Wednesday 30 November 2016

Renovation Project - Staying motivated

Renovation Project - Staying motivated
We have sticky back laminate tiles for the living room floor; these are the same as the ones that are in the kitchen. I still can’t believe we bought these, but they are very popular in France (well in this area) and its harder still to believe that they cost more than ceramic tiles.
I much prefer ceramic tiles, but ceramic are very cold under foot, these laminate tiles are not and there really is nothing nicer than having warm floors.
Laying them takes time and a good tip is to have some spray contact adhesive in addition to the sticky tiles; this will ensure a more secure fit. We are not sure if this is available in France, but we didn’t really look very hard, as when friends last visited we asked them to pick some up from the UK and bring them over.
Renovation project- laying laminate tiles

Renovation project- laying laminate tiles

Renovation project- laying laminate tiles
The living room floor is finished, this makes the room much warmer and yet again it is another room almost finished, we seem to be at the almost finished stage constantly now. This really is the hardest part of a project like this, we are always almost finished and each night go to bed with me thinking not long now, then thinking oh bugger it is going to take forever.
Renovation project- living room renovation, France

Renovation project- living room renovation, France
 But we do have some light relief as we are at a friend’s 50th Birthday, the night was great fun but the following morning is difficult to get motivated.


I feel tempted to not go out again, but then we will get back to the stage of just working, which is not what we want.

I have to be a lot easier on us both, there are a few more weeks left, that is all, it will be finished and very soon, I need to relax, but it is difficult as the house is often upside down again with furniture being moved from one room to another. This stage will not last that long, it just seems like an eternity!
We have to strike a balance, enjoying life and staying motivated

7 comments:

  1. You two are on an exciting adventure renovating the house. The floors are looking good and I like your modern stone fireplace.

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  2. Let me know how these tiles are holding up! I used some German-made ones at a friend's place (getting it ready to sell, we fully expected the buyers to rip out everything, which they did) over cracked and ugly tile and within less than two weeks they were coming up along all the seams.

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    1. luckily our tiles were all in good condition and very flat (we just did not like them) We used extra adhesive and and they are all still in place, the kitchen ones have been done for months now. I think the trick is to use the extra specialist flooring adhesive

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  3. Looks like you are cracking on with this one, we have thought about the vinyl tiles for our living room as the floor is very uneven and would be too big a job to take right out as there is a cave under half of it, not sure if they would stick on an uneven floor

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    Replies
    1. Probably not, even with extra adhesive. The tiles I laid the vinyl over were only lightly textured, yet everything came up after only a few weeks. Depending on how much time you can spend and how much height you can add I'd either use self-levelling cement and then put down an engineered wood floor (floating) or if you want something with a more traditional look you could try something I've learned online from a Swedish chap, plop down floating 15 mm OSB and screw pine planks on top of that.

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    2. we wouldn't recommend them for uneven floors. there is to much risk of them coming up

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