LESLIE: Beth in Georgia is up next and she’s got a floor issue. What’s happening?
BETH: Well, my husband and I just moved into a new house and we have linoleum floors in the kitchen and we noticed a tear at a pretty high-traffic area and we’d like to figure out how to repair it that it’ll hold until we can decide what kind of new floors we want to get.
TOM: Yeah, you know, fixing tears in linoleum is tough. There are glues that are available at flooring stores for this but usually what happens is a little piece of linoleum sticks up higher than the piece next to it and then you catch it with your feet or with furniture and things like that. And if you cut it out, even if you have a perfect repair – and I’ve seen professional linoleum repairs where they’re absolutely letter-perfect but still, you end up having that seam that collects dirt in the seam. So I guess the question here is, Beth, is how long are you fixing to get by with this linoleum being torn?
BETH: I’d say at least six months. I don’t see us changing the floors in a new house in the first six months.
TOM: Is a throw rug an option?
BETH: Could be, yeah. I mean, we could put a throw rug. We do have a dog who’s pretty active and likes to slide around the floor; that’s kind of an issue.
TOM: Wow.
LESLIE: So he could easily cut his paw.
BETH: So is there some – are there some glues that could hold it down so that if we wanted to put a throw rug over it or something, that could hold that piece down?
TOM: Yeah, Beth, it’s called repair adhesive and it’s available at most hardware stores. The secret to making this work, though, is to first of all clean the surface as best you can, work the adhesive under the entire space and then weight it for about 24 hours as it’s drying so it really holds that seam as flat as absolutely possible. And then once it’s dry, if you want to add a throw rug over it just to keep the direct traffic off of it, with all of those things that you’re doing, you should be able to buy yourself that six months you need to get to putting that new floor down. OK?
LESLIE: And then get one of those anti-skid mats so that your dog doesn’t come flying in and skid across that rug.
BETH: Exactly. Well, thank you guys so much. I appreciate it. I love the show.
TOM: You’re welcome, Beth. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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