floor Archives - Bigger Than the Three of Us

Peel and Stick Tile for Floors

August 12, 2019 by Ashley Mayes 44 Comments

Peel and Stick Tile is super easy to lay and lasts for years and years. We’ve had it for a long time, so I figured it was time to share more about how we laid the vinyl tile, how to grout the peel and stick tile and how it’s held up.

Sometimes a temporary project that you think will only last you two years or so, ends up lasting 6 years and is still going strong! When we replaced our carpet with peel and stick tile from Lowe’s, I thought we’d be ripping it back up after a few years. I didn’t think it would hold up all that well longterm and I thought we’d be making a move to completely cut our master bathroom sooner rather than later. Products surprise you though and plans change. One thing has led to another and we still have the peel and stick floor tile in our bathroom 6 years after we installed it and it’s looking just as good as the day we laid it.

I spy baseboards that were never painted after we installed them. Oops!

…

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

White Oak Hardwood Flooring

March 21, 2019 by Ashley Mayes 10 Comments

I had so many questions about white oak hardwood flooring. Simple questions, about what hardwood flooring costs per square foot and how to stain hardwood flooring inside the house. I’m sharing my research as well options that we considered today. Plus, hear exactly how the hardwood flooring install happened in our house and what we think of our white oak hardwoods.

Before I share exactly what I picked and why, let me tell you a bit about how I ended up going with the white oak flooring that we went with.

Our town has a mill, called Vermillion. They mill red and white oak in 3″, 4″ and 5″ planks. Their flooring comes unfinished; meaning that you have to have it installed, stained onsite and then have a clear coat put over that. The process for the install is much longer because of the dry times for the topcoats. I had originally gone to Vermillion first and loved their milled flooring, prices and just that they were local. I was scared off because of the extra work the unfinished flooring would be. Vermillion also sells pre-finished hardwood and engineered hardwood but everything I liked was way out of my budget. #storyofmylife

…

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

Browsing Floors

March 3, 2014 by Ashley Mayes 9 Comments

I thought that when we were ready to install hardwood flooring in our house it would be easy. Hmm, not so much. I think we are ready, I hope we are ready, but now I’m scared. There are so many options! Two years ago when we moved in to this house, I KNEW that I wanted dark hardwood floors. Now, I’m realizing that I would never keep them clean and that would drive me nuts. Also, I like the look of more natural, weathered wood. So, I ordered some samples and, so far, they haven’t helped me.

Do you know how hard it is to choose a wood color/texture based off of a 8 inch square? Impossible!

I have a few places to check out in town before I commit to a company or style, but I thought I would keep you guys in the loop.

Here are my inspiration floors:

via

I’m pretty sure most of these floors have the following criteria: large plank, matte, and unfinished. So, we are gathering sources, pricing, and more information on this type of floor.

We are planning (and hoping) to install it on the front circle stairs, loft area, upstairs, upstairs hallway, master bedroom and possibly the main living room. Price, of course, will further determine what gets replaced. The lowest on the list is the living room because it has the best carpet out of the ones listed.

Any of you have any great recommendations for suppliers or color? Any other advice?

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

Hallway Bathroom Tile : Part 1

October 24, 2013 by Ashley Mayes 7 Comments

I posted this on Instagram last week:

instagram picture of bathroom carpet in progress

I decided one afternoon to take some of the carpet out of Greyson’s bathroom. We’ve been talking about tiling his bathroom, but have been wavering back and forth on when…well I decided to go for it. I only took a strip of the carpet out the first day because I wanted to: A). See what Luke thought and B). Be able to use the bathroom.

Well, all was good with Luke (as expected) so the next afternoon I took the rest of it out.

Then, the boys helped get all the staples and carpet tack strips up. After that we gave it a good vacuuming.

putting the toddler to work vacuuming

Because we had carpet in our bathroom, we had to take out the particle board that was under the carpet. While working on that this happened:

breaking hammer

I didn’t even realize that could happen. Call me crazy, I guess. We had to make a trip to Lowe’s to get a jigsaw, another hammer and a chisel.

We took the toilet out and then got busy taking up the particle board. After we had the right supplies to take the particle board up it went pretty fast. As expected, our subfloor was rotted underneath the toilet area (skip the next picture if you don’t want to see it).

rotten subfloor

But, the rest of the subfloor looked great. So, Luke cut the rotten subfloor out and then we had to go get new plywood to replace it with. Well, this should have taken one trip to the hardware store but it actually took three. We misunderstood, at first, and thought we need to replace the 1/2″ particle board. So we bought 1/2″ plywood (our first trip to buy wood). The plywood we needed was 9/32″ but we decided to try the 1/2″ before buying something else. Then, after measuring it and putting it in we realized that it wasn’t level. I went to Lowe’s to get the right one and told them that I had 5/8″ plywood (we missed the measurement by 1/32″). They sold another piece to me. Come to find out it was too thick. After all that, we found out that Home Depot actually caries the correct measurement. So, another trip to the hardware store yielded the right piece of wood. Apparently it’s good to measure plywood in 32nds of an inch. Who knew!

Once we got the right sized plywood, Luke measured it and got it cut.

replacing rotten subfloor

He reinforced the support beams around the new plywood. Then we placed the original water barrier back down.

Then we started measuring and putting in the cement board. The cement board was pretty easy to do after we got the hang of it. All we did was make sure the seams of the board didn’t go directly on any seams of the plywood.

12 hours later finished with part 1….

So, I think if you knew what you were doing this part of the process probably would have only taken 4-5 hrs. We had to do multiple trips to the hardware stores and also went in circles with putting in the new subfloor. After all was said and done though, we learned a lot. Next time, it won’t be too bad.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

Peel and Stick Tile for Floors

I spy baseboards that were never painted after we installed them. Oops!

White Oak Hardwood Flooring

Browsing Floors

Hallway Bathroom Tile : Part 1

Connect with Me:

Follow Me On Instagram