Madam, you have the floor
So I finally decided to do something about my kitchen floor. I've painted the cabinets, I've re-tiled the ceiling.. for all that was worth, and I've painted the walls. The only thing left was the horrid yellow and orange vinyl floor, which matched nothing in the kitchen now. Years later.... I finally get that gas pipe out from under the refrigerator, so I feel I can now safely move the thing, which was part of the hold up. And so I begin to rip up the floor.
And I quickly wonder what the hell I've gotten myself into. But on it goes.
Under the layer of vinyl is a layer of tile of some other kind, which is perma bonded to the bottom of the final (thats a good thing) under that is a layer of black, which I think was felt paper, and under that is A WOOD FLOOR! I acutaly knew or suspected that there was a wood floor under all that, just wasnt sure about what condition it was in or anything. As it turns out, the kitchen, like the rest of the house, is a nice wood floor, exactly like what I was considering putting down as a replacement (that was the expensive option, the other was the clip together boards over the old floor).
So as I'm taking up all the crap on top of the wood, and finding some seriously rotted boards near the sink, I ponder what I can do with the floor. I'm thinking in order to maintain the hight of all the other things in the room, the threasholds and such, I may need to take up the entire wood floor down to the sub floor. Then I'd have to install some thin plywood if I were going to put in the clip together floor, then I thought, why not just leave the floor that's there, and replace the rotted parts..... And lo, that is now the plan. A: it will cost a shitload less, B: Hopefully it will take a shitload less time, and C: It's a green option. Reduce, reuse and all that. And D: If I never get any further than stripping off the vinyl, it still looks better than the damn tile stuff.
So now I'm ripping up and cutting up the tile, then scraping the black paper stuff off... I moved the fridge today and vacuumed that out too. Probably a good thing too, it was packed with dust. I found two forks and a spoon under the cabinet too when I moved the fridge.
It's going slowly, but going. Out of curiosity, I took one of my friend's lead testers and checked the floor. The wood floor has lead in it. Go figure. Something in the stain no doubt. And when I checked the other floors in the living room, they came up with lead too. So all these years all the dust that's been sanded down by feet and rugs and such are all stirring up lead dust. Nice to know. I best not tell my crazy friend that... she'll never come into my house again.
And I quickly wonder what the hell I've gotten myself into. But on it goes.
Under the layer of vinyl is a layer of tile of some other kind, which is perma bonded to the bottom of the final (thats a good thing) under that is a layer of black, which I think was felt paper, and under that is A WOOD FLOOR! I acutaly knew or suspected that there was a wood floor under all that, just wasnt sure about what condition it was in or anything. As it turns out, the kitchen, like the rest of the house, is a nice wood floor, exactly like what I was considering putting down as a replacement (that was the expensive option, the other was the clip together boards over the old floor).
So as I'm taking up all the crap on top of the wood, and finding some seriously rotted boards near the sink, I ponder what I can do with the floor. I'm thinking in order to maintain the hight of all the other things in the room, the threasholds and such, I may need to take up the entire wood floor down to the sub floor. Then I'd have to install some thin plywood if I were going to put in the clip together floor, then I thought, why not just leave the floor that's there, and replace the rotted parts..... And lo, that is now the plan. A: it will cost a shitload less, B: Hopefully it will take a shitload less time, and C: It's a green option. Reduce, reuse and all that. And D: If I never get any further than stripping off the vinyl, it still looks better than the damn tile stuff.
So now I'm ripping up and cutting up the tile, then scraping the black paper stuff off... I moved the fridge today and vacuumed that out too. Probably a good thing too, it was packed with dust. I found two forks and a spoon under the cabinet too when I moved the fridge.
It's going slowly, but going. Out of curiosity, I took one of my friend's lead testers and checked the floor. The wood floor has lead in it. Go figure. Something in the stain no doubt. And when I checked the other floors in the living room, they came up with lead too. So all these years all the dust that's been sanded down by feet and rugs and such are all stirring up lead dust. Nice to know. I best not tell my crazy friend that... she'll never come into my house again.