In goes our flooring

Our flooring was installed over 2 days. This really transformed the house and made it feel complete. I was also finally glad to get rid of the dust that was on the concrete flooring. I couldn't clean or do anything as it was just getting covered in the really fine dust only moments later.

Its been a long wait to see the vinyl floors get laid. They're such a new product, and after a few recommendations decided to give them a try. Hours of researching and reading up about the product, and then also ordering samples and visiting our flooring guy (Choices Flooring Blacktown) to check out all the samples he had in his showroom. If you're after flooring yourself go and visit Tony, he is so helpful and a great guy too - he will point you in the right direction and give you some really good advice along the way.

In the end i ended up choosing the Polyflor Looselay in the blond country oak. The loose lay is a product that doesn't require gluing into place. Its also 5mm thick and has a layer of underlay under each tile. The tile we chose is also slightly textured. There is so much to consider and i guess since its so new i really dont know what the floors will look like years down the track.

But now that its in all i can say is AH-MAZING! i LOVE it! it feels so soft and warm to walk on, and leading into winter i am quite grateful im not walking on cold tiles. Friends who have told me about this product ahve said they will never go back to tiles again - and i can kind of see why.

My SS knew all about the floors and every step of the building process was there to make sure the flooring was considered. 

We took into consideration

- Slab and how smooth it is - as the vinyl needs to be laid on a super flat surface so it doesn't look rippled when laid

- Door heights are catered for tiles as standard which EBH allowed 25mm for, the flooring being so thin means gaps under doors are larger than usual. so we have actually dropped some doors in the house by 10mm to fix this issue.

- Skirting was still nailed home

- Wet area step ups do become rather large. the standard angle they use is 40mm, the floor is think so leaves a step up of 35mm. this really bothered me to begin with and have been trying to think of ways to hide the step, but now that its done i think ill just leave it, we will get used to the big step, and its better than to cluttered the streamlined effect with a ramp leading upto it - if we start tripping over it we may have to look into something.

- if youre considering this, speak to builder about the thickness, make sure they know its quite thin so they are aware of things that may need to be adjusted.

Coming from a house that was tiled, it will be a bit of an adjustment to the way we treat our flooring. You cant use a steam cleaner on it, and you cant drag furniture over it as it will damage it. The planks are commerical grade but it doesn't stop it from scratching. If we treat it like its real wood then it should hopefully last a long time, and the best part is, we have spare panels so we can just pull a damaged plank up and replace it with a new one.

Ive had several trades comment on how good it looks - some think its wooden tiles, others think its laminate. They are shocked when i show them its a vinyl plank. Now that its laid you relaly cant tell until you touch it and walk on it. Its quiet too, which helps when im getting ready for work and dont want to wake the kids, or when the kids are playing and running through the house its not loud like the laminate flooring can be.

Ive given my house such a warm inviting feel, and in winter when its cold im looking forward to not having to stand on the cold tiles. 

Lets hope this product passes the test of time and im still raving about it in 5 years time.

Something to seriously be considered if you're wanting something different to laminate but please do your research! you want to make sure you know exactly what you are getting and what all the pro's and con's are with it.

Stainmaster Carpet to all bedrooms

Games Room

Flooring Decisions - or lack of decisions

After recent discussions with friends on how unhappy i was with the EB builders range of ceramic tiles and that we couldn't afford the Italian 60x60cm Porcelain Tile upgrade that i wanted a friend suggested i check out the vinyl flooring as an option for post hand over laying.

I looked on the web for some possible brands, i had 2 friends lay Karndean flooring and PolyFlor Explona flooring and were really happy with the results, suggesting they would never consider anything else as a flooring option for their homes. Reading through forums and talking to carpet retailers i quickly realised that there wasn't really anything too bad about the vinyl. They look fantastic, are supposed to be easy to clean and are defiantly durable. They are of commerical standard too which is great. The only downside i can see is that being a wood look i think they will show the dirt and dust a bit more just as a standard wooden floor would. And the vinyl doesn't have any thermal properties unlike tiles that soak up the heat and help to warm a place up in winter. This could also be a plus though as the vinyl isn't as cold and as hard to walk on in winter, yet still cool underfoot in summer.

The past week i have visited all the local carpet and flooring places in the area. I checked the harvey Norman Allure, Karndean, Polyfor, Allura and Inovar.

The Invoar "Spotted Gum" is a beautiful plank but i think a little bit too orange for the look that im after. And after taking samples home from harvey Norman we didn't like their texture in the planks although the colour was right. For karndean i first loved the walnut a gorgeous grain, and it looks so real you would think it was wood. I borrowed the walnut and Lancewood but when i got them home in natural light relaised they were nt the colours for us. Then after a 3rd visit i borrowed the Melbourne Larch, Tasmanian Wattle and the Antique Kari. At the moment we love the Melbourne Larch. Im amazed we both agree on the plank. I thought we would be having battles over which colour to go with. Its a nice warm yellow tone, with a bautiful grain thorugh it, but not to dark. I think this colour will hide the dust well and the dirt too.

The look we are trying to achieve is something like this. A light, Bright and airy home that has a really warm cozy feel about it. I know this sample is real wood, but the planks do look real so if we can get close enough to this ill be happy. Certainly feeling a lot more at ease about this decision than trying to choose tiles for the home. The planks can easily be laid. and then if we want to replace them in years to come once the kids are older we have that option. its a huge thing to change if you put the wrong tiles down. And i really dont like how the ceramic tiles chip so easily either. I would be devasted if something was dropped and it chipped a new tile in our home.

Here are some of the samples of the Planks that i have viewed over the past week

This is a sample of the Melbourne Larch | Karndean Plank

Image on the left shows the tone better

Bottom - Inovar "Spotted Gum"

Right - Allure "Vintage Oak"

Left - Karndean "Walnut"

Starting from Far Left of screen

Spotted Gum - Inovar

Tasmanian Wattle LL - Karndean

Melbourne Larch - Karndean

Antique Kari - Karndean

Karndean Website - Click Here