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The Horrible Man Cave
(almost done) |
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The final stage of this room was
the floors. The ugly vinyl "parquet look" tiles,
had to go. But what flooring option should I
choose? Carpeting was not an option with the dogs.
My main concern was possible
water flooding. Besides the washer, the water heater
is on this floor. A bursting water heater already
flooded these floors once. This floor is at
ground level and other than the cement slab it sits
on, it is not much higher than the backyard.
There is very little rain in El Paso but
occasionally it does rain often and hard enough
during the summer monsoon that the ground become saturated.
When this happens the rain water in our backyard
rises above the cement sidewalk bordering the yard
and the house.
Which means water may leak inside.
So laminate was not an option
because of the water issues. Ceramic tile would be
perfect but the original floor tiles would have to
be removed. I just did not have the strength for
that. Ceramic floor tile can also be expensive and
then there is the mastic and the grout....So the
only cheap option I had was good ole sticky back
vinyl tile squares.
I had to buy for not only this room but for the rest
of this floor since the old floor tiles went all the
way into the laundry and fourth bedroom. I needed to
get all the of tiles for the whole floor at the same
time so it would all match. |
| The tile I purchased
is currently (as of 9/13) listed at .88 cents a square
foot on the
Lowe's website. It is called
Terracotta Clay Slate Finish Vinyl Tile. It
went on easy and has stayed on for two
years. Very easy to clean. If not
vacuuming, a soft bristle broom sweeps it
easily. Not one dog scratch two years
later. And my dogs are brutal on flooring.
The floor looks as good as when I installed
it. |
Terracotta
Clay Slate |
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30 tiles in place. Moulding still needed for
along the floor and where the brick meets the wall. |
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It is recommended to start laying
tile in
the middle of the room because most rooms are not
perfectly square. Meaning doing what I did above
might lead to really crooked tiles when you get to
the other end. But in my case, if I had done that, I would have
had to make more cuts at the walls in this room.
Remember from my home page, my hands go numb often.
While cutting vinyl tile is easy compared to other
things, it was hard for me to do by hand. I
purchased a table saw later which cuts the tile like
butter but I did not have it when I did this job.
So with that said, I started
in the corner following the lines from the old tiles
which were straight and it worked out just fine. No
crooked lines of tile. I only had to cut tiles along
two walls instead of four.
The final stage was the floor moulding along the
wallpapered walls. A word about where I always buy
my moulding. I either get it at Lowe's or at
McCoy's,
a smaller chain store. Why? I can find
what I am looking for. The last time I tried
to find moulding at the Home Depot, they had very
little in stock and the section looked like a
hurricane had gone through it. |
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Completed room. Walls and
floors all done. This project took around five
months. I started in August 2011 and finished it
January 2012 while working a full time job. How much
did it all cost? I have no idea. I am
creating these web pages almost a couple of years
later and I have no idea where all of my receipts
are. I have them somewhere. If I had to gander
a guess, it would be under $1000 not counting my
labor. Wallpaper, vinyl floor tile, paint,
window blinds, mouldings, and the fire screen and
some supplies were all that were purchased.
I later made some
built
in shelves that sit on top of the
fireplace hearth and built a
closet
in the corner of the room by the entrance door. |
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Remember the room before? |
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Now for the stair
project... |
