(Untitled)

[ursulav]

Today, I am sore.

Yesterday, we embarked on a major excavation project, by which I mean we cleaned out the spare room. The spare room had delusions of being an office at one time, but instead became a dumping ground of computers, paperwork, and office equipment, as well as the quiet, dog-free staging ground where a recently trapped cat could be

Comments

[ext_95021]

Yay! on cleaning success!

Speaking as someone who has at various times and places torn out a lot of carpet, carpet should be replaced with something impermeable, especially in a house with small children and pets (and artists. :)

If there's presentable wood under there, modern urethane finishes can be made fairly indestructible. If there isn't, various epoxy floor systems (I am thinking of the squishy epoxy tile, which is both good to walk on, insulative and hard to hurt, but which is now very hard to get because everyone's gone "continous", which is to say, painted on.)

You might want to check out http://www.superfloorcoat.com/concrete-kits.asp
Not all of the products they sell require a concrete underlayer (some are designed for going over wood) and those run about a buck a square foot if you do the application. Since they send a complete kit, this is remarkably easy to do, provided you can be sure of keeping pets and kids out of the stuff until it cures.

For kitchens or basements, check out your local epoxy flooring contractor; the "clear epoxy, marble chip" versions are very pretty, non-skid, and pretty much pet-and-child proof. (A Boeing spec product guaranteed to adhere for 20 years, withstand heat to 500F, spilled fuel, radiator coolant or battery acid for 7 days with little or no effect! And yeah, that's the sales pitch, but still. Overspec your floors! :)

[ankewehner]

I second that. I used to grow up in a flat with wall to wall carpets everywhere, and, man, even the cheap PVC in the new place is better. Way easier to clean.

[t_c_da]

We put down cork tiles covered in marine grade polyurethane in our last house when we had 7 kids. 2 cats & 2 dogs living at home. Great to walk on, very easy clean, nearly indestructible, and crockery tends to bounce rather than shatter as an added bonus in the kitchen. When the surface gets too scruffy (after several years), a quick sand down, fresh coat of polyurethane and voila! new floor again.

It does depend on personal taste, I admit, so YMMV definitely applies.

[skellington1]

Oooh...I'm buying a house (still can't believe that!) with ugly linoleum in the kitchen, and I'm craving cork. Good to hear it worked in the kitchen, 'cause I've heard varied accounts. Did you install the tile underneath the cabinets, or around?

Of course, my renovating urges will have to wait 'till my bank account recovers, which may be the next ice age, but I can plan.

[t_c_da]

Did you install the tile underneath the cabinets, or around?

Around! I might be a bit of a masochist, but not that much!!

If I were gutting and re-installing a kitchen then I would consider going under the cabinets, but not otherwise. Having the tiles around the bases of the cabinetry actually provides an impediment to the inevitable spills going under the cabinets and causing unseen mayhem.

Being an Australian living in New Zealand, I have no idea how kitchens really go together in your neck of the woods, so I'm probably not the best person to give advice in that situation.

[alyxyn]

[alchemist]

Sadly, since thsi is new construction, under the carpet and pad is plywood. Plain, unsealed plywood.

Which means at some point in the future, the subfloor will also need replacing.

[katuah]

If the plywood is reasonable, sand the hell out of it, stain it, and polyurethane it. You'd be surprised how good (and modernesque) it looks.

If the plywood isn't totally reasonable but could be OK if something else was on top of it, check out FLOR washable carpet tiles.

If you really want CHEAP, lurk around the dumpsters behind the dorms the last week of school. Literally, truckloads of carpet gets tossed. Another alternative is Freecycle. We gave away a room worth of perfectly decent but boringly beige carpet on there.

just some thoughts.

[ext_95021]

Depends on what's got on it; if it's just normal carpet cruft, you can probably get away with just spot replacement of the corner that was especially blessed by the cats. (I'm supposing that the subfloor is quarter inch ply over something structural, here; if the structural floor is plain half inch ply, yeah, that does need replacing.)

This is where the epoxy floor coatings really come in; totally opaque, bonds with anything, and you can paint on three layers and make it gooshy. Plus a broad range of colours.

[ghibbitude]

We replaced our bedroom's 15-30 year old rose -colored carpet with lovely and luscious hardwood. It's not terribly expensive, depending on your tastes, and not that difficult to install yourself. I imagine a cork floor would be just as easy but you'd really have to replace all the subfloor also- Thankfully those come in tiles and are even cheaper/easier to install than hardwoods.(we're planning on cork for our basement since it's concrete below and cork is insulative, ergonomically conscious, and damp resistant.)