Old houses, real framing
Millcreek has some of the oldest housing stock we work in regularly. A lot of it went up between the forties and the sixties, and much of it has never been down to the studs.
That is mostly good news. Framing from that era is real dimensional lumber, and the floors have had seventy years to prove they can carry what is on them. It also means we open up more surprises here than anywhere else on our list, so we look before we quote rather than after.
The three we hit most often in Millcreek: multiple layers of old flooring stacked on top of each other, because each generation covered rather than removed; original hardwood in unexpectedly good condition under carpet; and subfloors that are structurally fine but have moved enough over seven decades that they are no longer flat.
Layers
It is not unusual to pull carpet in an older Millcreek house and find vinyl under it, and another layer of something under that, and hardwood at the bottom.
Each layer adds height, and height has consequences. Doors that no longer clear. A step up into a room that never had one. A transition to the kitchen that ends up half an inch proud. Adding another layer on top compounds all of it.
We would usually rather take it back to the original subfloor and start clean, which costs more in labour on day one and produces a floor that sits at the right height with doors that swing. If there is a reason to go over the top instead, we will tell you what it does to the door clearances before you decide.
One caution worth stating plainly: flooring materials from the fifties and sixties, particularly nine inch vinyl tile and the black adhesive under it, can contain asbestos. We are not an abatement contractor. If we find something suspect, we stop and tell you, and you get it tested before anyone disturbs it.
Flat is the problem, not sound
Seven decades of settling means the subfloor in a Millcreek house is usually solid and rarely level.
For carpet that barely matters. Carpet and pad forgive a great deal, which is part of why so many of these houses ended up carpeted.
For rigid core luxury vinyl it matters enormously. Those planks do not flex to meet a dip, so over a low spot the floor bridges and every step works the locking edge until the seam opens. In houses of this age we check flatness with a straightedge as a matter of course, and an honest LVP quote in Millcreek usually includes floor prep. A bid that does not include it is not cheaper, it is just deferring the cost.
The east side
East Millcreek and Canyon Rim climb toward the mouth of Mill Creek Canyon, and the same canyon-mouth considerations apply as in Cottonwood Heights: more grit tracked in, more winter traffic, and lots on a grade with walkout basements that read differently on a moisture meter from one end to the other.
Getting to you
Millcreek is about ten minutes from our Murray shop.