I have a client who is renovating a rental house. She will be putting in the snap together wood flooring on a concrete slab throughout the entire house. We pulled the carpets up, but her flooring installer says to just leave the 20 year old linoleum in the kitchendining area and he will put down floor leveling compound at the joint. I say pull up the linoleum and then just level out any areas that need it. Anybody out there ever put the new floating wood flooring products over old linoleum?
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Replies
I'm no floating floor specialist but I've seen the stuff put down over sheet goods all the time.
If its a laminate flooring and it floats what could it hurt to leave it? The sheet goods would have some moisture protection as well.
Doug
I put down a few engineered floors recently. Be sure the flooring material is rated for use on a slab. Also, you might want to think about a moisture barrier of some sort.
I would leave the linoleum, as it's a often a pain to get up completely, and there is the off chance it could be hazerdous. Floor leveling compound will be fine.
An alternative would be to get some more sheet gods and complete the area, which might act as a moisture barrier and a leveler in one fell swoop.
The floors I put down went over a cork layer, or a foam layer, and the cork went over floor leveling compund...the floor was significantly out of level. The result was perfect.
Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
I guess my concern is that the flooring guy is removing the linoleum from the bathroom, so why one area and not the other? Both areas are in the same condition, no lifting of the edges or tears.
Ahhh..
Is the bath getting the snap together stuff too? (be careful in a wet environment)Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
The entire house is getting the laminate flooring.
not good in baths and kitchens. cant you talk ho into tile in these areas. you can get some good deals on tiles if you look hard enough.
i put snap together floor in my living area because my house is so low and is prone to some flooding. i figured it would be easy enough to replace if we did some flood that was that high. tyke
Just another day in paradise
A couple of other strikes against laminate flooring - off-gassing of nasty chemicals (I've been trying past posts to prove this), and, in Britain (pop 66,000,000) there are 8000 hospitalisations per annum due to laminate flooring. Although the accidents weren't specified, you can include slipping, and tripping over incorrectly-laid flooring ( where there's gaps, bulges, swelling due to water damage)ciao for niao
To those who know - this may be obvious. To those who don't - I hope I've helped.
Mahalo for all the input, I've copied them and emailed 'em to the H.O.UpDate - Sheet vinyl goods will be going into these areas, we won!!!
Edited 10/2/2005 2:35 pm ET by Hoohuli
Interesting...you made copies of our comments and showed the client?? And it helped change their minds?? Wow.Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
"The entire house is getting the laminate flooring."Early you said that it was WOOD flooring.To very, very different products.
My error in being very general in my description. It is the laminate big box store type of flooring, with the snap together edging. The stuff that has one color of particle board on the bottom, ####different color in the middle and the very hard wood looking material on the top. I'm not sure which brand as it is not on site yet. Anyway, it will just be used in the living room, hall and two bedrooms.
As a side note, on a project about a year ago we did the kitchen, 7 baths of an 11,000 sq. ft. place with the Costco version they had at that time. So far, no problems other than one section raising in the middle of the guest kitchen because I cut it too close on the length of the run on two of the rows. Bowed up about 4" in the middle when the humidity changed. The run was about 40', so we had to cut back the edges about 3/4' from the walls, make custom base boards. The main kitchen area is about 1200 sq. ft. with runs of 45'. Big job.
Other than that one section lifting, no problems so far due to water swelling.
Linoleum?
Do you mean 9" VAT?
As in "Vinyl Asbestos Tiles?"
Do you figure any moisture will get to the top or bottom of the snap together?
The snap together stuff can really swell at the seams when it gets wet.
I wouldn't use it in rentals, myself, for that reason.
Nope, not 9" VAT, but regular rolled out linoleum sheeting is there now. In the kitchen, dining, bath. The rest of the house was W-W carpet full of fleas and ticks.
Back in the mid 80's I installed the 12" vinyl tiles in my home in Tahoe. How would I know if they were asbestos or not?
Back in the mid 80's I installed the 12" vinyl tiles in my home in Tahoe. How would I know if they were asbestos or not?
there are no 100% rules but... if it's 8x8 tile beware... most 12x12 is not... just my experience and i'm sure i'll be corrected
p
As long as there is no curling the sheet goods will act as an additional moisture barrier. I'd leave them down. A more important item to discuss with the client is the vary nature of floating floors: their suseptability to water damage. On a recent job I had a mysterious water leak after the sink/gd/dw were hooked up. It was only 4 hours until it was noticed but did $7400 damage to the floating floors. What would normally have been a quick mop up job turned into a major insurance claim. The water flows under the floor like a river to all areas in a very thin sheet and then all the joints raise up.
I give all my clients the following suggestion: get a sample of the flooring with a sample joint. place a ice cube upon it and let it melt like it was dropped and left overnight. Take a look at the results and then deside if you want the floor.
Chileab
the difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is the way you use them.