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Conservation, Repair & Restoration Procedures for Linoleum Rugs & Sheet Flooring

Linoleum Floor restoration, repair or technical conservation.

This article series provides information about linoleum flooring: the history of linoleum, linoleum ingredients, and the properties of linoleum resilient or sheet floor coverings.

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Linoleum Floor Repair, Restoration & Conservation

Linoleum, 1933 version, floral rug pattern restoration and care advice (C) InspectApedia.com DB

Question: I want to restore or clean up this 1933 Linoleum floral rug

I have pulled up carpet in a 1933 home to find this linoleum carpet.

This linoleum is in great shape and I want assistance to restore it or clean it up!

[Click to enlarge any image]

Moderator reply: Cleaning, maintaining, restoring antique linoleum flooring

First: before doing anything to the linoleum it's important to assess its overall condition, both the exposed surface and the general condition of the backer.

Linoleum was invented in 1860 by Frederick Walton and was intended for use first as a ship deck covering (battleship linoleum up to 1/2" thick).

Earlier, in the 1700s, non-woven floor coverings were made of oil cloth - heavy canvas coated with wax or oils (for water resistance and durability) that were then painted. Understanding how your particular linoleum floor was made and what are its constituents will be helpful in deciding how best to repair and protect it.

If the linoleum is quite fragile and in particular if it is both fragile (cracks, crumbles easily) and is installed over an uneven surface, I'm not optimistic that it's economical to salvage the floor, except in the most important historical cases where a conservator is at work.

If the linoleum design was printed onto the surface (not inlaid in it) AND if the design is missing or worn through, the flooring is not economically restorable by a homeowner.

As you say your floor is in good condition, then taking care not to damage when moving furniture, clear the floor and clean its surface.

The most common advice is to clean the linoleum surface of any wax residues. While some recipes are more aggressive (e.g. using ammonia in solution), it's always best to start with the most-mild, least risky cleaner, such vinegar, dish soap, and clean water, as advised by the Wisconsin Historical Society, quoted below.

When the floor is clean inspect for and repair small cracks using color-matched shellac sticks as a binder/filler/adhesive.

When you're satisfied with the surface appearance, apply a gentle coat of carnauba wax to the surface as a protective coating.

Repair Your Damaged Historic Linoleum

Mohawk Fil-Stik wax crayons for furniture scratch repair may help in some linoleum rug restoration work (C) InspectApdia.com - Adapted & Expanded from Wisconsin Historical Society

Follow the three steps below to repair your original linoleum:

Clean the linoleum surface with 1/4 cup of white vinegar and several drops of a liquid dishwashing detergent mixed in a five-gallon bucket of hot water. Rinse the cleaned surface with clear water to remove all the dirt and reveal the appearance of the original linoleum surface.

Repair cracks, small tears and gouges in the surface by filling them with shellac. Most woodworking supply companies on the internet sell shellac sticks for repairing furniture finishes.

These shellac sticks come in a variety of colors that can be mixed to match the affected areas of your linoleum. Follow the manufacturer's directions to install the shellac stick.

Really? Well not quite. Scratch restore sticks are provided in two forms: wax that can actually fill a gouge in a surface, and in felt-tip markers. Felt tip markers or pens contain a combination of coloring pigment, oils, resins, and solvents.

They're not simply "shellac". The furniture repair "system" shown here is by Mowhawk and includes browns, tans, and a reddish-brown cherry color. These waxes are applied by pressure to a clean surface and do not require heat.

Other colors found on a linoleum rug or sheet flooring such as greens, bright reds, orange, yellow, blue, will be harder to find in a furniture repair kit, but you might have some success with very careful use of felt tip markers of those colors.

BIC permanent ink markers may help restore scratched or small areas of color loss on antique linoleum rugs (C) InspectApedia.com

BIC provides a 24-color permanent ink marker kit intended for craft use. Shop at an office supplier unless you want to buy a box of 56 of these kits at Walmart.

Watch out: some marking pen ink can be removed by soap and water and won't work well as a color fill-in on a linoleum repair. Other felt tip marker ink used by some brands is referred to as "permanent" and thus very difficult to remove.

Use a sharp point marker and "color within the lines" of the repair area on your linoleum rug. Practice working at an edge or an unobtrusive area first.

Other furniture restore repair kits use softer waxes sold in tubes (too soft for flooring) while still other such repair kits require the use of a heated implement - not something I've tried on linoleum.

Wax the linoleum surface with a carnauba-based floor wax, which is similar to car wax. Carnauba is derived from a plant and produces a durable finish. Follow the wax manufacturer's application instructions closely.

- Source: Repairing Linoleum Flooring in Your Historic Building, Wisconsin Historical Society, retrieved 2020/07/19 original source: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS4201
Note: Contact Jen Davel by phone at 608-264-6490 or by email:jen.davel@wisconsinhistory.org

Resources for Linoleum Flooring or Linoleum Rug Restoration

Waterlogged linoleum conservation, Coke 2005, cited at InspectApedia.com

Illustration: fragment of water-logged linoleum from the Lake Champlain wreck of the Sloop Island canal boat (Coke 2005) cited below. The 97 foot long canal boat was excavated in 2002, located off Charlotte, Vermont.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Linoleum rug tested found no asbestos (C) InspectApedia.com Christine

Red brick pattern linoleum badly damaged (C) InspectApedia.com reader


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