Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering Re: Pre-finished hardwood floor vs pre-finished timber floating 57Nov 17, 2007 11:04 am Yak_Chat Casa, If it's no maintenance your after then tiles is the only option. Unbelievable! No maintenance is an option maybe, but the grout will normally become pretty gungey, as well as the face of the tiles. Maintenance of tiles is quite necessary, and cleaning the grout can be a nightmare, unless you pay a professional to clean it. I clean carpets, starting at about $3.30 per sq/m. I clean tiles& grout starting at about $5.50 per sq/m. You might have noticed that many of the carpet cleaners you mention are also cleaning tiles too. There are SO MANY misconceptions about floorcovering maintenance, it's hard to know where to start!!!!! Ash. Re: Pre-finished hardwood floor vs pre-finished timber floating 58Nov 17, 2007 11:47 am Allright Ash - I don't mean absolutely no maintenance.
Of course everthing needs a sweep, a clean, a vacuum, a resurfacing, a sealing or something during it's used life. But would you not agree that if you are looking for an relatively easy maintain and clean, non staining, hard wearing surface..... Tiles are certainly at or very near the top of the list? Slate is in my experience, a bit too soft and even with a sealant can be damaged by chairs etc scraping across them. And horses iron clad hooves !!!! Marble and marble like stone materials are expensive and not all that hard wearing or durable. Timber - as we all know needs some care or it too gets scuffed and scratched. Carpet is nice and warm and as you've explained, very good for air quality - but it's not loved by all, and needs regular cleaning to be kept at it's best. And having lived in the extreme climes of the world (tropic to the Artic zones) with a mix of all of these surfaces, I'd put tiles as one of the easier to manage surfaces in a house when children and extended periods of - low maintenance are desired. Which I think is what casa is referring to. And is there not a way of sealing trhe grout between the tiles? But one thing with tiles that does need to be considered, they can make a hous damn noisy - so soft furnishings on the walls and rugs help to stop that echo echo echo feeling. In the tropics (where tiles are even more suited) this not such an issue as you tend to leave the lourves and windows open all the time. Steve Re: Pre-finished hardwood floor vs pre-finished timber floating 59Nov 17, 2007 12:17 pm I was originally going for tiles in the main living area, but switched to floorboards for one reason. We have a four year old, a one year old and another on the way (due in April). We currently live in a unit and, as is mostly th case, everythign is carpeted. Our youngest on many occasions has been sitting on the carpey and fell backwards and not knowing to curlt his head up has hit the carpet with the back of his head with a thud. It's distressing enough on carpet. I'd dread to think what it would be like for tiles. Timber would not be that much better, but it's slighly better.
continues below... Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Pre-finished hardwood floor vs pre-finished timber floating 60Nov 17, 2007 12:18 pm For our proposed wooden (or tiles) main living area flooring, I've even thought of getting some sort of cloth headwear to protect the skull!
I would never put carpet in the main living area. It's either tile or wood. I don't mind carpet in bedrooms. Actually I like it. Low traffic and low chance of food spillage. However, the wife suffers from allergies and when she was a girl, living with her parents, the allergy got so bad that they had to rip out the carpet and go to floorboards. Now, if I could convince her that there is no allergy problem (dust mites), I'm sure we could get carpet in the bedrooms. We are having carpet in the theatre (acoustic, low risk of staining) and study area. I think deciding on the main living area flooring and sourcing my energy efficient sliding doors to the balcony (two 4 m wide x 2.7 m high opening) are going to take as long as selecting everything else in the house. I should add that I'm adding hydronic in-slab heating in the main living area. Even after I've decided to go for wooden floors I have to decide between engineered wood, slimwood (12mm) or normal floorboards (19 mm). Then I have to decide between direct stick or plywood underlay (batons are not an option since I want all floor levels to be the same and the air gap would not work with hydronic in-slab heating). This is how I feel: Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Hi All. I'm currently resurfacing the hardwood floors and when removing the old layers that there's a long dark line running across the boards. Does anyone know what or… 0 15080 Thanks Simon, I guess I'm no concerned with the volume of the noise rather that dead and hollow sound and feel that is associated with floating floors. But I'm not sure… 3 6425 Thanks, that's the motivation I needed to give it a try sooner rather than one day! 4 3277 |