Cutting Linoleum

[oaktree]

I did miss the material change! I don't know much about the new material, but it sounds great! I love, love, love your sketch!

[Manalto]

Here's an update on the VCT (previously linoleum) kitchen floor project. I had the tile delivered to the Home Depot in New Jersey, where my friend and I were planning to cut, oh-so-precisely, each 12" tile into four 4" tiles with a good stone saw. My friend's father-in-law pointed out that that method of cutting, taking into account the width of the saw blade, will result in a loss of 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch with each cut. I had already considered this, but wasn't worried because I didn't care if the seams of the border tiles matched the seams of the checkerboard in the center - until he convinced me otherwise. We then tried the score-and-snap method of cutting on some spare practice tiles and the break is surprisingly (to me) clean; dragging a sanding block up the edge will easily correct any imperfections. So, I drove home with the boxes of tiles, unopened and untouched, in the back of my truck. It rained like hell, of course.

I'm going to hold off on the floor project until the upper portions of the room are restored. I always knew this was the better approach, but there is a spongy spot in the kitchen floor and it's been gnawing at me, so I was eager to resolve that. (I can check it out from below and maybe find out what's going on.)

Instead I'm going to focus on restoring my windows. Priorities.

[phil]

seriously I'd talk to a local print shop, you will find a paper cutter , it might look like this :
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c6/5c/3e/c65c ... utting.jpg
or this:

http://www.graphopress.co.uk/contents/m ... 0scnew.jpg

in larger shops it will look like this
https://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00L ... otine-.jpg

these machines will cute dead square, and in lifts of about 2" high and no trim out. and it will only take a few minutes.

talk nicely, offer to pay to have their blades sharpened afterwards. try a little shop where you can talk to the owner. It won't hurt the machine and you will be done and they will be dead accurate.

I've spent many hours operating them and repairing them. every print shop has one. If you cut staples and things and nick the blades you send them to a knife shop and have them re-sharpened and they do that on a regular basis so they all have spare blades so they aren't down when it is being sharpened.

Phil

[Manalto]

Good to know, Phil. When I get down there I'll see why there's a soft spot in the floor and take it from there.

[phil]

It might not hurt to let them acclimatize... I have some tiles in my basement , probably asbestos.. glued down the the concrete floor. I did some work where they got quite soaked and they did curl and buckle.. I dont' care because I want them gone anyway but I guess that kind of flooring is tough it can take a good mopping, but still sensitive to moisture.

with paper if you take it into a more damp environment the edges grow and you get wavy edges on the stack.. if the humidity swings to being dryer the sheets go bowl shaped or "tight edges" part of the challenge in printing is to cope with that so paper is ordered ahead to let it acclimatize. this growing and shrinking can affect the fit ( or register) of the image on a job that needs to be printed more than once, such as to lay down multiple colors. the shape of the stack also affects consistency in paper feeding so a pressman will monitor the stack. if it gets dry and sunny in winter then he may drape plastic over the stack to try to not let the edges dry , or if it rains he may do similar.

likewise, If your edges all fit snug then you don't want it growing or shrinking too much during or after installation so if it can slowly acclimatize to the environment it won't hurt any. If it is a vinyl material it may not be porous and won't be so affected but if the material can take on and give off water it is more important. You don't want it going all wavy. keep it stacked flat, never on end.

often loads are "racked" this is so the pile doesn't develop an unflat shape we wouod use 4 corner blocks made of plywood and sheets of plywood. you put the corner blocks near the corners of the stack then plywood then 4 more corner blocks this keeps the stacks flat. If you open packages you will see them try to acclimatize faster, but you don't want harsh quick changes in humidity. so if you bring them inside leave them srealed for a while and at some point you might want ot crack the corners open and give them time to get used to the environment. Its not much different with a stack of lumber, youll see the effects of acclimatization in similar ways. wood shops will also allow lumber to acclimatize because otherwise when you cut your pieces to fianal size you want to minimize the warpage. lumber will also change from normalization.. in other words if you rip a board into a bunch of thin strips they will always want to bend their own way , this is because the lumber has internal stresses and when you release them they want to normalize. If you don't then you might for example make a door and then look at it after and it is twisted just because the wood hadn't acclimatized properly. your flooring isn't going to mess up too easily but if you laid it wet and left it you might see gaps shrinking or you may see some buckling if it is dryer than the environment and has no where to go.
each piece may only change in size by thousandths of an inch but across the flor, this difference stacks up.
Phil

[Manalto]

I've soaked some samples in water for a few days and they seem to be unaffected. After the floor is down, there is a sealer that is applied to keep any water from seeping below the tiles. I'm surprised, frankly, because VCT is 80% limestone. One would think that the stone component of the tile would absorb water but I haven't seen any evidence of it.

My major concern, especially once the tiles are in place, is heat. When I left some sample tiles in the car sitting in the sun for an hour or two, they were as soft and flexible as a stick of gum. Alabama has a hot climate, so I wonder how the floor will respond to the weight of a 1940s refrigerator and monster stove. Coasters will do some good, I suppose.

[phil]

you often see where an older car has been parked in the sun and the dashhboard has cracked because the plastic shrunk. I've noticed tile floors where maybe the ones below a radiator had bigger gaps. Im not sure of the composition but sometimes these things happen, yea coasters should help. If they didn't go all wavy after sitting wet , that's a good sign. probably the tiles under the fridge feet aren't going to get hot, they are sheltered

I had my fridge sitting on my living room cork floor for a year or so when I reno'd the kitchen. , it was on carpet too. I did get some little divots in the cork.

Phil

[Manalto]

...probably the tiles under the fridge feet aren't going to get hot, they are sheltered

Nothing is sheltered from the Alabama heat.

[phil]

LOL well I bet its nice there now .. starting to freeze here we even had a little skiff of snow last week.. so enjoy it

[Manalto]

I will, in December. For now I'm stuck in Connecticut. Snow is predicted here, too, in the Berkshires.

You're right about this being the pleasant time of the year on the Gulf Coast, weather-wise. And this week, my neighbor sent me photos of my camellias, which are starting to bloom, since I'm not there to enjoy them.