Rehab Flooring?
Hello, I am working on a rehab in a poorer working class neighborhood. The (kitchen & dining area) has a concrete floor with 2 layers of square vinyl tiles on top ( many are unglued and broken). after scraping away the broken tiles, what type of floor do you guys think would be the best to put down? w/o spending a ton of money. Thanks in advance for your answers.
I would use tile flooring again - because it is cheaper - if bought on clearance or at a tile warehouse and can be replaced if one or a few get destroyed instead of replacing the whole floor again.
If your working in a poorer neighborhood, find out what is in comparable houses and lay the same thing. Don't spend a lot of money on flooring if other houses comparably priced have linoleum or peel and stick tile?
[addsig]
linoleum is fine. My carpet guy puts this down where needed. In nicer homes I use tile. Sometimes tile is cheaper but the labor is expensive as it takes a long time to put down.
Is the concrete floor in good shape? For the cost of a black marker from Office Max you could just draw a grid that looks like tile grout lines?
Seriously as has been said linoleum is dirt cheap and looks wonderful for the price you pay. Carpet would be cover up a multitude of sins if the underlayment is screwed up, but isn't all that practical in all homes in the kitchen, however there are lots of homes with it in the kitchen.
Flash patch and re-install tile or vinyl!
Flash patch and re-install tile or vinyl!
You might also consider a pergo type, snap together floor. Sam's club has started carrying this at about 1.30 a sq ft and it looks a lot better than most square tiles, especially in a dining area.
I hate Pergo!
OK I said it.
There sales pitch is it lasts 5-7 8-10 years?
I have this junk in a kitchen that was put in 3 years ago by the former owner of the house and it looks like crap. Big chips in the surface.
He must have been a bowler.
I vote for self adhesive tiles at 79 cents a sq. ft. They will clean the place right up and it is easy to replace damaged ones.
Best of Luck
JohnNH
Hi John,
If this is going to be a long term investment, then go with tile.....if not then something that you can install cheaply and quickly and get out of there.
I agree, pergo is overated and overpriced by the time you get it installed.
It amazes me that people will want the look of wood, although pergo or any laminated floor does not look like wood, and yet is willing to pay basically the same prices that real wood could be installed for................
Laminate flooring is nothing but a big hype.........its the Tyvek of construction........advertising and hype.
I will use VCT tiles. They are about 60 cents a piece at home depot. If you use vinyl and it gets damaged, you have to replace the whole thing. With VCT tiles, if correctly installed will last for a long time and if damaged just replace broken ones.
Son of a gun! NY Yank you are talking my language!
Thanks Rehab,
I am always dumb founded how people will waste money in the process of trying to save it........it cracks me up.
I just got back from the jobsite and was looking at another builders house(new construction)........get this, he is spending over $15,000.00 on a brick fireplace (going through roof etc.) because he thinks it will increase the value of his home........yet his masterbedroom is 12x12, his other bedrooms are 10x10 with hardly any closets and the list goes on.......he figures he is saving his money on the size of the rooms and therefore can put it into a real fireplace.......now mind you.....there is not 1 tree anywhere on the property in this subdivision...........is anyone in their right mind really think that fireplace will be used at all...........but he wanted to save money so he makes his rooms smaller............he would have been better to do a gas fireplace and take the 15k and increase the house an additional 300 square feet..........no common sense.........anyway, its been a long day and a bowl of ice cream is awaiting me.........
NC
I bought a bank owned house about 15 years ago that had been vacant for 2 years.
It had a wrap around front porck with field stone railings and slate floor.
At least I thought it was slate when I bought it.
After cleaning off the 2 years of dirt and leaves from the porch it turned out to be concrete that someone had taken the time paint to look like slate.
Different shades of green and red slate, grout lines, it was done very well.
Most people didn't notice it wasn't real until they were told.
JohnNH
I'm not sure what you are going to use the property for. If you plan on reselling it in the next 5 years or so I would go with tile. If you are planning on renting it you'll just have to decide based on cost in time and money. For a rental, I would probably go with the vinyl imitation stone tiles. They come with a lifetime warranty now and they are unbelievably tough,cheap, and easily replaced if damaged. If you have plenty of time(if you tile at my speed) and some extra money you might want to consider tile since it would have a little more appeal to a buyer if you choose to sell some day. If it's a rental you could always do both. Simply put down vinyl tiles now, and then at some point a few years down the line when you are retired and have a slow day, you could put down the tile if you wanted.
I would say if you are planning to hold and rent, it is well worth the time to put down ceramic tile. We put this in the kitchen and dining room of 2 of our rentals and it was the best thing (well, one of the best things) we've ever done. We did it ourselves and are in no way professionals, there were some mistakes, it was time consuming, but with 2 of us working we established a good rhythym and it took 2 days for each property (approx. 250 s.f. each one, working one full day for cutting and laying tiles, a couple hours to grout the next day). My husband put down the cement stuff, I worked behind him and laid the tiles. After 24 hours, he put down and troweled the grout, I went behind him with sponge and bucket of water and cleaned/smoothed the grout. Not hard but messy and time consuming.
Vinyl tile squares would be my second choice, because of easy and quick installation and cheap price. Fairly simple to replace a damaged piece as well. We also have Pergo in a couple of our rentals, in the kitchen of one place and the upstairs hall of another place. It still looks good because the tenants we have in there take good care of it, but I personally dont like it much. I have it in the entry foyer and 1/2 bath in our family room and it has shown alot of wear, not to mention can be really slippery when wet.
Also something I've done in 3 of our rentals, in the bathrooms (which get much less wear and tear than kitchens) is paint the existing vinyl. Scrub and clean well with Dawn dish detergent and Scotch Brite pad, rinse well, prime with 2 coats Kilz, then paint with 2 coats regular flat wall paint (I use a tan or ivory color), sponge a little bit of a slightly lighter over top (to make it look interesting and hide any defects in the tile) and top with 3-4 coats Diamond Varathane. It holds up extremely well. I have also done this in one of our bathrooms in my own house, and have 2 kids of my own, not to mention several others here on a daily basis, and it still looks great after 5+ years. Just another viable (and cheap) option to update the look of vinyl flooring.
I'll throw out one more idea since pinkflamingo brought it to mind when she mentioned painting vinyl. In our town, they painted the sidewalks about 5 years ago to look like bricks. Even after 5 years of weathering, and a great deal of foot traffic it still looks fantastic. I don't even know what they used but I assume it was a concrete stain. Talk about the ultimate in durability! Even if someone dropped something heavy enough to chip the concrete, you could simply patch and paint and you have a new floor. In regards to painting viinyl. I had a friend who painted his kitchen vinyl using a pattern that made it look like black and white tiles. It did look great and I've been tempted to try it but I have some reservations that may or not be valid. The durability of paint/varnish is largely dependent on the amount of gloss. The the more gloss, the more durable. However, gloss also means slippery which is really bad when you think that the vinyl is usually located in a room that often gets water on the floor. I don't even like glossy vinyl or tile for tis same reason. There may be a way around this but I haven't thought of it, which isn't saying a whole lot.
My 2 cents worth
peel and stick tiles have issues IF THEY ARE OLD ( I put them in my house and the stickem squeezed up through the seams and created a mess)
Flash patch and use lino / thicker the better. also if you are going to use this house as a rental
KEEP SOME SCRAPS OF THE LINO
if you are handy with a utility knife and tape measure you can patch the floors with good results. I like the painting idea Hmm have to try that one
[ Edited by jasonkanan on Date 03/26/2004 ][ Edited by jasonkanan on Date 03/26/2004 ]
Never in my life would I have thought you could paint vinyl flooring. Would have thought it was to flexible to hold paint without cracking. Will have to keep that one in mind though.
Ed
Whatever you do, make sure your subfloor is in good shape as whatever material you lay is only as good as the subfloor underneath. If the floor has any pits, vinyl flooring will show any defects with time. Tiles will likely crack eventually if the subfloor is uneven. I agree that you should see what the rest of the neighboorhood is doing. If the neighboorhood is on the upswing and it's a property you'd like to hold, I'd spend more on labor and go with the tile. If the kitchen's small, you could probably get leftover close-outs cheap at your local tile store or distributor.
A study has recently come out that buyers/renters prefer wood over carpet. If you ever have a property that merits a wood floor, consider bamboo. It's very hard, affordable and environmentally friendly. We had a flood in one of our places and it held up perfect. In LA, we've been able to command up to 20% more rent with hardwood floors which pays off over time for our long term holds.
Best of luck with your renovation.