Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: ? Wood floors in CommonHouse?

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Diana Carroll <dianaecarroll [at] gmail.com>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after deleting numerous quoted messages.

Please delete and unneeded quoted material.
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------


I'm with Ann.  The "don't walk on the floor with shoes" rule seems akin to
the folks who cover their nice soft couches with gross plastic wrap.  It's
true, it makes the couch last longer, but why even bother having a nice
couch if you do that?

At Mosaic Commons we have oak floors in our "main" CH room, finished with
Osmo oil.  We discussed a no-shoes policy, and while some were in favor,
there were more who either would choose not to go in very often if that
were a rule (like me) or who actually physically require shoes to be able
to walk comfortably and healthily (like my son who has been told by his
podiatrist to *always* wear his orthotic inserts.)

When evaluating floors for my own home, I initially leaned toward bamboo,
but I was told by a few people that "hard" doesn't equal "no scratches".
While bamboo might be hard and durable by some measures, apparently it gets
roughed up pretty quick, and since I have three non-gentle sons, I went
with oak.  (I also got a high tech water based acrylic finish that is
rumored to hold up better than poly urethane.  We've had the floors for
just two years, so we shall see.)

- Diana