apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Help...............I need advice and a name of a kitchen floor installer. The floor guy in my building pulled up the vinyl and the floor underneath is uneven and covered in tar. He said he can even it out with the glue he will use while installing the floor.

Is this crazy?

Has anyone used Home Depot on West 23rd St, I am very wary of them?

Thanks for any help?

susan,

if the floor is uneven within reason (a certain amount within a certain radius) then he will use a self leveling compound (think a resin that hardens) to level it out.

the other option would be to correct the subflooring--which maybe expensive or not possible.

FURNITURE PLACEMENT ALA THE CURE

I would like to follow the advice in the book regarding placing furniture away from the walls. I can easily place my sofa towards the middle of the room but how do I handle the lamps? They should be on the sidetables but then I will have cords trailing across the room.

Serendipity- I came to the thread to ask about referrals for a good tile guy.

I have a two room job: kitchen and bath.

Kitchen-
Granite tile (12x12"), in a floor space of 65 sq. ft.

Bath-
1.) Porcelain tile floor (12x12"), in a floor space of 15 sq. ft. (The room is 5x5', but the rest is taken up by the bathtub)
2.) Porcelain tile walls (6x6") three walls with total of 150 sq. ft. Not using any "special" tiles- no corner tiles, no trim edge tiles, no floorboard tiles. All walls are just simple squares.
3.) Glass tile wall (1x1" squares in 12x12" mesh-back sheets) one wall of 35 sq. ft. (no corners).

We already have all the tiles for the floors and the walls. We also have the matching grout for the floor tiles.

I have questions about everyone's favorite topic: tile grout.

At the hardware store today, I saw a product that was a kind of grout paint. The bottle had an applicator. Apparently, you paint this stuff on the old grout, wait a while, then wipe off the excess. It is supposed to make the grout white again.

Has anyone ever used this kind of product? If so, did it work well?

My other option is to regrout, which is doable but more labor intensive.

Thanks in advance.

This is really not an active evening at AT.

I guess no one can get excited about grout. I'm not surprised.

Beyond that, just very few postings, either from AT or from readers all day yesterday. Slow day. Happens to us all sometimes.

Now if you had asked "What grout is best for hiding cat hair?"... ;)

Jeffery, I've been hoping desperately that someone would answer your grout question, as mine resists even the bleach pen.

It has even occurred to me to go to the nearest hardware store, find the product, try it, and then answer your question as if I'd known all along. Pathetic, huh?

Well, Wende, I don't want to discourage you from trying the grout product, but I did some Google searches, and it appears that it doesn't work so well. Some people have complained that it wears off pretty quickly. So, I guess I'll try a serious cleaning, and if that doesn't work, I'll have to get a grout saw and start digging. Ugh.

Actually, Patrick, I have a friend who might be able to answer that question. His cat loves to nap in the bathroom sink.

Darn! Time to start scrubbing, then.

It doesn't help that I use color-enhancing shampoo, but I'm not going gray this early solely to make my grout happy.

In good news, it turns out that our LR don't just look double-hung -- they actually work! It never occurred to me to try opening the tops because every other place we've lived, the double-hung mechanism no longer functioned.

In reply to Jeffery's grout 'paint'. I've used the product twice. The first time, it did sort of come off. The second time, I did a massive cleaning to ensure every bit of soap scrum was off. Then used the product and then followed it with a sealer made by the same company. It's looked fresh and white for about 6 months so far. the other non re-grouting solution is to use zap or a similar toxic product (which will bleach any colored grout). Obviously there is no substitute for re-grouting, but the 'paint' is a cheap fix, although it does take a fair amount of time.