Scrub, scrub, scrub

When my kitchen units went in, we cut the vinyl flooring well back from the base units, knowing that I was going to get new flooring in. Underneath were vinyl tiles, glued firmly to the floor, covered in a thick layer of grime that had crept under the top layer over the last 10-20 years.

At the time, I had a mop at it, but it was inground, and stuck in and around the edging tape that had been used to hold the floor covering in place – the mop wouldn’t touch it. So I thought “Oh well, I’ll leave it like that, it won’t be long”. So I have been living with an inch or so of grimy border around my kitchen floor.

But it has been a few months, and every time I spend any time in the kitchen, it bugs me. I can clean my cooker and wipe down the tops, but the floor is still a mess. So even though my new flooring is only a few weeks away (ordered, awaiting delivery and fitting), I’ve spent this afternoon on my knees with scourers and (the clincher) steel wool. I’ve been at it for a couple of hours, and although the floor is still tatty, it is a bit cleaner, and will be more so after I finish off with the mop.

It does seems a bit of a waste of time, as the mucky tiles are due to be removed completely and the flloor refinished; and, after all, the grime has always been there in my kitchen, I just didn’t know it was there. But getting it cleared up has made me ridiculously content, albeit slightly irritated along the lines of “that didn’t take long, why didn’t I do that before?”

3 Comments

  1. January 16, 2011
    Reply

    The people who install your new floor may not realise it, but they will benefit greatly from not having to handle the mucky version when they take the old one up. So think of it as your boy scout’s good deed for the day. =:o}

    • chris
      January 16, 2011
      Reply

      Oh, no, believe me – they (and the floor) are going to get a lot muckier while removing the tiles. They are well stuck down – to the extent that they are going to have to resurface the bitumen surface of my concrete floor afterwards.

      • January 16, 2011
        Reply

        Yes, but that’s *clean* muck, as opposed to “bits of food got squashed in here many months ago” horrible germy muck. =:o}

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