Don't make these common floor sanding mistakes! Find out exactly what you should be doing and how to sand your floors and floorboards!
As floors get older, gaps between the boards are a common occurrence. Learn how to fix gaps in hardwood floors to create a smoother finish.
If you're considering getting new floors to upgrade your home's look and increase its value, you should know what pitfalls to avoid. Learn more with 50Floor!
We supply bespoke timber floors in London & beyond. Learn more about our installation service, plank, wide-board flooring & parquet flooring inspiration.
Need some help picking out the best flooring options for your home? Here are the pros and cons of flooring types from laminate to hardwood and many more!
Just because you're not in love with your floor, doesn't mean you have to just live with it. Especially if the floor is still in great condition. Instead, you c…
Laminate flooring has grown in popularity over the past decade or so. Simulation of exotic woods and patterns combined with its cost-effectiveness makes it an option for some homeowners over hardwoods. Because of the ease of installation, laminate floors can be the DIY'ers flooring of choice. It also makes it a great choice to do a quick flooring makeover when preparing your home for sale. A new laminate floor installation can capture a buyer's attention. As a real estate agent, I see many DIY'ers install laminate floors in their home. Unfortunately, if you don't learn how to install laminate flooring properly,
ScreedBoard 28 is an award winning composite acousticoverlay treatment, featuring interlocking edges forinstallation convenience.
With wood floors, scratches, scuffs, and dents are inevitable. But don't fret any longer. We have 10 awesome wood floor hacks that will keep your floors looking brand new.
So, you have old, outdated tile and you've been drooling over new hardwood floors. Maybe you've even seen some tutorials on installin...
Is your hardwood floor damaged in spots? No need to refinish the entire floor. Here are two quick and easy ways to repair and restore it for good!
Learn how to make your flooring installation process as easy as possible, even with flooring problems. Contact 50Floor for flooring options and installation.
How to refinish hardwood floors - a basic tutorial from a couple who DIY refinished their 100 year old wood floors!
Is your hardwood floor damaged in spots? No need to refinish the entire floor. Here are two quick and easy ways to repair and restore it for good!
How to paint OSB floors - also a good tutorial for how to paint plywood floors and find links to other easy and cheap DIY flooring ideas.
How to refinish hardwood floors - a basic tutorial from a couple who DIY refinished their 100 year old wood floors!
How to easily fill gaps in wood floors with oakum. Using oakum to fill floor gaps is an historically authentic way to solve this problem.
Decorative Vinyl Chips for Epoxy Floors Vinyl Chips are a decorative high-performance broadcast. 1/4" (6mm) flakes of vinyl, blended into a variety of color blends. When broadcast onto a resin coat, typically an Epoxy such as TI Epoxy HP (sold here) and then top coated with a durable product like Aliphatic Urethane -sold here-, this type of floor will ensure excellent wear-ability characteristics with great stain and chemical resistance. They require minimal maintenance. Chips come in several color blends and can be used in a partial or full broadcast, or even combined with other broadcast media such as Quartz Sands for a unique look. Typical applications include: garages, showrooms, lobbies, locker rooms, retail stores, and similar institutions. Coverage Information: Sold in 25lb Boxes For full broadcast: 6-10 sq. ft./lb For partial broadcast: 25-200 sq. ft./lb Please Note: Coverage rates vary depending on customer preferences and application techniques. We cannot guarantee any coverage rate of broadcast media due to variables. To be safe, order a bit extra if unsure. General Instructions for Using Decorative Vinyl Chips: Using decorative vinyl flake is a multi-step process. Installers will vary the steps depending on the particular situation but in general are as follows. Step 1: This is the most critical step as with most decorative concrete projects. All substrates must be properly prepared. They must be clean and free from any contaminates that may inhibit the adhesion of the resins. Concrete must be cured for a minimum of 30 days and be free of any internal moisture. Slab should be profiled to a minimum CSP-2 to CSP-3 via shot blasting or grinding. All cracks and defects should be repaired and profiled to match the main surface. Have the room between 60 and 75 degrees if possible. Step 2: Apply a primer/base coat of 100% solids epoxy primer like Essential Primer. This can be clear or tinted. If the prepared floor is extremely porous or shows much surface defect, you should consider applying a pure primer coat before your initial broadcast coat. This will insure maximum adhesion to the prepared substrate. Priming will also help to seal air in the concrete to prevent outgassing in the finished surface. Mix separately both A and B parts of the resins material to ensure to separation has occurred. Make sure material has been brought to room temperature as well. For application, mix 2 parts A with 1 part B by volume with a low sped mixer for three minutes. Mix only an amount of material that can be spread in 30 minutes. Once mixed, immediately begin pouring the material onto the floor in long, usable ribbons. Do not let mixed material sit in the mixing container longer than 5 minutes or it may begin to gel and need to be thrown out. Spread the material with a notched squeegee (1/8 inch at most) until all is even and then backroll with a proper roller to remove any squeegee lines. For a primer coat, you want coverage of approximately 200-300 sq ft per gallon. Let sit for 6 to 24 hrs before proceeding to the next step. Walk on floor only using spiked sandals (sold here). Step 3: Mix Epoxy resin (according to product instructions). Mix only an amount of material that can be spread in 30 minutes. Once mixed, immediately begin pouring the material onto the floor in long, usable ribbons. Do not let mixed material sit in the mixing container longer than 5 minutes or it may begin to gel and need to be thrown out. Using a notched squeegee spread the material evenly until proper thickness. Then, backroll with proper roller until all is even. Allow material to sit for 10 minutes. After material is backrolled you will begin broadcasting the flakes. The best way to accomplish this is to place several pounds of the flakes into a clean bucket and take small handfuls of the chips and toss them in the air onto the tacky floor. It is important to throw them upward to get a good spread and faster coverage. Partial Broadcast - Your goal is get a good, even spread onto the floor at the coverage that looks good to you. Do NOT toss them down at the floor because you will end up with many heavy spots. Full Broadcast - You follow the same procedure but you use larger handfuls of chips. You can do this quickly and “make a mess”. Keep in mind it is normal to had a large amount of loose chips that are just loose on the floor. As you walk around, you are looking to cover any “shiny” spots on the floor. This is visible resin and should be covered. Step 4 The floor will be ready for the protective topcoat once you remove any chips that are protruding irregularly. This is easily done with a floor scraper or a large drywall knife threaded onto the end of a pole. Just slide the blade over the floor knocking down the suspect chips that are sticking into the air. Then vacuum the floor to remove the pieces. TIP: For full broadcast, if when you are finished scraping and cleaning, you find empty areas that are not acceptable you can mix a small batch of TI Epoxy HP, brush it on in that area, and broadcast some flake over the area again. However, that will take a while to cure so that you can apply the Top Coat and be done... Many applicators will instead use the Top Coat PolyKoat 85, which will dries much faster, @3-4 hours, and can then be scraped, vacuumed, and then continue on with the final step 5, topcoat. Step 5 Apply a topcoat. A protective topcoat usually is aliphatic urethane for maximum durability and hardness, like PolyKoat 85. A thin topcoat will allow more of the chip texture to be present. You can reduce this by applying more than one topcoat. Mix up the proper amount of chosen topcoat resin system and pour onto surface. Move material around until it’s thoroughly spread. Using a 3/8 map roller, backroll the material until even and free from any marks. For a thicker topcoat that will reduce the chip profile (texture), you can do an additional topcoat. Floor can be walked on in 24 hrs. Avoid any heavy furniture for 3-7 days.
Learn how to install vinyl plank flooring. Installing vinyl plank flooring with limited tools and a few beginner tips and tricks. Full Video Tutorial!
Whew! We are so excited to have this phase done for our Old Basement Refresh because now we can start to use the space again and it is looking migh-tee fine (If I do say
Learn all about tile underlayment materials and installation to ensure a smooth, stable surface beneath your tile flooring project.
how to paint stencil floors on ANY floor type: linoleum, ceramic tile, porclain tile, vinyl, hardwood floors and more!
Cleaning paint from a wood floor without causing any damage can be difficult. Follow this guide on how to remove paint from hardwood floors without sanding.
Today the hubs and I wet on a picking excursion to the local pallet factory. I was AMAZED at all the treasures I found! My dinette box seats, the side pull out couch frame , and all my wood flooring!! WOW, AND FREE!!! You could stain and varnish at this point. I wanted a french decor, so I whitewashed it with some watered down paint and a broom. Then it was sealed really good with a clear satin exterior sealer.
This post is sponsored by Lowe’s. We’ve partnered with them to share how-to’s, from easy to elaborate. This one is an easy one! In preparation for summer guests, some of our friends were talking about replacing their tile in one of their bathrooms, because it looked “so dingy”. When we looked at it, we realized, […]
KuPP, Paddington- Havwoods Wood Flooring
Max Rollitt discusses his design heroes, finding the perfect accessory and the next big trend in interiors — and selects his five favourite lots from our upcoming sale
A list of the best floor stencils around and tips for choosing the right one. Plus lots of tips for painting your own stenciled floors as well.
Description If you want unique flooring that will be cause for conversation, look no further! Our Classic herringbone - Pearl Oak LVT flooring is the perfect solution! The innovative craftsmanship gives the Classic Herringbone range a waterproof and scratch resistant surface makes it a no-brainer for high risk rooms like bathrooms and kitchens, as well as living rooms and dining rooms. Irresistible and unforgettable pearl shades combined with blue undertones, giving the grains more depth and enhancing the appearance. Checkout our accessories page, you can find our top-of-the-line accessories to give your home a more complete feel! To complete your purchase and ensure a hard-wearing finish, we recommend using our Impero All-In-One Adhesive. This water-based adhesive will provide your amazing new LVT flooring with protection from movement and prevent any lifting, whilst also being odourless, environmentally friendly and suitable for underfloor heating! Head over to our Adhesive page found in our Accessories menu to get yours now!
This two bedroom property had been divided for rental. The kitchen was lacking natural light, access to garden and was affected with damp. It was perfect as our client had instructed us to find a house to renovate, improve and transform into a small but mighty family home. A complete overhaul gave this Victorian terrace the love it was begging for. The loft was insulated, the ground floor was weather proofed and the electrics as well as the heating and plumbing were upgraded to reach energy efficiency. Some of the work : - Original features restoration : floorboards, fireplaces, sash windows at the front. - Damp proofing : fixing leakages, damp course on wall throughout ground floor. - Light and access : new french widows and large side window in the kitchen. Enlarged doorway between kitchen and dining with hexagonal tiling as transition connecting the spaces. - Storage: Lots of. Under stair bespoke carpentry pantry, new loft access with ladder, floor boarding and functional open and closed shelving, shelves in dining, living and bedrooms. - Remodel of first floor to provide two double bedrooms, with yoga hammock and meditation space, a family bathroom (shower over bath) with utility corner. - Remodel of ground floor : front reception as home office, hobby and media room, dining room to entertain and connected to kitchen as the heart of the home for keen home cooking (American fridge freezer, range master cooker, large pantry, access garden BBQ grill). - Style and colour schemed suggested by The Place Between based on conversations and style exploration with our client. A seamless continuous and slick feel was achieved with anchoring black woodwork, windows and doors, accent lighting and tiling, light neutrals and brass touches. - All products used in this home met thorough eco-friendly credentials.
Happy Monday my friends! You may or may not know that about a year and 1/2 ago I posted a really through tutorial for painting concrete/cement. Ivie’s floor was my first experience and its held
Almost impossible to differentiate this from the real thing, we love the subtle tonal variation, clever surface and antique-looking edges of this porcelain stone effect tile. Its large format adds to the flagstone-like vibe, yet, unlike stone, it does not require sealing. The indoor porcelain tile has a straighter edge, the outdoor choice has a beautifully natural edge which gives a vintage, time-worn appearance.
The ultimate DIY guide on how to sand wooden floors yourself and achieve a professional finish! Step by Step guide with tips, tricks & budget breakdown
Paint subfloor? Don't have the money to replace carpet with wood or tile? Do what I did - paint it! If your floor is sound, it can be easily painted beautifully in all one color or in a decorative design | In My Own Style
Aaaaaand we're back. So, if you've been paying attention, you may have realized that I just fell off the face of the Earth mid-renovation. Obviously, something went awry. Let's not beat around the bush. I temporarily messed up my floors. And, rather than divulge my mishaps as they were happening (Get. Real.) I instead spent a few weeks crying into Cheese's fur, planning my escape to Paraguay, and wiping pizza grease on my sweatpants uniform. Okay, I'm being dramatic. Kinda. There are far worse things in the world than messing up your floors. I've lived through a few of them. However, I'm still a human, I occasionally lose perspective, and I definitely spent a few days drenching poor little Cheese's fur with my tears. Here's what happened. I was determined to have dark floors in our house. I wanted them so bad. I looked at picture after picture of houses with dark floors, and I just knew that our house was meant to have dark floors. I imagined something like this: via Style Me Pretty Or this. via Houzz And then our flooring was installed. And since we used solid hardwood vs engineered hardwood, it was fully installed as unfinished wood (without the stain applied yet), and I had a chance to see what our house would look like with natural floors. And I loved it. It really made our 1970's house look light and bright and beautiful. But, then self-doubt and insecurity raced in and ate me alive. I felt like I should do what everyone else does, rather than do what works best for me, and it felt scary to go against the norm. Plus, my original vision was dark floors, and it was so hard to change course mid-race. In short, I could see with my own eyes that the light flooring looked really great in our house, and yet I ignored myself. I am woman. Hear me roar. So, anyways, I pushed forward with my irrationally dark flooring plan. I eventually settled on a dark brown stain called 'Kona'. In hindsight, I can totally see the doom that was headed my way. But, at the time, I was totally lost in the moment, dirty dancing on Kona's leg. It looked so great when we tested the stain on a small piece of our flooring. I moved it around into each of the rooms and stared at it for several days while the flooring was finished being installed. Again, in hindsight, this was a terrible way to make a decision. A tiny poptart of dark wood does not give you an accurate indication of what your ENTIRE house will look like with wall to wall dark floors. But, ultimately, I gave the go ahead for the stain, and when I came home that day, here's what our floors looked like. It wasn't the worst thing ever. But it definitely wasn't good. And it was just so gloomy. I knew I had made a mistake. I had inadvertently created a 1970's dungeon. The stain turned out kinda orange (which still baffles me), and it didn't take well to the solid hardwood at all. It ended up being blotchy and uneven, and basically, I hated it. When this all started, I had no idea about the differences between solid and engineered flooring, but I definitely do now. In a nutshell, solid hardwood flooring is higher quality, but it's really difficult to get that uniform color that you would get with really dark engineered flooring, because you have to stain most solid hardwood flooring on site. You can buy already stained solid hardwood floors, but that was not in my little budget. There's about a million more things you should know about solid vs. engineering hardwoods (and about a million more options) but my plan is to share that info in another post. Otherwise this post will take you 42 years to read. So, even though the stain looked terrible, there was a bit of a silver lining in the stain debacle...I was able to see once and for all that our house looked bad with dark floors. Because even if they had been a lighter brown, or even just a uniform color, it wouldn't have mattered. I love dark hardwood floors, but not in our house. So don't get mad at me if you have dark floors. Clearly, I wanted a set of my own. It just wasn't meant to be. It was around this time that Cheese's fur got soaked with eyeball secretions. Could I have phrased that any worse? I had no idea what on earth I was going to do. Do I apply for Paraguayan citizenship? Do I buy 800 rugs, admit defeat, and just pretend like none of this ever happened? None of those options seemed viable, so instead I just moped around for a few days and eventually mustered the courage to tell our contractor that we weren't happy. Okay, fine, Jesse did it. But, anyways, our contractor was wonderful about the entire thing, and he agreed to sand the floors back down to the natural wood. He didn't know I have a blog (not that that necessarily would've mattered...I'm not Beyonce). He's just a nice guy who wants to make sure his customers are happy. Of course, we were already at week 5 in the renovation, and this new phase of sanding/sealing tacked on 2 more weeks. Oh, joyous day. So, the sanding began. Again. I was feeling pretty panicked at this point, and searching for yacht-sized rugs online, but I did my best to remain patient and hope for the best. After about a week, most of the stain was sanded off, I began to see the natural wood again, and I remembered how to breathe. There was still stain all over the walls (which will all be repainted and covered down at the bottom with trim anyways), and just a tiny little bit still in the wood grain, but I could definitely see a light at the end of the tunnel. Still though, we were going into week 7, and I began to feel a little meltdown-ey. My fridge and oven were outside on the front deck with a tarp over them. The washer and dryer were next to my bed. And I was still basically living at this place. At one point, I replaced my floor vents and just left the old disgusting ones on my kitchen counters for a week. Full of bugs and dust circa 1975. It is what it is. Luckily, right around the same time as my meltdown, we had plans to get out of town for a week. We drove to Charleston to watch my little brother, Mathias, graduate from the Navy Nuclear Power School, where he's studying to become a Nuclear Engineer. I'm so proud of him, he's my favorite creature on the earth, 10 years younger than me, and it basically healed my soul to spend a little time with him. I know he's just some random dude in a dapper sailor suit to you, but trust me, to know Mathias is to love Mathias. I have yet to find the exception. Jesse almost loves him even more than me, which is demonstrated by the above picture. They intentionally posed that way, and even barked at me to get out of the picture so that they could capture this celebratory day with a prom photo. This is my life. When that was over, Jesse and I headed to Myrtle Beach so that he could attend a work convention. He worked, I slothed on the beach. Then on the last day, Mathias and Meredith (his girlfriend that I also love) drove down from Charleston and Myrtled it up with us for the evening. They all ate oysters. I did not. It was glorious. Just so you know, I will eat anything. Unless it resembles a loogie. I just got really sidetracked on a brother/beach tangent. So sorry. Anyways, I came back with a new zest for life, which is good, because I was really fading fast. By the time we came home, our floors had been sealed with several layers of satin topcoat, and were finally finished (at least on the main level). I jumped up and down for a full 42 minutes. Just to really hammer home what an improvement this really is, here's our house when we first moved in: And here we are today. It's a floor mini-miracle. And, luckily I captured the miracle when we first got home. Because the very next day, it was filled back up with stuff for the entryway. And it kinda still looks like this. But the good news is that I finally have floors that I love, and we finally have lift off in the entryway pit. It only took 8 little weeks to get to this point. We're going to laugh about that one day. I laughed a little bit while writing that sentence. Too soon. I have a lot more to share about the entryway, and the stair rail is being built today, but we'll talk about all of that soon. Today, we have floors. FLOORS, ya'll. And I might actually have my house back this weekend. Can I hug you? Before we go, I don't have any slightly nauseating life lessons to share with you. But, I will throw in a picture of Cheese, who refuses to look me in the eyes lately. Who can blame her. Just a few more days, girl. And then you can Risky Business yourself all over the house. I'll even get you 4 little white socks. That's all, ya'll. 'Til we meet again. P.S. The other posts in the House Makeover series can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 UPDATE: This story was FAR from over. We ended up having to redo these floors entirely. Only a year later. You can read why here. Follow my blog with Follow my blog on or or Subscribe to LiveLoveDIY with email! Enter your email address: -->
This range of porcelain is deceptively simple at first sight with its decoration of diagonally dipped colours. However, it can be laid myriad ways to create linear, chequerboard or more random patterns.The shade here is an antiqued charcoal black, paired with a variated white for distinctive diagonal design. Ideal for walls and floors with a slightly textured feel.
A celebration of the beauty of nature, our Herringbone range reproduces the charm of solid wood perfectly. The planks are tough and durable, measuring 8mm in thickness meaning they can handle the demands of a busy, fast-paced family home. The surface is also conveniently easy to clean and to maintain looking like new. Our Herringbone range is moisture resistant with the use of our Impero Joint Protector, making this flooring the ideal choice for many rooms around the home including bathrooms! This AC4 rated laminate floor is well suited to deal with heavy foot traffic and comes with an impressive 20-year domestic warranty. We recommend using our amazing Timberlay Platinum Underlay with this herringbone flooring. A perfect choice for providing an extremely hard-wearing yet comfortable underfoot feel, whilst helping reduce heat loss with the added benefit of enhanced sound reduction!
Description Our Aragon Damask Tile Stencil can be stenciled once as a focal point, around a surface to create a border, or repeated easily to create a gorgeous allover pattern. The large square size is perfect for stenciling a gorgeous faux tile pattern on walls, floors, or even ceilings! The circular element we included makes the design chic and elegant, don't you think? Stencil Pattern Size: 21"w x 21"h Stencil Sheet Size: 23"w x 23"h Single Layer Design SKU#: 6247
A year has flown by since I laid our Globus Cork glue down tile floor in our kitchen. I wanted to check back in and let you know how they are performing.
