Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: common house flooring-questions

[Charles Shipman (starfox1010]

Here is an URL to a study of flooring used in hospitals. It is from 2010 but 
appears to provide some good overall information.

https://practicegreenhealth.org/sites/default/files/upload-files/resilientflooring_paper_r8.pdf
 
<https://practicegreenhealth.org/sites/default/files/upload-files/resilientflooring_paper_r8.pdf>


Charles Shipman

> On Mar 14, 2018, at 3:28 PM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> 
> wrote:
> 
>> 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
> 
> 
> 
> 
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