All,
Newbie lurker from Cooks Talk here….
I need some advice about putting a real linoleum floor in my soon-to-be-renovated kitchen. If you have linoleum or have worked with it, what do you like or dislike about it? If my heart is set on it–which it nearly is–what advice would you give about choosing types, dealing with installation, etc.
What I am considering is linoleum tile. Either Linoplan (made by Armstrong) or Marmoleum (made by Forbo).
My concerns are both the cost and getting someone with the right skills to install it. I already know I will have to go outside my local area to identify an installer who is trained for the product. It’s not horribly far away but the distance will add to the cost. (This has been posted in Cooks Talk/Kitchen Equipment too)
TIA!
Replies
Congratulations on a excellent choice for a kitchen!
Real linoeum flooring is making a strong come-back for a few years due to it's durability & "green" construction methods.
Out of the 2 choices you suggested- Forbo is by far the superior floor. Forbo is an excellent company that makes an outstanding product.
Even better is the training classes they offer hard-surface professionals. They offer a no-nonsense class of hands-on training to be certified by them for their product.
I have not found the time to attend but it is one of the highest training classes on my list.
Armstrong's product is OK as well but if you are serious about your kitchen (and since I am a trained chef who returned to the flooring industry, I think you enjoy your kitchen as much as I do) I would ask you to consider Forbo as your first choice. They can also help you find a Forbo trained professional in your area.
While linoeum isn't extremely hard to work with- you have to have an understanding of what the product is and what is isn't.
Your money will be well spent on both the product & a qualified professional.
Good luck!
Ken Peirson
While we're taking a step back in time, let's not forget that "real linoleum" is a descendant of sailclothe tacked down to the floor and then painted with linseed oil paints, the LINseed giving it it's name.
It's a bit softer and more comfortable, but it can take on stains from what I've heard.
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Grandma, rest her soul, had it in her kitchen for 50 years; last time I saw it was when we went in to clean out the house when she had to move to a 'home'....
That linoleum floor took punishment like nothing I can think of, outside of perhaps a boiler factory.... In addition to surviving my Dad and his brother growing up, it survived me and my two siblings, dropped flat-irons, roller-skating on rainy days (METAL wheels in those days) and even a medium sized fire when Grandma was making french fries one day and got a little too enthusiastic on the gas range.
Then she panicked and dumped the pan into the sink, still burning, and turned the water on full blast. Oh, my! Y'ever see rivers of flaming water running across a kitchen floor? My baby brother was so scared he ran butt-arse nekkid out into 201st Street hollering FIRE at the top of his 3-year-old lungs. And this was January in New York City, 1959.
Yep, linoleum's good stuff. I can still see it in my mind's eye....Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
The term 'battleship linoleum' is/was not a misnomer. In deed many ships had linoleum floors as it is easy to keep clean, requires little maintenance and stands up to heavy loads.
A further consideration, especially for the Navy, was that linoleum has relatively favorable properties when exposed to fire. It doesn't catch very easily and adds relatively little fuel and smoke to the fire. Especially when compared to wood, vinyl and the worse offender, synthetic carpeting with a foam rubber pad.
The only real down side to linoleum is that it is hard. Less so than ceramic tile it still takes a toll of dishes dropped and makes standing for long periods rough. Throw rugs, anti-fatigue mats and insoles for the shoes can go a long way to saving wear and tear on peoples legs and feet.
IMO linoleum floors in bold checks looks good with many decors. I have also seen some fancy inlay work done with linoleum that was top notch. Very time consuming to get right, a specialized skill, but once completed likely to be there for decades.
'battleship linoleum'
Imperial Japanese Fleet used it to cover the decks of their ships, which made them distinctive, especially the red leather color used. That was an external application exposed to an ocean environment.
Seems like the Soviet fleet also used linoleum deck, too.
Tough, but resilient, stuff. Good for a kitchen. Patterns & like (can) become solid surface after installation.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I don't remember Grandma's kitchen floor as being hard at all--but, maybe that's because my knees and feet were 35-40 years younger, LOL!
I do know she rarely had to polish it when us kids were visiting; we kept it shinier than the thighs of a cheap pair of suitpants just by sliding and 'skating' on it in our stocking feet. It slid ever so much better than that Armstrong no-wax stuff my mother had in her modern suburban kitchen....Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
The kitchen floor in my present job is going to be Marmoleum. The customer just called me tonight with the color selection.
I'm no flooring expert, but I like the looks of that stuff. Besides being "green" as someone mentioned, they have some great looking color choices, especially in the deep tones. Bold. I have my eye on one of the muted red patterns for the kitchen in a house we are remodelling for ourselves, too.
One drawback is the maintanance requirement of recoating once a year. Another is the 2 meter width, which will make for more seams, which are always an opportunity for problems.
But the cost is about the same as other high quality inlaid vinal flooring. And have you looked at samples? Pattern goes all the way through to the hemp backing. That floor will last well past the 10 year warranty (I'm pretty sure it's 10).
Did I mention how much I like those deep colors?
Fabulous choice! But use Forbo's Marmoleum, nothing else.
Here is a pic from the "Home By Design" show house that was at this year's builder show in Las Vegas. I really like the pattern work that can be done. Forbo's site and literature shows some knockout examples, too, and I am sure you have seen them.
View Image
Click on the photo to blow it up. It is Forbo's Marmoleum tile squares, and see how the "grain" is rotated 90 degrees each time a tile is laid.
Edited 7/9/2004 2:42 pm ET by Bob Dylan
or how about this:
its in my bathroom:
More words of praise for linoleum - it's practically indestructible (as has been noted) - there examples of linoleum floors that are 100 + years old. It also has antiseptic qualities (the linseed oil, I assume) and has self-healing characteristics as well. It's my first choice of flooring for a kitchen, and the product we'll be going with when it comes time to redo our kitchen floor. (BTW, the terra cotta-like effect in the bathroom is gorgeous! thanks for sharing it.) I'm only surprised at hearing it described as hard on the feet - surely not as hard as ceramic or granite. Wouldn't it be more like cork? “We would like to live in the past, but history prevents us”.
John F. Kennedy
I have some commercial experience with the products you mentiuoned and the number one issue above all otheres is maintenance. These products are simply maintenance intensive. I have stopped specifying them for that reason.
Alma
If we all wanted maintenance-free floors, we would use the kind of hard porcelain tiles like seen on showroom floors in car dealerships. Or maybe epoxy-coated concrete slabs, like seen in warehouses.
Seriously, for use in personal residences, what kind of maintenance headaches have you experienced with linoleum floors, and what do you recommend in their place, if they are such a hassle?
Thanks for the first picture. I am having a little trouble thinking about a pattern, and that's a nice one. I'm in the process of getting the bids now for marmoleum tile. And the problem is there isn't a lot of experience with this among any of the vendors, so I won't be able to visit a previous installation, at least it doesn't look that way.
Lemonbalm
I have read the Forbo pamphlet about maintenance and indeed it did give me pause. I'm used to cleaning my floors with home-made stuff or Murphy's and not anything proprietary, for one thing.
But on the maintenance front, is there something more one should know, however, something they're not telling us...?
Lemonbalm
Many many years ago I installed linoleum for a living. About 7 years. I always had a hard time calling the new materials vinyl and there was no way I would ever call myself a vinyl installer. I was a linoleum installer. GW