Although we had replaced the powder blue carpet with Pergo, when it came time for Retro-vation, we again replaced the flooring. This time we used Armstrong laminate flooring left over from our last house project. We thought 4 boxes (18.82sf/box) would do it, but ran a box short, only to discover that Armstrong had discontinued it in the 6 months since we first ordered it for our house. Thanks to an incredibly persistent and wonderful Lowes’ employee (Melissa – you know who you are!), we scrounged up another couple boxes – one for the Airstream and one as a spare for our home. I have higher hopes for the durability of this flooring. It seems a little harder finish and has a groove so the edges shouldn’t be as susceptible to moisture. The color is lighter, and seems to brighten things up. (What is that pole thing on the left? Stay tuned.)
The one mistake we made was to decide to run it all the way to the bathroom door, taking out the vinyl(?) tiles that were in front of the bathroom sink. Big mistake. Those tiles are attached to the plywood underneath with some glue that does not let go. The tiles split in nasty splinter-y layers, the plywood underneath came up in chunks, and every little ¼” piece didn’t want to budge, making the whole removal of about 3 square feet take hours. Just a nightmare all around. When we finally finished getting it up, we had to use floor leveler to fill the gouges so we had a decent surface to the put the laminate on (it floats on a thin layer of foam underlayment). It looks good, though, and means we didn’t have to have lay down a threshold until the shower/toilet door. 