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The Pros and Cons of Bamboo Flooring

giamagenso — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:45:14 +0000

Bamboo has fast emerged as a popular flooring choice in recent years. Its distinctive pattern formed by the nodes of the bamboo plant make bamboo only one of its kind Bamboo flooring is a good choice when you are on the market looking for appropriate flooring material. Many people are suggesting bamboo as an alternative to traditional hard

wood flooring and this is for good reason. But don`t necessary listen to what everyone else has to say, make an assessment for yourself identifying the pros and cons of choosing bamboo flooring above traditional hardwood timber.

What are the types of Bamboo?

In comparison to hardwood timber bamboo also comes in different grains and overall appearance. Deciding on the right floor for you will be determined on your taste and requirements. Bamboo flooring is made from the thin strips of the bamboo pole then laminated forming the planks of flooring. There are 3 main distinct types in bamboo flooring:

Horizontal – were the strips have been placed horizontally giving a large node pattern throughout the board.
Vertical – were the strips have been place vertically giving a smaller bamboo node pattern throughout the boards
Compressed/Woven – the strips have been made more refined and compressed giving the appearance of a woven effect, however this way of manufacturing makes the board very strong & durable whereas the Horizontal & Vertical has a reduced hardness compared to compressed.

The Pros and Cons of Choosing Bamboo Flooring:

Even though there are some disadvantages of using bamboo flooring the advantage outweigh them by far.

Pros of choosing Bamboo Flooring are:

Great for people with allergies

Durable and hard wearing for everyday living

Compressed bamboo is 73% harder than traditional Jarrah

Cost considerably less than traditional hardwood timber

Pre-finished, no need for messy sanding and toxic fumes after lacquering

Can be easy installed over existing sub-floors

Eco-friendly

Renewable resource

Fast growing, bamboo plant only takes 5-7 years to grow and get the require strength and durability to be used as flooring

Some manufacturers are opting for safer resins and lower formaldehyde emissions

Higher resistance to moisture, though not waterproof

Easy to maintain & clean

99% resilient against infestation

Disadvantages of Choosing Bamboo Flooring are:

Not everyone likes the appearance of the bamboo pattern throughout the boards

Horizontal &Vertical is softer than some of the traditional hardwoods

Colour is unique and there you will not get a comparable match with other traditional hardwoods

If your product is not purchased from a reputable supplier you may have flooring issues after installation

Therefore it is important to consider your options in regards to choosing a bamboo floor or not. However in the scheme of things, you cannot ignore that bamboo flooring has become a sensible choice. From its general easy maintenance, to its durability and appearance this option is only going to increase in its popularity.

Installation and Refinishing Concrete Floor Project

giamagenso — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:51:42 +0000

Here are useful tips learned during more than 40 years of installing epoxy urethane floor seals and coatings on Fortune 500 company concrete floors, as well as in basements, garages, and decks. These tips can help you avoid mistakes that can limit the life of your floor.

There are three broad steps to doing your floor project: planning and preparation, repairing, and applying the coating. This article is the third in a three part series, and deals with applying the epoxy paint to the floor.

General guidelines for applying an epoxy coating to your floor:

Do no harm.
Investing in preparation produces the most years of service.
Let the chemicals and equipment do the work.
What can go wrong, will go wrong, unless you think ahead.
Technique is what separates mortals from Rembrandts.
An once of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Now let’s get started with tips on how to coat your floor with an epoxy or urethane floor paint.

Plan the job.

Good floor prep is key to a long lasting floor.

Take a break.

Mix 200 strokes.

Easy work makes for a better job

No one is perfect

Don’t worry about tricks of gravity

A rag may not save you

Technique, technique, technique.

This is an application pattern I like to teach and can serve you very well. Tip your roller and remove it quickly before it fills with liquid. Apply a quick wet line 3 or 4 feet back from where you had stopped coating. Now fill in the area between that wet line and your previous rolled area. As you overlap the new wet part, . The strong two-part coatings you are applying are not the water-based latexes that wipe easily off with a rag or a little water. If you get the coating on something you did not want to coat, it may be less harmful to leave it than to smear it all over the place. You may be better off chipping it off once it dries a little, or coating over it with paint that matches what you got it on.
. As you put your first coat down, you will find things, bugs, sand, water, lint, and the like. What was in the air eventually will be on the floor. Remember this is a two-coat process. Yes, remove what you can as you go but those small bits of debris may be easier to remove when you screen between coats and sweep before your second coat.
. I do floors lots of floors and still have misses, marks, and errors. I just can’t rely on myself to be perfect all the time. That’s why two coats are always planned.
. Tape your cutting brush to a broom handle, use a wheeled bucket for 18-inch rollers, and several pails if using 9-inch rollers, and wear a mask if using solvent based products. Save your back and let yourself move quickly. Moving fast is more fun but it also sets a rhythm, which keeps a repetitive job interesting enough to maintain focus.
Two-part flooring products can produce floors that click when you first walk over them. That clicking often means that the two parts were not mixed well. Clicking is sucking dust off your feet and could cause both lifting and discoloration problems down the road. Yes, the floor will usually stop clicking and harden, but it may come from aging rather than a strong chemical change. Mixing is not a science, but you must be able to count to 200.
I always take a break after floor preparation to let the floor dry. Putting down a coating can be smooth and uniform or splotchy with misses. A little rest before the artistic part of the job will improve the quality of your application process.
For this article, we will assume that you have done a good job of doing you’re preparation and repair work already.
Two-part coatings harden in the can once mixed, so it is best to have everything you need at the start of your job. A useful first step is to go to a website like www.concrete-floor-coatings.com for a free cost analysis report that also lists everything you need to do your job including step-by-step instructions.
you re-wet your roller
and as you overlap the previous area your roller is re-moistened. When you get to the end, roll back over the same area a second time. This re-rolling will spread any lines that may have come off your roller edges as you move across the floor.

Push the roller on, not off.

I always flip my roller so that I move towards the open end. This little step pushes the roller onto the frame not off it. Each time the roller moves on the frame you have the danger of opening a gap at the end that fills the roller with coating as you dip. Soon you are getting lines as the liquid drips out of the ends of the roller. And soon the roller is sliding back and forth on your frame because the interior is now very slippery.

Don’t hit the roller.

If your roller cover starts to slide off the frame, don’t tap the roller, tap the frame. If you tap the roller, you often get dents in the roller that show up as marks as you roll. If you tap the frame end of the roller, it will slide on without changing its shape.

There is dirt in that pail.

I can’t say how often I have compromised the quality of a job by pouring my last amount of coating out of the pail onto the floor as I exit. The problem is every piece of sand, lint, or bug that had stuck to the roller is resting at the bottom of the pail. Right where I have wanted the floor to look its best (at the entrance or exit), I have poured out all my debris on the floor so that I can use that last 3-oz. of coating. Don’t do it! You will be sorry.

Screen the floor after your primer coat repairs are made

. By screening your floor with a 60 grit screen after any additional repairs are made, you can usually shave your floor flat. This screening removes bubbles, lint, sand, bugs, leaves, and fillers that are above the desired surface.

Sweep your floor with a kitchen type broom before coating.

Push brooms just don’t pick up enough of the small grains. A kitchen broom takes a little longer but does a better job.

Vacuum the corners

. It is just too hard to get grains of sand and other small particles out of corners and along baseboards or out of holes unless you use a vacuum.

Tips for selecting Hardwood Flooring in Vancouver

giamagenso — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 02:52:34 +0000

Hardwood flooring has become a popular flooring choice in Vancouver and adjoining regions in BC. It helps add value and elegance to the floors and inner décor of offices and homes with their wide range of color and shades available for various moods, styles and corporate statement.

There are many people who actually identify themselves with specific hardwood flooring type. They select the best from the available hardwood flooring types based on their personal choice, wood percentage, resistance, durability and even luster. Some of the popular types of hardwood flooring include Solid hardwood flooring, engineered hardwood flooring, floating floor systems, Laminate flooring and environment-friendly sustainable flooring.

For making a selection for the right hardwood flooring type for your home or office, one needs to keep a few important points in mind:

Appearance

The overall appearance of the flooring with respect to the room is an important factor in selecting a hardwood flooring type. A particular type of flooring is chosen with respect to the ambience and the blend of wooden flooring with the furniture and other items in a room. Engineered hardwood flooring is a favorite in this regard.

Durability & Wear-Tear

A flooring type is also selected depending on its durability. There are many wear-tear resistant flooring types which are installed mostly for their rough usage like Solid wooden flooring etc. Whereas, there are some hardwood floors like Engineered and Laminate hardwood floors which offer luster and charm to the living room with their attractive look.

Water Resistance

In rainy areas and flood-prone areas, water-resistant wooden flooring is preferred over attractive types of flooring.

Budget.

Different types of Hardwood flooring are available and one can chose as per their needs well under their budget.

Maintenance

Most flooring types are low-maintenance but there are some which are classy though require excessive maintenance and cleaning. Hence, one can choose as per their need and convenience.

Hardwood Floor Installation-Easy and Beneficial

giamagenso — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:25:18 +0000

Hardwood flooring plays an important role of making your home or business look attractive. There are a large number of companies which are working in the direction to meet the flooring needs of their clients by offering high quality wood flooring choices to them.

In flooring, finished materials are installed in the floor so as to make its surface smooth and fit for walking. It can be done in a number of ways. Hardwood flooring is gaining importance these days and has become the first choice of almost every single person. This type of flooring imparts a stylish and elegant look to home. That is why; it is preferred over all other flooring options.

Let us here discuss about few important types of hardwood flooring. In general, hardwood flooring is of three types. These are:

Solid hardwood flooring: Solid hardwood flooring is a kind of flooring which is composed of solid blocks of wood.
Engineered hardwood flooring: Engineered hardwood flooring is another important type of flooring which uses wooden and plastic sheets. Here, three to five layers of these sheets are joined together.
This is done in order to increase the strength.

Acrylic Impregnated hardwood flooring: Acrylic Impregnated hardwood flooring is another important type of flooring in which sealant and color are implanted throughout the wood.

One can make his or her house look exquisite with this type of flooring option. Because of its eco-friendly nature, hardwood flooring is considered as the best option for individuals suffering from any allergy related health problem such as asthma.

Hardwood flooring offers a number of advantages and thus it needs proper care and attention. It needs to be protected from dirt, water spill etc. Always use quality cleans for the purpose of cleaning the floor. Avoid the use of soap. Direct exposure to UV rays also affects the quality of hardwood floors.

High quality flooring ensured with floor sanding

giamagenso — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:52:59 +0000

Delivering an exclusive look to your house will be one of the few things in your life that you give top priority to. Designing a house is never easy and there are so many home décor options available nowadays that could be utilized to get a fabulous looking home. A key area that if designed well will definitely make your home looking really good is the flooring that is chosen. Wooden or timber flooring have a unique appeal like no other and can make a wonderful looking house. To keep the wood looking fine and intact beneath your feet, you will have to look at floor sanding options around you.

Creating a beautiful house is most certainly not an easy job; but an easy method in which you can instantly make your house look good is with wooden flooring. The natural and the earthy look that these floors have to offer are really interesting and they look amazing all the time. Maintenance will definitely form an important part of keeping your wooden floors looking good always and a good floor sander option will get the job done. Wooden floors can make your floors look attractive and really classy but to keep this look alive through a long time, a floor sander in Sydney will be needed.

The shine is one of the most amazing things about these wooden floors and that gives it the fantastic look. In order to maintain that shine, you will need to get a floor sanding and polishing done that will keep it looking great for a long time ahead. A lot of dust was involved earlier in the process of floor sanding in Sydney but that is a thing of the past with the latest advancements in sanding that have come about. With these innovative sanding options, you won’t have to worry about dust forming in your house and you will get an amazing looking flooring too.

One of the prime concerns that were present among people while going for timber floor sanding was that there was a lot of dust that was generated in the house. This dust not only spoiled the house with its presence but it also posed several health complications. With the help of the latest options available like floor polishing, you will be able to maintain your flooring without adding dust to all possible neighboring areas. Your wooden flooring will benefit tremendously with sanding as it will be able to offer an unparalleled polished look to your floors.

The wonderful solutions that are available with floor sanding will certainly be yours for the taking once you go for such a service. These sanding options will provide your place with a fantastic looking flooring that will not only be original and attractive but will also offer a quality look to your entire home decors too. Once you are done with the sanding work for your home all you have to do is sit back and relax. As your house warming party guests walk in, showers of compliments on your home floors will await you.