The discoloration is not a shadow or trick of the light. It's that bad. Previous owners must have had furniture or rugs in those areas.

Are the cabinets and appliances staying?

Here's a slightly cleaner section. The darker areas actually look less dated, but if I cleaned it all up this is more what the end result would look like.

Have you tried professional cleaning? I would go that route since the floor color works with the cabinets....assuming you are not changing them?

Cabinets are staying. The doors on the uppers are still off being stripped and sanded. will go eventually.

I've tried a number of things on the floor with limited success, but haven't tried professionals until we decide whether we're actually keeping the floors or not. The color looks fine and honestly they're pretty comfortable and don't show the dog hair. But I do wonder if a new floor would update the whole look

Sounds like you own the house but won’t be in it long term. So, whatever it takes, I’d do something to fix it. Clean it first - maybe have to anyway before covering- then cover it.. The improved look done now so you can enjoy a clean looking floor, will benefit ypu now, and also later when you either turn it to a rental or try to sell it.

We're hoping to flip it and get out of the city. The house is in a good neighborhood, single home with a large yard, but the value isn't going to increase beyond a certain amount so I want to make it liveable and up to date but there's a limit to the time and money I want to put in. Cleaning will be a lot of time, recovering will be some money and time. Tempted to just start afresh with a totally new and clean surface. Plus future inspections might note the possible asbestos as problematic.

Pro cleaning = couple hundred bucks. That's it.

To cover it, you probably need sheet vinyl. To get that over top of the existing the floor it must be CLEAN of all cleaning product build-up....which brings us back to cleaning.

To lay new vinyl over this, you are looking at $3/sf + labour. The cleaning will be MUCH cheaper. Sheet vinyl will be MUCH cheaper.

Have you actually had it tested for asbestos? I have no idea how to clean it without knowing what the material actually is but to be honest I if resale is the aim I would just cover it with loose lay vinyl flooring that requires no glue down.IMO make it look as good as possible for sale and probably whoever buys will redo the kitchen

We haven't had it tested, just assuming from the age, size, and appearance and from tile from other areas of the house laid at the same time. Are you talking about peel and stick as opposed to sheet vinyl? Would that hold up to water etc?

I expect that professional cleaning would be around the same cost as sheet vinyl. A new floor could be laid on top with just a good scrub. I don't think we'd need a professional cleaning for that.

For reference, this is what the kitchen looked like a few months ago so as far as resale things are looking a lot better. Believe it or not someone was living here before we bought it. Layers of filth and a kitchen sink that didn't work.

Resale or not, I’d have it professionally cleaned just for the ick factor. There is no way I’d want to touch that floor knowing that it is that dirty.

It's been scrubbed and had a variety of strong cleaners used on it over the past few months. The discoloration there now is old floor wax. I think we're leaning toward covering it just to start with a clean slate. Around the radiators is especially bad.

If you want to get sheet vinyl over top you MUST REMOVE the old wax. You have to get down to the original surface. It's part of the gig. If you are willing to go "heavy chemical and heavy scrubbing" on your own then go for it. You will need to rent a professional floor scrubbing machine...like the one's they use in schools and hospitals. The chemicals will be pretty heavy duty.

Thanks, everyone! I think we're leaning toward covering. It's probably better if we're going to do work and spend money to just start anew with an actually clean and less dated surface.

Whoa, sorry....after seeing the whole kitchen my opinion has changed. You asked about the floor, but what are you doing with the rest of the kitchen? The ceiling is very dated as well as the paneling, the appliances, the exposed pipes, etc. Are you moving the appliances? Honestly I would not think about the floor until those other major issues are addressed. I apologize if this has already been addressed.

^^^Now that is just rude. The OP has done quite a bit of work already. Not everyone can afford to do a complete gut remodel.

As I mentioned, I apologized in case these issues had already been addressed. I was concerned that the floor was the focus and not the other items. Many of us have come to this site because we do things in the wrong order and need to make expensive changes.

@grapefruit1_ar Lol, I posted those pictures to show how it looked originally. Don't worry, the paneling and drop ceiling came off on day one, and the backsplash panels. The rest is happening, just more slowly.

Your countertops look new—what did you go with?

Don't scoff. They're from Ikea. But seriously we love them. They were really inexpensive, easy to work with, they don't stain at all, and like everything at IKEA are trendy. They've held up really well so far. By the time they need to be replaced they'll be out of style anyway.

We haven't figured out the backsplash and area behind the stove yet.