All Entries in the "Floors" Category
Bamboo Floors – Need-to-Know Basis for the Green Decorator in You
When people are talking about flooring, they are usually referring to the traditional materials, such as oak wood, but there are also some other materials to be taken into consideration, like bamboo. The bamboo flooring sounds somewhat exotic and it is due to the color it has.
It is naturally light in color, but it could also receive a darker caramel nuance due to the process known as ‘carbonization’. A really big advantage of this kind of flooring is that is has a small environmental footprint, since it is a renewable resource.
Everybody knows how bamboo looks like, but it might be a little more difficult to imagine how the floor looks like.
The bamboo floor looks just like any other kind of floor, the only difference is that a plank is made of numerous small strips of bamboo that have been milled together and then glued together.
The interesting thing about bamboo is that it looks like wood, it feels like wood, acts like wood, but still officially isn’t considered to be wood. Even more, bamboo is considered to be a kind of grass; so there is no wonder why trends consider this type of flooring to be ‘green’.
Hard Floor Details You Should Be on a Lookout For
When thinking about renovating a home there is more to consider than just the walls – there is also the floor that you have to make decisions about. Nowadays there are many different kinds of flooring, and this is why it is difficult to distinguish the high quality ones.
The solid wood strip floors or the prefinished hardwood floors, as they are mostly called, are usually 4 inches wide or less and the kind of flooring that is wider than 4 inches is usually poorly designed. The disadvantage of the prefinished flooring is that it shrinks during the winter and you can’t screw or peg a prefinished floor.
In the first instance, you should consider looking for 2 ¼ inch and 3 ¼ inch sizes of the strip floor. When buying this kind of flooring, you should ask the salesperson to allow you to open a box of flooring and to assemble it on a table. There are some people that are reluctant about allowing you to do so, but you wouldn’t buy a car without testing it first, right? This is just the same thing.
Hardwood Floor Maintenance in Home Decoration
Wooden floors bring in warmth and elegance to any room. They add a lot of character and charm to the entire house. Wood flooring may be either solid hard wood flooring or parquet flooring.
Either way it requires special care and maintenance to keep its beauty untouched over time. There is plenty that you can do to keep the floors looking good.
Before you decide to start any kind of repair or maintenance finish, it is essential to know the type of finish used on the floor.
Older wooden floors will generally have shellac, lacquer or varnish finish whereas the newer floors will be finished with polyurethane.
In order to be sure about it, choose a hidden area of the floor and dip some cotton in acetone or acetone based nail paint remover. Rub it gently on the area chosen.
If the cotton ball is stained and the floor looks tacky, then it has been finished with shellac, lacquer or varnish. If the cotton remains clean and the floor smooth, then polyurethane has been used to finish the floor.
How To Install A Floating Wood Floor?
Why you would want a floating wood floor? Because it is warm, nice to feel under you, fit, elegant, cheaper than hardwood and easy to install.
The first step is to measure exactly the surface you will cover with the floating floor. If you have a house drawing you use for taxes you can use the dimensions from it. If not, simple measuring will do the trick.
As necessary materials are concerned you can get them all from flooring to finish trim from any hardware store.
Ask for the shop assistant’s help to get all that you need. Keep in mind that reported to the amount of traffic you are going to have in that room the thickness of the planks may differ from one room to another.
For starters, you have to make sure that the floor is perfectly straight. If not, you should apply a layer of self leveling concrete which usually dries in 48 hours.
When the layer is dry, apply the foam underlayment which will keep the humidity away from the flooring. The foam underlayment has different levels of thickness so make sure you pick the one suitable for your type of floating floor.
Engineered Flooring For A Better Home
If you are building a new home or looking to remodel your existing home, you should consider the benefits of using engineered flooring as opposed to traditional flooring. Engineered flooring has become the material of choice for more and more homeowners today.
Essentially, engineered flooring imitates the conventional floor board, making it look exactly alike. They are usually made out of plywood, high density fiber board, and are composed of several layers of each topped with genuine hardwood.
Because the core of the floor is made up of several layers, it makes your floor much stronger than traditional flooring material and also helps to protect against expansion.
There are many other reasons why engineered flooring is the material of choice for homeowners today. These are some of the other benefits:
1. Engineered flooring is very easy to do yourself and install. It makes for a fun and simple do-it-yourself project, which will require only very little money.
2. Engineered flooring, because of how it’s made and the material it’s made from, is stronger and more versatile than traditional flooring and therefore can be used in areas in your home you typically wouldn’t use hardwood.
The Look Of Vintage Wood For A Trendy Bathroom Floor
It looks like wood, does it not? Well… think again! It is pure ceramic.
More precisely, Ironwood wood effect ceramic tiles by Fondovalle will charm you by its ability to mix the beauty and functionality of both materials.
Not only that it has that beautiful effect of comfort and style, but its structure is solid enough to last for more than a lifetime.
If you decide to place these wonderful creations inside your home, you can choose out of different colors: Black Burnt, Oak, White, Walnut finishes, both simple and painted with lovely flower details.
The dimensions also vary: from 36 by 6 inches to 36 by 8 inches, and they can be applied on walls, floors or other places that come into your mind, places that can be enhanced by their color and style.
Both warm and practical, the wood effect ceramic tiles by Fondovalle will surely give you the comfort and pleasure you are looking for in a finishing.
The Italian creators at Fondovalle use the newest techniques and of course the most stylish materials in order to impregnate their decorations collections with the maximum of elegance. You will be convinced of that if you visit their website and the rest of their pieces.
Bamboo Flooring Versus Harwood Flooring, What Should You Pick?
There are several things to consider when you’re picking the right kind of flooring for your home or work area, and if you have narrowed it down to bamboo and hardwood, then it is important to consider exactly what would be right for you, weighing the pros and cons of both options.
Bamboo is a better option ecologically speaking. Hard wood trees take a very long time to grow and mature, cutting them down for wood does have a very big ecological impact.
Bamboo on the other hand is actually a kind of grass which is very fast growing and yields the kind of wood that is ecologically more desirable to use. Bamboo can be harvested in as little as three years and is therefore considered to be a rapidly renewable resource.
You cannot beat the appeal that hardwood flooring has, however they can be expensive to install and maintain. Though the strength and durability of hard wood flooring is hard to match, bamboo is a close second in terms of strength and durability.
Also bamboo is said to have better resistance to water than hardwood flooring however it does have the drawback of showing stains rather easily, which are also more difficult to get rid of.
Rubber Flooring, An Array Of Imagination For Home Decor
Most of the rubber flooring that is in use in today’s flooring makes use of the rubber mats that are carefully engineered and designed.
These rubber mats are ideal for home rubber floor installations.
Rubber flooring is quite common in homes and commercial gyms in most places around the world.
The workout rooms and weight rooms are places that require the use of rubber floors for their many activities.
Different types of rubber flooring
Rubber floors come in wide variety of types and designs, the type of the rubber floor to be used depends on the room concerned.
There are so many places that we can give example of when it comes to the different rubber floor installations required, these places are; Martial arts rooms, Boxing gyms and judo houses. The types of rubber flooring include; Martial arts mats, Karate Mats, Gymnastics Mats, Folding exercise Mats, Jujitsu Mats, and many others to mention.
In general you will realise that in any places that sporting activities are carried out there is certainly a need for rubber floor installation. One other type of flooring that we should not overlook is the trade show flooring or the exhibit flooring.
Why People Are Turning To Laminate Flooring?
For the past 25 years, the laminate flooring industry has been one of the fastest growing industries in the United States.
Invented in 1977 by the Swedish company Pergo, it was first marketed in Europe and reached the U.S. in 1994.
Since then, its popularity has risen steadily, and for several very good reasons.
Laminate flooring is made up of synthetic materials to imitate the look of natural wood or stone. The manufacturing process may be either direct pressure or high pressure laminate, with the difference being in the number of layers – three and five respectively.
The laminate floor consists of a high-density core of fiberboard that has been treated with water-repellant chemicals, and then covered with an outer decorative appliqué and an aluminum oxide finish.
One of the biggest attractions of laminate flooring is its ease and relatively low cost of installation compared to wood or stone. Each plank or tile of laminate material is designed to be set into place with the next without the necessity of staples, nails, glue or cement.
The flooring then “floats” on a foam or film under-layer over the sub-floor, thus providing sound and moisture-reducing properties.
How To Select A Laminate Or Solid Floor Covering?
Decades ago a wooden floor was a big expense involving craftsmen and a lot of diligent maintenance.
Today this has all changed and the scope for hardwood flooring is infinite.
In fact the choice is now so vast that making the right choice can be quite tough.
Laminate flooring is a product that is made up of many layers of wood bonded together and is available in two different depths, three and five ply.
It is much more stable than other flooring because of the way that the various grains of wood run in differing directions. This therefore ensures that it will contract and expand far less than a traditional wood in fluctuating temperatures.
For areas like basements this type of material is ideal, in fact anywhere that a more solid approach is impossible for whatever reasons. It comes in many different varieties of wood all of which come in a range of colors, so there is bound to be something that suits both your style and taste.
