Cohousing-L Mailing List: Flooring the common house

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

At RoseWind Cohousing, our CH now has walls, roof, windows and doors, a 
front porch, interior framing, and roughed-in plumbing and electrical. We 
are getting down to details, but some rather broad ones still to be 
decided. Flooring is the next major one, and shared information could be 
very useful. 

FLOORING: 
We plan a WOODEN floor in the great room (dining room)(about 900 sq ft) , 
and probably non-wooden flooring elsewhere (1800 sq ft) , in our entry 
foyer, halls, lavatories, rec, youth, kitchen. We have ruled out laminate 
flooring, and stone tile. Our subfloor is plywood, not concrete. Several 
years ago, I looked into BAMBOO flooring material (Plyboo) but was told 
it had warping problems. Any update? Some want wooden flooring in the 
front hall, too. I am concerned that even with many people changing into 
slippers, and dirt-catching mats on the front porch and door area, others 
will still be in dirty shoes and a wooden floor in the front hall would 
still get dirty and scratched up in fairly short order. Experience?

In the KITCHEN, we are concerned to have good resistance to water, and 
slipping, and yet be able to mop it smoothly. What have people found with 
the kitchen floor choices they made? Is anyone using that rubber flooring 
that has slightly raised round bumps on it? With conventional vinyl or 
linoleum, is there something more watertight at the edges than 
conventional cove molding? Is there flooring that extends up the wall a 
bit, like a built-in molding?

As for the non-wood floor areas in general: 
Real LINOLEUM, like Marmoleum, is fairly costly to buy and install, but 
seems easy to maintain, durable, and comfortable underfoot.
VC Tile, vinyl composition tile, is cheap, durable, and looks ever so 
institutional (picture most schools, hospitals, rec centers, etc, in 
12-inch squares.) Cold, too.
STONE is expensive and cold underfoot.  
Sheet VINYL seems soft and chemical. 
Floor PAINT is a possibility, though I think we figured some flooring 
depth into our door threshholds, and don't know if it would be a problem 
(ADA or general tripping) to have a change in level at a doorway. Seems a 
painted floor would be a lot harder to keep clean. 

What about CORK? I keep seeing references to it as an ecological and 
durable choice, but I don't know if I've ever seen it in use. Does it 
have to look like acres of bulletin board? Can it be colored? Is it 
readily available? What about cost and maintenance? 

Any OTHER suggestions?

Thanks a lot. 
Lynn Nadeau
RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend
where our last two lots (for families number 23 and 24) go up for sale 
February 1. 
Our recently updated web site tells more. www.olypen.com/sstowell/rosewind/