It happens every time we complete a project, especially when it’s a large one – I start to get restless. Whatever it is that we’ve completed looks great, but it just makes everything else look worse than before.
We absolutely love our new kitchen & dining room, the space we now have is amazing, but our new look room really shows up some areas that are in desperate need of attention – and we’re not just talking about all of the little jobs that still need finishing off.
One of the worst areas has got to be the awful laminate flooring. We already ripped up all laminate in the rest of the house, but until now had completely ignored the floor in the kitchen – although it’s the worst of them all!
No amount of cleaning and patching could hide the mess. It’s badly laid, scratched, marked and must have soaked through at some point, as the top layer is peeling away and all puffy.
Removing the laminate and underlay was such a quick thing that I hardly had time to take a picture while Jan was whizzing around the kitchen.
Having removed the dodgy flooring, you can actually see a load of white areas where water must have seeped through and soaked the wooden floorboards beneath.
It’s really too disgusting for words! At some point in the past, there must have been some sort of linoleum glued to the floorboards, as there are still areas of patchy glue.
Having recently sanded most of our floors, the last thing we feel like doing is hiring a sander again, but at the moment it looks like that’s the most likely solution. We can hardly leave it looking like this for long!
Although we have a few concerns about having a wooden floor in the kitchen, we’re really only thinking of it as a temporary solution. After all, I really WANT a new kitchen (if we ever have the budget to do it), which means that we will have to sort out the floor again then anyway.
Do you have a wooden floor in the kitchen? If so, how does it hold up? Do you have any maintenance tips for us?
Ugly laminate be gone! *L* I like the wide planks of your original floors so much better, and I bet they will refinish beautifully! We have our original hardwood floors in our kitchen – when we bought our house, there was nasty, filthy, wavy linoleum in the kitchen. We pulled it all up, needed to replace a few boards due to termite damage and then sanded, stained and sealed them (satin poly) to match the rest of the downstairs. They are gorgeous and clean up nicely, so I’m definitely in camp ‘keep original hardwood floors in your kitchen.’
Yay, that’s made me feel much better about having a wooden floor in the kitchen, thanks! The other floorboards in our house turned out really well, so fingers crossed that these ones look good after a sand, too.
Cx
Oh my God, I know exactly what you mean about everything else looking just a little worse after finishing a project, haha! I like your wide-plank floors, but I’d be worried about some of the bigger gaps between the planks…what happens if you spill milk on the floor? Can it be cleaned?
-Sarah
That’s exactly what I am worrying about! We have a cellar beneath, so theoretically we could access beneath the floorboards, but it would be a complete pain. Long term we’re definitely looking for something more durable and low maintenance. I think we’d better start being more careful in the kitchen!
Cx
Everyone on blogland advised me to have wooden floor in the kitchen, but I chose tiles and as I’m really clumsy when I cook (or when I do anything for that matter), it was a wise choice for me! But it was a choice I made because there was no original floor in my house.
Yep, I think we’re going to have to start being really careful. We’re really not the neatest and cleanest of people when cooking! ;-) long term, I think tiles would be an ideal solution for us, too.
Cx
We have the original wood floors, after pulling up vinyl adhesive tiles (that was fun). If you seal them well and close up any substantial cracks, there really isn’t an issue unless you have a flood or something. Our biggest thing is that the kitchen gets the most traffic in the house (the main door we use for the house is there, besides it being where we keep the ice cream) and the finish is getting really worn. But water hasn’t been a problem.
Thanks Stacey! Feel a lot more relaxed about the floor now. It’s still not ideal, but I’m sure they’ll hold up until we sort our kitchen properly.
Cx
It is a tricky question, depending on how quick a fix you are looking for and for how long it is going to be temporary. The glue patches make it just a bit to messy just to clean up and paint. If you are certain that you are not looking for a longterm relationship with wood in the kitchen I would scrape off as much as I could and then paint black and white squares to match the industrial look of the beam. Here in sweden pine floor is the most common feature and the answer to kitchen spillage is trasmatta! imagegoogle trasmatta sommarhus and you will see some traditional interiors =)
Well, you know what these temporary things tend to turn out like…fingers crossed it will be very temporary! We have a plan for the floor – it’s really all not ideal, but it’ll just have to do for now.
We should have probably mentioned that the beam will be covered up at some point soon. There are still a few building regulation things to sort first.
Cx