We recently moved into our house, which was built in 1974. The vinyl sheet floor in the kitchen looks to be original. The flooring seems to be lifting up along a rectangular pattern, with lines making 4 foot squares (approximately). Any thoughts about what might be causing this? The floor is pretty ugly, so we were thinking of replacing it anyway...maybe this will be the straw that tips us into doing that project.
Thanks!
We recently moved into our house, which was built in 1974. The vinyl sheet floor in the kitchen looks to be original. The flooring seems to be lifting up along a rectangular pattern, with lines making 4 foot squares (approximately). Any thoughts about what might be causing this? The floor is pretty ugly, so we were thinking of replacing it anyway...maybe this will be the straw that tips us into doing that project.
Thanks!
It is just very old and the adhesive has failed. It sounds like a complete replacement is in your future. You can either: 1. tear off all of the crappy material and scrape off the glue or 2. leave the material in place and screw 1/4" plywood over it and into the floot joists, they call it Luan if I recall.
I favor covering with plywood. This is less work than tearing off and scraping down. It also give a surface which can be more easily removed for future upgrages. Sheet vinyl is the typical replacement in your situation but many flooring options are available.
We would need to know whether this is a concrete slab house, a basement, or a crawl space.
It sounds like some type of underlayment was used. Plywood sheets are 4'x8'. Underlayment would usually indicate that the floor had been retiled. There is a chance that the original flooring was laid over 1 1/8" decking and the joints are telegraphing, but would not explain a 4x4 pattern.
The sky is probably not falling, but age is showing.
This floor is in the kitchen on the top floor of a raised ranch with living space (bedroom & bathroom) underneath.
Does that change your thoughts?
Thanks again!!
1974, and 4-foot squares? I bet it is put down over particle board underlayment over plywood subfloor. (4-foot squares because particle board is damn heavy, and cutting the sheets in half was a common trick to make manuvering in tight quarters easier.) Is there a floor heat register or carpet transition strip or door threshold you can pull up and take a peek?
Flooring store will probably recommend joint leveling compound and/or luan plywood layer, to avoid future telegraphing. If raised floor level isn't a problem, that is a workable solution. Ideal solution is pull up the existing floor down to bare plywood, but that will be expensive if the base cabinets were put in after the underlayment and/or vinyl, as was common back then. If you overlay, be very careful around diswasher, expecially if you go for a fancy thick floor, like ceramic. Real easy to trap those suckers in there. Best to pull the dishwasher out and run the new floor under it, if there is enough space under the countertop, and enough travel on the adjustable legs. Make sure to seal the back and side edges of the dishwasher cubbyhole. When the dishwasher leaks (and many do, at end of life), a waterproof floor with no low spots will make the leak visible, with no path to put water under the top layer of the floor, which leads to rot and stink. (BTDT, not fun or cheap to fix.)
aem sends...
A lot of underlay comes in 4 x 4 sheets. Sounds like it is starting to curl, swell or come loose. In the early 70's they often used particle board, hardboard and/or other plywoods. Caution in replacing it with Luan plywoods, some brands will not warranty vinyl installed over it, apparently the pigment in the wood can cause stains to bleed through the vinyl.
You need to be concerned about asbestos when pulling up that floor.
You need to worry about moisture. Moisture causes swelling of the subfloor.
Spend the extra time and money to put in a completely new subfloor before you tile. During the process, look for water leaks.
4x plywood or particleboard subfloor coming loose?
may have been a heat or cold air duct at that location at one time.
we have a similiar problem where we added a doorway that had a duct in the wall. it caused loor troubles.
gravity furnaces often had ducts in many rooms in the floor
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