You have many selections for refinishing floors, they are wood, tile, or linoleum. They come in many distinct styles, colors and designs. Each one requires a skill set to install but the plan is the same for any type of upgrade. The flooring and style you decide to use all depends on your liking and wishes for your home.
Wood flooring comes in many thickness from 1/4″, 5/16″, 3/8″, 1/2″, 5/8″ to 3/4″ or (6 mm, 8 mm, 10 mm, 13 mm, 16 mm and 19 mm). It can be solid wood, or engineered. It can be tongue and grove or interlocking planks. It can be pre-finished wood flooring or unfinished which requires they must be sanded and finished after they are laid down. The engineered flooring will normally have a wear layer of 2 mm to 4 mm thick. They can be fastened to the sub floor by nailing, gluing or floating.
You need to determine which method is recommended or required for the type of flooring you want to use. Is your sub-floor cement or wood? Cement sub-floors are typically on the ground level and need to be checked for moisture content, if they exceed the recommended moisture content then a moisture barrier needs to be installed over the cement. Check with the manufacturer for their recommendations.
You can make this installation a do it yourself project, learn about all the available recommendations from knowledgeable people before starting. Make a plan for the type of material and how are you going to attach the flooring.
If you glue the floor down, check to see if the manufacturer requires that you use their glue, they some times put a tracer element in their glue to verify that you have used their glue. They may require that a professional installer installs the flooring if there is a warranty claim.
Tile flooring can be either ceramic or vinyl. If the application is for a high traffic area such as a hall way or entrance or if it is a high moisture area such as bathroom?
Ceramic tile can either have a thin glazed layer that is very pretty but can be scratched easily in high traffic. Unglazed tile will have the same color clear through the tile and resists scratches very well. Ceramic tile can be placed over a cement or wood sub flooring. The sub floor must be structurally stable and clean. A cement board recommended for wood sub floors can be fixed to the sub floor per manufacturers recommendation.
Vinyl tiles can be the least expensive tile and easy to lay down. They can be placed over old vinyl flooring, over plywood on wood floors or on concrete. The sub flooring should be clean, dry and level, you need to remove all oil, wax and grease. Study all the rights and wrongs for the flooring material you have selected for the job.
Linoleum can be made from environmental natural materials such as linseed oil, wood or cork powder, resins and ground limestone. They come in many rich colors and patterns. Linoleum comes in a sheet that is usually 2 meters wide (6′ 7″) and 2.5 mm thick is suitable for residential use.
It can be installed over most sub floors but if installing over concrete, the moisture emission rate must be with in limits set by the manufacturer. A high pH level of the concrete can ruin the adhesive and the adhesive may not bond to the concrete if it has a sealer on it. If two sections of linoleum are butted together, they must be sealed either with special seam sealer or a color coordinated linoleum rod that is melted with a specialized welding tool.
Linoleum may expand in width and shrink in length over time so this needs to be compensated for when it is installed.
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