thermostats have fairly sensitive electronics and are matched to a graded and measured wire with precisely known resistance. This means that when you turn your thermostat to 70F it will warm the house to 71f…allow up to 3+/- temp. And turn start the furnace at 67F again. If you use the old (most likely solid core 18g copper) wire you will end up a few degrees in either direction or shortening the life of the new thermostat. This isn’t in the instructions and I’m not sure why…maybe Honeywell likes selling new thermostats every few years to the same person? The wiring advice below is good. Do that if you stick with a wired thermostat but the wireless option for about $180 is going to be trouble free and only need a recharge on the 9V lithium battery about every 3 years. Well…THAT is my opinion and like bellybuttons…everyone has one.

Hmmm. Oops! There’s a couple things to do for the future. Put a piece of 1/4” plywood in the closet to lay down on the floor in the future. To repair the holes you need to use some fine sand paper to reduce the tiny raised ridges around the holes. The tip of the dart will open the wood and force some of the laminate out and up creating a tiny ridge. That has to go. This will leave scuffing from LIGHT sanding using your fingertip and a small bit of paper and these will have to be rematched to the rest of the floor after you fill the holes. Mohawk Floor Products (check online) sells a hard wax in different colors meant to repair dents in furniture. That’s fine if this is an edge where no one walks but if people actually walk over this area you will need the kneaded mixed epoxy clay that they offer in over 120 colors as of last count for about $12.00 and some postage. Call the customer service and ask for a recommendation of color, take a picture with a good phone or tablet camera and let them help you match the color…otherwise it looks…”unprofessional”…or like your floor came down with Chicken Spots! Once you get this, mix thoroughly and use your finger (wear a nitril glove!) to push the epoxy mud deeply into each hole. Wait for it to dry to see if you need to stain the area to match the color of the floor. If so, get back with Mohawk and get the proper stain/finish and you can do it all at once. I normally use a spray on oil based coloration (a plastic squeeze spray bottle) and mix and match tints until it is right but you should just get one color and do your best (you can end up easily with $1200 in product if you don’t just accept close enough). Once dyed properly then use a laminate floor sealer from a big box store (or a hardwood flooring shop…which will be better) and seal the putty, tinting and roughened spot to match the surrounding area. Most laminate floors are shiny but actually the finish is Matte. At most it is semigloss. Do NOT use gloss or high gloss finish or it will stand out. Flooring has to match REALLY well or you will be explaining to guests what happened for the next 30 years…nobody wants that. I don’t know what this costs now but 25 years ago I would have charged a client or insurance company about $400 to do a 25sq’ area and it would taken a couple hours each day for three days to get it all right. Nowadays at about $300 per hour…do it yourself! You NEED to do this right or you are going to lose your deposit and pay the extra cost out of pocket when the owner sues you. CALL MOWHAWK…GET IT RIGHT!

It kind of looks like a commercial tile with harsh fluorescent lights somewhere in a warehouse or old business…the surface applications just won’t last for commercial settings.

That’s actually the perfect solution if this is a home but if this is commercial the grout renew will not last. It’s a surface treatment that doesn’t hold up to constant commercial cleaning with the harsher chemicals and the grinding outdoor dirt that finds it’s way into commercial bathrooms. But if this a basement in a home or pool house then it’s perfect and quick solution.

Let me just start by saying I’ve applied about 40 tons of grout over the years as one of my side hustles along with customer tile work in contracting. Much of it commercial.
To bleach clean concrete that has been used as grout you would use Muriatic Acid available in any pool supply shop for about $30/gallon. It is unlikely they use concrete for the actual grout even if they were oblique enough to apply a tile application directly to a concrete floor. But…this is not uncommon in industrial / commercial applications where they call it “industry standard” when they mean “It’s good enough and will last past the call back date”. Run a screw driver or grout pick over an out of the way bit of cracked or ruined grout to see if it is grout (it will scratch easily) or concrete (will appear hard and unscratched). Don’t use a lot of elbow grease, you are not prying out the grout, you are just trying to lightly scratch through whatever miasma has built up over the years to see the original material. Treat it like you are keying you least favorite neighbor’s car to try and scratch the actual grout line. The tile will not scratch. Grout will scratch and look powdery and concrete will chip or only scratch lightly even with lots of effort (which, again, not needed). If it’s concrete us muriatic acid. If it’s grout the use a professional product called 477 (It’s been about 25 years since my last job so I don’t know if they still make it and sell it. If so…USE GOOD VENTILATION!!!! It works but it can really give a guy a headache! Probably have really good ventilation with ANY chemical you use! If it were me and a floor looked like that I would pull out all the grout (grout picks are designed for this) about a 20 minute job, then use the pick to pull lightly on all tiles to see if any are ready to pop or already loose, then I would vacuum every last bit of dust and old grout up and spritz the grout line with a spray of water and regrout the whole bathroom with a fresh clean grout that can be properly sealed. If you are this ambitious us SANDED GROUT! It’s a little harder and messier to work with but it is far better for commercial use. SEAL your new grout properly! (TWICE).. Sanded grout expands and contracts more closely to concrete than unsanded grout. And for god sakes don’t use silicon or some silly stuff in a tube that promises lifetime adhesion…you will be pulling it out in a month when it starts mildewing and stinking and staining. Buy yourself a $30 grout bag and make a clean job of it or do it like us old farts and trowel it and clean up after. Concrete and tile/grout expand and contract at different rates so you are going to have small cracks and spaces along the sides of the tiles that will darken over time. If you go to a box box home DIY store you can buy an adequate sealer for ‘stone’ that will fill in the tiny cracks and keep the tiles from ‘popping’ over time…and they WILL start popping off over time and you will try to glue them back down or some such craziness because…”It’s just a couple tiles”. Once you use the acid to clean (following the safe handling instructions) and it looks great, go back in and seal everything. Wait for it to dry to the touch, tie small garbage bags around your feet like medical footies to keep from fouling the uncurled sealer and go back in with a dry Terri cloth towel and wipe the sealer off the TOP of the tile (but don’t push down into the grout!). Keep your towel folded flat so it skims only the tops of the tiles and removes the sealer. That stuff will build up and look awful if left on the tiles. But it fills in the small gaps and after it’s cured will allow you to go back in and scrub the grout every few months to keep it looking clean. Nothing is forever and you will need to do this every three or four years if you want that floor to last. No one likes ugly, but why spend money if it still functions as it should?