I have used 3/4" plywood ‘floating’ over rugs a couple of times. I
used a tape measure, pencil, straight edge, and a hand held power
jigsaw to measure, cut, and fit it. Good fit and placement of the
seams is important, but it works really well. Painting or sealing the
top surface is advised as is using good quality plywood with one side
filled/smoothed.
Ray Brown
You can have rugs made from marmoleum, but I think better than a
linoleum product, maybe you should think about cork. It feels good to
the feet, is mold and fire resistant, and deters bugs.
Melissa
One more flooring question.
The responses on my floor question have been great, and I have
several excellent options to pick from. But one new concern has
popped up. A student of mine tells me that some kinds of resilient
floors that are intended to be stuck down may actually stick to the
hardwood floor over time, especially where heavy furniture sits on
then (like the legs of my bench).
It would be a real drag to lay some material over the floor to
protect it, then in a year or 3 or whenever I move, pick it up and
find that I would have to pay to refinish the floor anyway! Anybody
have any knowledge about this? I’m thinking I could put down sheet
plastic first. Someone recommended the kind of stuff designed to go
under a floating (laminate) floor.
Thoughts?
Noel
Anybody have any knowledge about this? I'm thinking I could put down sheet plastic first. Someone recommended the kind of stuff designed to go under a floating (laminate) floor.
There is a special paper that you can lay down first, that is
designed for and sold for flooring. If you’ve ever pried up an old
floor, you may have encountered it.
You lay down this heavy-ish paper, stick it together with tape, then
put down your floating floor.
Noel
Consider putting down a drop cloth first then use the foam
barrier…then whatever type of flooring.
All products have the potential to compress and stick because of
pressure points. With fabric it should prevent the sticking part. It
doesn’t have to be heavy fabric flat bed sheets should work as well
as heavy canvas…and cheaper.
Simone
...... some kinds of resilient floors that are intended to be stuck down may actually stick to the hardwood floor over time......
It is not difficult, but it is a time consuming job to remove
adhesive from your wood floor. The easy part is pulling up the
resilient flooring. Use a floor steamer to lift the remaining
adhesive. Certain spots will require a lot of steaming to release.
Additional steaming is needed in areas where there was a thicker
application of adhesive, and after steaming these areas you may also
need to scrape it off with a wide putty knife. The steaming is what
is important, the wide putty knife is only used to gently remove
moisture saturated stuff.
In my experience, the places that withstood pressure from heavy
items on the floor had no relationship with the difficulty in
removing the adhesive under the flooring. Removal difficulty seemed
to be directly related to the thickness of the adhesive.
Thickly applied adhesive will have a tight grip on the back of the
flooring, which may stay stuck to the adhesive after you pull up and
tear off the top part of the flooring. This “backing” will absorb
moisture, so it requires a lot more steaming in order to soften the
backing and the thick adhesive under it, before you scrape this
stuff off the floor with the wide putty knife, repeat steaming and
scraping, repeat and repeat, but in the end your wood floor will
look as good as it does today and it is not likely that you would
have to refinish the floor.
Noel - why don’t you forget about it and when you move, just put
down a new wood laminate floor. Enough already! They aren’t 't hard
to do, not terribly expensive and then you don’t have to worry about
nada.
Judy Hoch
why don't you forget about it and when you move, just put down a new wood laminate floor. Enough already! They aren't 't hard to do, not terribly expensive and then you don't have to worry about nada.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I doubt the owner would consider that
a satisfactory trade off for his solid oak floor.
There is a special paper that you can lay down first..
It is called rosin paper, it has slight red tint to it.
Ellen Harris
Typically hard wood/laminate floors are not permanently fixed anyway.
The suggestion to replace the floor when you leave is not a bad one
but, as you stated, the owner would probably not be happy if you
replaced the solid oak floor with a laminate. In order to put down a
laminate or any hard wood one uses rosin paper and the strips of
flooring are put together with the tongue and groove method. If you
put down rosin paper and then a layer of laminate your owner might
not object. The flooring strips are tapped/hammered together and glue
is not needed or desired. You just butt the laminate up to the trim
around the room. When you leave you simply pick up your laminate and
rosin paper and the original flooring is there underneath. Unless you
have a spill there should be no damage to the oak floor.
Pat Gebes