Bathroom Wooden Flooring May Not be the Best Idea in the World

I know of a couple who recently came very near to separating due to a major falling out over the choice of flooring for their new bathroom. One of them wanted bathroomfloor tiles, either bathroom vinyl flooring or bathroom laminate flooring, whereas the other half wanted to go with bathroom wooden flooring.

 

When you are considering bathroom flooring vinyl is usually a sound choice and you will find that bathroom vinyl floor tiles are one of the most popular customer options. Whether you decide on vinyl, carpet, wood or other flooring such as tile, stone or laminate you need to keep in mind the budget and the amount of usage the floor can expect. 

What is a laminate floor made of?

Laminate floors are made from fibres, which are pressed together, and the 'wood effect' surface is a printed image with a wear resistant finishing top layer. Laminate floors are not made of real wood and they don't have a real wood surface layer. Laminates and wood-effect floors should not be confused with real wood floors. Today's wood floor finishes are very sophisticated in nature and a far cry from the old, thick 'plastic-looking' finishes. They are generally exceptionally durable, yet incredibly thin, so they protect a floor and promote easy care without disguising the wood's grain. The most popular treatments are lacquer, oil and wax.

Lacquer

A lacquer pre-finish encapsulates the wood and seals it completely. A lacquered floor is very easy to keep clean and requires minimal maintenance. Depending on the quality of the lacquer, a surface finish can last between five and seven years before renovation is necessary. Lacquer finishes are incredibly popular because they are durable and require minimal maintenance. Various gloss levels are available, from silk matt lacquer to 'mirror-like' high gloss.

Oil and Wax

Oil and wax finishes provide natural protection and create a sheen that is silk-like to the touch. Floors with oil or wax finishes do require a level of periodic maintenance but modern treatments make it an easy procedure. Small areas of wear are particularly easy to renovate.

Homeowners usually don't think of wood when deciding on a flooring material for a modern bathroom. The wood presents some problems when used in a moist environment such as a kitchen, bathroom or basement. It requires more attention than other flooring materials for a bathroom, but it also creates a warm and elegant look in the room. When making the decision to use wood for the flooring in your bathroom, consider your budget and the maintenance requirements of the material.

Water Damage

Wood floors are susceptible to damage from the moisture and water in a bathroom. The material absorbs the water and swells if you do not seal and protect it properly. Sealing the wood prevents the wood from absorbing the water, which causes the damage. This is why I must admit that deciding to go for bathroom wooden flooring is probably not the best idea in the world to insist upon.

Cheap Solid Wood Flooring is not just a Daydream these Days

One of the best things about buying a new house is the anticipation you fell about fixing it up and adding your personal stamp to it. This includes the décor, the furniture and the fittings as well as the small special touches you look forward to including. The flooring you opt for will say a lot about your style and these days many people are choosing to have cheap real wood flooring instead of a cheap thick carpet or cheap vinyl flooring tiles. 

Real wood is never intrusive or over bearing. You can mix and match it, and it will sit beautifully alongside any other material in the home. There's a quality to wood that's unique. It enhances an environment without dominating it, being both stylish and understated at the same time. Wood is unaffected by the whims of fashions. It is timeless and a part of nature that we're privileged to be able to bring into our homes. Wood looks great anywhere. Just choose the species and finish that best suits your home and lifestyle.

It used to be the case that cheap solid wood flooring used to a contradiction in terms but these days the prices are much more reasonable. In fact many people are deciding to have the real thing instead of cheap vinyl flooring rolls or cheap vinyl floor tiles. A cheap thick carpet used to very popular all over the house, with a cheap super contract underlay, but the trend seems to be changing. 

Wood matures with age and, over time; it will actually look and feel even more beautiful. So, as you feel more at home with your floor, your floor will look more at home in its new surroundings. Wood is a natural, living structure that adapts to its conditions and is affected by climatic and humidity changes. Just like timber in its natural habitat, wood absorbs moisture across its entire surface, before releasing it again. This unique balance helps to create a perfect, healthy indoor environment, from one season to the next. 

Benefits of hard wood floors:

Variety: Hard wood floors offer maximum choices in appearance. There are many colours, styles, stains and species available. An addition is a choice in the available finish that is pre-finished and unfinished hard wood floors. No matter how diverse and unique your needs are, there is always an option for you with hard wood floors.

Better acoustics: A properly installed hardwood floor never gives you hollow sounds or vibrations.

Low maintenance: Hard wood floors and the floor finish are easy to keep and maintain.

Healthy indoor air quality: These floors are a healthy choice for interior environments. They are the best choice of flooring with allergy sufferers and improve air quality. 

If you think about the historic houses that you have visited, you will notice that many of them had wood floors, even if it was not cheap real wood flooring at the time. This is because the beauty of wood has long been admired and coveted.

Laminate Floor Covering Needs To Be Cleaned With Care

You would be surprised at how many different kinds of substances manage to find their way on to the floor and can often leave a stain. This means that each different stain needs to be handled in a separate manner and this will depend on the nature of the flooring you have installed. Laminate floor covering is a popular option and in particular laminate flooring in bathroom areas but this means that you need to be careful when cleaning the laminate flooring bathroom or otherwise. 

Some common stains and their solutions are;

• Blood: Spray stain with window cleaner and wipe with a damp cloth.
• Liquor: Dampen a cloth with warm water and detergent and rub spot. If that fails, try using a cloth dampened with denatured alcohol.
• Grease: Apply an ice pack (a package of frozen vegetables will do in a pinch) until grease hardens, then gently scrape with plastic spoon or butter knife. Remaining residue should wipe away with a couple of squirts of window cleaner.
• Crayon marks: Rub with a soft cloth dampened with mineral spirits. If that doesn’t work, apply toothpaste and rub with a dry cloth.
• Nail polish: Use a small amount of scouring powder, warm water, and a plastic mesh pad. Work the scouring powder into a paste and apply, be careful not to rub too aggressively as it may scratch the finish.
• Ink: Wet a rag with warm water and detergent and rub. If that doesn’t work, try a commercial ink remover.
• Heel Marks and Scuffs: Rub the marks with a pencil eraser.
• Chewing gum: Remove excess gum with plastic knife and rub residue with a soft cloth dampened with mineral spirits.

With the popularity of laminate flooring, commercial cleaners can be found at most of the larger grocery stores, supercentres or home improvement stores. However, if you are “thinking green” you can find environmentally friendly versions online. For a less expensive and environmentally safe alternative, try mixing 1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar with 1 gallon of water. This mixture should cut through most dirt and grime and leave your floors looking clean and streak-free.

Laminate flooring is a relatively new invention which has taken the world of floor surface covering by storm. Versatile, easy to maintain, and reasonably priced, some people consider this a “super material.” However there are a number of drawbacks when it comes to laminate flooring. It is important to understand the good, the bad, and the ugly, before making a final decision about whether to use this material in your home, or commercial properties.

The laminate floor installation of a laminate click together floor is one of the easiest do it yourself flooring projects you can undertake.. You just roll down a sheet of underlayment material, and then snap the planks or tiles of the floor into one another. An entire room can usually be finished in just a day or two. Laminate flooring for bathrooms is a popular option due to the fact that regular cleaning is easy to do.

A Cheap Carpet for Sale Advert Caught My Eye Last Week

I am in the middle of renovating my house and since the painting and polishing are almost complete I turned my attention to the flooring requirements last week. I decided to start with finding carpet supplies UK in the local paper and then to try and look for carpettiles UK companies sell online. 

A cheapcarpet for sale advert caught my eye in the paper but then I decided that I wanted carpet floor tiles instead of a full carpet. There are many companies which specialise in flooring of all kinds and I managed to find the perfect cheap carpet tiles which I wanted without having to travel too far. 

A cheap carpet tile is something which is easy to install and comes in a variety of colours and styles. Carpet floor tiles are suitable for just about any room in the house, although they are not very popular in the bathroom or kitchen due to the amount of water which the floor often receives. A damp carpet will soon start to smell and the odour will permeate every part of the room very quickly. This is why it is better to avoid carpets in areas of moisture. There is also the risk of allergens and dust being trapped on the damp carpet.

Installing carpet tiles UK is very easy and you do not usually need to hire a professional to do the job, as long as you follow instructions and take your time. When starting your installation in a vacant room the ideal professional way to install is to make a string chalk line cross in the centre of the room. This will break the area you are carpeting into four quadrants and you can follow the chalk line with your first row of tiles in each quadrant. Using this technique makes it easier to line up the seams or joints of the tile as you move outward towards any walls. It also is the best way to install any quarter turned (parquet) carpet tiles that purposely installed to give this popular basket weave effect.

If you decide to go the easy way and start on one wall moving across the room remember no wall is perfectly straight and as you move further across the room the tile seams/joints will not line up. This can be all right and acceptable if the tile you have chosen is almost seamless or monolithic in visual appearance. You will need to ensure that you have all the tools and that you have done the preparation of the floor before you start.

I have now managed to find the perfect cheap carpet tiles for each room where I wish to change the flooring and now all that remains is starting the installation. Although it is not a difficult job I think that I would rather called someone else in to do the hard work since I have never been the kind of person who enjoys DIY jobs which are always required around the house.

Choosing the Pattern for Your Bathroom Vinyl Floor Tiles

After buying your house you will find that there is a lot of fun in decorating it according to your style and personal taste. You can start from scratch or adjust existing fixtures and fittings but it is always better to select new colours and designs for floors which will last for a long time. Choosing the pattern for your bathroom floor tiles will ensure that you can have the colour scheme you want to see every day for the next few years. 

First you will have to decide if you want bathroom vinyl flooring or bathroom wooden flooring and then decide on the colours and designs. Although bathroom wood flooring is available you will find that most people opt for bathroom vinyl floor tiles. This is because a wooden floor is not very practical where there is likely to be a lot of water or water damage and when it comes to bathroom flooring vinyl is the better choice. 

Bathroom vinyl flooring offers comfort and quality, and is relatively easy to install if you choose to do it yourself. Picking a style you like best may be the most difficult decision you'll face when choosing vinyl flooring. There are two distinct patterns for vinyl flooring: printed and inlaid.

Printed vinyl

Printed vinyl is made by printing a pattern directly onto the surface of a vinyl sheet, and then covering it with a protective layer. This type of vinyl is also called rotovinyl, from the name of the printing process. Printed vinyl is available in a variety of patterns and colours, and is more cost-effective than inlaid vinyl. However, it is less durable.

Inlaid Vinyl 

Inlaid vinyl is made by injecting a colour pattern directly into a vinyl sheet, and then fusing both together so that colours and pattern become part of the material. This type of process gives inlaid vinyl a rich, longer-lasting appearance than printed vinyl. However, inlaid vinyl tends to come in fewer patterns and colours.

Whether you choose vinyl sheet or vinyl tile, it's important to have a vinyl floor that remains durable for years to come. This will depend on a number of factors, including your vinyl floor's wear layer, or finish, which is a coating applied to vinyl to maintain its shine. There are three types of finishes commonly used:

Vinyl no-wax

This is the most cost-effective choice. Stain-resistant and easy to clean, it stays shiny so there's no need to polish or buff.

Urethane

This is easy to clean and more resistant to scuffs and stains than no-wax finishes and it keeps its original appearance longer. It stays shiny without polishing or buffing.

Enhanced urethane 

                                               

This outperforms vinyl no-wax and regular urethane finishes. It resists scuffs, scratches and household stains better and has longer-lasting shine with no polishing or buffing.

Bathroom floor tiles are also practical because if a small area becomes damaged from repeated spills or just from a lot of foot traffic, then it is easy to just replace a few individual tiles.