We decided we needed to remove the carpet from the master bathroom because it was growing mildew. Why anyone puts carpet in their bathroom is beyond me (and beyond the scope of this article). We are planning on changing the layout of the bathrooms so this is just a temporary floor. It only cost $30 for the squares, so I think it is worth it.
This is the first step in the prep for us to meet Jennifer's requirement that we be moved from the downstairs bedroom where we are staying to the master bedroom by March, when the baby is due.
Here's how it went:
8:00 Mandy was asleep, Gwen was reading books to William, DJ was playing with Adam (the back-yard neighbor), Jen & I left for Home Depot for the project, leaving Elyssa with the children.
Jen knew about sticky back linoleum squares from her mom, who used them to redo their bathroom in Spokane. They have sticky backs, and can be cut with a knife or scissors. Jen wanted to buy a pattern with lines and a flower in the middle, but I convinced her we should get a marble looking pattern. This turned out well in my opinion, especially given the fact that I had to do some patching of missed spots. More on that later.
9:00 We were back with the materials, pictured below. We also bought: a knife & a threshold.
I neglected to take a before picture. Sorry! Use your imagination. You can see the carpet color & pattern in the picture below.
By 9:15 I had removed the carpet & the pad. Unfortunately, there were a lot of staples plus the carpet tacs to remove. These had to all be removed in order to obtain a flat surface to stick the sticky-back squares of linoleum down.
I used pliers, a pry bar, a claw hammer, and a screwdriver. By 9:45 I had removed some staples, and started the carpet tacs. It was not easy work because I had to either kneel or squat. I don't have any knee pads, but they sound like a good investment about now.
Below is a picture of the slightly water damaged floor near the shower. The carpet tacs pictured were badly water damaged and fell apart. I didn't need the pry bar for these.
Below is a picture of damage to the wall near the shower. The moulding appears to have been set in place, not attached, since it came right off and had no nails in it.
I had to use the pry bar to get under the sink area and near the toilet in order to lift the carpet tacs. After using my claw hammer to tap the pry bar under them for a while, I decided to try to find a rubber hammer. By this time is was 10:45. I could not find a rubber hammer, but I found I could place my knee between the hammer and pry bar and this would prevent my getting a metal shard in my eye. Yep, that's another tool I need: a rubber hammer.
11:00 The fasteners were all gone now except for around the toilet area. I needed a short break...had been kneeling/squatting too long. A quick check of the solar activity report revealed no sunspot seen today (Thursday in most of the world). That's 31 straight days and counting. Another week of this and we'll hit a top 20 for the longest spotless streak (since 1849). (At publication on Mon. the 25th, we are now up to 35 days, tying for the 21st longest streak of spotless days since 1849.)
http://www.dxlc.com/solar/index.html
http://users.telenet.be/j.janssens/Spotless/Spotless.html
I got back to work and had all the carpet tacs and staples removed by 11:58. Whew. Then I sanded what appeared to be drywall joint compound on the floor around the toilet area. It was quite bumpy and would have prevented the squares from seating properly. Then I swept and vacuumed the floor, pictured below.
I started by placing a square tight against the wall on the left in the pictures and against the shower. I proceeded down the wall, requiring me to cut out portions of two of the squares so that the vent was not covered. After I had a part of the wall done, I started the next row.
I proceeded with most of two rows, then did the toilet area. This required me to cut out part of the squares using scissors. I'm not really good at matching the shape, but since it's just a temporary floor, I'm not too concerned. In a couple of spots, I cut off too much and had to use a scrap piece to fill in the area where the sub floor was showing. This is where the handy marble pattern came in to play, because it doesn't show the mistakes unless you look hard. The flower pattern would not have been so forgiving.
After finishing the toilet area, I proceeded to finish the remaining portion that required only straight cuts. It took a while to finish, and Jen woke up and came upstairs to see the progress. I finished at 2:50. I say "finished", but it's not actually done. I haven't yet installed the threshold.
The moulding is now an inch or two off the floor and doesn't look right. Another problem that remains is the hole in the wall that appears to be caused by water damage. However, the floor is now in and usable.
Here are all the tools I used for the project. The level was used as a straight edge for cutting the linoleum.
Today Jen told me she wants to just get a new toilet and cabinet/sink. That way we don't have to redo two bathrooms before March. We definitely have to remove this old carpet from the master bedroom area. It is worn out. We have some decisions to make.
Doesn't the new floor look great?
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