Archive for the ‘Floor’ Category
Hardening soft floors with an Epoxy coating
Floors are often laid with materials like jib create, that deteriorate from moisture and abrasion. Kitchens, baths, and work areas have liquids and other materials that end up on flooring which can cause spalling, erosion and flaking. A coating of 100% solid epoxy can level those floors and seal them from further damage. By using a squeegee type motion, liquid epoxy can be pulled over floor irregularities allowing them to fill in. Because epoxy is hard and water tight, once sealed further erosion is usually stopped.
Water standing in low spots on floors can often last for days creating safety problems and cleaning issues. During the troweling of floors some uneven ness can create low spots where spilled liquids can form. Low spots or depressions can now be filled in with 100% solid epoxy to bring them to level. Berms can also be adhered within an epoxy floor to contain liquid spills rendering them easy to squeegee out. Often containment of liquids to safe areas is all that is needed to avoid damage to items stored on the same floor.
Garage Floor Repair
All too often homeowners and businesses try to repair worn, eroded and pitted floors with materials that crumble which ends up leaving large holes or depressions. Once the repair attempt fails the fix is often more difficult then the original problem. Instead of having a few damaged areas, the new holes in the repaired material leave lingering doubts about the remaining repaired surfaces. Will more of the repair material fail? Should the owner go to the expense and effort of trying to remove it? While these questions do not have a universal answer you can make efficient and long lasting repairs to original repairs using 100% epoxy.
Should I Use Tile on My Garage Floor?
When deciding what to do with your plain concrete garage floor, many buyers struggle to decide between an epoxy coating or floor tiles. Both are a bit of an investment over the basic concrete, but are ideal for protecting floors from spills and stains, as well as the salt that can damage the concrete over the winter season. Also, they provide a superior work surface which can be comfortably cleaned and maintained without the hassle of power washing. So what’s the big difference?
Plastic and vinyl garage floor tiles are now available to consumers at a variety of price points, with the plastic ones assembled with interlocking pieces over the concrete. They can be solid or grated, with the solid ones providing a reliable slip-resistant surface and grated ones built to allow air liquids to pass through the flooring to the concrete below. Vinyl tiles, on the other hand, must be affixed to the concrete floor with glue, and are not locked together but anchored individually. These tiles can provide a smoother, more uniform look than the plastic models, but cannot be as easily removed.
The cons of using garage floor tiles instead of an epoxy floor coating for your garage are several: They can be much more difficult to clean because the seams between each tile are not airtight and will allow liquids and oils to seep between the cracks, possibly damaging the concrete subfloor. With the plastic interlocking tiles, if you want to replace one, you will be forced to disassemble several squares of your flooring in order to get to the individual tile. On the other hand, vinyl floors have to be forcefully pulled up and then replacements re-glued after cleaning the surface. The vinyl garage floor tiles also can be somewhat hazardous when wet, as they become slippery and lack texture for proper traction.
Wood Flooring Installation Can Hide Problems
Wood floorings, commonly referred to as hardwood flooring are seeing a return to favor as viable flooring as there are newer ways to help maintain it being developed. Wood flooring installation can be quite a chore and should not be taken too lightly if you want a floor that is going to remain beautiful for many years.
Since wood flooring installation is actually done to the actual subfloor of a home, unlike laminate flooring that is a floating floor, making absolute sure that the subfloor is in excellent condition is imperative. Fix any cracks that might exist, level any areas that are not quite lever, and make sure the floor is very clean by sweeping, mopping and vacuuming it taking special care around the edges of the walls and corners.
Choosing the Right Bamboo Flooring
Bamboo floors are a popular choice these days. Using bamboo saves trees and can be an environmentally-friendly and durable choice, if you choose well. In the same way you get low-quality carpeting or high-quality carpeting, you can get low or high quality bamboo flooring. All bamboo flooring is not the same. How can you find high-quality, eco-friendly bamboo flooring? These seven tips will help you find bamboo flooring that you can be happy with for many years:
1. Which type of bamboo flooring would you like?
There are 2 types of bamboo flooring – traditional and strand woven. Traditional bamboo flooring comes in 2 different grain directions: horizontal and vertical. Traditional bamboo can also be solid (bamboo all the way though) or engineered (thin veneer layer on top with compressed particle board). Even though traditional bamboo flooring is about 25% harder than Oak and Maple, it still can be easily scratched or gouged by high heels, small pets and furniture movement. Any sort of pressure may result in dents, scratches and even cracks in the floor. For these reasons there are a lot of complaints from homeowners and business owners when working with traditional bamboo flooring.