LESLIE: Jill in Virginia listens to The Money Pit on WSVA and you’ve got a question about flooring. How can we help?
JILL: Yes, there was a leak in my bathroom and I pulled up the old linoleum. And, in doing so, I found that part of the floor was hardwood, part of it was particle board. Now there’s a place where the particle board has just kind of chipped apart and some of the old tile adhesive is still on the floor. I need to know how do I get rid of the old tile adhesive and what’s best to patch that area of particle board that’s all flaked away.
LESLIE: What are you looking to put on top of this?
JILL: Probably the peel and stick tiles, like you get at the … Lowe’s, Home Depot, that type of place.
TOM: Oh, the peel and stick?
JILL: Yeah.
TOM: This is for a … this is for a bathroom?
JILL: Yes.
TOM: You know, a peel and stick tile is probably not the best solution for this. It’s not going to stay.
JILL: Okay.
TOM: Yeah, I would recommend you think about either using sheet vinyl or laminate floor.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: And if you use laminate floor, you can basically … you’re going to need to scrape out as much of that …
LESLIE: Adhesive.
TOM: … glue as you can. But you don’t have to be pretty about it. I mean as long as the floor is somewhat flat. And in terms of the area that’s deteriorated, you can fill that with a floor patch compound just to get it relatively flat. But the laminate floor, when it locks together, is pretty thick and pretty sturdy. So it can actually go over a slightly uneven area. And there’s even an underlayment that you can put under that laminate floor that will take some of the deflection. And that will give you a really good looking floor and a really strong floor.
LESLIE: Well, another option, also, is – new from Armstrong – is their luxury resilient vinyl flooring. And it comes in like a slate; it comes in a mini-tile; it comes in a – looks like wood. And it’s really inexpensive; it’s like $2.50 per square foot. That’s uninstalled but you can get something that looks really fantastic, is super inexpensive and would be great for a bathroom. And that already has an underlayment on the backside so you don’t really have to worry about that either.
TOM: Is that put together … is that put down with a mastic, Leslie?
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, it is. It’s put down with a mastic. It has to be done by a professional just because it’s a sheet product and it can be unwieldy. But it really is a great looking product.
TOM: So there’s a couple of options for you there, okay, Jill?
JILL: Alright. Thank you.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at The Money Pit.
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