flooring advice :-)

hello lovely people,
need your help and opinions about floorings and coverings as the 30+ year old carpet in our living room has died

we spend pretty much all our time in this room and we tend to use it as our entry point aswell. There are 3 kids and 3 dogs (and occasional sheep / chook ) so it would have to be super hardwearing.

the room is sandwiched between the kitchen and the formal living room both of which have beautiful rimu floors (house is farmhouse about 100yr old) so am unwilling to go with laminate.

considered carpet but worry about sunfade / staining / dust (mild allergies).
the sub floor is a real mish mash so think work to put a real wood floor in would be huge.
love the idea of cork but how will it hold up to dogs?? same with leather??
Also does anyone have any experince with strand bamboo??

argghh so many questions :confused: what works in your house?

thanks in advance

Have you considered industrial carpet? It is finer/tougher/easier to clean than household carpet, and I think possibly cheaper.

Have lived with cork before - and it faded. We're thinking about bamboo for a kitchen/dining room presently, so will be interested to hear others experiences. Can't beat a good quality, cut pile carpet in the main family/living room in my opinion. And a good quality vacuum cleaner might solve the heavy use/animal hair problems you mention. We recently purchased a Wertheim - the one with a vibrating motor head. Just love it.

We had cork tiles in the family home, they were polyurethaned and never really faded that much over 20 years.
Bamboo looks nice and gives a look of warmth but I understand not at all suitable for wet areas eg kitchen. Or pherhas it could have a really good sealant to overcome this

We're busy renovating this year and have the same issues. After investigating every choice of flooring we're going to rip up the 30yr+ carpet throughout the house and put down plywood plank (2.4m x 1.2m sheets, just choose your thickness, and cut to the width of plank that you want). The reasons for a hard floor....it comes down purely to cost (I have better things to do with all the $$$ they were wanting). For instance:
- $8000-$10,000 for carpet, plus underlay, plus installation so about $15,000 to $18,000
- $7000-$9000 for Gerfloor vinyl plus installation (can't take a roller chair going across it:rolleyes:)
- $14,000 for 'hardwood floor' planks (thin coloured ply over crappy pine tongue n groove), plus installation

The 40 sheets of ply we can get for $1600, we rip it into 2.4m x 200mm wide planks and lay over the subfloor (great 'how tos' on Google), stain or paint, then coats of urethane over the top - and heh presto we have a 'hardwood floor' that they wanted $14,000 for to the exact colour of our choice. It just costs us our time.

We want to be able to walk through, have no asthma issues, and have the one floor throughout....and not have to win lotto to do it! Our builder is looking forward to doing it, and seeing how it holds up. From my googling it isn't that worse wear-wise than what the stores are selling as 'hard wood' floors (they are after all a ply veneer over pine tng).

We have cork in the dining room and kitchen, its faded, the urethane has yellowed (35yr old urethane of the time so not surprised), and though soft under foot is hideous. I'm thinking of painting the cork tiles in the kitchen...such handy squares to use to make an interesting paint pattern.

I would love to see and hear how the ply flooring goes! is it ok in wet areas too?

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Remrem - from what I've found on the net (blogs of people that have done similar) its no different to any other type of flooring. Its been done in houses and commercial premises and from the photos holds up really well.

We're going to use the same ply in the bathroom and laundry...I just might add extra coats of urethane (this is after the paint or stain has gone on - so multiple coats to seal it). I've yet to find a blog stating any negatives in the wet areas. Though in saying that, its not like we'll be having indoor swimming pools when we shower! A towel down on the floor and dry off before stepping out - just like we did as kids back in the days when the floors in bathrooms was tng with painted walls. If you're used to splashing about and rinsing the entire bathroom as you shower - then I'd imagine that you might have issues eventually. Happy to post photos once we've got the first rooms done...might take awhile as the year has just started and this is planned to be done by Xmas.

awesome I've done some googling but would love to see pics from you once done. we are looking at a five-ten year plan so no rush! I'm a dry then step out person too - hubby not so much but no flood so sounds like it would be fine.

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Wow, a real nightmare trying to satisfy your requirements!

Fading issues eliminates wool and wool rich carpets, yet of the carpets, is one of the better choices for hard wearing options as no man made fibre can match the natural resilience of wool.

Fade issues points to the newer triexta fibre think Mohawk SmartStrand (rhino) or Aussie Godfrey Hirst Eco Plus ranges. They have excellent fade resistance (read resistance NOT fade proof!) they wear fairly well too, but given the indoor outdoor flow you indicate, any semi shag style as they often come in, will be a nightmare to vacuum and keep control of the dust and grit walked in from outside.

Cork is highly unlikely to satisfy your needs and demands, its a softer product so won't cope with strong sun and the dogs/animals claws and will failrly quickly 'ugly out'.

I'd probably recommend Karndean flooring, but you have said no to laminate, they are decorate, hard wearing and practical for the area you have described.

John

hello peculiarity present discussion in Norske house floor of wooden construction featured many means revealing direction grain of cut forrest, maybe oil maybe not

If you're going to go ply floor, consider getting marine grade cedar, costs more, but no knots that need bogging or filling.

I used overlay recycled Matai T&G (about 10mm thick) to cover the chipboard in our lounge, to match the rest of floor once the carpet was removed. It required a bit of tinkering with the sub-floor to get the levels to match, but turned out well, and cheaper than re-doing the floor completely.