Flooring Follow up

It's been just over a year since I wrote my Feb 28, 2020 post "New flooring in the Works."

So, you may be wondering, did we do it? Did we get new flooring? 

Yes, partly. In September 2020 we put vinyl plank flooring in the kitchen. 

I wanted to try it in the kitchen first to see if I liked it well enough to use it in the living room and hallway too. I'm glad we did, because I don't. 

I chose a medium brown wood grain vinyl plank that nearly matches the brown carpet in the living room and hallway. I hoped that having a continuous brown color through the kitchen-living room-hallway loop would look more harmonious than the old white tile in the kitchen did next to the brown carpet of the hallway and living room. It gave things a chopped up appearance. 

Here is a before photo. The funny little blocks of wood under the table and table legs are because these chairs are too tall for me, especially with this table. I got a pain in my neck until we lifted it up. We later got a shorter chair for me. (I have short legs and a tall torso) 

Another factor in the color choice was how it would look with the kitchen cabinets. And with the living room furniture and the hearth in case we put it in there later. The kitchen cabinets are warm white but most of the wooden furniture in our living room is dark brown. I wanted the flooring to provide contrast with those. And look compatible with the brown brick hearth. The upholstered items in the living room are light (white couch and beige love seat and recliners). So medium brown contrasted with everything.

We got lots of samples. We even bought a full box of a couple that seemed promising. The supplier for the one we ended up using didn't seem open to that idea and we didn't push for it for some reason. I wish now we had. But anyway...

We looked at almost enough samples to cover the floor with!

The three top choices. The bottom one is the one we ended up using. It's  called: TOUCHDOWN SPC CLIC W/PAD 7X48 MEREDITH, Natural Tones is the color name. The manufacturer is Southwind. We bought it from Ideal Floors--a local company.

We installed it ourselves. Installing it was not as easy as YouTube videos make it seem, however. Not at first anyway. I went from thinking, "We can do this!" to thinking, "This was a mistake!! We need a professional!" Maybe it was harder because we went with a cheaper brand of plank. But it was definitely harder than everyone says it is to learn to fit the planks together so that the ends and sides both lock together at once and lay flat. We weren't just being perfectionistic. If you don't get it right then it won't work and you have to undo it back to the plank that isn't right and redo it until it fits.

It was a good workout. By that I mean for the first few days my legs were so sore I could barely move. It's a good thing we mainly worked on it in the evenings when my husband was off work. Thankfully after several days, all that squatting down and getting up again started to feel almost easy. Maybe we aren't too old to do the the living room and hallway ourselves after all.

It was a patience and communication work out too! --"What are you doing??!!" "No, not like that!" "That's not what I said!" "That's not what I meant!" "Why'd you do it like that??!" "Let me try!!" Thankfully we eventually progressed to, "Yes, that's the way." "Yay. It worked" and, "Good job!"

In case you are wondering, the stack of planks on the right appears to be one of the sample boxes of another plank we considered. 

At about this point we discovered that the floor wasn't level enough. 

That added several more days to the job. 

John ordered a laser leveling device* to help figure out how bad it was and where it needed to be filled in. Sorry I don't have a photo of him using it. He also used this piece of base board, post-it notes and a "sharpy" to mark the low places

He used Simpleprep pre-mixed floor patch material to fill in the low places

The whisk broom was in nearly constant use. The planks tend to shed flakes whenever they are cut. And they would not fit together if those or other particles of dust or dirt got in the grooves where they lock together. (A hand held vac might have worked better but we didn't have one.)

Moving the fridge and stove was a little tricky. We rolled the stove onto a large sheet of cardboard when we needed to move it across the vinyl planking. I don't remember if we did the same for the fridge.

Done at last! I put an old white vinyl table cover over the table because the wood grain top of the table was too much wood grain in combination with the floor and all the other wood grain counter tops.

Current photo. With a new table cloth to cover the woodgrain table top and a shorter chair for me--it is second (third, fourth?) hand and needs new paint and a new seat cover. 

So how do I like it?

Not very well, I'm sorry to say. 

When we first started installing it I really liked the color. But now I don't. I still don't know for sure what I would like. But I don't think this is it. Maybe I will eventually get used to it. But we've had it several months and I haven't yet. (Though, oddly enough, as I have been working on this article I am starting to feel a little less negative about it.)

I don't like the rough grooved texture or the dull finish or the light/medium brown color or the streaky fake wood pattern. That's a lot not to like. Sorry to be so negative. 

It hides the dirt too well. You might think that would be a plus. But I don't. I can't tell when it needs to be cleaned or when I have cleaned it enough. When I do spot some dirt the texture sometimes makes it hard to clean off. It is supposed to be water "proof" but I am afraid to use a lot of water on it. (Maybe if I cleaned it more often the dirt would come off easier and I would learn which streaks are meant to be there!?)  

The old floor was so badly damaged and worn that I couldn't tell the difference after I cleaned it. It looked dirty all the time. That was another reason why I wanted to replace it. The new floor is not damaged and worn like the old floor was, but I still can't tell much difference after I clean it. There is little sense of accomplishment. It just looks and feels dull and dirty all the time. I guess in my mind kitchen floors should be shiny and clean looking.

It also doesn't look good next to the carpet in the hallway and living room. The carpet is worn and stained and the finishes are different. Also there is a gold metal strip between the carpet and vinyl planking that is distracting. My husband sort of obscured some of it with the brown colored caulking he used to seal around the perimeter of the new plank flooring but it still doesn't look right. Of course these issues would partly go away if and when we get new carpet. Or if we extend the vinyl planking into the halls and living room. 

So I am glad we only did the kitchen. And since we did it ourselves it was much cheaper. We also used a plank that was much less expensive so we are only out about $470 for the whole thing. Which is not trivial but much less than it might have been. And since it is a floating floor it will be easier to remove if we decide to change it. At least physically easy. I'm sure my husband will not feel good about it so I will feel badly for his sake if nothing else. 

*Laser Level, RockSeed 50 Feet Cross Line Laser with Self-Leveling, Vertical and Horizontal Line