Flooring, countertops, radiant heating, and more

When people come to our home, they typically ask us about our bamboo flooring, concrete countertops, concrete flooring, and hydro-radiant heating.  

This post is about bamboo flooring. 

We chose the bamboo flooring because bamboo is a sustainable product, though there may be unhealthful steps in the process of turning a cylindrical object into a flat one.  We have carbonized bamboo flooring, which is harder than other forms.  It looks just like hardwood with a permanent matte sheen on top. (There are a couple of color choices, but I am not sure if there are other sheen choices.)  As a product itself, the bamboo flooring is phenomenal.  It is beautiful and tough and looks just like hardwood with the exception of occasional marks characteristic of bamboo.  All we do to take care of it is sweep or vaccuum it.  We were warned not to step on it with high heels or dog nails and that if we were careful it would be 15 years before we would ever have to even think about refinishing any of it.

We recently discovered that the bottom of a planter had leaked onto the floor at least several times and then dried.  The mineral deposits just wiped right off and did not stain or warp the tightly assembled tongue-in-grooveplanks.   The surface will scratch if you take a sharp object and scratch it; however, we recently dropped a heavy industrial-sized stapler onto the floor, which did not even leave a mark, so the product does not dent easily.

Edited by deej - Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:34:49 GMT

On the issue of concrete countertops. 

Again, we tried to be ecological in choosing the concrete over granite.  The concrete can be mixed with various colors and can even be sanded down a bit to reveal the small stones that centrifuge to the exterior of the mold.  This makes it look very organic.  The main problem with concrete is that stains.  The staining is unusual because it isn't  so much that colored foods stain the concrete, but soap scum or water droplets left on the concrete for a long period of time will become leave permanent white marks.  It's as if a chemical reaction easily pulls up whitish mineral desposits from within the concrete that settle on the surface.  The worst is lemon juice - which literally eats away any sealant or applied wax coating on the concrete.   I was told before we chose our colors that the lighter the color of concrete that you choose, the less likely you are to see such staining.  The concrete also chips  though this has only happened in a couple of small spots, which are not really noticeable.   Stains can be sanded out gently with 220 grit sandpaper.  The sealer wax should be reapplied every few months to minimize staining in areas of heavy use or if a glossier look is desired.  Wax can be gently stripped with fine sandpaper and reapplied or wax can simply be reapplied without sanding.  The recommended wax is wax for vinyl floors - Trewax gold label, which can be found at large hardware stores.  This is a bit more maintenance than I had hoped would be involved, but I was glad to find out that I could reapply the wax without having to sand first.  Alternatively, we could just let the concrete "weather."

Edited by ping - Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:04:25 GMT

Edited by ping - Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:57:53 GMT

Edited by ping - Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:42:57 GMT

This post is on hydro-radiant heating. 

It feels good to have a warm floor under your feet; however, the pipes under the floor coil back and forth in "S" patterns, which means that there are a ot of spaces between the "S" loops.  So, the floor doesn't feel universally warm, unless perhaps you choose a flooring material that not only takes the heat well, but dissipates it more evenly.  Also, if you have the first and second floor on different heating zones, chances are the second floor will always be warmer than the first floor because heat rises; therefore, the lower floor is more likely to be warm and the upper floor not warm - unless the weather is cold.

Contrary to tales I had heard before we installed the system, the system actually heats up pretty quickly and does not make the air feel dry.  It feels really cozy if you sit on an area rug on top of the radiant flooring because the rug retains the heat.   It is also nice to have a soiurce of heat that doesn't blow dust all over the place.

Apparently, there is new radiant heating technology out  that uses electrical coils, as opposed to water pipes.  My husband (the builder) and I think that this would have been a better choice had the technology been available to us in the beginning.  That way one doesn't have to worry about what to do to mitigate or repair a leak - particularly if the leak is under a concrete slab.

On concrete flooring. 

Concrete flooring can be color integrated and very low maintenance.  Water streaks and mineral deposits that come up are universal and create interesting patterns that shift over time.  Concrete can be scrubbed vigorously and sealant can be reapplied easily if certain areas take up too much dirt over time.  (The only place where this happened to us is by the sink, where we have had problems in the past regardless of the kinds of flooring we have had.)  The only problem with our concrete floors is that the batch was "hot" due to sitting in traffic for too long and therefore more prone to cracking, and we did not put in any aluminum joints to minimize the amount of cracking.  The cracking doesn't bother my husband and it doesn't bother me except for the fact that the cracks typically run in similar directions, which does not yield a very organic looking pattern.  I often think that what we need is a few more going in other directions and then we'd have what looks like a stategic placement of stones.  If you do concrete flooring I'd recommend adding aluminum joints and accepting the fact that you will have a few cracks.  These can be filled in and I have been told that it can even be covered over with epoxy (though I am not sure how the concrete would sweat or breathe with expoxy on it).  Sometimes when we put a vinyl runner or rug with rubber backing over the concrete, there will be a mineral imprint left underneath the rug suggesting that moisture was trapped underneath. Once the rug is removed, the mineral deposit patterm disappears over time.

On plaster showers.

I hate grout.  So, when I found out about the possibility of plaster showers, my interest was piqued.  Our showers are all made of plaster, which has a slightly mottled, organic look to it.  The color is integrated into the plaster, so there is no need to paint or re-paint.  It looks just like the smooth hand-troweled stucco on the outside of our house, and was created by the same plaster company as the ones who did our outside stucco.  It feels velvety smooth to the touch and requires NO maintenance.  The only things we ever have to clean is the grout between the plaster walls and the tub.  That's it.  Reduces the use of slate as well.

Plaster can develop hairline cracks over time, but these are only visible way up close and it does not diminish its waterproofness.  It is very hard and does not chip or discolor over time.

these are awesome, we are moving and the house we are buying is completely carpeted except the kitchen even the bathrooms have carpet, we are looking into bamboo as an option for them instead. thanks for the posts!