Floor Coverings - Ahh Yeah!

[FightingFish]

Hi folks,

Background: My wife and I have been renovating an old house. The original section was built in 1850. Added on to in 1900, 1950, and 1980. It's kind of a monstrosity. We've redone the bathroom, the living room, and the stairwell. So here we are, fixing up the kitchen. The hearth of the home.

I'm looking for any advice on flooring for the kitchen. The three main contenders are: Hardwood, Tile, & Rubber flooring. Hardwood is our favorite so far. We are thinking Antique oak, gunstock. That's a Lowe's description. Anybody got any kitchen flooring advice?

[Mangyrat]

Hi folks,

Background: My wife and I have been renovating an old house. The original section was built in 1850. Added on to in 1900, 1950, and 1980. It's kind of a monstrosity. We've redone the bathroom, the living room, and the stairwell. So here we are, fixing up the kitchen. The hearth of the home.

I'm looking for any advice on flooring for the kitchen. The three main contenders are: Hardwood, Tile, & Rubber flooring. Hardwood is our favorite so far. We are thinking Antique oak, gunstock. That's a Lowe's description. Anybody got any kitchen flooring advice?

I personally like the wood floor look.
If you have wood in the rest of the house i would do the kitchen in wood also just so you don't have 2 or 3 different floor coverings.

[JiveTurkey]

The kitchen floor can take a lot of abuse, relative to the rest of the house (save the bathroom). Maybe look into Pergo.

We also like hardwood and have it everywhere but the bathroom (linoleum), kitchen (Pergo with wood pattern), and living room will eventually be hardwood (it wasn't there originally, just carpet).

[buzz]

I'm looking for any advice on flooring for the kitchen. <snip> Anybody got any kitchen flooring advice?

Yep, go with what the wife wants.

Just ask cinda.

[heftysmokes]

What is the cabinet material you have or plan to have? I personally like the contrast of a tile against wood grain cabinets. One thing to remember with tile; grout stains. So if you're tiling the kitchen you might want to look at a dark colored grout.
I also agree with mangy in that if you have wood in the rest of the house, it's nice to keep it consistent.

[FightingFish]

Thanks for the replies. The cabinets in the kitchen are oak, there was a real country theme going on. We stripped the wallpaper, painted the kneeboard white, and the walls elephant grey. We are going for more of a classic kinda look. Anyways, the majority of the house is hardwood. Is pergo more durable then hardwood? Less maintenance?

[badwhale]

Thanks for the replies. The cabinets in the kitchen are oak, there was a real country theme going on. We stripped the wallpaper, painted the kneeboard white, and the walls elephant grey. We are going for more of a classic kinda look. Anyways, the majority of the house is hardwood. Is pergo more durable then hardwood? Less maintenance?

AFAIK, Pergo is significantly less expensive, easier to install and is waterproof. On the other hand, it's not real wood.

A couple places in our house, we're putting down what is called engineered hardwood, which is layered hardwood plywood, and the top piece (in our case) is like 1/8 or 3/16" thick hardwod. It's real wood, sorta.

I'd be wary of hardwood in the kitchen just for durability with water spills etc.

Will

[buzz]

AFAIK, Pergo is significantly less expensive, easier to install and is waterproof. On the other hand, it's not real wood.

A couple places in our house, we're putting down what is called engineered hardwood, which is layered hardwood plywood, and the top piece (in our case) is like 1/8 or 3/16" thick hardwod. It's real wood, sorta.

I'd be wary of hardwood in the kitchen just for durability with water spills etc.

Will

I've heard that laminates (like Pergo) have a "fake tappy" sound and feel to them.

IIRC, Engineered wood can only be sanded/refinished once or twice.

We have tile right now and soon the wifey will have worn me down enough to take that out and go with stained concrete.

Shag carpeting might be cool... just sayin

[heftysmokes]

Lately we have been doing a lot of looking / research into flooring and have found you can find nice hardwood and/or Engineered hardwood for the price of good laminate. If you go the laminate route make sure you go with something at least 12mm (that's including the attached pad). That thickness really helps with deadening that horrible "fake tappy" sound Buzz alluded to. Drop a set of car keys on cheap lam and it makes a sound like an explosion.
As far as water damage, laminate is just as susceptible, if not more, than hardwood. If water gets into the seams of cheap lam, it swells the sublaminate. Then you get a warped and swollen seam that you can't sand away. The better laminates have waxed joints to help prevent this.

Of course, your best bet is to ask the professionals. I'm not a doctor, I just play one on tv

[craig]

The more a kitchen is used/stood in, the more you might want to consider Pirelli industrial flooring.

ETA: It is called "Activa" these days.

[FightingFish]

The more a kitchen is used/stood in, the more you might want to consider Pirelli industrial flooring.

ETA: It is called "Activa" these days.

These studded tiles are the rubber flooring I am interested in. I actually like the idea of a commercial look to the kitchen floor. We had thought about cement floor, but don't think we could support the weight.

[CoventryCat86]

I'm a fan of hardwood flooring. I would recommend raw wood (as opposed to pre-finished), finished with a primer and at least two coats of oil based polyurethane. My step-son is a flooring contractor and that's what he recommends. He's installed hundreds of floors and knows his $hit. I know it's tempting to try and do it yourself but DO NOT DO THAT. Installing hardwood floors really needs to be done by someone who specializes in just that who has experience doing it. You have to have done the sub-floor properly, let the flooring acclimate to your house, meaning that you have to store the flooring material in the room where you plan to install it for at least three weeks to let it stabilize, check the moisture of the sub-flooring and the flooring itself, etc. There's even more to it than that, I'm just repeating only a small percentage of the things that absolutely need to be considered and taken care of after listening to my step-son describe how he does this. Like I said, it's not easy if you want it to come out right and last for a while.

Don't get fancy, go with red oak, don't even think about pine or anything soft, it will look like crap in no time.

[mrtr33]

Go nuts. Go with cork.

[CoventryCat86]

Go nuts. Go with cork.

Cork is only good for stoppers in wine bottles.

[bmock50]

Copper flooring is ~$1.44 sqft

http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com...-flooring.html

[ggiese]

Can't go wrong with carpeting - it evenly covers all kinds of sins.

[badwhale]

Can't go wrong with carpeting - it evenly covers all kinds of sins.

.........

[cinda]

Copper flooring is ~$1.44 sqft

http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com...-flooring.html

I was thinking who would do that and target their house for the people looking to cut copper out of your house for a few dollars. Then I though 1.44? what is he talking about? OMG what a kewl idea I like it!

[CoventryCat86]

Copper flooring is ~$1.44 sqft

http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com...-flooring.html

Hey dumbass, what about adhesive and finish?

By the way, where are you getting your "$1.44 sqft" number from? Oh, okay 12x12 sqft blocks of pennies, no shit, I had no idea that pennies were a fucking inch in diameter.

I don't know what country you're finding your pennies in but in the USA and Canada they're 3/4" in diameter which means you need at least 256 (16x16) of them to cover a square foot, not 144 which is $2.56 sqft (your price almost doubled, didn't it?) and like I said, that still doesn't include adhesive and whatever expensive epoxy you plan on sealing/covering it with.

Of course it's also highly illegal to use currency like this in the United States, check "TITLE 18, PART I, CHAPTER 17, 331. Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins" of the US Code and see what can happen to one's sorry ass if they get caught.

[heftysmokes]

Maybe he's just squishing them, like those souvenir penny machines?


Actually, this got me curious and a little digging turned up this:

As you are already aware, a federal statute in the criminal code of the United States (18 U.S.C. 331), indeed makes it illegal if one "fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales or lightens" any U.S. coin. However, being a criminal statute, a fraudulent intent is required for violation. Thus, the mere act of compressing coins into souvenirs is not illegal, without other factors being present.

Section 475, which you refer to in your letter, regarding the attachment of notice or advertisement to legal tender, does not apply to your souvenirs in this case. Your are not impressing or attaching a business or professional card, notice or advertisement to a coin, your are simply making an impression on the coin.

We hope this information answers your question. If we can be of any further assistance, please contact us.

Sincerely,

Kenneth B. Gubin
Counsel to the Mint.

I actually did, on the vanity in the kids' bathroom, the same thing they did on the floor. And if they did theirs like I did my vanity, they didn't "alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales or lightens" the pennies. They are encased, but not destroyed in any way. I suppose if I was really in a bind for a 12 pack I could dig out the $17 worth of pennies.