Help me with my floors!

[littleaugustbaby]

I can't get my kitchen floors clean! We live in an apartment, and our kitchen floor is this industrial looking vinyl tile. No matter how often I mop it, it looks dirty, and when it dries, it feels kind of dirty and gritty. I've tried vinegar/hot water and commercial cleaners and I just can't get it right. Also, when I use vinegar, it looks really streaky when it dries.

Anyone have any suggestions? Maybe I'm using the wrong ratio (1/2c. vinegar to 1 gal water). Help!

[melissa17s]

We had that in our kitchen before and our tiles were black and purple. It was awful because they were crumbling from wear. If we worn white socks, they would turn black.

Ask your landlord to seal them. There is a special seal that needs to be done every year or so to maintain them. Sometimes, I think the ones I have seen public places may have been waxed because they are so slippery and shiney... but I do not know for sure.

[bendmom]

I agree w/ the PP. Ask your landlord to have them prof. cleaned and then sealed. I know that there have been floors that we have cleaned that the seal has worn down and the dirt went into the pores. same happens with fiberglass showers when you scrub them for so long you take off the top layer and the dirt settles in the pores. Although with your floor it could be just as expensive as replacing it.

[littleaugustbaby]

I wish they'd just replace it. It's just gross. And it's starting to separate, so a lot of dirt is getting wedged in between the tiles, yuck! I scrubbed it on my hands and knees with a toothbrush today and it was a little better, but I can't do that kind of maintenance on a regular basis with a toddler running around! Thanks for the tip, I'm going to call the rental office tomorrow to see what they say.

[RiverSky]

A rental house that we lived in once had horrible, ucky yucky orange shag carpet. Underneath were hardwood floors. We offered to remove the shag carpet for free, and buff it all up and the landlord accepted. Then later, when we were completely sick of the brown aging vinyl in the kitchen, we offered to install vinyl tiles overtop, charging the cost of the tiles to the landlord but doing the labor ourselves and she agreed. It's pretty easy to do with self-adhesive vinyl tiles, just slap them overtop, cut them around corners and to fit, etc. If you look around, hardware stores, flooring stores, you might well be able to get a decent neutral color for a really cheap price in a quantity just large enough for your job.

Come back and tell us what you decided to do.

[littleaugustbaby]

I might look into the self-adhesive tiles. It's an apartment complex, so I'd be pretty surprised if they actually did anything. I meant to call them today, and I completely forgot.

It's pretty surprising, because the apartment itself is really nice, and even the bathrooms have nice (and I'm assuming new) floors, so I'm not sure why they skipped the kitchen floors.

[bendmom]

The self adhesive lanolium tiles are pretty cool. We refurbished a VW camper and debated putting in Pergo flooring. We ended up using the large self adhesive tiles that looked like bamboo hardwood floors. We got compliments all the time on it. The only prob is that some of the edges came up over time and we had to reglue. But they were worth it. I think they were about 80 cents per sq ft on sale at Home Depot.

[littleaugustbaby]

Are the self-adhesive tiles easy to remove? Because if we go that route, we'll have to remove them when we move out.

[RiverSky]

Originally Posted by littleaugustbaby

Are the self-adhesive tiles easy to remove? Because if we go that route, we'll have to remove them when we move out.

Why would you have to remove them when you move out? Wouldn't the landlord or management company prefer nice newer tiles to the old crappy damaged filthy linoleum? I've never tried to remove them but I suspect they wouldn't remove very easily. Glue would be left and you might damage the underlying linoleum in the process. I'd suggest that you get permission (written) to install the vinyl or linoleum tiles overtop the current flooring. Take before and after photos as well and keep them in your rental file. Just an idea.

[hippiemom]

Something I used on an old brown rental kitchen floor was old fashioned floor wax. I cleaned, I mean CLEANED it as best I could on my hands and knees, rinsed, let it dry, and then mopped on a layer of floor wax. It really helped, made the floor shiny and easier to clean. I repeated this every other month or so and it made it more liveable when replacement was not an option.

[RiverSky]

That reminds me of something else I did once. We live in a rental with white linoleum in the bathroom and it was dark and marked and uncleanable no matter how much I scrubbed and cleaned and no matter what products I bought...until I tried some floor stripper that I bought in a huge jug at Home Depot. Well, that stuff just melted everything that was on top of the lineoleum which simply had to be mopped up and disposed of. Once I let it sit too long and the stuff dried again onto the floor. I would actually suggest putting it on, following the directions carefully, then using disposable rags or papertowels to wipe up all the residue and cleaner.

I forgot about that...

[momto l&a]

Sometimes a floor needs to be stripped of all the wax and crud build up. Its amazing how nice a floor can look when stripped. Remember if stripped it needs to be sealed again.

All of the above you can do yourself.

[klondikesky]

We used to live in an older apt. building (circa 1920) that had that cussed linoleum. It was dull, pitted, loose, and nasty. I contacted the manager of the leasing company (the boss of our useless building manager) and requested the flooring be removed and the hardwoods underneath refinished. He came and inspected the floors, approved the project, and had their 'usual' flooring contractor come a couple of weeks later. I think he was grateful to have a tenant willing to live with the remodeling mess. Saved his trying to squeeze it in between tenants (a hot market). Of course, they then raised our rent the next year... But I loved the maple floors while we had them.

[momto l&a]

Should have added to my other post.

Be careful with tiles that are about 9" square as they are old and have asbetous (sp?) in them.

[littleaugustbaby]

Originally Posted by momto l&a

Should have added to my other post.

Be careful with tiles that are about 9" square as they are old and have asbetous (sp?) in them.

How old, though? This place was built in 1997, so the tile isn't any older than that. Hadn't they phased out asbestos by then, or no?

[melissa17s]

No asbestos in vinyl from 1997. Asbestos was not used in all vinyl tiles, but in older buildings it is good to get a sample tested before removing.
Vinyl is not linoleum- just to clarify from some earlier posts.
You can remove vinyl with a heat gun; they have instructions on how to use on the packaging. They heat makes the vinyl soft and melts the glue enough to remove. Before you purchase the peal and stick, find out about how easy they are to remove. Also, if you used a similar style to the original tile in your kitchen, would the landlord even know you replaced them?

[littleaugustbaby]

They replaced the flooring in the bathrooms right before we moved in, and it's a nice looking linoleum (well, as nice looking as linoleum gets ) I've thought about checking Home Depot and Lowes for the stuff that they used in the bathroom, because I'm thinking that if I put that down in the kitchen, they would think that they just changed out the kitchen flooring when they changed out the bathroom flooring.