Kitchen/Laundry Flooring pt.2

June 03, 2015 by Evan Hart

The kitchen flooring came in. It looks awesome. $4/s.f. 1x3' marmoleum click flooring in eucalyptus color from greenbuildingsupply.com.

I used a filter to make it look more accurate.

The flooring instructions say to leave it in the room it's going into for 3 days minimum. THIS IS NO JOKE. It WILL buckle. Wood click flooring takes even longer to acclimate - usually 10-14 days. You should take this seriously and take seriously the edge gap specs. If the flooring has no room to expand or contract that will also cause it to buckle.

First piece will dictate square. If the back wall is off, then the whole floor will be off.

I used this recycled stuff that looks like it's made out of ground up carpet as underlayment. The orange is the moisture barrier that's attached to the top side.

You need to leave a 3/8" gap around the edges. That makes some of the pieces difficult to cut.

The 3/8" expansion joint needs to be covered with trim.

Kitchen marmoleum is done - awaiting trim

Like the expansion gap, the trim to cover it gets pretty complicated in places

Kitchen/Laundry Flooring

May 14, 2015 by Evan Hart in construction

Unfortunately, I can't paint the subfloor under the linoleum, as I had planned, for two reasons. First, it's not tongue and groove 1x4 fir as is usual for older subfloors. Around this time, it was most typical that they would lay down 1x4 t&g and then tarpaper and 2" wide 5/16" red oak. The t&g sealed the floor from drafts from the basement. If someone didn't want to pay for oak, then the subfloor would be painted. I thought painting the floor would be a quick solution with an older look. But it couldn't be that easy. Nothing else in this house has been easy so why would this be?

Typical subfloor 1x4 Doug Fir Tongue and Groove

In bathrooms, they would use regular 1x8, since the mortar bed would seal the cracks in the boards. We have the second kind of subfloor.

Also, the original floor tile looks like it's lotsa asbestos. It's over burlap. When I tried to pull up a little piece, it created a little dust storm. We will have to seal it and cover it.

I'm going to go with some type of marmoleum. It fits the feel of the original floor.

I think this color would look good and it's on sale for $4/sf in click which would be easy to put down.

Update: nailed it!

Found the original flooring in the dining area added to the front of the kitchen in '39...

Hard to see but it's like the same stuff but a little darker green with a trim strip.

This flooring I've chosen is an illustration of how I try to improve and update the house while being respectful of the original style.

Another Maybeck looking detail uncovered

May 13, 2015 by Evan Hart

I have been working on undo-ing some linoleum that was probably added in the '50s and I uncovered what must be the original kitchen floor tile.

Looks like... yes... asbestos! Old grey fibrous and often cementitious type materials are usually asbestos. Here you can see the linoleum looks like that, on top of Masonite, on top of Maybeck-looking (and asbestos-looking) flooring on top of burlap? I would've expected tar paper.

1/4" Masonite underlayment under the linoleum

Yes the original flooring was set on burlap it appears. Probably felt good underfoot, but a recipe for rot in a wet room like the kitchen.

Back to the suspected Maybeck feature...

Does the above pattern look familiar?

Yup.