Re: common house flooring-questions | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: kathleengroshong (kathleengroshonggmail.com) | |
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2018 19:53:15 -0700 (PDT) |
Thanks,Sharon. -------- Original message --------From: Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> Date: 3/14/18 12:28 PM (GMT-08:00) To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ common house flooring-questions > On Mar 14, 2018, at 2:35 PM, Kathleen Groshong <kathleengroshong [at] > gmail.com> wrote: > > We are considering oak flooring in dining room, or possibly marmoleum, and > marmoleum in the kitchen and > bathroom. > What has been your community's experience with oak flooring in dining room? We have oak flooring in our dining room. 17 years of use. We did not maintain it adequately in the early years so when we did finally sand it down, it had to be done 3 times to remove all the dirt and grime in the grain. And the seams had to be cleaned with an elegant instrument known a church key. It has been done again and may have to be replaced in a few years but only because of lack of maintenance. Our vintage floor person said never be late for the maintenance party. Every 1-2 years, depending on use, put on coats of polyurethane so you are wearing down the finish and not the wood. Sweep after every meal and if you don’t have regular meals, at least once a week. Dust, crumbs, etc., get ground into the finish unless it is removed. If you do that any sanding is done only to remove built up surface finish. We have had trouble with plastic feet on chairs and high chairs. One reason is that they have been taken outside for use on the concrete and been scratched, but they have also been scratched by being scraped over the floors. The flooring people confirmed that this does scratch the floors — some doubt this is possible since the plastic is theoretically softer than wood. So the feet may need to be metal, inspected and replaced, and not used outdoors. Since the feet on our chairs aren’t used anymore, we purchased everything left in the warehouse. The chairs are still wonderful but we will run out of feet. Of all the flooring we have in the CH — rugs, carpets, Marmoleum, Anderson linoleum, rubber mats — the oak flooring is my favorite. It is warm in look and feel, easily cleaned, and can be spot repaired. You can install oak flooring in a large room and use rugs to unify seating and activity areas. We have two soft seating areas in the dining room with the tables and chairs in the center of the room. You can also use squares of Marmoleum or carpet squares like FLOR if you have heavy use areas. I love the Marmoleum in the kitchen because it is soft and quiet and handles water well and is easy to clean, but in a living area it doesn’t feel “homey”. It sends the wrong signals — gym, playroom, laundry room, kitchen. Water activities. We also replaced our cork tiles a few years ago. In my opinion the cork has not held up well. Cork also requires finishing with polyurethane, but recommendations for care of cork is not consistent. Because it is a natural material people seem to think it means no maintenance. It doesn’t. The floors in the NY Public Research Library are a cork and beautiful. But they are professionally polished regularly. the feel is more like wood than a wine cork. We have cork tile in a path around the DR which marks an accessible path to the mailboxes, laundry room, etc. (don’t block the path) and quiets traffic. If you purchase cork with a hard finish applied you have the problem of wearing down the hard surface to show the cork below. It easily gouges and scratches. Replacing the tiles means different colors but cork fades fairly quickly to a common color. > For oak, what finish was used? How often is sanding required and how long > does finish last in between sandings? Purchase solid oak. Hard oak. Old as you can get. New wood is soft. Reclaimed oak floors might even be the best. Our oak is “engineered” with a laminate of oak on top. Thus it can only be refinished about 3 times. Some say only once. A real oak floor well-maintained and finished should last “forever”. For new communities, you might install something less expensive and begin saving immediately for a later installation of oak. Home Advisor has a good page comparing costs, advantages, and disadvantages of various types of flooring. https://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/flooring/install-flooring/ Sharon ---- Sharon Villines Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org _________________________________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: http://l.cohousing.org/info
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common house flooring-questions Kathleen Groshong, March 14 2018
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Re: common house flooring-questions Sharon Villines, March 14 2018
- Re: common house flooring-questions Charles Shipman, March 15 2018
- Re: common house flooring-questions kathleengroshong, March 16 2018
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Re: common house flooring-questions Sharon Villines, March 14 2018
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