Most design experts advise that the first thing to decide on in any conversion or renovation of your home is the floor ' or floors. This makes sense because the area to be covered is invariably quite large and it's immediately noticeable, so a well-chosen floor will literally 'root' ' and generally enhance ' the rest of your chosen scheme. Remember though, that both the function of a room and the location of your home will make a difference to the type of flooring you decide on.
While carpet tends to be favoured for bedrooms and stairs, many people opt for some kind of hard floor for other areas because of its perceived durability and because the possibility of adding rugs means that you can covers both options, so to speak. However, the choice of hard flooring on offer is now enormous and not just between the various types, but also between all the various grades and
qualities, their pros and cons and what is really best to use where.
Basically, hard floors break down into wood, natural stone, ceramic, porcelain or clay tiles of one sort or another, mosaic or terrazzo, and man'made materials. And most of these materials work well with each other if you are of a mind to mix and match. Wood, for example, can be used off any of the natural stones, or polished concrete or even with any of the tiles.
A fresh start
If you decide to start over with new strip wood floors your purchase will be governed by your budget, choice of tone and markings and how tough you need your floors to be.
Alternatively, you can choose from a whole range of expensive but decorative parquet floor designs and cheaper ready-made wood mosaic tiles, or panels and blocks (usually made from soft wood with a hard wood veneer).
Man made woods, such as hard board (Masonite), chip board (particle board) and plywood should act as a base for parquet or other wood tiles. However, if they're well laid, stained or painted, then sealed they can look quite stylish own ' but, they're not very hard wearing.
Hard or soft wood?
Today, due to over-lumbering in some areas and environmental issues in others, some woods have become endangered. But equally, others ' once used mostly for furniture ' have become more available for floors. Any good wood floor provider will show you samples of what they have available, what the various woods look like and should give you good advice about what's best for your needs. But it is useful to at least know a little about the subject.
Generally speaking, hard wood is the timber obtained from broad-leafed and deciduous trees such as oak (classic for hard-wearing floors); extra hard maple; beech; sycamore; teak; iroko; expensive rosewood; mahogany; ebony; and increasingly used and handsome walnut; cherry; bamboo and dark Australian ironwood which ' as its name implies ' is the hardest of the lot.
Soft wood comes from conifers such as pine, spruce, fir and hemlock. It's cheaper than hard wood, but it's much more easily dented, so it needs to be well-sealed and used for areas with lighter usage ' not, for example, in hallways, kitchens or the kids' playroom.
Traditional wood
This is the most popular and flexible of all hard flooring since it's available in every price range, tone and finish and can be used in town and country homes, up and downstairs, living and dining rooms and all bedrooms. Now that sealants are so good, they work in the kitchen and bathroom as well. Floor boards can be bought in the more expensive solid strips or in cheaper pre'sealed laminated woods designed to interlock. Strips can be bought in widths from narrow to wide, especially if the latter are old or re'claimed.
Renovate your floor
It's a good idea, before you launch into buying a new floor, to make sure that you cannot extend the life of the old one. Existing wood floors can be bleached, scrubbed and left sealed but unpolished as in earlier centuries; or pickled, limed, lacquered, stained, painted; or, if it's in fairly good condition, sanded, polished and sealed.
In fact, all non pre'sealed wood, including renovated wood as above, must be sealed with several coats of transparent wood sealer but you should make allowances for the fact that some polyurethane seals tend to yellow with age so remember to ask for the non'yellowing variety.
A good alternative is to apply several coats of wax polish but this will need to be kept looking its best with an electric polisher.
A word of warning, though, if you want to stain the floor, think very carefully about the colour you choose. It's fashionable at the moment to have very dark or black stained floors (just as it was equally fashionable a decade or so ago to have floors that were very pale or whitened). Dark floors do look great but they also get dusty-looking very quickly in high-use areas.
Equally, you should try and avoid a very high gloss finish because almost every mark will show up. It's much better to achieve a soft gleam, rather than a high shine, with an eggshell sealer.
man-made materials
Polished concrete was invented by the ancient Romans and is a favourite with current architects and designers who use it in large-tile form for floors, or in large smoothed-out slab. It can be used in any thickness, is both heat and cold resistant, scratchproof and tough. It can be waxed au naturel, or stained and waxed, or painted and sealed and is reasonably priced. However, because it takes a good month 'to cure', concrete floors are generally best installed in houses when they are being built or in buildings that are undergoing major renovation.
Vinyl and cork, vinyl, rubber and linoleum are the cheapest of the hard flooring choices. They can be decorative and softer underfoot than any of the stone or clay fired varieties. They are all excellent for kitchens, halls, children's rooms and the occasional living room. They need to be glued, whether you are using sheet forms or tiles, to a spotlessly clean and level, preferably plywood base.
Vinyl, made from polyvinyl chloride, is available in two main qualities: a more expensive, longer-lasting, solid variety, and the cheaper kind, which is a mixture of fillers and pigments with a thermoplastic binder that can either be cushioned or flat. Both varieties come in solid colours as well as increasingly realistic copies of the natural materials outlined above. Since it is available in sheet or tile form the solid colours can be formed into various checker board and inlaid designs. It's often mixed with cork for tough but soft kitchen and children's room floors.
Linoleum pre'dates vinyl by decades but is now deservedly popular again in very much more imaginative forms. It's made from an unlikely mixture of linseed oil, pine resins, wood, ground cork and pigment pressed onto a jute backing. It's non-slip, burn and stain resistant, easy on the feet, flexible and simple to lay and can be inlaid and spliced to make really handsome designs.
Leather tiles are beautiful and mellow, soft to walk on, but expensive. However, they could be used in a small study to great effect.
Luxurious natural stone
Marble (which is highly polished crystalline limestone) comes in a range of colours from pure white and grey to rust and rosy reds, greens, a tawny or rosy yellow and various shades of black. Be aware that marble with the most interesting colouring and veining is often the most fragile and expensive.
The disadvantages are that it scratches and stains easily (this can be prevented to a certain degree by at least two coats of penetrating sealer), but many people think that the aesthetic advantages easily outweigh the downside. You can use it ' if you're lavishly minded enough ' in every room in the house in a hot climate, or, more modestly, in halls, reception rooms, bathrooms and cloakrooms in the UK. If you're tempted to use it in a dining room, be aware that spilt wine, alcohol in general, vinegar, lemon juice, and sugary sauces can all cause grief unless the floor is treated immediately with a proprietary product.
Limestone (which exudes lime when burned, hence its name) has been used for building facades for centuries, but has become a favourite for contemporary living room and hall floors. It is available in tiles or slabs, can be used indoors and out and looks particularly splendid in urban houses if laid right through a ground floor and out into the courtyard, terrace or small town garden. It's usually a pale, creamy beige colour but can veer towards grey. Travertine, a limestone from Italy, is pitted with small irregular depressions and is also available in tiles or slabs. Both materials can be polished or matte-finished.
Sandstone like limestone has been a long-term favourite cladding material for buildings but can also be bought in slabs cut like flagstones or in straight cut tiles or slabs, polished or unpolished. It can be rather soft, but the hardest varieties come from such diverse places as Italy (pietra bigia or pietra serena), India or Yorkshire. Various suppliers sell beautiful old sandstone floors retrieved from demolished European houses. Use it where you would use marble, sandstone or travertine.
Granite is less expensive than marble, but it is the hardest stone used for floors. It is less slippery and also less likely to scratch or stain. It comes in slabs but also in very thin tiles. Although most people tend to think of granite as black it's available in around fifty colours. It comes in matte or polished finishes and is as good for kitchens, bathrooms and halls as well as a grand living room.
Slate, though expensive, is another good alternative to marble. It comes from metamorphic rock that splits easily into slabs. It's available in tiles, in colours that range from pale grey, green and blue-grey to a darker green, bluish purple and black. It can be left untreated, but it looks great sealed and waxed. It can be used like granite on upper and lower floors in bathrooms, kitchens and halls and also in living and dining rooms.
Flagstones are cut mostly from bluestone or slate, but limestone and sandstone (sealed for durability and easy cleaning) can also be used as flagstones as well as tiles.
They are most appropriately used in country houses both inside and on terraces. You'll find old flagstones on ground floors in many period houses. They can be bought in irregular slabs or custom-cut and though expensive to install they are cheaper to buy than terracotta, quarry or ceramic tiles).
