Although floors take more abuse than any other part of a home, most people expect them to glisten and sparkle years and even decades after they are installed.
But floors, whether vinyl, ceramic tile or wood, require regular maintenance to keep them radiant. The longer a floor has been ignored, the dingier it will look.
Short of replacing or refinishing, there are shortcuts to breathing new life into a floor. “There are steps you can take that are more economical, both cost-wise and time-wise, to get a floor looking better,” says Scott Ennis, manager of the Century Tile outlet in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood.
Here are a few of those shortcuts.
Vinyl tile
The advantage to a vinyl flooring-usually sold as 12-inch-by-12-inch pieces of tile-is that it’s economical, fairly easy to install and comes in a wide range of colors. While durable, vinyl floor tiles are the thinnest of flooring materials and tend to look dingy after a few years, especially in high traffic areas.
Usually installed in kitchens and baths, the vinyl tiles take a lot of abuse from water, steam and stains. As a result, tiles curl, scratch, blister and break. The floor can also lose its sheen after a while and patterns start to wear, especially in high traffic areas.
Ennis recommends refinishing a lackluster floor with a vinyl floor stripper or cleanser. “There are a lot of them on the market and they’re available at home improvement or tile stores,” he says. “Use a product that is ammonia-based because that has a tendency not to leave a film on the floor when you’re done.”
For stubborn stains, Ennis suggests letting the stripper sit on the floor for a few minutes and then using a floor scrubber to give the tiles a little laundering. After stripping away the old wax, grease, grime and buildup, a new finish coat is spread on the tiles with a special applicator.
For floors with curls, scratches, blisters or breaks, you’ll need to make a few repairs.
Curls, where the ends of the tiles begin to point up, can be remedied by first heating the curled corner of the tile with a heat gun or hair dryer (you can also use an iron on a medium setting if you cover the tile with aluminum foil).
Once the tile is pliable, gently pull up on the corner and use a scraper to remove any old adhesive from both the floor and the backside of the tile. Then apply new adhesive and gently push the tile back in place. Clean any leftover adhesive with solvent.
Next, place a wood board over the tile and weigh it down with a couple of buckets filled with water or a couple of cans of paint.
A blister, meanwhile, can be repaired by slitting the blister down its middle and about an inch or so on each end. Then, as described above, warm the tile and carefully peel back the slit. Pack the opening with adhesive, push the tile back into place and weigh it down.
Worn or broken tiles need to be replaced. Hopefully, you have a few leftover tiles somewhere in the house. If not, you can try matching them up with new ones, but that often doesn’t work well.
Instead, you can “rob Peter to pay Paul” says Ennis, by removing existing tiles from under the stove or refrigerator and using those as replacement tiles. “The replacement tiles may not match up exactly with the rest of the floor because they haven’t been stepped on,” says Ennis, “but they’ll come close.”
The first step is to remove the existing broken tile. Start by using a heat gun or a hair dryer to warm the tile, then use a scraper to pull the tile up. Remove all the adhesive from the floor.
Next, carefully remove the replacement or “donor” tile from the floor by using the same method. “Use a scraper to pull the tile up just a little bit at a time so that you don’t break it or bend it too much,” says Ennis.
Remove the glue from the back of the replacement tile, apply new adhesive, and plant it in place. Use the heat gun to smooth out the tile so that it’s flush with the floor. Then weigh it down so it adheres properly.
Finally, fill the spot under the stove or refrigerator with a standard new tile (don’t worry about aesthetics as you won’t see the tile).
To make the floor match up, Ennis suggested adding new polish.
Ceramic tile
Ceramic tiles, while more durable than vinyl, also have their share of repair problems.
For example, common with ceramic tile floors are cracks and broken tiles that result from dropped tools, or jars and cans.
A more common situation is the aesthetic problem of dingy grout, the mortar between the ceramic tiles. That can sometimes be remedied by using a wipe-on cleaner on the grout and then resealing it.
“Depending on the color of the grout, some people have also used bleach solutions,” Ennis says. “But you have to get down there with a small scrub brush and scrub the grout, and that’s a lot of work.”
For deeper stain problems, Ennis says homeowners might have to regrout-removing the old grout and replacing it with fresh compound.
The old grout is usually removed with a grout saw, a small, pointy tool; or a chisel. Any debris is vacuumed out, the joint is dampened and new grout is applied. After the grout fully dries or cures, a grout sealer is applied to prevent further staining.
Another trick is to restain the existing grout with a grout stain. That will also help hide blemishes and dirt.
A cracked or broken tile is a more complicated repair job. Light hairline cracks, however, can sometimes be masked with paint or even nail polish. “If you can live with the crack, a small patch will probably be OK,” Ennis says. “Cracked tiles can stay that way for years before they fall apart.”
If you want to replace the cracked tile, first you’ll need to find a replacement tile. Again, hopefully you have a leftover tile from when the flooring was installed.
As with vinyl tile, it’s almost impossible to find a replacement tile at the tile store. “There are some traditional ceramic tiles that are around forever but there are dye and size changes with tiles,” Ennis says.
Again, the recommendation is to rob Peter to pay Paul by removing a tile from under a sink or appliance. Ceramic tile, however, is even trickier to remove than vinyl tile.
Start by using a grout saw or chisel to remove the grout surrounding the donor tile to isolate that tile. “You need to remove the grout to eliminate any transference of shock to the surrounding tiles,” says Ennis.
Then, carefully slip a chisel or putty knife under the tile to try and free it from the mastic holding it to the subflooring. Use a hammer on the chisel or putty knife.
Then, remove the broken tile in the same way. Of course, you don’t need to be as cautious with the broken tile as you are with the donor tile.
Scrape off any old mastic from the floor and the donor tile and vacuum the tile space. Spread new mastic on the back of the donor tile and firmly push it into place. After the mastic dries in 24 hours, you’ll need to regrout around the tile. After the grout cures, you should seal it with a grout sealer.
You’ll also need to replace the donor tile with a tile of the same size.
Wood and parquet
Wood floors have become extremely popular in recent years because of their low maintenance. However, finished wood floors start to wear over several years because of foot traffic, and can also be stained by paint, food and water.
While certain parts of a wood floor may look drab, other parts look fine. Typically, however, the entire floor is refinished.
An alternative is to “spot patch” drabby areas and then “mop on a new finish to perk the floor,” says David Crampton of the Evanston-based Stripaway Refinishers, a professional stripping service.
Start by removing any blemishes, such as paints, with light sandpaper or an abrasive pad. “Don’t use steel wool because you can develop rust stains,” Crampton says.
In high traffic areas where the finish has dulled, clean the floor with a good household cleaner, but avoid oil-based cleaners. “If the high traffic area matches up with the rest of the floor’s finish when wet, it will blend in nicely with the rest of the floor once you apply a clear acrylic finish,” Crampton adds.
If the high traffic area doesn’t match up with the rest of the floor’s finish when wet, you can try staining those spots to blend in with the rest of the floor. “Start with a stain that’s a half-shade lighter than the floor and work your way up,” he says.
Then, clean the rest of the floor with the household cleaner and apply the clear acrylic finish. Use a new damp mophead and a paint pan to lay down the finish according to the manufacturer’s instructions. “These finishes are wonderful and dry within a couple of hours,” Crampton says. “You can walk on the finish by the end of the day.”
Broken, missing or scarred floorboard pieces can also be easily repaired and blended in with the existing floor.
Start by drilling several large holes across the damaged section of board with a spade bit. Do not drill through the subfloor below. Then use a wide butt chisel to splinter the damaged section so that you can remove the board with a pry bar.
Cut a piece of replacement board to fill the space as closely as possible. The wood should be of the same type as the rest of the floor and should have a grain pattern that is similar to the surrounding wood.
You might need to chisel off the lower groove edge on the new board to get it to fit over the tongue of the adjoining existing board. Then coat both edges of the new piece with wood glue and push it into place. Pound it flush into the opening with a rubber mallet.
Secure the new piece with two finishing nails at each end, sinking the nail heads with a nail set. Finally, as described above, try to stain and finish the new piece to match the surrounding floorboards.
