Floors from Hell

@AMKuska, I'm surprised you didn't stir up those hornets when you were under the house pounding on the floor! That would have been a sight.

@so lucky don't put down laminate!! I had it and it does this cute trick called de-laminated. It is a formica type layered over fiberboard. If the fiberboard gets wet...….it de-laminates. That is just a fancy word for falling apart. I had a whole house done in it, it was crap, I was so disappointed.

baymule said:

I like your husband. I am the same way. I get them done, it may take me awhile, but I get them done.

When we moved into this doublewide, the closets had the crappy wire racks for hanging clothes. I tossed them out in the yard, vowing to never let them in the house again. My long suffering husband hung his clothes in those moving boxes for hanging clothes----for a year. I finally built him a closet and he loves it. I build two towers, 18 inches deep, 1 is 2 feet wide, 1 is 3 feet wide, and 2 clothes poles between them. I call it his diva closet. LOL I am now starting on the middle bedroom closet-because I need storage space for my large kitchen things and somewhere to put the canning jars. I got a chicken coop to finish and one to drag to a new spot and add a run to, I need to finish staining the porch, finish the feed and tack room, upgrade the Pig Palace, build a Dog Den for Paris...… and the list goes on.

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I can relate, you sound a lot like me, hauled yards and yards of gravel for paths and the lath house, replastered the cracked and banged up original lath and plaster walls. One day I tore down the walls in the ugly bathroom, hubby found them sitting in the dining room when he came home from work one night, the layout was a nightmare for a tiny bathroom, another job that wasn't getting done, not any more.
I made my own hanging pot rack after seeing how much they cost out of metal shelving. Put a natural finish on all the pine boards before they were nailed up in the stairwell, so much easier than wobbling around atop a ladder brush in hand, very high ceiling. This stairwell had never been finished since we put the addition on 50 years ago . Yours truly ran into a sale at home depot, pine beetle damaged pine, actually quite attractive, hubby had no say in this, it was time...
Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do .
Those were the good old days. I'm afraid you'll find no trophy wife in this house but on the other hand I work really cheap.

Annette

so lucky said:

Glad I happened upon this thread this evening. DH and I are picking out new flooring (finally) and we had been wavering between vinyl wood look plank for the whole area, or tile in kitchen and laundry with laminate in living/dining. My son who is a professional flooring guy was here answering questions. He said as many waves as there is in our floor, the vinyl plank would just accentuate those dips and ridges. (wide house).
So I think we have decided on ceramic tile for kitchen, and laminate for the rest of it. We'll probably turn into those people who make everyone take their shoes off at the door, haha! Dog is small and old, so I don't expect to have problems with her and the floor.
He and my other son are going to install it. So time to get back to the flooring store! We got all our windows and patio door replaced last week. Getting the patio door done was holding up other stuff, as we thought the wall was bad on one side, and would need some replacement.

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Tile can hide a lot on uneven floors, ask me how I know this .
Annette

Annette, wives like you and me ARE trophy wives! we win the boobie prize for being dumb enough to think that we can tackle things that we have never done before.....

so lucky said:

@AMKuska, I'm surprised you didn't stir up those hornets when you were under the house pounding on the floor! That would have been a sight.

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We were all talking about it. I actually skipped the area where the hornets were because I didn't want to deal with the water pipes. If I'd ripped the insulation down they probably would have killed me, no joke.

baymule said:

Annette, wives like you and me ARE trophy wives! we win the boobie prize for being dumb enough to think that we can tackle things that we have never done before.....

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I'm planning on running a Spartan Race after the baby is born. I think tackling things you've never done before is an important part of living.

so lucky said:

Glad I happened upon this thread this evening. DH and I are picking out new flooring (finally) and we had been wavering between vinyl wood look plank for the whole area, or tile in kitchen and laundry with laminate in living/dining. My son who is a professional flooring guy was here answering questions. He said as many waves as there is in our floor, the vinyl plank would just accentuate those dips and ridges. (wide house).
So I think we have decided on ceramic tile for kitchen, and laminate for the rest of it. We'll probably turn into those people who make everyone take their shoes off at the door, haha! Dog is small and old, so I don't expect to have problems with her and the floor.
He and my other son are going to install it. So time to get back to the flooring store! We got all our windows and patio door replaced last week. Getting the patio door done was holding up other stuff, as we thought the wall was bad on one side, and would need some replacement.

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we remove our shoes at the door, wood floors, floor finish is ok after 22yrs. no dogs or cats. my room was done using recycled wood flooring from an old gym, it was used as an artist studio so the floor isn't as nice as the rest of the house. because of all the stuff i have to go around and under in here it takes me about an hour or two to dust the floors in here. the rest of the house doesn't have so much stuff in the way so it can be done in about half an hour with the dust mop.

if you do a lot of baking and splash water about when doing dishes a clear protective mat around the sink and counters is well worth it, if you have tile, laminate or wood... maybe in another 20yrs i'll get one.

and, yes, obviously, laminate floors aren't water proof, neither are wood floors. we've not had any major leaks but in a few places we've had the roof leaking that it is slightly noticeable. those are finally taken care of other than the last intermittent leak i hope we get taken care of in the next month...

thistlebloom said:

I had to learn this the hard way, but a quick fix now, to get it done, with the intention of going back when you have more time never ends well for me.
It saves time and headaches to do it right the first time.

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well it took me 20+yrs to get the garden shed fixed up but it looks nice now. none of the tiles have fallen off the walls or ceiling yet. haha...

aftermidnight said:

In 2009 we had all our floors tiled with the exception of the two bedrooms, our tile is similar to what @Nyboy has.
View attachment 27948 'When I was asked what color of grout I wanted, without blinking an eye I said as close to the color of dirt, best decision I ever made. I would have done the bedrooms too but ran out of money. The floors still look like new and are soooo easy to clean.
Annette

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my hero! looks great.

when i redo the utility bathroom shower stall i'm hoping i can just use rust colored tile and grout. no need to fight this water staining. rust is an ok color. it's not like i have to look at it all the time...

@AMKuska thank goodness you didn’t get into the bees under there. Being 8 months pregnant could have been scary situation. I hope all the work gets done and you can bring baby home and relax for awhile.