So, you're at the design table with your architect and you're talking floor finishes. Easy, right?
As simple as it might sound, selecting the right floor for your renovation or build can actually make or break the final aesthetic – and affect your home's flow.
Let's be real here: No one needs bad Feng Shui in their life.
Getting it right
Floors form part of the seen structure of any home and tie everything together. They also allow you to put your touch on a huge part of your home. So it's super important to get it right.
Think of any architecturally designed home you've been in and you can almost bet they have one major thing in common.
I almost guarantee the bedrooms in these homes will be carpeted. There's a good reason for this.
Carpet
Your bedroom should be a place of solace, and if specified correctly carpet is a sure-fire way to achieve this. And there lies the real problem.
Due to the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) embedded in carpets during production, carpet can actually be harmful to your health. Like anything in life these days, you get what you pay for.
Timber
Being a chippy means I've worked with timber for as long as I can remember, so you'd be right to assume I love it.
There's nothing quite like the smell of fresh cut hardwoods or laying a Tassie oak floor – which for some reason smells like buttery popcorn when you cut it.
in Australia we grow some of the straightest, toughest and most beautiful hardwoods in the world. Laying these as flooring always adds a striking visual element to any home and you can guarantee that if it's done right it'll almost always add value.
Timber is hard wearing, so it's great for high-traffic areas, is easy to clean, it doesn't stain – and is cost effective, too. Once laid all it requires is to be sanded and finished with a water-based or polyurethane coating as a sealer. (Carpets and other topical coverings require a substrate.)
Concrete
Another popular floor finish these days, that's also really striking, is concrete – but to be completely frank, concrete ain't concrete.
There's a multitude of ways to finish it, so you need to make sure you're across the details. When you polish a concrete slab, you usually do this to expose the aggregate (stone) below. You then seal it with a clear gloss, matte or penetrating sealer to ensure the slab maintains its integrity for the duration of its life.
The other popular finish is a burnished slab. A burnished finish means the slab is trowelled to the point where it becomes very smooth and glossy and requires at least three passes with a trowel after the concrete has been screed flat and level.
The trick is timing the last pass so the slab is cured (hard) enough to get a high angle on the trowel and produce a super-tight surface. The result is like a trowel-burned surface, except trowel burning darkens the slab, while burnishing makes a hard, tight surface while keeping the colour of the slab as light as possible.
May the floor be with you.
Sourced article: www.realestate.com.au