Grille Inlays

For a long time the grilles have been laying on top of the floor. They don't sit up too high, about an eighth of an inch but they need to be flush.

It was a job I wasn't looking forward to but the time had come.

I had to rout out the oak flooring so that the grilles would sit down flush with the floor. On this particular grille I had to create an inlay because the floor was gapped where the vent was.  At one time this was actually a wall so the flooring stopped where the bottom plate of the wall was at. Since the drywall on the wall was 1/2" thick it covered the gaps. Once the wall was gone it looked irregular and the grille didn't cover the entire vent hole in the floor.

I firred out the difference with about a 1/2" strip of oak inlay to compensate for the gap.

Then I cut a rabbet in the inlay so that the grille would sit flush with the floor. It was a lot of work. The routing was the worst part.

I put a piece of 1/4 ply on the floor against a pencil line that I had marked around the grille. At first I nailed it to the floor with brads so it wouldn't move. But I found out that I didn't need to do that. A little bit of tape and my weight kneeling on it worked fine. It was tedious and made a big mess.

It ended up working out okay though. The other two grilles did entirely cover up the holes in the floor so I didn't make inlays for those. I just routed them so the vents would sit flush with the floor.

Details....