Fixing a slippery floor

If, by some secret technique, you already knew that things were going to go amazingly well for you in the future, you'd feel relaxed and confident all of your life. You'd believe that no matter how bad things might look in the present, you've already come out on top in the future. This kind of faith in your fate would change everything. You could afford to be patient with cats, cocky about plumbing, and supportive toward stupider relatives.

Believing in your own glowing future, even though everyone else gave up on you in Grade 6, can be a form of denial. But there's a metaphysical possibility that believing it'll all turn out well could actually improve the future. Your faith in a positive outcome will stop you from hurling your drill during home repair fiascos, which cuts down on redecorating costs after repair jobs. See? You're already richer and more successful.

And this brings me to a letter from a reader, who can use my newfound belief system to deal with his home repair challenges.

Dear Mag,

I'm hoping that you can help me with this problem because it has stumped several friends of mine including some contractors. We have this section of flooring in our bathroom and hallway that is extremely slippery. I'm not a real whiz when it comes to household stuff so I can only describe the floor as being the regular tile that you normally would find in say, a kitchen. It is very common with kind of a plasticky feel on the surface and it can bend because it's not very thick. Anyway, one section of our floor is extremely slippery. I don't know why it is like this. We've tried washing it with various cleaning solutions including vinegar. I have a sneaking suspicion that our daughter cleaned it with orange oil once but she doesn't remember. I'm hoping that you may have an answer for me because I'm getting tired of warning people about this area so that they don't wipe out and fall down. Thanks.

Albert Yee

Hi Albert. I'm not sure how old your daughter is, but if she's less than, say, 85, it's a mystery that she can't remember whether she used that orange oil on the floor! Citrus cleaners are great cleaning products but they do contain citric acid, which melts some plastics. Your slick section of vinyl flooring could be a result of the plastic topcoat being subtly melted and smoothed by, say, a citrus-based product. You have several options for correcting the slipping hazard, but most of them are lame. Don't say I didn't warn you.

1. Lightly sand the floor surface to cause microscopic scratches that will provide some traction. If your flooring is old and brittle this isn't an acceptable solution because old vinyl contained asbestos and you don't want to release asbestos particles into the air.
2. An emergency solution can be provided by traction tape, which is designed for slippery surfaces. About an inch wide, traction tape has a sanded finish on one side, and an adhesive coating on the other side. It's available at home centers and hardware stores in small rolls of various colours. Install lengths of the tape on the slippery area. The repair will be extremely effective and also butt ugly.
3. Paint the floor with friction paint, an acrylic formulation that includes gritty flecks of sand to give the surface some traction. It probably won't look good for long, because it's difficult for any type of paint to adhere well to vinyl, especially in heavy traffic areas.
4. Replace the floor and hide the orange oil.
5. When you entertain, try the old musical theatre trick so you don't have to stand beside the bathroom door all night yelling at your guests to be careful. We used to mop the stage with a weak solution of water and Coca Cola prior to every evening's performance. The sugary film made our soles stick to the stage so there were no embarrassing wipe outs, although I still managed a few, including the time I landed on my bum and my wig fell off and rolled into the orchestra pit. (If I'd known that my future in musical theatre would be so short, I wouldn't have laughed hysterically through the remainder of the first act.)