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Upgrading your Kitchen Floors at a cost effective price
Most people do not use wood for their kitchen floors. Of course, this is not the case with my home as we have wood floors in our kitchen. It is not a common thing to have in a kitchen, nor is it practical. Unfortunately, buying a home does not give us everything we want. The only thing to consider is buying another house or changing your floors. The decision is made that these floors must go. Not only are they wood, they are a nice maple wood, damaged. This blog is about upgrading your kitchen floors without causing a huge dent in your wallet.
The biggest cost savings in this project is the workmanship. Those skilled in a trade like this are holding an invaluable asset that is saving you thousands of dollars. In a time when the prices of materials keep rising, the cost of labour continues to rise up alongside it.
Maple wood is not so cheap. As nice as it is to have wood floors, these ones are completely worn out and in the wrong location. The floors need an upgrade for several reasons.
For one, wood floors do not last long in the kitchen. There are a few water issues in our kitchen that occurred before moving in. They are showing remnants of the damaged floors. However, this is seen only after removing the floors. Covering up mishaps without fixing it from the root in the home only prolongs problems in the future. Secondly, wood floors get damaged much faster than tile floors. You can also see marks and scratches all over the floors. Third is the annoying sound it makes when walking on them.
There is another important reason home owners need to be aware of when it comes to doing renovations. It is something not mentioned when making major upgrades in our home. (Coming Soon)
When I decided to upgrade our front foyer floors and the powder room washroom, we agreed to change our kitchen floors as well. This is so that both rooms match. The main level floors are all different. The front foyer and washroom is tile, the kitchen is wood and the hallway and family room is plank laminate. There is no proper flow throughout the house. Please read up on the changes we made with renovate your front foyer floors to learn about cost, savings and the before and after appearance.
The previous owners did not remove the floors in the kitchen beneath it to do the second job. They placed maple wood floors on top of the old flooring. This easily causes issues with mold building up in your house. As well we there is a third layer of flooring. It is linoleum floors, beneath the vinyl floors. There are three layers of flooring being removed before placing the new tiles.
The kitchen floors creak all the time. We have the same issue with our bedroom floors. However, the kitchen is on the main floor. It is not a fun area to cook in when it sounds like the floors are going to break every time you walk. By removing the floors and adding in new ones we are getting rid of the constant noise under our feet.
Set your station. Do not begin working until everything is closed off. Place drop clothes throughout the areas of your home you will be walking around to do your work. Place a sheet from the entrance(s) of your kitchen and close it off. Create a section to have all your tools ready to work.
In Summary
Upgrading Your Kitchen Floors
At different times throughout this project, you will need the following items:
Hammer, flat chisel, pry bar, floor nail remover, pliers, carpenters square, level, circular saw, wet saw, cordless drill for the floor screws, measuring tape, permanent maker, mixing drill for the thinset (the glue), square notched trowel and a grout float. Additionally you need two buckets and a large sponge for flooring. As mentioned in Renovate Your Front Foyer Floors these are all items that were passed on to us for the most part.
Use the hammer, flat chisel and pry bar to remove the wooden floors. They are easier to tear apart than the floors at the front of the house. Fortunately, the process does not take long to remove them even though it is a messy job.
As the floors are coming off, I am considering not throwing them away. A part of me thinks we can save these and fix them up. The value of the wood is making me hold on and reuse them in a different place in our house. My partner wants me to use the wood from the old floors for firewood.
In the meantime, all the remaining wood pieces are in our shed and a small section in our backyard, while I decide if there is anything else we can use it for. If you have any suggestions, please share. I am open to reading what ideas you may have.
After taking out all the wood and placing it in storage and the backyard, the vinyl floor tiles are removed, underneath it. There are tons of nails on the floors from this project. Therefore, make sure you are wearing either construction boots or safety shoes if you are in or around the area. Lastly the linoleum floors are taken off.
Once everything is removed, the vinyl floors are thrown into garbage bags and in the garbage. Sweep up the kitchen and clean it up. It is ready for my partner to start working on placing the tiles on the floor. The next part is not my expertise. By successfully accomplishing changing the front foyer old tiles with very nice floors, the same workmanship is being applied by my partner to complete.
Now that the vinyl tiles are up, cut the floor with a circular saw. Cut grooves into the linoleum with a circular saw and remove the floor 2 ft by 2 ft. so that it is easier to remove everything in patches, rather than all together. It is a lot easier this way. Remove all the staples from the flooring using pliyers. Afterwards you are left with your sub floor. Screw this down with flooring screwing 1- 3/4 flooring screws every six to eight inches apart.
Your floor is prepared for the tiles to go on. Follow the instructions on the thinset mortar for how to mix it. Apply the mix to your floor with the square notched trowel. In our case, we used 12 by 24 tile. This is for a large format tile thinset. Put a thin coating on the back of the tile and set the tile. Lay it down according to the layout.
Do it one step at a time. Make sure that everything is even and the pattern of the tiles match throughout the floor. Use the levelling system to help you achieve an even surface. Let it is and dry for 24 hours.
The next day, remove the spacers and the levelling system. Clean out your joints. Mix your grout according to the instructions on your package. Apply the grout to the joints, forcing it in with a grout float. When it starts to haze over a little bit, go over it with a sponge and bucket of water. Work your grout lines so that they look nice with a sponge.
Wipe the floor of any residual grout.
Let it sit and dry for 24 hours. After that, you are done.
The results are amazing. There is no longer an annoying sound in the kitchen. You can spend time cooking with more peace. Additionally, it looks much better. Each cost effective upgrade in the kitchen is making the room look much better. To see other upgrades we made in the kitchen check out, Backsplash, Lighting and Valence Upgrades and DIY Countertop Refinishing Kit and Refinishing Your Cupboards
The total cost of this project is under $1000.00. This includes the changes made on the front foyer floors and powder room washroom.
Enjoy making upgrades in your home at a low price.
Please read up on upgrading your middle washroom floors and renovate your front foyer floors to see how far this project extends.
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