There were no asphalt tiles, broken or otherwise, and no holes where roof leaks had swollen and burst chipboard underlayment, as in the dining room. But there was an unsightly black, green and yellow linoleum that looked as if it had been there since the house was put up (owner built) in 1949.
In places the linoleum was worn halfway through to the wood (not chipboard) flooring beneath. If Risa were young, spry, and full of boundless energy, she might have tried cutting up and disposing of the linoleum, and come up with a treatment for the wood. But the stuff had been glued down very, very thoroughly. Another layer, in colors we could stand, might be what to do -- but money was in short supply, having been scraped and scrounged for the down payment.
So she painted the whole thing white, lined it off in squares with a pencil and straight edge, and painted brick-red tiles over the white, covering the whole thing with two coats of satin polyurethane. (We have a thing for white with brick red and forest green trim. Our kids' friends called it "the Christmas House.")
Seventeen years later, it was obvious that thousand of steps, and the occasional dragging about of tables and stoves, had had their way with the paint job.
Time to renew. With a small brush, Risa traced over the white "mortar" ...
...switched to a larger brush to cover the red "tiles" ...
... then sealed with high gloss poly.
Not too bad."Think we'll be doing this floor again?"
"Probably not in my lifetime. Yours, maybe."
You don't need to wax over a urethane-finished floor. To remove dirt and stains, simply clean the floor regularly with a mop dipped in a solution of one cup of white vinegar and ten quarts of water. If your floor is particularly dirty, increase the amount of vinegar. Earl Proulx, Yankee Home Hints
The effect is pretty amazing, Risa. It looks really level, but you said that some of the linoleum was worn all the way through the the wood. Did you use some filler initially?
ReplyDeleteWe've painted hopeless floors, too, usually cement, though. One was simply painted solid brick red. (Never occurred to me to add "grout" lines.)
The other my sweetie painted to look like faux deep green marble. That was wonderful as it hid dirt and dog fur incredibly well. In fact, I was always shocked every time I swept that room.
Beautiful! Clever, too.
ReplyDeleteWell, halfway through. The red does kind of even it up some, at least to the eye! Lots of filler in the dining room, but none here.
ReplyDeleteThat's good about the "marble."
It looks incredibly better than our worn out kitchen linoleum.
ReplyDeleteWe sort of wanted to use OSB, sanded and sealed, but I haven't been able to find any information about outgassing problems. There is a lot of glue involved....
Oh, dear sir, I almost posted the most wonderfully irreverent reply concerning glue sniffing which I shall leave partly to your imagination!
ReplyDeleteBad enough sniffing residual polyurethane, neh? I think I need a designated poster!
tfh, it's inexpensive and I suppose that's clever, but as Dale points out, home chemistry has its potential problems!
ReplyDeleteFolks, if you try this at home, ventilate, ventilate, ventilate! Go to Disney World or something in th'meanwhile ...
Dale, we have an artistic friend that used MDF for her kitchen floor. She cut it into 12x12 "tiles" and then painted and sealed each one individually. (I think she did random sponge painting, in several colors of different tiles.) They were laid down just like regular linoleum tiles would be and the effect was very nice.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure she used a lot of ventilation...