natural, semi-affordable flooring in a prexisting house?

This is the flooring I chose because Andy Pace of Green Design Center, Waukesha, WI has tested it for off gassing and it is 100% free of formaldehyde off gassing.  He is the first person in the USA to have the FRAT device (formaldehyde attenuation release test) with which he can test any surface or product for release of formaldehyde.  of course there are THOUSANDS of other HAPs - hazardous air pollutants besides formaldehyde, but he can't test everything, and formaldehyde is usually a good indicator or other gasses that will be present too.  

the product is mostly limestone, and then a hard vinyl top....which is safe.  i would have purchased the wool carpeting sold by Green Design Center, but my room was too small to meet the min. order amount.  so i went with this: https://www.thegreendesigncenter.com/product/cali-vinyl-pro-lvp-flooring/

What did you end up going with?
I would have suggested just finishing the subfloor. We did this once and it wasn't even ply, it was chipboard. We found a natural no voc floor paint that sealed and sat on the surface almost like a membrane. It came up great. But you could just linseed oil the plywood, or even stain it. You can also ebonise ply with a steelwool vinegar solution to make it a natural black. Or you can use a clear finish for that scandinavian look. If you need to you can insulate under the floor between the joists.

Travis Johnson wrote:If a person is forced to buy something, one of the cheapest floors is thus a Penny Floor.

I do not have a direct picture of our penny backsplash, but you can see it behind the stove in this picture. A lot of it is actually hidden, but it is fairly big for something costing $7.07. By the way, Katie's kitchen was set up to look like the 1930's, her favorite era, so in this picture she is dressed in a 1930 dress posing in front of her 1917 kitchen stove. She normally does not dress like that! (LOL)

I realize this is about flooring, but Travis, would you mind giving some information on the countertops?

Bonnie

A readily available natural alternative might be sheet linoleum which is pretty durable if maintained properly. I've seen short ends of 2" x 4" set on end and sanded down into a very durable floor assuming it was coated and maintained I like painted floors because I grew up with pained floorboards (different color for each room) another floor treatment popular at once time is painted canvas floor cloths.

Travis Johnson wrote:What about Softwood Flooring?

The floor in my other house is White Pine, Ship-Lapped, 10 inches wide.

I made mine myself from cutting the logs, to sawing the boards, to forming the ship lapped edges, to screwing them down with screws; so it was very cheap. But a person could also buy the boards and do the same thing for a very reasonable price. White Pine is very stable so it does not shrink much as it dries, but other wood species works just as well.

In the old days in New England, hardwood flooring was used in the Kitchen and Living Room areas of a home, but the other rooms of the house was typically Eastern Hemlock.

Love the floors!  In fact, your posts give me a lot of good ideas for my next house, i.e., possibly a penny floor:)

Hi Zoe,

Welcome to Permies.

Zoe, I agree when such flooring can be found it's excellent. A friend of mine used the old flooring from a school gym in both her living room and dining room. Unfortunately, such flooring is hard to come by. If you know someone who works in the demolition field (her brother did at the time) you may be in luck.

I once saw a Craigslist ad for some removed maple flooring.  I loaded my trailer full and hauled it home.  Had to knock out all the nails, cut off the broken ends and scrape decades of gunk out of the tongue and grooves to make them installable.

To be a bit different, we sanded the corners a bit and installed them.  We never sanded or refinished them, just installed them as is.  Since they had been refinished in the prior house, they were all different thicknesses but that added to the charm.  As we walked across the floor I'd deliberately scuffle my socks to feel the thickness changes and tickle my soles.

I was hoping to run across some info about linoleum in this thread. I would love to know if it's possible to make some version of it or if there is a chance of it becoming more widely available with the interest in greener building materials. I would even be interested in lino "area rugs" to make a more back-friendly surface in rooms where one is standing and working a lot. i understand it feels similar to cork but seems much tougher.

Josephine Howland wrote:Zoe, I agree when such flooring can be found it's excellent. A friend of mine used the old flooring from a school gym in both her living room and dining room. Unfortunately, such flooring is hard to come by. If you know someone who works in the demolition field (her brother did at the time) you may be in luck.

How durable is gym flooring if you live with cats and dogs? Found some that I may get if it's enough for my dining room and maybe living room...