The access to our crawl space is located in the master closet.  Although my plan is to put a rug over it, we wanted it to blend in with the other flooring, so we decided to cover it with the same material and apply a trim to the edges of the panel. (Please ignore the remnants of the removed builder shelving that wasn’t supposed to be installed – he forgot that we have our own highly efficient design, which we will install just before moving in.)

We replaced the OSB that was in place, as it was already bowed and starting to chip on the edges.  Instead we used a solid piece of plywood which hubs cut to size and glued flooring planks to. Next he carved out a spot for the handle, so it would be recessed on the panel.  Smart thinking since it will be underfoot everyday in our closet.

Although the covered panel blends in, the lip that it sits on was still visible and exposed so we decided to add some trim to the edges.

We got some threshold molding from the flooring store where the builder ordered our flooring material and miter cut it to fit the square.  We didn’t need the extra strip of foam on the bottom since we weren’t using the pieces for a raised threshold, so hubs just sliced them off.

Without the extra strip of foam on the bottom the pieces lay flat on the panel which is what we want them to do.  That will allow them to overlap the exposed lip gap, which is at the same level as the panel.

We planned to use both wood glue and small finishing nails, but the nail gun jammed and then malfunctioned, making the nail look more like a staple, so we decided to just use wood glue and clamp everything together.

Notice the builder’s mess surrounding our project? That’s just part of what I described in my post the other day.  It seriously makes me itchy, but I’m overlooking it because I know it means progress is being made.

We left it to dry for a few days as other projects were being done around the house.  It will soon be installed for the finished inspection.  We didn’t initially plan to use the access panel much, but during our home inspection yesterday we realized that we’ll need to change the filters on our furnace and HRV which are in the crawl space, so it will probably see monthly use for a good portion of the year.  That actually works out fine since the crawl space will also become home to my holiday storage, saving precious garage space! 🙂