Time to put your foot down on flooring
CARPET is not always a quality product, and most of us are astute enough to notice the glitter of polypropylene underfoot. Add a foam backing and prices start as low as €3 to €4 a square metre. Even in the cheerily cheap wool mixes you get what you pay for. I can attest to that having an 80% wool mix cheapo. After 8 years it is quietly disintegrating from its backing into cloudy lint.
Carpet is either tufted (the standard medium price range choice, with short lengths of pile pulled through a prepared backing and trimmed to a uniform length) or woven (laced through front and back as it is created). It is known for its luxury and dimensional stability (less likely to flatten) and the durability of high wool content varieties.
Your carpet will become the filthiest material in your house. In high traffic areas downstairs, the pile picks up organic nasties and a heavy dose of petrochemicals ground into every pavement you walk across. An annual steam clean plus regular vacuuming are vital to fight the sponge effect of dirt, toxins and dust mites tangled in the pile. A high pile density in the area of 40oz is suggested for living rooms where spillages are inevitable (look for ‘Heavy Domestic’) and stain treatments will give that carpet extra survival skills.
Purchase points:
* Wool carpet offers strength and quality while polyester, acrylic or polypropylene will flatten more quickly but resist staining.
* Woven eco-friendly choices such as jute can last as long as 30 years, but are rough on tender toes and lethal on stairs.
* Looped pile can catch pets’ claws. Choose short cut pile.
* Kick up the quality for carpet in high traffic areas. 80% wool content is ideal for a hall and busy living space.
* Only choose longer Saxony type piles if you like vacuuming in straight lines regularly.
* Look for a deal combining the purchase with a professional installation.
* Install underlay even when not required in a felt back. It adds that luxury spring and will promote longevity.
* Plain pale carpet will amplify light, but patterns and tonals will disguise dirt more effectively.
INTO THE WOODS
The sound of Jimmy Choo’s snatching their way across a hardwood floor for me is a theme tune for Irish property improvement right through the age of the Celtic Tiger. Wood flooring in hardwood parquets, reclaimed planks, clever engineered timbers and laminate pretenders took off as never before. Downstairs in many homes, wood will forever hold sway, but on staircases and overhead, its maddening clatter can knock that acoustic insulation in the joists right into touch. If you or yours suffer from respiratory disorders, the health benefits will make wood stem to stern a wise choice. However, if you are already planning an archipelago of rugs to soften the woody hectares upstairs, consider yielding to carpet for a less fussy finish.
Real wood flooring, with one timber front to back, is not ideal for kitchens or bathrooms where its reactivity to moisture and heat change can cause it to curl and even pop up underfoot. Engineered planks with a more stable core of softwood or plywood topped by a face of real wood not only reduces price but reduces the incidence of warping without any loss of aesthetics. If you’re looking for eco-friendly wood flooring, the high fibre content of bamboo flooring makes it immensely strong. Bamboo grasses re-grow every 3-5 years, so sustainably sourced (land clearing for growing has taken a sinister turn in the Far East) it has good green credentials. Investigate both natural and dyed varieties. From €10 per square yard.
THE TEASE OF TIMBER
Inexpensive laminates can do just about everything a linoleum or vinyl floor can do, with a sleek, unbroken surface, a plywood core and pert photo image of wood that can slough off water and muck with a wipe of a soapy water. Random patterns in quality laminates cunningly disguise its repeat figuring designs and you can even get antimicrobial floors to protect against dust borne allergies.
Designs have followed real wood fashions closely, with attractive floors including ‘V’ grooves and distressed wide ‘plank’ flooring with ancient embossed date stamps. Kronotex’s latest laminates in treacle dark colours are funky and unusual, with heavy figuring inspired by well-worn German oak barrels (from €7.99 at Topline Hardware).
Slender profiles and click-fit technology make it a breeze to lay even DIY over a dedicated corrugated underlay to reduce that telltale creak and the unnerving spring of a thin floating floor. Look out for the latest keen deals in laminate which often includes the underlay for as little as €7 per square yard.
For the determined timber snob, laminate will lack the transcendent beauty of wood. Paste fillers are available to fill in mild damage to a laminate floor, still, once seriously gouged it cannot be sanded or repaired and you may have to replace it by section.
Purchase Points:
* Don’t put solid wood in high humidity areas. If you insist on it, seal it with polyurethane varnish or linseed oil against water ingress.
* Budget to have solid flooring installed professionally. It’s a heavy job and involves leaving margins for expansion.
* Most engineered flooring, solid wood and some laminates can take underfloor heating, but always check first with your supplier for a stable product and installation advice.
* In cost-effective engineered flooring look for handy glueless joints such as Kahrs Woodloc. In laminates Quicksteps Uniclic, allow you to slot the 8mm boards right into a pre-milled groove.
* If you are improving to sell, a top flight laminate perfectly installed will be eye-catching and economical. Look for new V-groove, embossing and textures to introduce character.
* Don’t lay any floating flooring over a very uneven sub-floor. 3mm unevenness over 1 metre radius is the maximum tolerance of most products.
* Purchase 10% more flooring that needed to cover wastage (15% if you’re having a go yourself).
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
