The stupid kitchen thing, restoration

[kelt65]

I knew at some point I'd have to deal with my kitchen, it's pretty bad. The layout is awkward to say the least, and after living here a year, I'm pretty fed up with it. There was an 80's renovation it was subjected to, so now it has dark cabinets, recessed lights (!), and a very sagging drywall ceiling. Flooring is the original wood floor of the house, which is in terrible shape, there are huge gaps for waste to become stuck in, and it is weak-feeling underfoot. The layout is terrible and awkward to work in. The appliances are all glossy black and don't go with most decor. I hate them, but I'm not fighting that, I'm keeping them, as I'd rather spend some money on a nice rug somewhere else in the house rather than a penny on the kitchen. Kitchens are workspaces to me, the virtues of which need to be: 1) easy to clean 2) durable and 3) facilitate kitchen work

I'm glad someone mentioned linoleum on here recently, because I was one of those who though linoleum was just a sort of ugly vinyl, until I looked it up. I'm now sold on it! I can get it in plain colors, rather than ugly imitation stone or wood that vinyl suffers from. I don't know why they won't just let this stuff be itself. All the porcelain and ceramic I looked at was hideous, ink jet painted faux stone looking garbage. All these are fantastic materials in their own right. Why can't these companies let porcelain just be porcelain? Why can't plastic just be plastic? Why turn perfectly good materials into cheap imitations of something else?

I think solid color linoleum might be the way to go. The black appliances won't clash with it, as they would with any stone or nice handmade tile. I'm thinking cobalt or green or checkerboard of the same with off white. Anyone have recs about what brand?

[Vala]

Please don't put linoleum over your wood floors. This is what was done to my house in the kitchen and bathrooms and its a nightmare to remove the stuff, and the glue off the wood. Or if you do, put plywood over the real wood floor so if anyone in the future wants to remove it, they can just unscrew the plywood and not deal with glue over the entire floor.

[kelt65]

Vala, perhaps I wasn't clear enough - the wood flooring there is worthless. Absolutely worthless. Not worth saving, not worth anything. It is being removed and demolished. It was pretty cheap to being with, it's 100 years old, been sanded so much it's breaking, 1/2" gaps everywhere, termite damage ... forget it. Besides which I've dealt with a lot of kitchens with wood flooring - never again. It's terrible.

[heartwood]

I used Armstrong's linoleum....I think I had the worst installers in the entire universe...my big mistake was hiring home despot (I despise HD even more now)...their pricing was right though--$270 (flooring only) as opposed to $450 and $625 at competitors...after being unable to find someone local to install the lino, I went to HD and used their sub, a large company with many installers...the first guy made such a mess that the second guy had to remove the underlayment and lino and reinstall a new piece...his job sucked too but I don't want them back in my house again so I am going to live with the unsatisfactory installation...THE worst customer service I have every experienced with HD and installer--THE WORST...

ok, i'm calm again...I love the lino, it has a bit of a cushion to it and the lino itself looks great...plus it's safer, more natural and more attractive than vinyl...

.....jade

[kelt65]

I used Armstrong's linoleum....I think I had the worst installers in the entire universe...my big mistake was hiring home despot (I despise HD even more now)...their pricing was right though--$270 (flooring only) as opposed to $450 and $625 at competitors...after being unable to find someone local to install the lino, I went to HD and used their sub, a large company with many installers...the first guy made such a mess that the second guy had to remove the underlayment and lino and reinstall a new piece...his job sucked too but I don't want them back in my house again so I am going to live with the unsatisfactory installation...THE worst customer service I have every experienced with HD and installer--THE WORST...

ok, i'm calm again...I love the lino, it has a bit of a cushion to it and the lino itself looks great...plus it's safer, more natural and more attractive than vinyl...

.....jade

As far as I can see Home Depot doesn't have any lino ... they don't show it online anyway. Neither does Lowe's. Did you get the hard to install sheet kind, or the tiles?

[heartwood]

I purchase sheet lino...a friend of mine had sheet lino installed in her kitchen years ago...I still remember how I marveled at the quality of the installation...I would NOT go with HD or lowe's....you will pay more (not much) for a flooring business (preferably a small independent one) but I think it is the way to go...I spoke with no less 15 people during my floor ordeal and all of them were clueless....

...jade

[BlakeHillHouse]

In our home in California, we used Marmoleum linoleum. We used the snap-together kind, but I would have preferred the sheet. The sheet linoleum required a heat weld to join it properly, and we could not find an installer in our rural area.

Overall, we were happy with it. I found that it was pretty easy to gouge, unfortunately. We do have four kids and dog though, so our floors see some use!

[matchbookhouse]

I had real sheet linoleum installed in my bathroom 8 years ago. They did not use any glue on the backing, but rather caulked around the edges to seal and adhere it to the tile wall surround. It is a commercial grade linoleum normally used in art galleries. I think the manufacturer was Armstrong. It has held up beautifully (of course there's only me and the cats), but I would use it in my kitchen as well if I replaced the flooring in there. It's not cheap though.

[Sashguy]

Linoleum was the "Cat's Meow" back when these older homes were built. In my area, the kitchens are almost all cheap and irregular wood, as they were intended to have linoleum installed.

[Nicholas]

***Linoleum: Check out the Stainmaster groutable self adhesive linoleum, we got ours from Lowes. ***

Very easy, Just spread on prep after cleaning, let dry about an hour, stick the tile. It has arrows on the peel so you can put it in a row that looks consistent with the design.

Smear on premixed grout, wipe clean. I did 1/8 joints. We did it in our bathroom, over plywood. Its tough and looks good. Our cost was 110 bux for 45 SF including prep and grout.

***Edit, Vinyl Tile, not linoleum.