Laundry room floor recommendation

14 years ago

Hello everyone. I am in the process of redoing my laundry room which is below grade in my basement. Thus far I have installed new molding, hung new dry wall in a few spots, re-painted everything, and have reworked an unusable closet.

Now I am left with a very nice looking room with really ugly flooring. Currently there is linoleum tiles dirrectly on the concrete slab. They come up very easy as they are extremely old and crack very easily.

I am looking for the cheapest and easiest DIY flooring. Total square footage is about 300 sqft. It's an l- shaped room. The only tricky spots would be going around a toilet and shower stall.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

glennsfc
14 years ago
You could learn all about pattern scribing and do a glue down sheet vinyl installation. Or, you could looselay one of the new fiber floor sheet floorings using the pattern scribe method and go right over the loose floor tiles. Or, replace with Vinyl Composition Tile or and Laminated Vinyl Tile.

Your old tile could contain asbestos. Just something to know. In the opinion of many flooring professionals, removal of these poses little hazard. You don't want to pulverize the material by sanding, grinding, drilling or doing anything else mechanical to the material that turns it to dust. Or, you can have it tested and hire an asbestos removal company to do the removal for you.

If the adhesive is a black "tarry-looking" substance, you don't want to sand that either. You can skim coat that with Ardex Feather Finish or under the label Henry's or a similar cementious skim coating material.
weedyacres
14 years ago
I'd recommend sheet vinyl. You can pick up some good-looking ones for $1/sq ft or less, cut to size/shape with scissors, and some don't even require glue, just double sided tape around the edges.

Easy peasy. Here are a couple shots of some we did:
Related Professionals
Waterbury Flooring Contractors · Burlington Flooring Contractors · Boise Flooring Contractors · Spanish Fork Flooring Contractors · Middletown Tile and Stone Contractors · Baltimore Tile and Stone Contractors · Chattanooga Tile and Stone Contractors · Roanoke Tile and Stone Contractors · South Bend Tile and Stone Contractors · Gloucester Tile and Stone Contractors · Mankato Tile and Stone Contractors · Cornwall Tile and Stone Contractors · Rutland Kitchen Remodelers · Salinas Kitchen Remodelers · Pullman Kitchen Remodelers
User
14 years ago
The individual vinyl strips that glue to each other to create a "floating floor" like the Kinectco or the Home Depot Allure (made by Kinectco) would also be a good choice if the floor isn't too humpty bumpty. They area easy to DIY, have a wide variety of decor choices, and the are waterproof when installed correctly.
lizzie_nh
14 years ago
If you don't anticipate a lot of moisture (like beyond typical bathroom moisture... like children splashing large amounts of water all over the floor) you can go with a floating click-loc engineered hardwood floor. We're using this throughout our downstairs, and installation is (literally) a "snap." We're installing over a wood subfloor, but the product can also go over concrete. In either case, you need to lay a thin foam underlayment. Then, the planks just click and lock together. No glue required. Clean cuts for custom pieces are very easy to get with a table saw. It looks fantastic, wasn't overly-expensive, and is made to hold up to fairly high levels of moisture. (Lots of standing water is bad for it.) I have reservations about the vinyl strips which glue together, as I have seen them come up quite easily... same with vinyl tiles.

Hmm... 300 sq. ft. is a pretty big laundry room, though! Maybe engineered is not the best choice cost-wise. But it is an excellent choice for a DIY floor.