CraigT wrote:
OK, here goes. I bought this investment property and I'm fixing it
up. I'm to the point of installing some sort of flooring material in the
laundry room/rear entry. Right now the floor is 3/4" plywood. When the
previous owners installed this floor they made it 3/4" taller than the
large
closet in the room which houses the furnace and hot water heater. The
problem is the furnace is an updraft model which has the filter laying
flush
with the floor. The first thing I did was cut a piece of the floor out so
I
could slide out and replace the filter and then I replaced the flooring.
(btw-the filter looked to be 10 years old and was almost sucked up into
the
squirrel cage). Having the ability to remove this piece of flooring
seems to
be the easiest way to access the filter. Now comes the hard part. I
need
to install some sort of finished floor material to the 3/4" plywood that
can withstand the rigors of this setup. My first choice would be vinyl
sheet goods, but I'm worried it will eventually peel and curl. The area
of this trap/access door will see a fair amount of traffic because it will
be
in front a doorway going into the kitchen from the laundry room. Any
ideas?
Yes, I realize I could raise the furnace, but I was kinda thinking
about getting away easy on this project.



Raised floors in computer rooms had almost all kinds of flooring: vinyl,
wood, carpet. Each 2x2' "tile" was supported on the corners by floor
stand-offs. Each "tile" had a metal edge that overlapped the flooring
material, similar to the metal edging used on countertops.

So, then, line the hole with this metal edging and do likewise with the trap
door.

Don't forget you have to have some way to LIFT the door. Computer tiles were
picked up with either a suction cup or, in the case of carpet, a
spikey-thingy that grabbed on carpet.