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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Wooden floors v carpets
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I expect I shall be hugely outnumbered here but...
I never quite understand why wooden floors seem so popular. They may be fashionable and shiny but they always look so bare, unfinished, hard, un-cosy and in need of covering up with rugs. I wouldn't rent a place that had wooden floors.
You can sit or sprawl on a carpet and it feels comfortable (especially in front of a fire) but the same is never true of a wooden floor. They're colder when you get out of bed in the mornings. Footsteps are noisier on wooden floors where they're muffled by carpets. Wood may be easier to clean but these kinds of floors seem depressingly utilitarian, like a ship's deck.
So - anyone else for carpets? The luxurious softness of a new carpet, the warmth of it under your feet, the beauty of a Persian rug (that doesn't skid and doesn't require a special fixative)? Or are you all for wood, parquet, polished planks, etc?
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Drifting Star
Drifting against the wind
# 12799
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Posted
Me, me! I do quite like the look of a wooden floor in good condition with rugs, but I'd rather live with carpet. If we bought a house with wooden floors we'd certainly cover them with carpet at the first opportunity.
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The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Heraclitus
Posts: 3126 | From: A thin place. | Registered: Jul 2007
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
Places I don't want carpet:
- Bathrooms
- Kitchen
- Family eating area
- Entrance hall
Basically, anywhere that is likely to have stuff spilled on it on a regular basis.
Carpet everywhere else, though (especially bedrooms and playrooms.)
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
We have a combination - Wooden floors in some places, which are nice, stone floors in the kitchen (easy to clean, easy to break things on), and carpets in our bedroom. and the lounge.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
One word: allergies.
More words: Carpet feels great, but I can't shake the thought that I'm walking on stuff that has been down for umpteen years and has never been cleaned except in site. I know how much crap ends up on my wood floor because I see it and sweep it; if we had carpet, well...
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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lily pad
Shipmate
# 11456
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Posted
Same for me - hardwood floors all the way. I do have a couple of small wool rugs. If you have ever taken carpet out of a room, you'll see how much never reaches the vacuum. I'm severely allergic to dust mites so it is much easier to keep the house clean with hardwood.
My mother dreamed of wall-to-wall carpeting each time we moved but we never got it until my dad retired. In a way, having hardwood floors reminds me of what "home" should feel like. I do like the initial feel of carpeting but could never live in a house with it. Today's carpets are made with so many chemicals and products that have been produced with strange things that there is no way I could tolerate the off-gassing.
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Sloppiness is not caring. Fussiness is caring about the wrong things. With thanks to Adeodatus!
Posts: 2468 | From: Truly Canadian | Registered: May 2006
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
The other grand thing about great swathes of wooden flooring is, you can use a Roomba. The vacuuming robots don't do carpeting well, nor the fringes on rugs, but they are ideal for wooden flooring. You would not believe the quantity of fuzz, grit, and nameless detritus there is on your floor until you empty out the trap in a Roomba.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
We progressively replaced the beige wall to wall carpetting with laminate flooring. The choice for laminate was (a) more sustainable re forests and trees, (b) durability. The mainfloor laminate is 18 years old, maple, including the kitchen. The rest of the house is cork laminate, warm underfoot. If we were to choose today, I think it'd be bamboo.
If you do opt for hardwood or laminate, find out where it is sourced and search out the company which makes it thoroughly please. Some woods are trafficked from Africa and Asia and are not sustainable.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
My floors are tiled.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
For last-until-Jesus-returns I am thinking that tile is the only way to go. Tile that looks like planks of wood gets me the look without the various fragilities and issues of wood or laminate. It will be noisier and colder than wood, however -- not for bedrooms.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Salicional
Shipmate
# 16461
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Posted
We live in a drafty 1920s house. Our wooden floors are ice-cold in winter, but the carpeted living room is nice and cozy.
Posts: 68 | From: near Lake Erie | Registered: Jun 2011
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
As a halfway house, we have vinyl in kitchen and bathroom. You wouldn't actually mistake it for other flooring, but modern natural colouring (terracotta checks and imitation slate) makes it less obvious than classic black and white tile (although you could probably find lime green if the mood took you). It's waterproof, warm under foot and doesn't let in drafts. I'm pretty sure I've seen some, like Brenda C's tile, that looks like floorboard.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
The other grand thing about great swathes of wooden flooring is, you can use a Roomba. The vacuuming robots don't do carpeting well, nor the fringes on rugs, but they are ideal for wooden flooring. You would not believe the quantity of fuzz, grit, and nameless detritus there is on your floor until you empty out the trap in a Roomba.
We have carpet everywhere except the kitchen (lino) and bathroom (tiles) and our Roomba, Bob2, does a splendid job.
(I ![[Axe murder]](graemlins/lovedrops.gif) Bob2)
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
It will be noisier and colder than wood, however -- not for bedrooms.
Underfloor heating ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
We have a combination of wooden and hardwood floors (interestingly, hardwood in kitchen, carpet in bathrooms). I love the look of the hardwood, and it is a breeze to keep clean. And a worn wooden floor has a nice patina/aged look, whereas worn carpet just looks... worn.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
I live in a hot land where cool under foot is a plus.
But the more important reason most choose tile or laminate is because the dust embedded in any carpeting fuels the allergies common in this climate. Solid floors are a whole lot cleaner, less dust hoarding / allergy-triggering in this climate.
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
Wood with rugs,
Easier to keep clean, with dog.. I like the look. Wood is really quite warm. Fewer replacement costs. Color goes with whatever furniture you have.
Although I vacuum on a regular schedule every carpet I have ever had taken up had loads of dust under it.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
Vinyl in kitchen and bathroom, laminate in the entrance hall. carpet everywhere else, despite the colour(beige) which was there when I moved in 6 years ago, and two cats. The stairs were just painted, which was a) slippery and b) noisy, so I had them carpeted with the offcuts found in the attic. Comfort every time, but then I'm not particularly allergic to house dust.
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
My flat currently has carpet everywhere except the kitchen and bathroom. Unless I get a job at the other end of the country sometime soon, I'll start replacing it with laminate (I'd love real wood, but can't really afford it). Starting with the hallway and living room, as they're the most heavily used and therefore the most filthy.
We'd put real wood floors in downstairs (except the kitchen, which was stone tile) in the house. One of the things I loved about the house and miss.
Carpet is just too much work to keep even presentable, let alone actually clean. Wood, and even more so laminate, is not IME particularly cold underfoot (one can always wear slippers). I admit it's not very comfortable to sit on, but no worse than a thin carpet ... and, if you have a deep pile carpet you might as well not bother trying to keep it clean.
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
The floorboards in this flat (built c 1928) are fairly rubbish. Worse still, a lot of the sound insulation - ashes - has been removed over the years. So its carpets pretty well everywhere + soundproofing underlay.
If I had a choice, I would go for a lot more laminate - we have some in the kitchen and scullery and very handsome it is. I hate hoovering with an perfect hatred and something. You can squoosh a mop round is much preferable.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
But if you mop the floor then you have to wait for it to dry – and there’s a knack to redistributing the muddy patches. I quite enjoy vacuuming the flat, on the occasions when I get round to it. There's a satisfaction in watching things leap up the nozzle and disappear, especially cobwebs from the corners of the ceiling you can’t reach by yourself. And I don't mind steam-cleaning the carpet from time to time.
I guess it takes all sorts. I don’t mind mats or lino, but with a wooden floor I'd worry constantly about scratches, spillages and slipping on it, and wouldn’t feel comfortable living with it, which I guess is what it comes down to in the end.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
A spillage on a wooden floor is far easier to clean up than on a carpet. I grew up with wooden floors, and 50 years later they are going strong - though clearly worn, nothing that a good polish wouldn't sort out (though, that would require moving the furniture out of the way - but nowhere near the hassle of replacing carpet). A quick sweep with the broom occasionally keeps it clean, though I admit my mum does tend to run the vacuum over it, but that's more an issue of not wanting to bend down to sweep stuff into a dustpan.
Maybe I like wooden floors because that's what I grew up with.
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
It depends a bit on your climate.
Personally I detest carpets which seem like traps for dust to me. I can see how they can be a good idea in colder climates though. Wooden floors are the norm here and it’s true that they are a bit noisy, but OTOH the wearing of slippers (as a courtesy to the downstairs neighbours) is much more widespread.
Our house in the South-West (35°C in the summer) has tiles downstairs, which are not half-bad for hot places. They are also the easiest thing to clean. Mopping dries very quickly in a hot climate if you use boiling water. A couple of minutes tops.
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
I have carpet because our floorboards are terrible and the void under the house gets very wet in the winter - yet another delight of a listed building.
Ideally I'd have solid parquet with rugs on top where required.
Quarry tiles in the kitchen and bathroom.
Carpet in a bathroom is unhygienic so vinyl if you can't have tiles.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
Oh yes, solid parquet with rugs. Nothing better! We have that except for the kitchen and bathroom (1930s mansion flat): we're very lucky.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Most offices seem to have some sort of carpeting. It doesn't seem to be a problem, except coffee gets spilled on it occasionally.
I suppose most of you are used to it but to me this sort of thing just looks cold and unfinished. The shine is offputting, distracting even. It suggests to me this is something you have to be careful with and that it's going to be slidy.
But each to their own. Fashions come and go, it'll be interesting to see what's next.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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BabyWombat
Shipmate
# 18552
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Posted
We have a combination. 1884 house, we moved in after the previous owner had been here over 50 years. Hideous carpet in first floor -- looked like swamp mud -- smelling horribly of cat and cigarette smoke. Professional cleaning help a little. Ugly painted wide plank pine floors in the 2nd floor bedrooms. It was a leap of faith to pull up the carpet – didn’t know what we’d find -- but it revealed lovely honeyed hardwood. We oil it twice yearly and it glows. Friends encouraged polyurethane to make it shine; we’re glad we said “no”! Have oriental area rugs in each room for cozy. The 2nd floor pine now covered with cozy-on-the-feet carpeting. Vinyl in bathrooms and kitchen, although I'd love to do real tile someday.
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Let us, with a gladsome mind…..
Posts: 102 | From: US | Registered: Feb 2016
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
When we bought our house it had wall-to-wall carpet throughout. Gradually over the years we replaced it all with hardwood. There is tile in the front hallway, and carpet on the stairs and in the family room. My flooring guy warned that it was a waste of money to pay for wood on stairs, because they're noisy and there's a slipping issue, especially with children. It costs plenty to convert stairs to wood and then you wind up paying to run carpet down them.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
My home had carpet throughout except for the bathroom and kitchen, which had old, ugly vinyl that I pulled up myself and replaced.
After constant allergy problems, my friends and I pulled up all the carpet and found there was an acceptable vinyl tile underneath. Allergies are better, now. Ideally, I'd love to get the wood-look ceramic tile to replace most of the flooring!
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
... I quite enjoy vacuuming ...
My address is ... ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
The current Château Piglet has a combination of vinyl tiles (kitchen and bathrooms), bad laminate (dining-room, landing) and mostly quite bad carpet, none of which I like in the least. I don't mind carpet in bedrooms (warm on the piggies when getting out of bed), but for other parts of the house I'd much rather have wood.
We're shortly going to be house-hunting (we're currently getting Château Piglet ready for putting it on the market), and I've been snouting round estate agents' web-sites to see what's what. I'm finding myself much more likely to be drawn to a house with wood or laminate floors, as they just look smarter. You can always add "area" rugs, as long as you fasten them down properly, and I get the feeling that wood has a warmth all of its own.
The house where I grew up had maple floors and I never found them particularly cold, even in an Orkney winter.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
It costs plenty to convert stairs to wood
That sounds funny over here - I can't think of a British home I've been in (outside a block of flats) whose staircase was not wooden.
It reminds me of a couple I knew who were into 'home improvement' (I'm more of a 'slowing entropy' kind of guy). They were talking of getting some 'new stairs' (a rather unusual thing to do in the UK) which suggested a kind of conversation along the lines of 'You know, we'll have to get some new stairs. Half the time I ascend these ones, I end up on the ground floor - they're so unreliable!' ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Nearly all of our old houses (and most of our housing stock is old...) have pitch pine floors. It's amazing stuff - cut it 100 years later, and you can still smell the sap. Nothing like red (hmm) or white (aarrghh) pine you buy now. And people still throw out old doors and replace them with something made of laminated cardboard...
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Modern construction in the US is predicated upon wall-to-wall carpeting. Thus the floors are simply plywood subfloors, and the stairs are construction-quality wood. You're going to cover it all with carpet, so there's no point in installing oak or maple.
Therefore, if you want an oak stair in your house, you either have to cover the cheap wood of the stair with better wood, or take tne entire stair out and replace it. Both are expensive propositions.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
... I quite enjoy vacuuming ...
My address is ...
My hourly rate is ...
Anyone out there have a particular theme or style for decoration, or did it more sort of just happen as it went along?
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
I bought an old house in a sh*te area that had been left to rot, and (since I like woodwork) I tried to stop all the wooden bits dropping off. So the house itself suggested the theme, though afterwards it got trendy and all the bits (like mouldings and architrave) I used to pull out of skips, stopped appearing!
(Not before I had re-installed dado and picture rails, which was a necessity as a method of trying to restrain the plaster from falling off the walls )
There's a traditional UK staircase
here
When it was made, it was probably painted dark brown and varnished - perhaps even scumballed, which is to say painted dark brown and then having a kind of comb dragged over it to simulate a heavy wood grain. Ignoring it was made of wood.
Stair rods are expensive unless you can make them out of scrap something else...
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Mark my boy, have I got stair rods for you... I do believe there is a bag of original 1920s numbers in a cupboard somewhere. Period feature 'n' all that, the surrounding wood was so tatty, we went for entirely carpeted stairs.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
Or should they prove unsuitable you can find more here .
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
It may just be my computer, which can be less than co-operative, but I can't get that link to work, Jacobsen.
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Anyone out there have a particular theme or style for decoration, or did it more sort of just happen as it went along?
I don't know that ours would quite amount to a "style", but we love the designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh; we've got a rather crude copy of the Argyle chair, and sundry other things with wee square dots.
We're also rather proud of our two Orkney chairs, which are always a talking-point when we have visitors.
Aside from that, I like things fairly plain and unfussy, with nice clean lines. Most of IKEA's output would be to our taste, and I've just realised that when we move, instead of being 1500 miles from the nearest IKEA, we'll only be a few hundred. ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
And on the same piece of rock ...
We may need to get a bigger Pigletmobile.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
If I had my way, everything in my house would be done by me. I would paint the walls, sew the curtains, possibly slipcovers for the furniture, design the tile, make, repaint or redo all the furniture, and so on. Alas, although I have done quite a bit of this, I just don't have time to do it all. So a good deal of the stuff is just stuff, acquired here and there. The items I have made or done, I have to keep. There is a cabinet, elaborately painted with faux books, a table bought at a yard sale and revealed to be by a Danish designer when I stripped and refinished it.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
It may just be my computer, which can be less than co-operative, but I can't get that link to work, Jacobsen.
It doesn't work here either, but the url suggests a lot of options for the purchase of stair rods.
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
I have three cats. Cats that hork up hairballs and occasionally simply barf. Wood floors are much easier to clean cat upchuck off of than carpet.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
With a single-storey house on a reinforced concrete slab, we opted for vinyl tiles in the service rooms, and otherwise cork tiles – 47 years later it's hard to believe we put them all down ourselves. They've been re-polyurethaned once and I guess that will be it. A medium sized neutral carpet square in the living room and various rugs, some colourful ones I wove from offcut strips of stuff from a dress factory (that stuff that was popular in the 70s), others with various history. A visitor exclaimed 'How beautifully seventies' – we have pale creamy walls with rimu doors etc. We've always loved our house.
I don't know if it's because of the eight-inch concrete slab, but I haven't felt any of the recent earthquakes.
The cork tiles are warm in winter and quiet to walk on. We recently got a couple of thick soft sheepskin rugs but the physiotherapist who came to assess my balance made me move mine away from the bed 'because I could slip on it' – nonsense.
Vinyl tiles on concrete: drop a jam jar or a cup and it doesn't break, but I dropped a pyrex bowl and it shattered into several thousand pieces.
Visiting friends in a small terrace house in Wales, I was amazed at the steepness and narrowness of the staircase.
GG
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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St Deird
Shipmate
# 7631
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Posted
Echoing everyone else on allergies and cleaning.
There are also some parenting bonuses:
- My son can push his little tricycle round the floor with his feet, which is too tough to do on higher-friction surfaces like carpet.
- His feet on the floorboards mean it's easy for me to hear where he is in the house, thus warding off disaster.
- We can be very silly and bounce balls on the floor together, which never really works properly on carpet.
Cork tiles are the best, though. My parents have them - they're warm, they don't break crockery that's dropped on them, and when my dad accidentally shot an arrow through the floor, it was easily patched so you couldn't even tell where he'd done it.
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They're not hobbies; they're a robust post-apocalyptic skill-set.
Posts: 319 | From: the other side of nowhere | Registered: Jun 2004
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
Wood or laminate. Because dust. You cannot, simply cannot, clean a carpet. No matter what the people from the steam-cleaning place say, or how much mud they haul away (and if you've ever done it yourself, it's staggering). There's still dust mites down there.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
It doesn't work here either, but the url suggests a lot of options for the purchase of stair rods.
I can hear the resignation in your voice, Alan. I'm really sorry
Firenze - thanks! I coped by adapting some which were cheap with no fittings - but if that link suggests a demand, you may be able to cash in on ebay. Then again, perhaps the 'period' moment has passed - I guess if I were as immune to fashion as I like to think I am, it wouldn't bother me that rather than looking 70 years out of date, our house is probably now merely slightly passe.
quote:
with rimu doors etc
GG - a friend of mine from Belfast has settled in Christchurch. He likes woodwork, and tells me it saddens him, all the Rimu framing which is ending up in the skip because of the earthquakes. He's trying to make things out of it, where he can. We met on an engineering course to do with noise and vibration control - I'm not surprised your slab makes a good footing where there is seismic activity.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
Re stair rods:
ISTM there'd be great danger of tripping on them. Is there??
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
ISTM there'd be great danger of tripping on them. Is there??
I never experienced any. Once in place the stair rods are so far back in the right angle between each step that you'd have to make quite an effort to catch your foot in them.
Older readers may remember, incidentally, that carpets and rugs used to be taken up and have the dust etc beaten out of them in the spring with a carpet beater. That would be in the days before vacuum cleaners.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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quetzalcoatl
Shipmate
# 16740
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Posted
Small kids in the basement flat, which has wooden floors. Result: every morning they do their ritual circuits of the kitchen and the hall, either running, or on scooters. Cacophony. But, look on the bright side, by the age of about 4, they are into iPads, and stop running. Well, 3 probably.
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I can't talk to you today; I talked to two people yesterday.
Posts: 9878 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2011
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Noise between you and basement flat is nothing to do with floor covering but everything to do with the building and sound insulation.
Assuming that the building wasn't originally intended to be separate apartments, then you need to lift your floorboards and place between the joists appropriate insulation material. Best thing IMO would be something like the foam they use in recording studios - I think you can get it from specialist suppliers and it isn't too expensive.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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