Engineered Flooring is for Basements

For those who want a hardwood floor that is quick and easy to install there is nothing better than the engineered flooring types. Because the wood is made from laminated pieces it will not warp or twist, even if laid down in very hot or very cold rooms. And it is the only wood floor that can be put down without special tools or experience.

Basically, engineered floor is a piece of plywood grafted to a thick hardwood veneer. Some can be stapled or glued to a subfloor while others can go down like a regular laminate floor, which is on a foam sheet so it can float. This means it can be installed over a basement floor. In addition the pieces can be cut with a miter saw.

The installation prep is like laminate: 6 ml pol vapor barrier on the cement with taped seams and foam sheeting. The the strips snap into place like laminate flooring.

Like regular hardwood engineered hardwood flooring offers a wide range of species, colors and grain patterns. It can also be refinished up to 3 times by a professional refinisher. So it has all the advantages of regular hardwood without the expense and mess of installation.

As for price range engineered flooring ranges between laminate and hardwood flooring.

9 Green Flooring Choices

If you are concerned about the environment and want to do your bit by lessening the volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) in your choice of flooring here are some ideas:

1) Wood Floors: Rather than the prefinished flooring which are painted with off-gassing material select unfinished flooring and have it finished with a water-based sealer.

2) Bamboo Flooring: Bamboo grows to maturity every 2 years and can be replanted.

3) Cork: No live tree is harmed during the harvest of cork bark. This can be done every 11 years.

4) Carpet Tiles: When a portion of the carpet surface gets worn it can be replace without changing out the whole carpet. To avoid worn areas tiles can be rotated with ones on the side, in closets or under furniture so that the whole surface gets even wear. They also can be recycled into plastic parts for cars, etc.

5) Ceramic Tile and Natural Stone: Except for the fuel used for shipping and firing the tiles these substances are inert.

6) Wool Carpet: Wool is becoming a popular choice for full or partial floor covering because it is warm, durable, stain-resistant and will not burn.

7) Grasses: Another floor covering that is becoming popular are sisal and hemp grasses. The weave designs are spectacular they wear well.

Linoleum: Replaced by vinyl many years ago linoleum is making a comeback. Its ingredients are linseed oil, wood flour, cork flour, limestone and jute. It lasts 25-40 years and can be safely incinerated or placed in a landfill where it will decompose without off-gassing.

9) Rubber Tire Tiles: Used mostly in commercial applications this throw-away auto product is becoming popular in basements, garages and entranceways.

Electrify Your Floor

These days the price of all energy is going up so that unless you have the room on your property for a geothermal heat pump you will paying for an increasing fuel load. And sometimes when it comes to looking at heatings it pays to see it from the ground up.

New homes with slab-on-grade construction are being built with in-floor radiant heat. Loops of plastic pipe are set on the concrete subfloor and then covered with a second layer. The pipes are hooked up to a water heater which can be powered by electric, oil or natural gas. This is ideal because cement has an excellent thermal mass and will give off heat long after the hot water shuts off. Different zones can be controlled by thermostats to decide the heat in each room.

This type of heating also puts direct electrical wiring into the fold as a competitor to the boiler systems. On most floors wire is strung out on clips set on the subfloor. This floor can be wood, tile or almost any material used to make subfloors. The flooring cement is then poured over the wiring and the floor leveled off. The wire is then hooked up to a thermostat.

Whether this is cheaper than oil is debatable because electricity goes right to the wire and heats the tile whereas oil or electricity has to heat water first before heating the floor. It is, however, cheaper to install and maintain

The optimum way to enhance this system is through a ceiling fan which distribute the heat through the home. But even without this the heat will rise and add comfort for the area.

Stair Treads

Stair treads are sometimes the most overlooked part of flooring. They are covered with carpet or carpet runners and no one sees them until they get loose and squeak. But steps can really show off a home as they are at eye level.

Painting: The most common design for steps in the Victorian age was paint with carpet runners. You can clean the steps with TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) and then prime. Most paint companies make a latex porch-and-floor paint but oil-based ones are more resistant to abrasion and wear better. However, latex is a non-slip paint whereas runners would have to be used for oil finishes

Runners: When you paint stair treads runners are a good idea and a good carpet can fit in with your home design. In addition, a sisal or jute runner are great in high traffic areas.

Rubber Treads: For basement steps and other utility areas rubber is a great alternative. The treads are shaped to go over the nose of the tread. So you can paint them in a high gloss paint and then glue the treads down. They are available in a few colors.

Stain and Urethane: Another good idea to spruce up basement and utility steps is to sand them down with a belt sander until the clean wood shows. Not all of the blemishes will be gone but now you apply a dark stain. When this sets put on 4 coats of a water-based urethane. The grain will raise a bit giving the steps traction.

New Hardwood Treads: Most people prefer this method of treads for new homes. However for finsihiong there has to be traction for safety.

Outside Floors – Inside

There are many times that a person goes for a walk in the courtyard of a hotel or a public garden and sees a tiled floor that absolutely stunning. Sometimes this flooring can be natural stone, like slate or marble, but other times it is clay tile placed in a unique pattern with other tiles to make a unique design.

This styling is not new for the interior of a home. The southwest motif sometimes has flooring of the outside courtyard coming right into the foyer, and even throughout the home. It begins with a design and then this pattern is repeated so that there is a continuity to the home and surrounding courtyard.

Slate is also a great material for this because no tile is exactly the same but yet the coloring ties the floor together. Beginning with 12″ tiles as the main floor some designs call for bands of tiny 1″ tile squares in strips of 2 – 3. This is made even more striking by the uneven patina of the flooring but it may not be good for women in spiked heels.

Another type of floor design is the cobblestone look. Traditionally, cobblestoned designs are hard to do because some of them are fan-shaped. However, there are larger slabs with cobblestoned imprints which, when grouted are hard to tell from the real floors. If the door is on the same level as the outside this can be run from the sidewalk right into the home, much like the tile or slate mentioned before.

Concrete is also a great medium for this. Stained and stamped concrete can be made into almost any design or color a homeowner wants, even tile and slate without the imperfections. In a ne home this can be poured and run from the end of the sidewalk to the kitchen.

The Anatomy of an Old Floor

If you’ve ever owned an old home, especially a farmhouse, you’ll see that the flooring construction methods were a lot different than they are today. For one thing there was no oriented strand board or plywood so the sheathing was planking of different widths.

Here is the strata of an old farmhouse circa 1875

1. Sills: These were 12″ X 16″ timbers with 12″ being the horizontal surface. These sills usually sat on a stacked rock which, in many case, were reinforced years later with cinder blocks or a poured cement wall.
2. Floor Joists: These were 5″  X 8″ beams and they were slotted into a 12″ X 16″ sill. The sills on each side were carved out with a 5″ X 8″ X 6″so that the ends of each joist sat 6″ in the 2 sills These were not nailed.
3. Floor Boards: In many cases the floorboards were pine. Sometimes the boards were 16″ wide showing the size of the tress in those days. Square horseshoe nails were the fasteners of the time and these left rusty spots which are now favored by floor re-finishers for their rustic appearance. This floor would be rubbed with tung oil as a preservative and the preferred method of cleaning the floor was usually moist sawdust.
4. Oil Cloth: This was a first generation linoleum product which was stamped with decorations – usually flowers. The base product was canvas which was oiled, stamped with the decoration, varnished and then rolled.
5. Linoleum: This would be the next layer. usually the homeowner put the linoleum right over the old oil cloth floor instead of taking it out. Linoleum was linseed oil film on a canvas backing. It was more durable than oil cloth.
6. Linoleum: A second linoleum floor would usually be put over the first, again, instead of taking the old one out.
7. Carpet: In the 1970’s wall-to-wall carpet became popular and many homes have the original – if not heavily-used – carpet.

So if you ever want to redo an old floor you may find yourself needing an archaeologist more than a flooring expert.

Finishing Old Pine Floors

Many old homes, ones built in in the Victorian era or the first 25 years of the 20th century, sported pine floors in the heavily-used areas of the home. These floors were then covered with “oil cloth,” a crude linoleum product, and then linoleum and, later, carpet. Some floors have three layers of flooring under the carpet.

After removing all the layers many homeowners are tempted to cover the old floors in tile or laminate, or even hardwood. However, old pine floors can be spruced up to recapture the style of the first years of the home.

There are two schools of thought on restoring pine floors:

1) Sanding and Refinishing: Having the floors sanded will get out all the old glues and paints that went ont he floors over the years. If you treasure your floors get them done professionally because pine is so soft any extra motion might put a groove into the boards. If you do want the rustic imperfections you can fill the nail holes with wood filler but most people like the markings. However, some refinishers say that, because of the shrinking and expansion of wood these “plugs” may come loose and cause cracks in the finish. After the sanding put 3-4 coats of water-base polyurethane on it and it will come out in a warm honey color.

2 ) Cleaning and Oiling: If a pine floor has not been painted then you can clean the wood with a nylon brush and then rub it with pure tung oil. This will seal the wood and give it a dark glow. It will look its age but then many purists like this look. One of the drawbacks of tung oil is that you can never use a water-based finish down the road.

Whatever your preference pine represents the flooring of a new country, an American tradition that has been lost on in the past century.

Interlocking Floor Mats

Interlocking floor tiles have become popular in many areas where flooring is either temporary or where a thick, cushioning flooring is required. Unlike the cumbersome rolls – which are difficult to maneuver and install – these come in small units and are perfect for trade shows, gyms and dance floors. The flooring comes in many different materials, colors and styles where you can make your own designs.

A floor covering that is becoming very popular for basements, kids’ rooms and unfinished floors is interlocking, dense-foam mats. These are basically 2′ X 2′ squares with nubs that help the squares bind to each other and they can cover a whole floor in no time at all. The padding protects children from injuries due to falls and jumping on a hard surface. The designs are endless with cartoon characters or pictures of toys. These are very popular in gymnasiums.

For garages and outdoor patios there is a diamond-plate tile which also comes in many colors. Most of these are vinyl or hard rubber and, being non-porous, are easy to clean. Like the other interlocking tile, when you move you can take it with you.

Another interlocking product is the locker room and show mat system. This is a free-draining, grid tile which is suspended 1/4″ above the floor on dozens of rubber feet. Water flows through the tile but there is no puddling and the bather can dry his or her feet without picking up bacteria from the floor. In other situations it can be used for entryways for muddy boots and dust.

The great thing about these products is that you can buy a few and then add on to the system.

Uneven Basement Floors

Most good contractors and crews are busy unless a big recession hits. Sometimes mistakes are made that go unnoticed by both inspectors and the homeowners. These could include not finishing up a closet or failing to adjust a door, small stuff in most cases. However, there are some miscalculations that creep up on the homeowner later on. And one of these is an uneven cement basement floor.

A basement floor that has imperfections is not the end of the world but it is annoying and leads to higher costs when it comes to framing and finishing. A good carpenter can make cuts to allow for the bumps and hollows on the floor and ridges can be ground away. But what about flooring?

If the basement is used mainly as a storage area a slope or hollow won’t really have an effect on the area. However, it’s when flooring is put in that the real test begins. If the subfloor is to be framed then the studs can be shimmed. A leveled line suspended over the area will show where the frame has to go to be leveled. Once the subfloor is down the finished flooring or tile can go right over without fear of sloughing or cracking.

If the cement floor itself is the subfloor then leveling the floor must be done with a leveling compound. This is a cementitious mixture which is mixed wet so that it will find the hollows or slowly build the floor up the high spots. The leveler is mixed in a cement mixer and poured on to the floor where it finds all the low places. Then with a gage rake or leveling squeegee the slurry is distributed. It dries in 15 minutes but needs 24 hours to harden. Any high spots that are left can be chipped away or ground down.

Now you are ready for your subfloor.

Cracked Cement Floors

The basement floor, or home pad, is usually the last cement work performed on the home – after the footings and foundations. In some cases the contractors are trying to make up time and do not compact the floor area enough. This produces cracks in the floor as the house settles.

By its very nature concrete contracts about 1/16″ for every ten feet. If the mixture is wetter (again, to save the contractor time) the shrinkage is even more. And because this shrinking process causes tension within the slab cracking is more likely to occur. This usually happens within 30 days of the pour. This is because concrete is extremely strong when compressed but only 1/10 as strong when forces are pulling it apart.

To alleviate cracking steel mesh is added to reinforce the pad. Another good way to do this is by adding plastic fibers to the cement. This is done at the cement plant and provides another way to relax the pressures.

The key is to ask your builder questions but know the answers beforehand. How? By reading up on cement and asking reputable cement companies before the pour is made. This may require going out to the plant office and asking questions. As a business they want to put their best foot forward and will give you ammunition when interviewing your builder.

If your floor is already cracked, and there is no vapor seal below the pad to prevent water or radon gas from seeping in, you can do this yourself. Rent a diamond circular saw and saw along the crack, making a nice groove. You can buy a thin foam rope which you can press into the crack. After this is done apply a polyurethane sealant and smooth over.