Every once and a while, I will insert a different DIY project into the fold. I will still provide you with the continuing highlights of the upcycling of my cabinet doors. But since this project was just completed this weekend, I thought I share with you my recent experience laying vinyl flooring.
I have completed several vinyl flooring projects over the years. I have replaced the flooring in three bathrooms and a laundry room. Not big projects but challenging. I would never consider myself a professional, but I think I am fairly good laying vinyl sheet goods. If I would ever tackle a large area with vinyl flooring, I would not use sheet goods, but vinyl plank flooring instead.
Efiwym (my wife) and I were watching some home renovation show, and the host said, “We are going to use LVF.” I thought to myself, “What’s LVF?” I knew he was talking about the floors. It came to me when he used the word, “luxury.” Oh, “luxury vinyl floor,” I said out loud. I looked at Efiwym and said, “What makes a vinyl floor luxurious?” When did vinyl plank flooring become luxury vinyl flooring or LVF? And why can’t they just call it luxury vinyl flooring? Because it is VINYL flooring. If you call if VINYL anything it is not luxurious, it is cheap. So, hide the VINYL in the name and call it LVF.
I have nothing against vinyl floors. I have vinyl floors in 3 bathrooms, a laundry room, and a mudroom. Vinyl flooring works well in wet areas and it is an inexpensive alternative to ceramic tile. But to justify using vinyl plank flooring in a half million-dollar home by calling it LVF is simply wrong. Then they should not have a problem using LVS (luxury vinyl siding) or a LFSS (luxury fiberglass shower stall).
About five or more years ago, Efiwym and I decided to replace the vinyl flooring in our two upstairs bathrooms. I cannot remember why, but I think it was because of the color. We bought enough flooring for the two bathrooms and the mudroom. Both bathrooms required repairs to the subfloor around the toilets due to water leaks.
The projects were more time-consuming than I planned, so the mudroom floor was put on the back burner, or in this case, in the closet. After I was done with the bathroom floors, I rolled up the extra vinyl flooring and put it in one of the bedrooms’ closet. A project for a later day, a much later day.
Almost every week, I clean the mudroom floor. It is my contribution to the weekly housekeeping. The room is more like a stair landing about 42 inches by 42 inches. It is a path-through located between the garage entry door, the basement stairs, and the foyer. The floor is vinyl with an orange discoloration from the rug. The staining was due to a chemical reaction between the vinyl flooring and the rubber backing of a rug. (So I read.). After I clean the floor, I put the rug back on it. It covers the staining and if you did not know it existed, you would not give the flooring a second thought.
I have put on hold the upcycling of the kitchen cabinet doors until fall. Summers are usually busy at home and work, so I did not want to commit to a project that would be unfinished for several months. I hate unfinished projects. I have been chipping away on small projects and the mudroom floor was not even on my list.
Two weeks ago, I decided to put it on the list. I grabbed the vinyl flooring from the closet and rolled it out on the floor. Before I started, I took some measurements to make sure I had enough flooring. I went to the a local home improvement store and purchased some vinyl flooring adhesive and a metal floor edging. I wanted to get a new oscillating tool to undercut the molding and threshold. (My other cheap one died after one year of use.) So, I went to local tool store and purchased another cheap cordless oscillating tool that was on sale. A very typical move by a just-okay DIYer. Now I had all the supplies and tools I needed to start the project. But I would not start it today; I will save it for the next weekend.
I was not expecting any drama with this project, as I indicated, I completed vinyl flooring projects before. First, I removed the basement door to give me a little bit more room. Then I took off the baseboards. There are five little baseboard pieces that fit between the door trim on the two doors. I do not believe these baseboards were attached with anything. No nails and no signs of adhesive. There was only one casualty as I cracked one of them. A little glue will fix that. I removed the old brass floor edging. I went with a brushed silver one this time.
Using my new cordless oscillating tool, I started undercutting the door trim and jams. I was using an old cutting attachment, so the process took a little longer than I expected. I did not want to remove the wooden threshold. If I installed the vinyl flooring under it, I would need to remove the door to trim the bottom of the door so it would fit. So, I thought I would undercut the threshold and tuck in the flooring under the threshold about 1/8th of an inch. Bad idea. Not only did it take so long to undercut about 2 inches, the new cordless oscillating tool kept shutting off. On to plan B.
Now I had no choice to remove the threshold. A chisel, hammer, and my Ryobi® reciprocating saw later, the threshold was off. To the basement I went with the threshold in hand. I would create a 1/8” rabbet by running the threshold through the table saw. Keeping the threshold tight against the rip gauge was a challenge and I ended up with 1/4” rabbet instead. Close enough.
One thing that I learned that you must make a template for small areas. I am not that good to cut the flooring on the fly, especially in spots where you need to slide the flooring under the undercutted molding. I had some 36-inch-wide heavy white paper on a roll. I prefer something a little bit thicker, but this paper would work. Using two sheets, I started at the long wall and placed one sheet flush to it. I taped the other sheet on top of the first sheet while lining it up to the basement stair side. Now I needed to trim around the door trim and small baseboard areas. Using a not-so-sharp exacto blade, I cut (more like tore) around areas while trying to add additional paper to slip under the trim. Using painter’s tape to fix parts of the paper I cut short, I was almost done with my template. I went to finish cutting the template for last jamb and I noticed I did not undercut this one.
I got my oscillating tool, reinstalled the blade and the battery I had charging and started cutting. As before, the tool kept shutting down. This one is going back to the store. That is what I get for buying a cheap tool. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, and I will still buy another cheap tool.” Fortunately, I had a small pull saw and finished up on the undercutting and then the template.
I taped the template to the flooring so the faux tiles on the flooring were the same size on all four sides. With a marker, I traced the template shape on the flooring. No going back now. Using a pair of scissors, I started to cut. The areas on the template where the jambs and trim were cut were pretty rough. I decided to overcut those areas and trim them to fit. Something I wanted to avoid. Once the cutting was complete, I laid down the flooring for a dry fit. Tucking the corners of the flooring under the jambs and trim, I noticed I needed to trim a little bit of the flooring. As I made small cuts one at a time, the flooring soon laid flat. I was a little worried that the flooring was too long where the threshold went, but I would address it when I reinstalled the threshold. At least I knew it was not going to be too short.
Now I was ready to install the flooring, I gathered up my adhesive, a damp cloth, and a putty knife. As I started reading the directions on the can of adhesive, (yes, I read the directions), I remembered I needed a trowel to spread the adhesive. I had trowels from other projects, but I did not know where I put them. I did not know if I even had the right size. A quick run to the basement to check the box of painting/flooring tools. There it was. The right size too. No need to run to the hardware store.
I spread adhesive on one half of the floor then laid down the flooring on top of it. I did some minor adjusting and I stepped over and knelt on that side. Pulling back the flooring, I spread adhesive on the other side and laid down that half. All the corners tucked nicely under the door jambs. Using a wooden rolling pin from our kitchen and applying some extra pressure, I used it to roll out the flooring. I finished it up by using a plastic scraper to push out the glue to the outer edges. I wiped down any excess adhesive and I was done for the day.
The next day consisted of installing all the molding, threshold, metal edging and basement door. As I installed the threshold, I needed to trim about 1/8″ off the flooring to get the threshold back in the same place as before. The metal edging required some trimming. Otherwise, easy to install. With a little silicon, I applied the small pieces of baseboard. I had it in my mind that I would use my pin nailer to install the one long baseboard and quarter round. I would not, as I did with all the baseboards in the rooms where I replaced floors, use a hammer and nails to install the molding. I had too many hair-pulling, finger-hammering, frustrating moments. The only problem is I only had 5/8″ brads for the pin nailer. Off to the local home improvement store to buy 18 gauge, 1-1/2″ collated brads.
After I came home with the brads, I setup my Craftsman® air compressor, put a stack of brads in the pin nailer and I was ready to finish this job. First the baseboard, 4 hits with the pin nailer, done. Then the quarter round, 4 hits with the pin nailer, done. It took about 5 minutes. Well worth the trip and the $6 purchase of 1,000 brads. It was definitely frustration free. I then used a brown touch up stick to fill the nail holes. I put the basement door back on it’s hinges, some minor cleanup, and I was done.
Now it was time to have that Zen moment. I stepped back, admired my work and I gave myself a pat on the back. (I would go by the floor several times throughout the day, again stop and admire a job done well.)
