The rest of the cork tiles..

Over the past two weeks I have been slowly replacing the cork tiles in the laundry and toilet downstairs, and the upstairs toilet. Although it's not something I have previously aspired to be, I am now a total pro at cork tiling.


Obviously, this is the floor before we moved in.



Unlike the bathroom, the laundry tiles were laid onto concrete slab, which proved a bit more time consuming to prepare...and more disgusting.

Many of the tiles simply lifted off, and there was dirt and dust underneath. Some tiles were almost unrecognisable as cork:



Once removed, I had to scrub the floor with a wire brush. Twice. Then sand down the concrete. Twice. Then wash it all with sugar soap. Three times. Then it was just smooth and clean enough to lay the tiles.

I know it's not obvious, but the photo below shows the floor after this process...


Because we were a bit silly, we didn't embark on this before moving, which meant I had to work around the fridge and washing machine. I ended up doing one half of the laundry first, then moving everything over on to the completed half, then doing the rest.

The photo below shows me half way through the second half.


A few coats (three actually) of polyurethane later (no, I didn't do that bit - not good for growing babies apparently), and we have a new (improved) laundry floor:




It's not perfect, but it's a MASSIVE improvement.

And finally, the upstairs toilet - just a quick before and after photo to sum that up:



Voila! We can walk comfortably around the house without feeling sick! And Maatt has almost finished the quarry tiles downstairs too.