Common House flooring
From: Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcomeolympus.net)
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2011 11:08:58 -0800 (PST)
At RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend, WA, our common house has been in use for more than ten years. Dining room/great room floor is "smart" certified oak and beautiful. The more so as there is a design inlaid in a square in the center of the floor (the parquetry area is about 14x14 and mirrors an overhead coffer in the ceiling there). As we often clear the center and gather in a circle, it's pretty to have the center marked that way.

Kitchen, and what was the young children's play room are Marmoleum. I have that in my home kitchen as well. It is really attractive, and dropped dishes almost bounce! Easy under foot. The drawback is that the material WILL nick, and will etch if you spill chemicals (like some dishwasher chemicals) on it. I'd do it again, though. Make sure any nails in the subfloor are solidly hammered down: if they work up, they will make visible bumps in the Marmoleum.

Foyer, bathrooms and hallways are a stony tile, which is easy to clean and looks fine.

Good mats inside and outside doors are very important for keeping dirt from tracking in. We also are a shoes-off common house. (This is a fairly common custom in homes in our town.) Residents keep slippers in their foyer cubbies. Baskets of loaner slippers are next to front hall benches. For dances, people bring special shoes and change from their street shoes. Only those who must wear shoes for reasons of disability or age keep shoes on.

Someone asked about cork flooring - check with Sharingwood in Snohomish WA, I think they have that.

Our rec room, with pingpong and foosball tables, was originally floored with recycled scrap flooring from a demolition site. The multi- colored pattern that resulted looked cool, but the wood turned out to be laden with MOLD. Several of us couldn't even enter the room. An expensive re-do replaced it with bamboo, which is really pretty, but cost a lot.

A floor-maintenance help is our built-in vacuum system. I thought it silly at the time, but really appreciate it now. A small portable upright vac is useful when there is just a little rug to do. Presently the only rug is in front of the hearth at one end of our dining room where the sofas are.

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
www.rosewind.org
where spring flowers are in bud and we have a couple of resale homes available

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