Hey Joe. I love your signature. I truly do. That is so true its almost scary. I may have to steal that some time. I read it, read it again and thought son of a gun. That's life.

Hi all. So I'm in kitchen hell. Literally. Around 9 years ago we put laminate flooring in the kitchen over top of vinyl flooring. The vinyl was white with light gray diamonds on it (tiny diamonds), and it was discoloring. We have 2 huge windows in the kitchen, and the sun did it's thing. So we got laminate, covered it, and it looked great.

Well, recently we've been having issues with the dishwasher, and before that our fridge broke and flooded the kitchen. So the laminate was looking very rough. So Rod decided to rip up the laminate, clean the vinyl underneath, which we had hoped would be good enough until we can find something new, and until we can afford to get it.

Well, the vinyl is just as bad (worse) than I remember. Now, on top of the discoloring, we have mold from all the flooding, which we didn't even know was there. I'm a bit OCD, and the fact that we've been living with this mold for Dog knows how long, it's making me fidgety.

I'm cleaning the floors today. I'm going old school, on my hands and knees, bleach, a scrub brush, and then after that, a good floor cleaner. Right now the kitchen reeks! I can't even go in there without wanting to vomit.

So my question. Does anyone have any recommendations? Is bleach enough? Have I made things worse by ripping out the laminate and exposing the mold? Should I wear a mask while I'm cleaning this, or am I safe? Also, where can I get cheap flooring? We're thinking vinyl, because we've decided that a floating laminate floor is a bad idea in the kitchen.

Any suggestions?

I'm going to start a thread about this, but for now I wanted to ask my friends.

This is really driving me nuts. We can't leave it the way it is, even when it's clean. It's just hideous. :(

What's the base Alty , concrete? Timber?

Mostly its going to depend on where the mold really is. If it is located on top of the flooring or where. If it saturated through it may also be underneath the flooring. If that is the case then everything should be ripped out and replaced. Some mold can be absolutely dangerous. It can be toxic. Be very careful.

Plywood.

Vinyl flooring is linoleum. One sheet, glued to the plywood. If we recover it with new vinyl then we'd probably have to put down another layer of plywood. I don't think we can put new lino over old. :(

Better safe than sorry, I would wear the mask.
Got to do mine this summer, and I am dreading it. After this I may rethink and hire someone to do it for me.

Thanks Dad.

I don't think it saturated under the lino. So far it looks like it's just surface mold, but I really can't be sure without pulling up the lino, which is something I really don't want to do right now. If I did that we'd be left with plywood in the kitchen. And if the plywood is also moldy, we're screwed. We can't afford to replace both right now. Even though I'm pretty sure that's what we're in for.

This is a nightmare! I almost wish I had never agreed to pull up the laminate. Out of site, means I don't have to stress about it. But then, knowing the mold is there is a good thing, even though it's making me a bit crazy. Ok... crazy... er! ;)

If only we could afford that.

If we could then I'd be out hiring someone right now.

We're on a tight budget. The laminate needed to be pulled up, which is why we did it, but we were really hoping that we could at least live with the old vinyl for a few months, when we can afford to replace it.

But seeing the state it's in, the mold, which is only one of the issues, and knowing that it may not just be on the vinyl layer, but the plywood underneath as well?

Just shoot me.

We opened up a huge can of worms here. I wish I were still oblivious to it all. :(

Yep as Cdad says depends on the severity of the Mould , I'd be ripping all the old Vinyl up and hopefully be able to clean the mould in the plywood by sanding and sealing it.

I'd go down to the wood and scrub off t he mold with bleach (while wearing a mask and gloves). We retiled our kitchen floor with 12x12 self-adhesive squares from Home Depot, something like this: Armstrong Flooring - Crandon - Brown Multi. You'd have to put in something over the wood (the guys here will tell you what). The tiles haven't separated at the edges or bulged up or been any kind of problem so far.

Ouch. That's way more work than I had hoped for.

Plywood isn't too pricey, so I think we'll be ripping that up and replacing it, rather than trying to salvage it.

I also have to mention, we have a leak issue in the basement. I don't know what's leaking. Rod thinks it's the bathroom, but it's leaking into the laundry room, which is below the bathroom, and into the downstairs family room, which is below the kitchen. We have water stains on the ceiling, and there are times when I'm sitting her at my computer, right beside the water stains, where I can actually see the water dripping from the ceiling.

Maybe I should call a reality TV show. Mike Holmes? Anyone? This is a nightmare.

Worse, we want to sell this house and buy an acreage in the next year or so. As is, there's no way I can sell it. But, I also don't want to pour a lot of money into it since we plan on moving. I just want to make it right. Fix what needs to be fixed, but at this point I see a huge reno job that will cost us more than we can budget for, and frankly, if we have to spend that kind of money, we may be forced to stay here. :(

Not that it's not a nice house. It is. It's just too small for our family. We need more room, and we're tired of living in the burbs. We would like some land.

But right now, it's a fixer upper, even though we had it built new when we bought it.

Adhesive tiles were something I thought about, just for the time being, but they're not a permanent solution, especially if we want to sell in a year or two.

We have real tile. We have tons of it. In fact, we could re-tile our entire house 3 times if we wanted to. We helped demo a tile store a few years ago, and got to keep all the tile we took down. There was a lot, all in tact. We got slate, and many other nice tiles.

The thing is, I'm not really sure about tile in the kitchen. Yes, many people like it, but to me it's cold, too easily cracked, and a bugger to clean.

Still, we do have the tile. One of the tiles is gorgeous. Tan and brown marble. The long tile, and gorgeous. Rod does tile very well, but we'd still have to put new plywood down, and if we were considering tile, I'd probably look into a heated floor. So, more $$$$. :(

Heated floor in the kitchen?? I'd go with the bedroom, bathroom, and driveway first.

LOL! Not going to happen. Besides, we have laminate in the bedroom. Yes, we do have tile in the bathroom, which we're planning on redoing before we sell, but it's a small area, and let's face it, how much time do you actually spend in the bathroom?

The kitchen is the heart of the home. If I'm going to invest in heated flooring anywhere, especially if we decide to lay tile, then it will be in the kitchen.

How big is your kitchen--and with an eating area?

Our kitchen is pretty big. It's around 400 sq feet. Big eating area, huge cooking area, tons of counter space. It's actually a very nice kitchen, despite the flooring. ;)

*knocks quietly* hello? ;) after stumbling around the site trying to remember where things are/how things work/ who people are, I have finally arrived here. Good morning, good afternoon or good night to you all!

Bow wow wow yippy yo yippe yay.

Herrow. I didn't forget about you guys.

Mudweiser!! As I live and breathe! You're alive! Where you been??

:) I've been busy with school, self improvement (personal growth you know!), counseling, back with Rachel's father (things have been going awesome-- clearly some things here and there need to be improved but that's what therapy is for), umm working... that is pretty much it!

I just finished my placement and now I'm job hunting-- eesh it's tough out there!

But things are settling back down now that I'm not here there everywhere. I got a pup, I'm glad I waited, and I knew where to come for advice ;-)

How have you been? Anything new happening around these parts?