often those types of repairs can be accomplished by cutting a patch in it at the bottom edge of the embossed joints, then sealing with a manufacturer recommended seam sealer. If its new, this can often be made almost invisible.

I've been getting conflicting info about my kitchen situation and could use some advice. The home I just purchased has original encaustic tile, which as most know is concrete. It is sitting on a mortar bed, which in all is about 1" thick with the tile, if not more. We had intended to try and keep this tile, since it's nearly 100 years old, however, during demolition of the kitchen it suffered some more damage, and then I also found out it was going to cost me over $2000 to make up replacement tiles for an area in the kitchen which didn't have tile on it already (a porch had been enclosed many years ago and the prior owner just left that part "bare" and put vinyl tile over - never even bother to make the two floors even). FYI - I've already priced new encaustic type tiles, way too much money. I had hoped to keep a similar look but it would cost me around $5000 for the floor *gulps* Anyway, now we need to find an alternative to cover up the whole floor. I can't afford to take out the concrete. That, will cost me a small fortune between taking it out and creating an entire new subfloor. I do know that the easiest solution is to just put down ceramic tile over the whole thing (my contractor is going to even out the two floor areas). However, I'm wondering about floating another type of floor system over this instead. The rest of the first floor is original pine flooring. I found a reclaimed pine floor product, which could be floated - "Bordeaux" http://www.ecobydesign.com/shop/wood/bordeaux.html Does not match the planks of the rest of the house, however, since the kitchen is not seen from the living room or dining room, only the hallway but there is a small vestibule area between the hall and kitchen), I'm thinking this could be a interesting choice. I'd certainly prefer a wood floor over ceramic, would be so much more comfortable and more appropriate to the house (Craftman, 1915). Any thoughts on this, or any other type of wood or other floor system which might be possible? Thanks!

Here was my experience in my old cottage at MoccasinLanding. I got a sheet vinyl and laid it over the existing asphalt 9" squares original to the house. Around the rim, I had the quarter round put down. It worked VERY well, even with 2 dogs 2 cats and 16 parrots. Parrots make a lot of messes, and it was very easy to clean the vinyl sheet. When I sold the house about 2 years later, the same sheet vinyl was down, and the new owners took out everything afterward, but it still looked shiny, even with all the constant cleaning. The product was cheap, easy to put down, cleaned like a dream, and lasted as long as I needed it to. Now in this house we are doing the same sort of thing you are doing. We had the worst looking worn out damaged sheet vinyl you ever saw on the kitchen floor. The back porch also needed to have some flooring installed since we were planning to use it as it existed for a couple of years until we could unify the two spaces with a remodel. So I made a choice of 16" square sticky back vinyl tiles from Lowes (a mottled terra cotta color) and it is NOT a shinyy surface. DH installed it all himself, and it is quite nice and wears well. We now have only two dogs and two parrots, no cats, and the wear and tear is not as significant. But the product has been down about a year and looks as new as when we installed it. When the time comes we will remove all the layers of asphalt tile and vinyl tile down to the subfloor and lay new wood foundation for the porcelain tile we have already picked out. BTW, the sticky back tile has not come loose, and it is easy to clean. No shine on this product. And this picture shows how he repaired the rotted floor after we removed the old gas waterheater, and then finished laying the sticky back vinyl on the back porch.

These are all great questions. One thing I know is there is no asbestos. Thats one problem out of the way. The house was in excellent condition in 1960 (I have photos and know the woman who lived here then, so thats one other thing that is on the up side. The house was vinylized in about 1970. One of my concerns is that the vinyl is preventing moisture from properly escaping from the house, thereby rotting it from the inside. All of the non-masonry houses on this block are painted wood and the wood is in pretty darned good condition. that doesnt mean mine is, but they all have been exposed to the same elements for the same length of time and were all built within a few years of one another. One thing I know is that the back porch, which was enclosed in about 1948, had vinyl that we removed to the old wood siding and it was, of course, in excellent condition, so I am hopeful that the rest of the house is in at least good condition and wont need significant repairs or stripping. If it is, well, we can always re-side it. One thing I read about painting Vinyl is that dark colors will make it warp. Thanks for mentioning the value question - my house is only as valuable as the neighborhood. Sometimes I do tend to get carried away and forget about location - isnt it sad so many wonderful old houses are in less than perfect neighborhoods. Thankfully, all the neighbors here are significantly improving their property so were kind of hopeful at the least well make our neighborhood into a more desirable place to live.