Putting in that half bath floor…did you have to remove the existing floor first?
I am unhappy with our old bath tile but not unhappy enough to remove it and retile it. If I could go over it, I would. But it seems like that wouldn’t work. (Hence the questions about the tile paint! And @abasket , it is a two part epoxy that you brush or roll on, not spray. The tile is in good shape, but I hate the light grout and the color. The grout is in not great shape.)
My son and DIL HATE the tile around their 1920 home fireplace. We recently found out though that we think a noted pottery company manufactured that tile - but how do you work around a tile you really don’t like?! I’d be curious how the Rustoleum product works.
“Noted pottery” = Rookwood?
No, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit.
We have sheet vinyl flooring in the bathrooms that we want to put LVT plank flooring in. It would be so easy if we can just go over it…would love your opinion! We will be removing the vanity and all baseboard trim…and we don’t think this will interfere with doors opening…
Your thoughts?
Yes. I removed an existing ceramic tile floor. Getting the old ceramic tile off was easy but getting all the old thinset off the layer of plywood subfloor it was adhered to was pretty much impossible so I removed the plywood as well. That was very difficult. Under the plywood I found an older layer of linoleum. I started to take that up as well but retreated when the linoleum backing started tearing as it was a potential health hazard. Ended screwing down new plywood right over the linoleum and tiling directly on top of that with a premium thinset.
Whoa, we don’t want to deal with surprises of layers of floor! My DH probably knows what is under our bathroom tile, he laid it when we first moved in. We have an antique clawfoot tub in there, that is the main reason for painting instead of replacing!
@thumper1 , we installed LVT in my son’s bedroom after ripping up the carpet. That room was an addition, so below the carpet and pad was just wood subfloor. It turned out fine! I think the issue for you might be around the toilet, right? As for the doorway and the transition, there are several options to deal with that.
@abasket we also hate our 1920 fireplace tile hearth. We will replace it someday. That doesn’t seem too hard from what we see on TV lol. The Rustoleum tile paint will just give it all a solid color, and the grout lines will show under. It also comes in limited colors. But I think I’ve seen that on remodeling shows, when there is a budget, they usually make it a white. Of course, there are also ways to paint the tile, as in each tile individually, with a stencil and cool pattern. This is way above my artistic level, but could be a way to change up special tile. I think there might be videos of this on the rustoleum paint site.
@TS0104 we had this house built and are the original owners. The only thing under our vinyl bathroom flooring is…plywood. There won’t be any surprises! It would be great if we could just LVT over it!
We will take the current toilet out as we plan to replace it.
@thumper1 Putting in a LTV floor is a very straight forward project. You should go for it. It is much easier than doing tile. The LVT product I used was a floating floor with a built in padded backing. It didn’t add much height so I didn’t have to trim the door or modify the toilet flange. Door trimming isn’t usually hard anyway unless it’s a pocket door. A floating floor doesn’t require adhesive and is just held down by gravity. I went right over the existing linoleum and left the recommended perimeter gap which ended being covered by the baseboard. I had a special saw to undercut the the door jambs so I could tuck the new flooring under the door frame area for a neat look but you can also do this with a hand saw.
Thanks. I am thinking the only “issue” is the transition to the bedroom or hallway (depending on which bathroom) as both have a nice marble threshold we would like to keep…and hope the LVT isn’t too thick to do so! And the baseboard heat…but I think this flooring can slip under that…I think.
The reasons why it took so many hours to sand my kitchen hardwood floor were: 1) the previous owner some 20 years ago had applied wax – many layers of it – and that took quite awhile to sand down. If your kitchen floor isn’t waxed, then it should be much quicker to accomplish the task, provided that you avoid another reason why it took so long: 2) start with 20 grit, instead of 36 like I did, then 36, 80 and 120. My job took longer, too, because of clearing of sand dusts in between each pass. I didn’t have a vacuum cleaner that’s designed for such, so I swept with a broom. If you have a vacuum cleaner for picking up sand dusts, then the process would be much quicker. After all the sanding’s done, a several passes with denatured alcohol wipe to pick up the rest of sand dusts that the vacuuming couldn’t pick up. The job takes a long time because of all these steps that are necessary to accomplish it properly.
After about 10 days of working on this project, my 20+ year old hardwood refinishing project is completed. It took a lot longer than I expected due to my meticulous and perfectionist nature (which isn’t always healthy), and I made some mistakes along the way. I learned many valuable lessons, and the first most important lesson is that the very first step of sanding has to be done right, then the rest follows. If any of the steps isn’t done properly along the way, you’re sure to see the flaws.
One big mistake that I made was choosing a wrong stain color on an imperfect wood floor, i.e., with scratches, scrapes, gouges, non smooth surfaces, etc. On an imperfect wood floor, using a darker (for example, I chose Varathane traditional cherry color) stain will expose and magnify all the imperfections. It was so unacceptable that I went back to Home Depot and rented the sand machine for one more day and sanded away the stain. That was painful. I also learned that stain colors are darker than the samples. For the finished look that you see in the photos, I chose Varathane’s lightest color called “natural.” Using the lightest color hid all the imperfections and blended really well.
I’m exhausted but quite satisfied with the finish. With all that I know now, if I had to do it all over again, I think it’d take me only about 3-4 days and probably with a better result.
That looks great. And THANKS so much for the color tip. I had assumed a darker color would better cover flaws if we refinished our light wood kitchen floor.
I made the same assumption that a darker color would better cover any flaws, a costly mistake. Our assumption would be correct if we’re talking about a dark paint, but stain is an entirely different thing.
If you’re planning on this project, I’d highly recommend that you do this in summer and not in cold months when your heater is running. It’s an extremely dusty project and you don’t want to have dusts getting into your heating duck. Stain and polyurethane also need lots of ventilation. I had every windows in the house open for days.
I just made this stain mistake refinishing some window sills. I wanted a bit of stain and you’d think golden oak would be light, yes? Uh, on the 90 year old wood, it just made it really dark after sanding. However not too far off from the rest of the trim, so will live with it. Yes, the dark did accent flaws in the wood as well, but I think any stain might have in this case.
TiggerDad, the floors are gorgeous.
Kudos @TiggerDad!
Thank you, @great_lakes_mom and @BunsenBurner ~~
Looks very very professional—congrats @tiggerdad!
Thank you, @Hilmom ~~
Finished this project just in time for my wife’s return from her 3-month overseas trip. I don’t know about the project being “professional,” but she liked it. 
“Golden Oak” is anything but golden and light. That was my first choice, but I changed my mind upon opening the can and staring at the dark color. My second choice was even worse by intentionally choosing a darker color, “Traditional Cherry,” which made whatever the flaws in the wood magnified by 10x. That mistake cost me $80 in machine rental once again, time and energy, but earned me a great lesson.
Another lesson I learned about staining is to apply with thinnest possible amount as long as it’s evenly coated. I found that using a rag is better than a brush to accomplish this. A costly mistake when coating (and this applies to polyurethane, as well) is never to use a swirling motion but strictly by the direction of the grain. Swirling is okay for initial action as long as it’s quickly followed by the action in the direction of the grain. Once everything dries, and by then too late, if there were any swirling motions taken, it will show clearly and loudly.
