Kinda looks like vinyl sheet flooring. Either way you must take up the flooring and scrape it very good. If its tile I would rent an air hammer with a flat chisel. After the floor is clean check for dips and bumps ( level is not so important) and level it out with floor leveler. Floating floor is a simpler option but I won't touch the stuff and you will get a more possessional job with engineered glue down. Better resale also.

Yeah one finished room. (Of course still full of dust) They finished our bedroom yesterday. Still have to enventually come back and do the closet, but for now have moved on to the great room. camlan..Their doing the same thing here. Running the wood with no seams from room to room. I hope ours eventually "glow" right now they just glow of dust, but it still is looking nice. judydel. I like to buy rugs at TJ Max HomeGoods. Patty Cakes.. Oh no. The stairs is what inspired us to do this hardwood job. We just finished painting the stairs yesterday. The carpet that was on the stairs was old, dirty and ugly. It had to come up. My kids are teenagers, so hopefully safety wont be an issue. We'll see if they become too loud, etc., we can always eventually add a runner to them. beth..Your floors, rugs and house are beautiful. Thanks for sharing the photos and experience. work.. Thanks for the advice. I'll remember this for the near future. Id love a sweeper I could run on the floor and not have to worry about damage.

Photos of the areas where you WANT the new wood to run...would be super helpful. Currently you have (at least) 3 different floors on the main level. If you remove the kitchen (etc) tile and add in A DIFFERENT wood floor, you will STILL have three different floors on that level. You will not have 'up-graded' your home. You will have swapped out one 'different' for another 'different'. If you MUST have a different LOOKING wood I would HIGHLY recommend finding and installing the same SPECIES of wood, in the same WIDTH and the same CUT as your dark hardwoods. And then finish them as you wish. What that does is ALLOW YOU to make a decision later on down the line to have all the wood refinished at the same time in the same finish so that you FINALLY can unite the wood floors. But...and there's always a but...you have an active 'wet' entrance with high traffic to a pool area. Wood may not be the best option (depending on how vigilant your people are). Very young children + LOTS of dripping water over LONG periods of time (a 6 year old that is standing in the kitchen waiting for their sandwich while the water pools at their feet) can damage hardwoods. This is easily dealt with by using LARGE area rugs and plenty of towels and plenty of vigilance + practice. There are many people who are FINE with wood floors in and around a pool entrance and there are many MORE people who faint dead away at the THOUGHT of water dripping on their wood floors. It's kind of a personal thing. If you must have wood, then go with the species/size/cut match and then finish it in your choice of colour. Before putting the house up for sale you can have all the wood refinished in a unifying colour = continuous floor = UP GRADE to what you have right now.

What's your counter top? As much as I love the look of blue slate up against a wood floor, it would look weird if it is the ONLY punch of blue/gray in the entire kitchen. If in doubt, look to your counter tops to help pick your floor. It is a very simple (yet elegant) form of DIY Design which helps homeowners complete the look without having all the stress of picking 'another colour' for the floors.