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We have a closet in the office where Mason and Dixon’s royal toilets are housed. (I call it the water-less closet, cause you know, it’s a closet, and the litter boxes are there…never mind). Anyway, even through we had all the carpet areas around the litter boxes covered with wee-wee pads, there were occasional accidents, and the carpet in the closet was beginning to suffer for it. Something had to be done, and quickly, before the entire office was permeated with au de cat pee. (Not a popular scent according to the Yankee Candle R&D department). So Tony and I do what we always do when something needs fixing…we went to Lowes. Lowes has a lovely selection of vinyl floor tiles and sheets of the bathroom-ish variety, with signs above them that just scream things like "Easy to clean!" and "waterproof!" and "Easy to install!" (Which is exactly what you want to see when you can’t stand the thought of scrubbing another section of carpet with Oops! Pet Stain Eliminator). We picked tiles because they’re easier to installer in small spaces than a 12’ sheet. Our particular pattern looks like a parquet floor, which not only looks classy, but avoids that whole "closet that looks like a bathroom floor" thing. If you’re looking to replace some carpet with some vinyl floor tiles, feel free to follow these easy step-by-step instructions that I have provided. If you aren’t, read it anyway (because you never know what will end up on final Jeopardy).
Quirky Project: Take kitty’s litter box closet from "EWWW!" to "OOOH! AHHH!"
Quirky Time: Depends on the size of the room, but it took me about 2 hours from material pickup to completion.
Quirky Level of Difficulty: Your baby brother could do it*.
Steps:
1. Remove that oh-so-stinky carpet. This can be done by grabbing a corner with a pair of needle nose piers and lifting gently. Chances are, your carpet is held in place around the edges by tack boards and/or the occasional staple. Remove carpet and carpet pad and staples and tack board. (Tack board can be removed by a strategically placed crow bar and a few hammer taps. A great way to work off any pent up aggression…just don’t step on the tack boards, or you’ll have more aggression than you know what to do with…that, and tetanus).
2. Inspect sub floor. You probably either have concrete or plywood. You’re looking for any cracks, water damage, mold, crazy-bad warping or unidentified bodies. If you have any of the aforementioned, you may need to replace it totally, or fix it with special chemically stuff that the sell in the flooring department. Go see them, since replacing sub-flooring isn’t part of this particular project.
3. Vacuum or sweep sub-floor to get rid of all the loose carpet fiber bits and cat litter, which yes, has even managed to get below the carpet onto the sub-floor. This stuff gets EVERYWHERE!
4. Prime your sub-floor. We used Henry 336 Bond Enhancer Self-stick tile primer. It looks like skim milk, so you’ll need a brush or paint roller. (I used a roller). Dump it on, spread it around, and let the plywood sub-floor absorb it. Mine was apparently very thirsty, because it kept absorbing it. Let dry. Mine took about an hour.
5. Plan out how you want to lay your tiles. Graph paper = very good. The idea is that you want to plan it out in such a way that you aren’t having to cut a bunch of tiles a quarter inch wide because you have this funky sized strip of floor left exposed. It also shows you exactly how many tiles you’ll need. Play around with it on paper because once you have an actual tile stuck to the floor, there’s no going back.
6. Peel paper backing off of tile and lay onto floor. The glue is really really strong, so don’t press on it until you have it exactly where you want it. Think of placing stickers on a piece of paper…once you press down, there’s no wiggling it into another position. The tile people recommend that you start in the center and work towards the wall. Repeat with the next tile, getting the tiles as close together as possible for cute little nearly invisible seams. You get the idea.
7. You want to press the tile down for complete tile to floor contact once you’ve gotten it in place. For big rooms, you can rent a floor roller. For kitty closets, I found a rolling pin worked fine.
8. Cut tiles to size around wall edges. This sounds scarier than it is. Just measure how big you need it to be, then cut with either a utility knife or a sharp pair of scissors. (I used scissors, cause I’m just old school like that, and there’s less chance of cutting off my own finger by accident).
9. When all the tiles have been placed and rolled down, stand back and admire your beautiful work. I strongly recommend getting a seam sealer if there’s going to be any chance of dirt or moisture on your new floor, and unless you live in a sterile bubble, I’m guessing there will be. We used Armstrong Low Gloss S-564 Seam Coating Kit. It came with 3 bottles and a tube of "stuff", which looks serious. Again, looks scarier than it really is. The tube of stuff is a seam cleaner, which you’ll want to use even if you just laid the floor, because even new tiles are dirty. The two glass bottles get mixed together to make your solution (think of a home hair dye kit…same kind of thing, only I wouldn’t put this stuff on your head). The last bottle is the applicator bottle for precision application. (Duh Alert: If you’re following the kit instructions, it tells you to clip off the tip of the applicator bottle. What it doesn’t tell you is that the bottle has a cap on it, so it you’re clipping off bits of white plastic, you’re actually clipping a hole in the cap. If you pull the cap off, then you’ll see the clear plastic tube that is the REAL applicator tip. Don’t ask me how I know that…just suffice it to say that my cap also has a little hole in it).
10. Apply seam sealer to seams. The hardest thing about this is remembering which seams you’ve done and which ones you still have left, because the stuff is clear. It dries pretty quickly too. Oh, and ventilate, because it has a high potency, kill-all-your-brain-cells-deader-than-dead smell. The teenage glue-sniffer druggies four blocks down will be able to smell this stuff when you put it on. My closet is only about 12 square feet total, and I still probably lost enough brain cells to ruin any chances of ever working for NASA. You may want to take a couple of fresh air breaks if you’re doing a bigger room…otherwise you’re going to be high as a kite and dancing naked through your neighborhood. (And you know that the gossipy old lady next door would never let anybody forget about it…ever).
11. Lastly, add transition bar for going from carpet to tile. We used oak, since it went with our wood-looking floor, but they have metal ones too. Just cut to size and screw into place to keep your carpet and tile in place and behaving.
P.S.- I didn’t mention removing the baseboards and moving them down because we’re just going to put a little quarter round around the bottom to cover that gap. (Yes, I’m lazy. So what? A little quarter round is so much easier that prying old baseboards off). You can also do quarter round, or remove and replace baseboards…your choice.
So there you go, vinyl tile in 11 easy steps. (I wanted it to be 10 easy steps, but I just couldn’t eliminate one, so you’re stuck with 11…this is why I’m not a professional). See my lovely before and after pictures?
Before, (post carpet) lovely sub-floor. Next, laying the tiles. Then: Ta-da!*By the way, let me just say again that I’m not a pro, so don’t sue me if you try it and it doesn’t work out. I’m just telling you how I did it…you’re responsible for your own successes and failures. (Although leave a comment and let me know if you had success with this, so that I can at least claim partial credit for your brilliance).
6 comments:
Wow! That looks great! Did the boys take to it or are they unsure if this is where the litter boxes are supposed to be?
We'll see. Litter box use has resumed normally. The question now is, "Is it okay to also potty on the new floor?" or another way, "To pee, or not to pee, where is the question?"
thank you for your helpfulness you answered some questions I had about laying my vinyl planks down.
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Content was great but the sense of humor and writing style were even better!
I agree with Rachel. Everything is written in a non-confusing way. Well done!!
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