Oh joy! Progress is being made…floors are being laid. Now that the walls and ceiling are patched and painted, we’ve moved onto the flooring. When you’re in the middle of a do it yourself project, especially one that involves plumbing and you’re down to only one toilet in the house, you want to get another toilet working sooner rather than later. We’re really starting to make progress and it’s very exciting.
Sub-flooring was the first step. We had to lay a thin layer of plywood (1/4″ x 4′ x 8′) on top of the old flooring. You have no idea how much dust can fall down to the only working bathroom you have in the basement below when you hammer nails every few inches. Yes, friends, a home built in 1914 has accumulated a lot of dust and when it’s hammer time, it all falls down. (I can honestly tell you, this nearly broke me. The only working bathroom in our home was completely covered in 98-year-old dust and debris. It was not pretty.)
Yes, the kids helped hammer nails, too. I loved hearing my husband explain to our teens how to hammer in a nail. He told them, “Hammer a nail much like you tackle a problem in life – hit it head on, straight on the head.” Good advice.
It’s a lot easier cutting holes in Marmoleum and fabric than it is to cut holes in plywood to fit around plumbing fixtures.
On the plus side, being a sewer really helps when it comes to Marmoleum flooring. You can cut/score the flooring with a fabric rotary cutter.
After you place the big squares, you fill in with smaller pieces of flooring. Apply the glue and press into place. Once you have a section done, you use this very heavy roller to press the flooring in place.
It has been a real hassle with the bathtub being in the bathroom for the project. Since it takes 4 people to move the tub, several times we’ve had to wait for both of our kids to get home from school so that they could help move it. One day we called our neighbors to come over. Our neighbors dropped everything to lend a hand. Well, I suppose it was 4 hands. There were two of them.
Related bathroom posts:
Bathroom Project Part 1
Bathroom Project Part 2
Bathroom Project Part 3
Goodbye Bathroom
Finding Inspiration for a Bathroom Re-Do
Go Gingham 
It’s gonna be awesome! I LOVE that base moulding!! Lucky find!
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Thanks Kellie! The base moulding came with the house so I can’t take any credit. We did replace all of the shoe moulding and it really finishes the room. Pictures coming soon…
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Are you using marmoleum click, the sheets cut down to make tiles, or some other product they offer? They are looking great and I like the fun colors. I’m in the middle of planning some DIY renovations for my house and marmoleum is definitely in the plans.
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Hi Indigo! We are not using the click. I liked the idea of the click tiles but the person we spoke to didn’t recommend it for a bathroom. We are using 20″x20″ tiles. The tiles were pretty easy to use but the roller was rather heavy. Since we’ve never worked with sheet flooring, I didn’t want to learn in the small space. The tiles were manageable. They also come in 16″ squares. I wouldn’t have thought to start the tiles off on an angle but I think it was a really good idea (thanks to my husband) and the bright colors look good in the little room. It took 3 weeks for the flooring to arrive. Ordering it sooner would have been a better plan. We were kind of waiting for it to come in. Good luck with your DIY project!
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Sara, the bathroom looks great so far! We are tearing apart our house for a new kitchen (!), and I would like to ask where you purchased your marmoleum tiles. I love the idea of the click style, too — but it costs 3 times as much as the tiles!
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Hi Sara! I’m working on a post that will reveal all of my sources. It’s amazing what a little shopping around can save a person! I’ll also have all of my “second-hand” stores listed. I like to check those first.
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just finished reading all the bathroom redo posts….and i’m wondering what you decided for the laundry chute???
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Hi Cassie,
Here’s the post:
So glad you read them all! thank you!
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This is the perfect blog for me at this point in my own remodel! Did you heat weld the seams in the floor? From what I’ve read, it doesn’t sound like it’s totally necessary, but it does sound like kind of a pain…
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Kari, we did not do anything extra to the seams other than the roller. I will tell you that after we sealed the floors, more of the glue came out – only a little but it required extra cleaning up. I would definitely roll it more and wipe it more next time. In the end, it was all fine and I love how it turned out!!
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