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Design Dilemma Kitchens Flooring

Linoleum in kitchen and hardwoods

last year

Hi. Trying to decide if we install hardwood floors (laminate or real) through the kitchen and refinish living/dining room or could we do a contrasting linoleum in kitchen and then just refinish rest. The issue is the existing kitchen floor likely has asbestos tiles. Removal is costly. Looking for style ideas and recommendations.

Comments (5)

Lynzy
last year
Continuous hardwood all throughout. It’s better visual flow and cohesiveness than chopping up the space with different flooring.
Lynzy
last year
… and by hardwood I mean real, solid hardwood if you can swing it extended from your living/dining and then all finished to match. Don’t put laminate next to real hardwood.
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Of course my next question is "what kind of linoleum?" My assumption is that the sheet material is a vinyl on a mineral fiber felt backing. If the sheet material is securely bonded to the concrete in all areas, then you can think of the sheet as providing a vapor retarder for your installation. Your sheet flooring will either by an homogenous vinyl or a cushioned rotogravure product. Either can provide an adequate substrate, but check with the flooring manufacturer as to suitability and for adhesive recommendation. If you choose to install over the sheet material, then be aware that you must physically and chemically remove any surface contaminants, and that includes any acrylic dressings or waxes that may have been applied to the flooring surface. Once you are sure they have been removed and you have a clean and dry substrate, then I see little reason why going over the existing sheet material cannot be done. It is how I did such installations over the years and they were all successful.
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peel- Sorry to have raised this, but better you should know. If it's any comfort, I did something similar a number of years ago...and I should have known better as I worked in the environmental field. What's done is done and the good news is that you won't repeat this in the future. While I have a very healthy respect for asbestos, it's also important not to obsess about this. Anyone who has remodeled a house has probably created such hazards due to the prior use of asbestos in many products (flooring, adhesive, joint compound, ceiling tiles, furnace insulation, mortar for firebrick, etc.) If such exposures were uniformly dangerous, most of us would be dead. However, I like the odds in my favor: keeping future exposure to a minimum makes a lot of sense.
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Thanks, guys! The kitties don't tend to hang out on the sisal rug a whole lot, (except when I'm doing my crunches in there and they want to be next to me and tickle my armpits with their claws - LOL.) They have a huge cat tree that I built for them with numerous cozy perches and a couch that they like to lay on, so I don't think the addition of linoleum will cramp their kitty style too much, though I like the idea of adding some cat beds too. I'm not averse to vacuuming, but the problem is that I can never get the rug totally clean unless I vacuum, then get on my hands and knees for 20 minutes with a damp sponge. Then the rug is hairy again two days later. I don't have that kind of time to invest - hence the linoleum idea. I could put down little machine washable braided rugs on the linoleum, too, but I am trying to get to the point where everything in that room is either machine washable (or has a machine washable cover) or is vacuumable/wipeable. My main question was whether the linoleum would hurt the hardwood. I guess I should call the linoleum company, maybe. I just thought someone here might know. Thanks again (and the cats thank you, too!) Allie
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Cannot refinish hardwoods under layers of linoleum - now what
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Comments (17)
ecc I know you seem to be in a hurry w/sched -let the flooring people give you a quote & advise if they think they can even get the adhesive up/out of flooring then I would take the route of testing the adhesive - all you would be out is the testing cost. Then decide, If I could have all my 1st level matching hw (esp in small home) I would go that route - You can't get nicer hw today then what they used in 30's. It really should not cause a big delay You can get a test kit at the hardware store - they send it to lab for analysis http://www.safetycentral.com/profasteskit.html http://www.acehardwaresuperstore.com/professional-asbestos-test-kit-p-46226.html?ref=42 http://www.doityourself.com/stry/sickhomeasbestos Try not to get the "hurry up and finish" game - Good luck To me it's worth holding things up a little
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Verbo
last year
Why do you think the kitchen has asbestos flooring? Is it the 50’s 9x9 tile? Doesn't appear to be. But, if it is, it’s a small enough area to actually fully solve the issue and get it legally abated. You won’t be legally required to disclose it’s existance at resale, and your options for flooring open up to anything. But, don’t do fake wood anything.
jenken97
Original Author
last year
I should clarify. The top is linoleum then plywood then the asbestos tile. It’s a 1950’s home. While we haven’t had it tested we’ve had multiple flooring people tell us it is.
Fori
last year
I love (real) linoleum. It's kind of upscale and requires super smooth floor prep (and good installers) but it's great in a kitchen. It will look good next to wood unless you open up the icthen entirely. Test out lots of samples (put them in the sun because it can change colors once it is exposed to light) with your wood and find one that plays nicely. You can do contrast or color or match the tone.

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