Secrets of The Floor!

On Saturday afternoon, I finished the floor in the back hallway and stairs. I've been getting lots of questions about how I did it, so I'll share my secrets with you. ;-)

I did it the easy way, which is to say it was the least expensive and least time consuming way I could find. If I were picking a floor to have for 30 years, I wouldn't do it this way. But I need a floor we can afford for now...that will last in the meantime...so this is what I did!

After doing a bunch of online research, I decided to lay vinyl tile. And because I knew I'd want to do it really quickly, I decided to lay self-adhesive vinyl tile (so that I wouldn't have to do that extra step of gluing it down).

I didn't want to go to the store and buy the tile (since I knew I'd be by myself with the kids and the boxes of tiles are heavy). So, I searched on Amazon for someone who would deliver them to my door for free. Gotta love free shipping. I ordered these tiles, but if you search for "vinyl tile" or "self-adhesive vinyl tile" on Amazon, you will find lots of colors and options.

All you do is peel and stick. Easy-peasy.



I just made sure the floor was clean, and that there weren't any broken tiles. I started in the middle of the floor and worked my way towards the edges.

In the spots where there were broken tiles, I just chipped off the tiles and wiped the area clean.



Then I found two layers, and went down to the wood. Since the pre-existing tiles were so old, they were very easy to get rid of and start with a clean surface.



In addition to the vinyl tiles, you'll also need an exacto knife and a ruler to cut the tiles at the edges. When I started the project, I didn't think I'd need a ruler- haha. But after a few very wobbly tile edges, I hunted down our ruler. You don't need to cut most of the tiles- just the ones at the edges and if you have stairs. The stairs were definitely the hardest part!

Without further ado, here are the final results of the back hallway/stairs. I finished this whole project during Ginger's naptime over two days...about three hours. It's not perfect, but I am pleased with the results, especially since the whole thing cost me less than $1/square foot.

Before:



After:



And now, can I just say...I am so glad it's done!!!!