American Foursquare Remodel 3 - Kitchen Floor

Oh, what the heck, I was becoming a floor-removal pro, right? So I decided to take on the kitchen floor.

It was a full one-half-inch of contemporary vinyl sheet flooring - adhered like skin to cut plywood pieces, nailed about every 6 freakin' inches with long nails over very old linoleum tiles, adhered to some other layer, glued to the floor.

I spent hours with a bevy of tools to clear a 2-foot by 2-foot area... *groan* This is a view of the tan/brown linoleum tiles under the vinyl-plywood layers:

Look at that beautiful grain! This is a view of the cleared area near the entrance to the dining room:

 

These photos were taken on October 30th - a day indelibly etched in my memory. That's the next chapter. 

To conclude this one, however, this work of removing the floor took several days. Work by Barrett Floors was put on hold until this work (and other work... the next story) could be done. Finally, I accepted some help with this job. With a power saw set to the depth of the plywood, it was cut into smaller, more manageable pieces, and I was left to remove the bottom two layers (much easier than the splintering plywood layer) and remove the skadillion nails (not hard, but tedious - and sometimes hazardous, haha, working on my hands and knees).

The kitchen wood floor wasn't in such good condition, but I was still thrilled to have the original hardwood floor in the kitchen! I think the old water stains that mar the edges and a few gaps between boards give the place character, but that's just my bias.

Here is the finished floor. Again, Jay from Barrett Floors did a great job, despite the small tight space he had to work in and the limited space to move the stove and refrigerator out of the way. Photos were taken on December 2 (yes, please note the dates: started October 30 and finished December 2).

Wow, this last photo makes the floor look slanted - it's not. But it does give you a decent view of the kitchen layout.

American Foursquare Remodel 2 - Den Floor

While the house was empty, I wanted to make some changes - painting, wallpapering, and removing old carpeting - and set about in early fall.

The first thing I wanted to do was remove the old, worn, dark teal carpeting in the Den. I wasn't sure what was underneath, but anything would be better than that carpeting.

I hoped there was a wood floor underneath, since there was wood in the adjoining living and dining rooms. What I didn't expect was ugly beige small-mosaic-tile-look linoleum sheet flooring under the rug. (The photos are from my cell phone, sorry for the poor quality.)
















This had to be replaced with a new hardwood floor. : )

`Along the threshold under the pair of doors you see in the photo, the linoleum chipped and revealed wood underneath. It looked in pretty good condition - even though it was a small sample - and the grain seemed to match the grain in the living room (the room on the other side of the double doors).

That meant another layer to be removed. But that's OK. It would be worth it to preserve the original floor!

There was that black sticky tar paper junk between the linoleum and the wood. What a mess! Once the top linoleum layer was removed - one little damned chunk at a time - it was time for the professionals to be called in. (The best money I ever spent!)

Barrett Floors came in and transformed the floors from this:

 

to this, in a couple of hours!

Close-up of the grain - beautiful!!

This is the completely finished floor the next day (October 30, 2009):

While one workman hand-sanded the edges, he speculated that the kitchen floor might be the same wood...  

What?

He and I gently scraped away at a little piece of flooring at the threshold... and... Yes!

(Nice way to solicit more work and a new job, LOL!)