I laid a floor!

[beth_leonard]

Our kitchen floor was disgusting. It isn't any more. I spent $100 and about 16 hours laying a new floor from IKEA. I was feeling accomplished earlier, but now I'm just feeling tired. Maybe finishing at 3am the second morning in a row will do that. I'm still proud enough of myself to blog about it though.
--Beth
Original floor:

Comments

[altamira16]

Nice job!

[dmorr]

Very nice. A huge visual upgrade, if nothing else!

[kirinn]

Huh. Only $100 and 16 hours sounds pretty nice. Does it just stick on? Any idea how long it's expected to last? What material is it?

All that aside, nicely accomplished!

[tavella]

I know a number of people who have put Ikea floors like this down, and they haven't had any problems so far, though the oldest is only around 10 years. I'd think they'd last as long as any linoleum floor, at least.

[beth_leonard]

Thanks for the info. I don't actually know how long it's supposed to last. I think DNA had one of these in his sun room that I liked.

--Beth

[beth_leonard]

It's a "floating floor" so it is not stuck down. It will move 5/8ths of an inch in any direction if you push hard enough. That's the recommended clearance at the edges so that you can get the tiles in and out. It's a click-lock system, and in the grand scheme of things not to hard to put in nicely, but it was still pretty hard. Using Mark's tools was the difference between success and failure (or tripling-20x the cost of the project to rent/buy power tools)

I can't find how long it's expected to last, but my hope is "until we can do a real kitchen remodel." This is certainly a project that makes me want to get new wallpaper and new countertops, but those are not in the cards at the current time.

--Beth

[wrenb]

Wow! That looks great!

gorgeous!

[robszewczyk]

Looks lovely. Rob put one in like that in our shed. Still going strong, but it's only been 5 years.

--BethW