What kind of floor do you recommend?
I just bought a house in PS, and our living room/dining room area (aprx 400 sqft) is covered with marble tiles. I don’t like the look of it, and it feels too cold. Also, we’re expecting a baby, and I’m worried about the hard surface. We’re planning to do gut reno in a few years…
I just bought a house in PS, and our living room/dining room area (aprx 400 sqft) is covered with marble tiles. I don’t like the look of it, and it feels too cold. Also, we’re expecting a baby, and I’m worried about the hard surface. We’re planning to do gut reno in a few years when we have enough money saved up, but what can we do for the time being? I thought about laying down laminate floor ourselves, but someone said it’s toxic. Is that true? I was going to buy some IKEA laminate floor, because they’re cheap. Is it a bad idea? We can only spend up to 2K. I thought about carpet too, but we have a dog who sheds a lot. Any suggestions??
OK, CMU is right and I feel terrible now. We certainly don’t have money to throw out and 2K is actually more than we’d like to spend. Of course, I certainly wouldn’t want to add more to the landfill either. If we use glueless-installation type of bamboo floor, could I re-use the floor for smaller room after renovation? Then maybe I don’t have to throw out the floor..
The “greenest” thing you can do is go out and spent $2K on area rugs that are soft and fluffy and big.
And then after your gut reno, you will still have the rugs. And you will not have added a single thing to a landfill or had to live with anything you don’t want or broken your infant on your marble floor.
pergo secretly looks ok if you pick the right color. very very cheap. probably no eco friendly – sorry!
Didn’t notice the “doing gut reno in a few years!”
Once again I am amazed at the wastefulness exhibited by those with money to burn. Oh, we’ll just spend 2 thou and dump it all in a few years. After all, the landfills can handle it. And why worry about being green?
Being concerned about toxics is a good start, but that’s personal. Being concerned for the world may be worth considering.
Come to think of it, why worry about durability of bamboo if you’re going to rip it up anyway? Wow.
We were in a similar situation to your and decided to go with high-quality laminate. We are not disappointed – it has been 3 years and the floor still looks as good as it did on the day we installed it. I would not recommend IKEA or Home Depot laminate since it is pretty easy to scratch from what i am hearing.
We bought ours from http://www.floorhub.com. If i remember correctly their prices were nearly 50% cheaper than Home Depot. They have a warehouse in NJ so the delivery to tri-state area was pretty cheap.
OP here – Huum, bamboo sounds nice. As for bamboo’s durability, I’ve heard both. Some said it’s too soft and scratches/dents easily, but some other said otherwise. But, as I said, we’re hoping to do a gut reno in a few years, so everything will be torn out anyway. I just need short-term, but nice and safe material for the next few years. I’ve looked into cork floor too, but they seem slightly more expensive than bamboo. About this new material 3:48 mentioned, I’m not sure…what’s it called & is it toxin-free?
I have a bit of a problem with bamboo flooring. It definitely does not wear well, as a matter of fact it scratches easily. And as a laminate it is not waterproof, far from it.
And thats the only way you can get it, unless a custom mill which will run you more like 15k
There is a product out there, fairly new. It is a laminate, but a laminate with a big difference.
It is waterproof. You can leave a strip of it in a bucket of water for a couple of days and it emerges perfect. I’ve done it.
It is available in teak, oak, cherry
and more flavors coming. Its remarkable and inexpensive – much the same price as any regular laminate, lot cheaper than bamboo.
And it has an extremely durable finish. Try as you might to scratch a sample of this with a key or coin and you will not be able.
If you want to check it out, call me at
347 419 0023.
Dan
Natural linoleum or cork – both are eco-friendly, inexpensive, softer, warmer, nice looking IMO. I much prefer sheet to tile.
Go bamboo. Ecologically correct, looks great, wears well. You can get it done for $3k (maybe more for tile tearout, but you can probably lay on top with hardboard underlay).
Unless of course, you want to be “historically accurate” as some will point out. I would not listen to them.