 | Today's the day! We're going to pull up the old, ratty vinyl floor and put down tile! |
 | Plan A, Step 1: pull up vinyl. Awkward, but straightforward. |
 | Hmmm. Problem is, it left behind this sort of spongy paper stuff, which is glued to the plywood. We briefly consider simply spreading the mortar on top of the paper, but we fear that the mortar won't set properly. Damn, scraping that stuff off with a putty knife is a bear. |
 | Maybe it would be easier to pull up the subfloor. Especially since it looks like there's water damage anyway. So let's take a look at what's in there. Weird...looks like...three layers of subfloor??? |
 | Oh. My. God. They didn't. Did they? Did they really? They really did...the installed three floors with three underlayments, each on top of each other. |
 | Plan B: pull up the first layer of plywood. The Previous Owner was nice enough to have made it 1/8 inch thick plywood. Who installs 1/8 inch underlayment? I didn't even know that existed. |
 | Sweet! Brick! oh, wait, that's some sort of stamped plastic, stapled (!) to pressboard (!!). Hello, 1972! Well, let's see what's under there. |
 | Linoleum. Like, the real thing, none of this vinyl crap. Real honest to god 1950's linoleum tiles. I'm positive that when the original owners moved in in 1953, they had this red and white checked floor.
Who knew that home repair was a form of archeology? |
Comments (9)
The red and white checked floor is kinda fun. Probably doesn't go with anything though.
Ah, the fun you have!
Posted by Lisa | February 26, 2008 2:16 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 14:16
What the pic doesn't quite show is that it's NOT pizzeria red and white, it's RASPBERRY. Very, very 1950s.
Posted by Mr. TDH | February 26, 2008 2:22 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 14:22
When we stripped the wallpaper in the Cambridge house, we found seven layers, comprising a gallery of the most unspeakably hideous wallpaper of nearly every decade since the house had been built.
There were like five layers of shingles on the roof, too. The roofer was impressed.
Posted by Chip | February 26, 2008 2:25 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 14:25
I love remodelling. The artifacts you find. This, however, is definately one of the better finds I've seen :)
Woo :)
Posted by dbs | February 26, 2008 2:31 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 14:31
Reminds me of our floor. We only had one underlayment, but three kinds of vinyl/linoleum under the carpet. Our second-to-top layer was the same style as your bottom, but not as nice a color.
Posted by PlantingOaks | February 26, 2008 2:53 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 14:53
Fun! (Not really.. but it's fun for me to look at!)
We tiled on TOP of our vinyl floor... it was the only layer, and the flooring guys suggested it. Id on't think they would have suggested doing it on top of THREE layers, though!
Posted by Jennifer | February 26, 2008 3:33 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 15:33
Jennifer: Did you lay the mortar directly on the vinyl, or did you lay backerboard first?
Laying tile right on the vinyl didn't seem a good idea -- I was worried the mortar would crack. We did think about laying backerboard right on top of our vinyl floor; problem was that the kitchen floor was already about 3/4 inch above the surrounding house floor, and our layer would have brought that to about 1.5 inches, which was a really unreasonable step.
Posted by Mrs. TDH | February 26, 2008 4:29 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 16:29
Hey, I actually kinda like that old linoleum.
Reminds me of the time we remodeled an addition and found three complete ceilings and roofs!
Posted by Christine | February 26, 2008 4:35 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 16:35
Oh I'm so glad this stuff doesn't just happen to me. Sorry, but so glad.
Posted by Billie | February 26, 2008 9:37 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 21:37