Flooring Options

Hi guys! I'm new to this forum so give me a minute. Hey so we are buying a 10 acre homestead in the Pacific Northwest and it already has a nice but run down "solar home" on it that is about 30 years old. Among many things we need to figure out is the flooring since it has very nasty carpet that needs to be removed on the main floor. I don't think an earthen floor would be suitable here (correct me if i'm wrong) as it has a plywood base and below that the "air passage" below the home (crawl space) where the air circulates back to the solarium room.. any ideas on "hard" floor options for my scenario?

Reclaimed lumber--could have been flooring, could have been something else originally.

Beetle kill or other blighted lumber. I think the spalting is beautiful. Almost too good for floor and should be furniture.

Both of the above can be too trendy and yuppie priced.

You can go to Habitat Re-store or other used building material place or big-box store and find small batches and overages of wood or tile that will work together and make a mosaic floor. I have a friend that has 6-8 different woods in his floor, but they all were the same brand and size so they fit together fine. It is a COOL pattern and cost him under a buck a square foot.

You can do the craft paper and glue floor--it looks like leather or parchment when done, acts like old-school linoleum, but the most toxic thing used is Elmer's glue.

thanks R Scott for the reply. yes, we'd liked to use reclaimed materials if possible. I will have to see what is available in the area, tho could be yuppie priced lol .. cool idea of mixing different looking woods together btw

Hi Nick,

Welcome to Permies...

I often use a Korean wooden floor system called "Chengmaru (청마루)" which is both traditional, easy to do, uses mainly short lengths of wood, and is easy to service. It may seem complicated, but really isn't. There is some "tooling" and "skill set" to acquire, but the rewards are very high. You can have a beautiful traditional floor that is all wood jointed (no nails) and is relatively easy to remove and gain access to the crawl space underneath. One of my chief complaints with current architectural design today (besides ignoring what we have already learned,) is the lack of "service access" to the work we do, and the ability to "easily" upgrade, add, or adjust amenities within our building systems.

Hope that helps,

j

Well, you need to go cheap?
Twice, I've salvaged a hardwood floor out of another house. It takes some prep work, and it'll be broken in from day one (that's called "worn" if you don't like it, or "distressed" if you do), but weighing the results vs. the time and effort, they've been two of the best home projects I've ever done. It's just a matter of finding somebody tearing one out, and asking them, "Hey, if you're throwing that away, can I have it?"


Here's photos.
First, the BEFORE of the older job. That was vinyl tile over OSB over planks. So we just sawed through the vinyl and OSB at the same time.




And the after. That's my friend and my wife, but neither likes their face floating around the internet, and hey, you're here to see the floor, right?
The floor is jatoba, a higher-end South American wood. It was all going in the dumpster, so I saved it.






Here's the newer one, in our current house. Before, carpet over particleboard over sleepers on concrete. After, oak over sleepers on concrete.





I tried lots of methods for getting the staples out of the backside of the boards, and this is definitely the best. A cutting disc in an angle grinder will buzz them off just below the surface, so they don't leave a bump:



Hope that helps!
Mike

Thanks Jay and Mike!

Such great info. We will see what is available in the area to be reclaimed and go with whatever falls into place.

Love this forum!

Nick

Jay C. White Cloud wrote:One of my chief complaints with current architectural design today (besides ignoring what we have already learned,) is the lack of "service access" to the work we do, and the ability to "easily" upgrade, add, or adjust amenities within our building systems.

Hope that helps,

j

I hate this so much. Of the many things I want to do to my house, most start with granting myself access to my attic and crawlspace without having to psych myself up for a day and a half before doing so.

R Scott wrote:

You can do the craft paper and glue floor--it looks like leather or parchment when done, acts like old-school linoleum, but the most toxic thing used is Elmer's glue.

I am intrigued by this idea...do you know of a good site for more information? I read a little and all said to seal with polyerathane..do you suppose there is an alternative to that? The floors shown were beautiful.

Hi Judith, et al,

Yes this method (one of several) is thousands of years old and the oldest forms I know of start in the Nile valley and the apex forms today are in the Hanok farm houses of Korea. You DO NOT have to finish (nor should if a Permie) with polyurethanes. Give me some time (if I forget PM me) I will start a thread in the forge and you can tell be if we should post it.

Regards,

j

Judith Browning wrote:

R Scott wrote:

You can do the craft paper and glue floor--it looks like leather or parchment when done, acts like old-school linoleum, but the most toxic thing used is Elmer's glue.

I am intrigued by this idea...do you know of a good site for more information? I read a little and all said to seal with polyerathane..do you suppose there is an alternative to that? The floors shown were beautiful.

When I helped do it, we used more glue as the sealer. I moved about a year later so I have know idea about long term durability. I would think some of the linseed/beeswax finishes should work as well.