Successful Home Remodeling For You & Your Bird

"Let's remodel the basement" -- four words that have been known to strike fear into many a husband! Even more so when you also happen to share your home with some feathered kids. Having recently completed a two year saga of remodeling "the family room from Hell", I thought I would share some concerns and ideas. One of the main considerations in the remodel was the health of our birds.

First of all, if you are considering any type of painting, re-carpeting, or major fix-up inside your home and you can move your birds to a friend's home, boarding service, or the vet for the duration, do so. It will be less stressful for you and safer for them. In our case, which was a do-it-yourself long term project, we decided we'd like to have friends left after the project was completed and still remain within our budget. The plan was to gut the family room down to the concrete sub-floor, use a floor leveler to correct a slight in the floor, and put a new floor over the top, either wood, tile, or carpet. The walls were to be painted, re-insulated, and a stained oak paneling installed. A new fireplace mantle was to be put in at one end with two side panel windows on either side. Finishing work included: new light fixtures, new stained oak trim, and a fresh coat of ceiling paint.

The first step was to isolate the work area from the rest of the house. Large sheets of heavy duty drop cloths were used to screen off the family room from the dining area and again in the stairway to the bird bedrooms. Air return and heat vents were also sealed with the plastic. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, much of the work had to be done during the fall and winter. We were not always able to keep a lot of windows open for ventilation, however, we were able to crack open windows in the work-area on most days. A high velocity fan was used to draw air from the work area side of the house (also the bird room's side) and exhaust it to the opposite side of the house. We often used more than one fan to make certain of our air flow. When possible, the heat vent in the bird room was closed off, and the window opened. The door to this room was then closed with a towel stuffed along the threshold. This arrangement appeared to be successful in that no drywall, wood, concrete dust, or fumes were found in other areas of the house.

Each phase of the construction was conducted with our birds' safety in mind. More than once, we had to change our plans because we couldn't find any safe alternatives. For example: We were going to put in a parquet wood floor, but the glue was highly toxic; the next alternative was a nail down oak floor, but the floor sealer was also toxic. We did find a peel and stick parquet floor, but the manufacturer discontinued it. Other options that could have worked were peel and stick vinyl flooring, and marble or ceramic type floors that used mortar instead of petroleum based glues. Our final solution was carpet. After reading horror stories about formaldehyde in padding and carpeting we weren't sure we wanted to risk it. By having the carpet store lay out the carpet a couple of days before installation, a lot of the odor was allowed to dissipate. In addition, we kept fresh air flowing into the room after installation until all the odor was gone. We experienced no problems, but if we were to do it again, we would have the carpet store lay out the pad, as well. Most of the odor, we noticed, came from the pad, not the carpet.

Other concerns we encountered were: how to safely and effectively glue wood to the concrete floor, and staining and finishing the new molding and paneling. Luckily, there were water-based glues and wood sealers available at the larger home improvement stores. These products had a much less noticeable odor, but we still tried to make certain there was as much ventilation as possible. We also kept all the staining of woodwork outside and allowed all pieces to completely dry and become
odor-free before bringing them indoors.

The things we learned in doing this project were: planning ahead is essential, provide good ventilation at all times, and use odor free, non-toxic products. We survived this "ordeal" and now have a beautiful addition to our home..... plus our birds all survived. And, just in case I forgot all the "fun" we had, our African Grey parrot "Crackers" now imitates all the power tools known to man!