New Floors for Rental Apt.
I’ve been living in the same rental apartment for 10 years now, and when I moved in, everything was brand new. The living room and bedroom are carpeted, but as you can imagine, after 10 years the carpet needs to go. Besides the look of it, I have severe allergies and asthma (and a shedding…
I’ve been living in the same rental apartment for 10 years now, and when I moved in, everything was brand new. The living room and bedroom are carpeted, but as you can imagine, after 10 years the carpet needs to go. Besides the look of it, I have severe allergies and asthma (and a shedding cat). I want to convince my landlord that it’s time to change out the flooring, particularly to a solid surface floor. Because he is so nice and my rent is so low, I’d like to approach him with some super low-cost options and maybe even some options I could install myself. I’ve been looking online at vinyl planks that have the look of hardwood. Vinyl was my first choice simply because the subfloor in my apartment is EXTREMELY uneven. In the bedroom when walking towards the bed, it actually feels like you are going uphill! The living room isn’t as bad as that, but it’s definitely not level. It was my understanding that vinyl peel and stick planks can be placed on an unlevel floor without using a leveling compound (and maybe just using a self leveling underlayment.) Am I wrong? I’ve read up on a product called Novalis and it seems to get great reviews on gardenweb (picture of Novalis planks seen here – http://tinyurl.com/oodqcy). It’s cheap and would suit my purposes. My living room is about 8’10â€x11’2†and the bedroom is about 9’6â€x18′. So, figuring that I’d need about 280 square feet of flooring (to be safe), it will cost just over $300. Do you think that flooring would work on an uneven floor? Or will it just peel up on me? I’m super handy so I think I could install it myself. If necessary, how hard is it to level out a floor? Could I do that myself? (the subfloor appears to be plywood planks.) Is there any other super cheap product I could suggest to the landlord besides more carpet?
What neighborhood are you in? You definitely need to prep the subfloor, and you definitely need the right product. I’ve troweled out about 1000 SF to near paper smoothness. Contact me if you want help.
salemfilm@mac.com
Vinca, I lost my password to the email address I had given you before. Can you email me at Snappy3434@aol.com ? Thanks 🙂
Snappy, see message sent to your Email.
Oh boy. The bedroom floor does creak and groan in some spots, especially in a spot where there is a noticeable dip in the floor. Structural issue? I peeled back some carpet in the living room last night to get a better look at the subfloor. It’s really splintery. Is that normal?
And, is it possible that I could refinish the subfloor myself?
I had a rental in the Village years ago w/ many of the same things going on – uphill climb to kitchen, waves in the bedroom. I agree w/ cmu, you probably don’t have structural problems &, even if you do, taking up old carpet isn’t going to exacerbate it. With the LL’s permission I pulled up all the old carpet & vinyl & hired a floor company. Result was quite wonderful – turned a $275/mo hovel into a luxe domicile.
Refinishing: check with Verrazano, middle-of-the-road guys.
I wouldn’t worry about structural problems unless you hear really nasty creaks and groans. All old houses settle unevenly. Mine is 1-1/4″ lower at the center than at the wall. I’d set up a marble run.
You don’t *need* a chop saw. A circular saw or even jig saw is fine; the cut ends don’t have to fit exactly (and, in fact should not) and are covered by molding.
I really don’t want to go the carpet tile route. I hate carpet in any form! Any other suggestions?
Hey Snappy:
I’m not sure how your landlord would feel about you pouring self-leveling compound all over the subfloor. But you might 🙂
I like vinca’s suggestion of carpet tile in a case like this.
Anyway, I think we’re neighbors; I have a chop saw if you need to borrow one.
Hmmm…Approximately how much do you think it would cost to hire someone to refinish the subfloors and just walk on those (about 300 sq. ft)?
Yikes…structural problems. I hadn’t thought of that. If I were to go ahead and pull up the carpet, are there tell-tale signs of structural damage as the culprit for the uneven floors?
I saw the Ikea flooring you mentioned, Vinca, but was hesitant to suggest that one because of the need for a saw. I do own a 7 1/4″ circular saw, but I don’t know that I want to get into sawing sections of flooring.