This side-entrance room was three-feet square and connected the kitchen, the garage, the driveway door, and the basement stairs. In fact, this was the entry and exit that the family used most. It was the busiest room in the house. 

The floor and stairs were covered in industrial carpet meant to catch tracked in water and dirt and prevent slipping. It was squeaky, soiled, uninviting, and it had that old-house smell. 

We removed the stairs and rebuilt them using structural fir carriages, oak treads, and white painted pine risers. We rebuilt the foyer landing floor with 2X10 Douglas fir joists on 12-inch centers, topped with ¾-inch CDX plywood and a ¾-inch mortar base. Then we added a double layer of  Schluter Ditra uncoupling and waterproofing membrane.

We custom cut our own finished floor tiles from larger pieces of split and gauged slate. This let us achieve an attractive pattern that fit our space and gave us plenty of grout lines and roughness for foot traction, even when wet. After removing steel bars from the driveway door, repairing two split door jambs and replacing a third, we re-bored the doors for new locksets, added weatherproof thresholds, a new light fixture and wall switches and fresh paint. The result was safety, cleanliness, durability, and attractiveness.