Reflooring my Apartment

Old Floor

The floor in my apartment was starting to show lots of wear. It had lots of scratches and holes in it that showed through to the older 1960s linoleum. After much complaining, the landlord finally decided to give in and replace the floor. I wish he would have done it much sooner because the new floor looks amazing. It is a bit unfortunate that I will probably only spend another four or five months here.

Out with the Old

Here we remove the old vinyl flooring. It was a breeze really. It just took a bit of a tug here and there and it came up mostly in one piece. Although, we had to tear it up to get it out the door.

Some Underlying Retro Linoleum

Here you can see the old 1960s style linoleum with a retro pattern. I must say that I am huge fan of linoleum flooring especially the retro type. I was amazed to find out that linoleum is much more sustainable than the vinyl stuff and even compostable to a certain degree! If I was reflooring my own house, I would have chosen that instead... maybe someday.

Putting Down the First of the New Vinyl Flooring

Here we place the first few runs of the new flooring. It is a modular tile type that is easily replaceable in sections. It goes down quickly and required little effort until we had to move the stove and refrigerator to do those sections. What took the most time was trimming individual pieces to fit along the edges.

Working Outward

Here I try my hand at laying down the new floor. It was really easy and sort of fun... I only wish we would have had some music, but my landlord and I discussed politics instead.

Almost Done!

Here you can see that we saved the rough part for last... cutting the individual panels to fill in the awkward gaps at the perimeter. It took some time to cut these custom pieces because each tile had to be a different size. Since this is an older house everything wasn't very even which added to the complications.

Just Finishing Up the Floor

We just finished up everything aside from moving all of the furniture back into place and putting the baseboards down. I think the landlord will be doing that next weekend.

After Moving in the Furniture

This morning I moved all of the furniture back in the room and took the extra time to declutter my apartment. (I like using tips from a certain blog, Unclutterer.com to help get ideas on how to simplify and declutter my life. I must say it is always going to be a work in progress.) I carefully selected some things to put in a summer yard sale later this year and started organizing some of the kitchen differently. The new tile makes the room brighter and am enjoying it thus far.