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hallie12409

Installing Vinyl over Hardwood?

hallie12409
13 years ago

Hello all.

My husband and I bought a house about a year ago with hardwood floors throughout the dining, living, hallway and three bedrooms. The house was built in 1948, and they are the original hardwood floors. They aren't in the best condition, but we decided to deal with them for a year to see how we liked them. The issue is this. We have several cats and a dog, and soon we will also have littles ones as well. Hardwood is pretty, but high maintenence when any sort of liquid hits the floor. Obviously with pets and kids, liquids hit the floor on a semi-regular basis.

My husband and I are thinking of laying Novalis Peel and Stick Planks over our hardwood. However, the house has settled some and there are portions of the floor that are slightly uneven.

I am needing to know if there is a special process I need to go through to lay the vinyl over the hardwood, or if it is even possible with the floor being slightly uneven in places. Or, if anyone has any tips to making my hardwood floors more user friendly, that would be great as well.

Comments (8)

  • kristinekr
    13 years ago

    I personally would not install peel and stick over hardwoods. You will have problems getting them to stick on the uneven portions, and it will be so hard to get them off when they need repacing. I have peel and stick tiles in my laundry room and untility room. They have held up well, but those rooms do not get a lot of foot traffic.

    I would look into getting the hardwoods refinished with a good finish. We redid our wood floors (parquet which is not my peference) about 10 years ago. They held up great until about 6 months ago when they started to stain every time liquid got on them. I was told it was because the finish wore off. The floors can't be refinished again so I am getting new hardwoods. I think hardwoods are the best flooring option with children and toddlers.

    My sister bought a house with oak floors throughout and the floors were a mess. she got them refinished and they are absolutely beautiful--the transfomation is amazing.

  • krycek1984
    13 years ago

    Agree with previous posters. That is one of the worst things you can do, is put peel and stick vinyl over hardwood. Not only will it provide an uneven surface but later owns of the house will curse you for it.

    If the floors are refinished by a good craftsman and, like ideagirl said, they are done in a finish that is very durable, you should be OK. In my experience, hardwood floors hold up to children and pets the best of any other flooring surface. They won't always look perfect and shiny, though.

  • llcp93
    13 years ago

    Put the vinyl down NOW and no one will get hurt! lol. Ideagirl I think may be right about a vinyl over wood law.
    Our first house was a 1945 model that had been a rental for eons and vacant for years before our purchase. It was unlivable. We did everything ourselves except the electrical, furnace, and having the floors sanded and resealed.
    We only put a clear coat on top. We brought all our babies home to this house and it was no problem with them walking, crawling, spit up, throw up, spills (falls by liquids and bodies), etc. The all over pour on top coat kept everything from penetrating thru the cracks. It worked great for us. The floors went throughout the whole house except the kitchen and bath.
    Forgive the quailty of the pics. This was late 1994.
    Looking into living area-just sanded.

    Pouring on the clear coat.

    Here they are done but we are still working

    We bought really cheap area rugs for the living and dining room.

  • joand40
    8 years ago

    I live in a 4 generation household. House has solid oak hardwood throughout. We tried the peel and stick planks around the perimeter in our living room years ago and I regret it big time! Our dining room flooring was in really poor condition (previous owner did a do-it-yourself sanding and used a weird finish that couldn't hold up to 3 grandkids and three dogs, so we used the floating vinyl as a temporay fix until we can a) afford to have the entire first floor hardwood refinished, and b) we longer have dogs. I'm going to continue the floating vinyl that matches the dining room. It will go through from the back door to the front door, kitchen and family room. I love it! As soon I get the guts to peel up my mess in the living room and get the glue residue off, the floating vinyl is going in there too. My intention is to refinish the floors to the beautiful original oak that I adore. Until then, we are floaters.

  • chiflipper
    8 years ago

    Hallie, please have your floors assessed by a top-notch wood floor guy. If the floors can be refinished, have it done. If you cannot afford the complete sand, stain, seal at this time, just get them sealed. You can redo them later. The cost of a real hardwood floor is beyond most budgets and it would be foolish not to keep them.

  • Emili martn
    8 years ago

    Installing a new vinyl tiles over an existing hardwood floor is something most DIY homeowners can tackle. It’s really not much different than installing tile over cement slab with two major caveats. The current tile floor must be strong and very much attached to the sub floor. If you tile over a floor that is having problems, you may soon have another damaged floor. Second, the new layer of tile adds height that can cause issues with doors. While some floor materials require particular and strict Underlayments, there is truly one and only run with vinyl. It requires a flat surface.It requires a flat surface. As a general rule of thumb, you can install vinyl tiles directly over hardwood tile within certain parameters.

  • nuppal
    5 years ago
    How did your floor turn out? We also are putting vinyl planks in but some is a new addition on slab to our 1950s house and some will be over original hardwood.
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