Take it from the floor. You can step on wood, stone or vinyl

Take it from the floor. You can step on wood, stone or vinyl

Old houses tend to have a problem with insufficient insulation, and during your absence, due to the lack of ventilation, humid air begins to accumulate, which is not good for many coverings. Unsuitable conditions will affect not only their lifespan, but also their appearance.

Wood

In terms of price, a wooden floor belongs to the highest floors, but who wouldn't want it in their country house? In addition, with proper care, it can last for decades and tolerates short-term higher humidity well. By the time you open the windows after your weekend arrival, the wood will successfully expel the moisture without damaging or warping the surface. In addition, this natural material does not attract allergens, dust mites or dust.

If you decide on a wooden floor, when looking for the ideal option for the given space, you should first choose a specific type of wood, then the format and design, then the surface and finally the so-called grading, which determines, for example, how many knots or cracks the boards of your session.

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When buying, also take into account the fact that natural material needs surface protection against damage. It can be done by applying several layers of varnish, while each type of wood requires a different one. Lacquers no longer need to add shine to the floor, you can also get matte or semi-matt variants. Their advantage is the perfect sealing of the wood surface, which thus becomes more resistant to mechanical damage, spilled water does not penetrate into it, and it is easier to wipe off colored stains.

Twice a year, it is advisable to coat the painted surface with a polish, which will fill microscopic cracks in the paint and overall increase the durability of the covering. The disadvantage is the impossibility of local repair of the damaged area. It is not possible to sand and repaint just one square meter, the floor must be renovated all at once.

Another option is impregnation with oil, which allows the natural structure to stand out, you can restore its layer without sanding, and thus without reducing the tread layer. Natural oils are used, which do not close the pores and penetrate deeply, preparations hardened by UV light, which promise higher resistance to wear, or wax oils, which better resist the action of water.

In case of more serious damage, it is possible to sand and repaint only the affected area. However, an oiled floor is less resistant to chemical influences and it is necessary to clean it only with means with a neutral pH - ordinary detergents would wash away the oil. Don't forget that after eight years at the latest, oil or varnishes will be absorbed and you will have to grind the tread layer and repaint or oil it.

On the market, you can find coverings with different thicknesses, but you cannot sand veneered flooring, which has a tread layer of only a millimeter. If it is the veneer that catches your eye, you will protect the surface by roughening it in time. From general advice and recommendations, we thus get to specific types of wooden coverings.

The layer matters

The aforementioned veneer can be considered a price-acceptable compromise between wooden and laminate floors. The bottom layer consists of a cork, wood or resin board, under which there is a fiberboard HDF. The top is made of real wood, which manages to maintain an authentic look and feel.

If you don't have enough money to buy solid wood, but you still want to enjoy walking on natural material, the solution may be to buy a double-layer covering.

The oldest type of wooden flooring, which many cottagers and cottagers do not allow, are planks. Planks made of spruce, pine or oak wood are mounted on a simple beam grid that holds them together. You can be sure that, thanks to the thickness of up to twenty-seven millimeters, you will be provided with excellent sound and thermal insulation.

Kantovka, or industrial mosaics, also maintain their popularity. These are small pieces of wood glued together without tongue and groove. Because the parts are firmly stacked together, even slight deviations in temperature or humidity lead to the formation of joints or unevenness. Therefore, regular maintenance and frequent oiling are extremely important.

A wooden building costs the same as a brick house, but in a few weeks you will be living in a new one. However, you will be rewarded with lifetime durability and resistance to all external influences. The range of materials is wide and includes domestic and exotic types of wood.

If you don't have enough money to buy solid wood, but you still want to enjoy walking on natural material, the solution may be to buy a double-layer covering. The tread layer is made of noble wood, the covering layer is made of cheaper birch wood. This combination contributes to excellent dimensional stability and excellent heat transfer.

Another option is to purchase a three-layer covering. The first layer is again made of birch wood, the second is a supporting rubber plate and the surface is made of a tread layer made of selected wood. These floor coverings are not prone to drying out and swelling, even when the ideal conditions of temperature and humidity are not observed.

It is no wonder that the popularity of multi-layer floors, which are stable in shape and ready for immediate use after installation, continues to grow.

Take it from the floor. You can step on wood, stone or vinyl

Stone, bricks, paving

Another natural material - stone - was also traditionally used in old cottages. It mostly covered the floor, mainly in the entrance area, which sometimes included the black kitchen. Easy-to-work types of stone were used, mostly those found in the surroundings.

If you want, you can treat yourself to a surface around the fireplace made of natural granite or marble. It will serve you for a long time, longer than any other covering. For these purposes, the stone is perfectly processed into regular tiles. Floor heating will help protect you from the cold.

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The original brick pavement was preserved in good condition, most often on the attics, which is why it is also called the attic floor. Cottagers sometimes take it from there and use it for floors in living rooms. However, the floor must be oiled or waxed to make it easy to maintain.

You can also get a brand new one, it has different formats – cubes, rectangles, hexagons and other shapes. For example, tiles with embossed ornaments are interesting. The advantage of this tile is its breathability, so it is also suitable where you struggle with humidity. It is interesting because of its uneven color, which is perfect for the cottage.

From the point of view of tradition, ceramic tiles also belong to cottages, and they are also easy to maintain. Add scratch and moisture resistance to the list of pros, it's also great for underfloor heating. The choice of decors and formats is endless, for example, you will be delighted by tiles that perfectly imitate wood or stone.

"Sintered paving works best for a cottage, as it is the strongest and at the same time can withstand any frost. It is definitely advisable to choose tiles with glaze," recommends Josef Pavlata, purchasing manager of the Bauhaus hobby market.

From the technical parameters, it is enough to monitor the abrasion resistance - it should be at the PEI IV or PEI V level, so that the glaze can withstand, for example, the friction of a stone under the door or contact with dirt on the soles of shoes. The higher the grade, the greater the operating load the pavement can bear.

Vinyl

There are more reasons why you should consider synthetic materials, primarily vinyl, in addition to the classics when considering a new floor for your cottage or cottage. First of all, it impresses with an excellent ratio between price and quality, add easy maintenance and a wide range of designs and designs.

The impression of real wood, for example, is helped by a similar surface structure. Another plus is shape stability, resistance to water and the necessary feeling of warmth. Standard vinyl floors are perfect for kitchens and bedrooms. When laying in the bathroom, go for waterproof types.

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You can find three basic types of these coverings on the market. You will spend the least amount of money on glued floors, which are produced in rolls and in parts. They will prove themselves in damp rooms and will get along with underfloor heating. However, not even a skilled handyman can handle the installation by himself. The individual parts require a completely flat and completely dried substrate and, finally, rolling the laid floor so that the parts are aligned and completely fit together.

Floating parts are another option. Although you will spend a little more from your wallet, you can handle the installation yourself. Thanks to the equipment of the parts with a special click system, installation can be done by simply snapping them together. Irregularities are easily leveled using a special pad, which also contributes to protecting the floor against moisture.

Thanks to the higher thickness, this vinyl floor appears more stable than glued vinyl and can withstand greater loads. However, not everything is sunny. A thicker covering layer has a lower thermal permeability. When purchasing, make sure that your flooring is marked with the appropriate certifications.

For a smaller room, self-adhesive vinyl can be a great solution, which you can easily manage to install. No glue or locking system is used, the individual parts are simply placed next to each other. The non-slip bottom layer keeps the parts in place even without gluing. It is a convenient solution when, for example, you do not want to remove the original paving. You place the parts that you can easily dismantle later on it.

Classification of wooden floors

When you buy a wooden floor, look at the "class" in addition to the selected type of wood. Otherwise, it may happen that you get boards with surface cracks, large color differences between individual boards or significant knots. When making a complaint, the seller will refer to the floor class to which your covering belongs.

Several classifications are used in the market according to different standards, depending on the type of wooden flooring. For example, tongue-and-groove wooden floors are covered by the EN 13226 standard, which is a European standard and therefore also applies in the Czech Republic. It divides wood into individual quality classes depending on the occurrence of characteristic elements.

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The size of knots, color deviations, surface cracks, deflection of fibers, biodegradation of wood or rot are evaluated. This standard sets the standards for the classification of the most commonly used European wood species, such as oak, beech, ash or larch, in tabular form.

The quality or class of wood is also indicated by abbreviations such as FAS, SAP or Select and the like. In the price lists, each class has a separate price.

The cleaner the wood without flaws and defects you require, the more you will pay. For a village building or cottage, where you do not require a perfect surface, you can consciously choose a lower class with a more friendly price. For example, when purchasing an oak floor of the lowest class, count on the abundance of knots and large differences in the color and structure of the wood.

Vinyl load classes As the thickness of the vinyl floor increases, its quality and resistance to damage increases. For glued vinyl, two millimeters is considered the minimum, for floating floors, parts should be at least five millimeters thick. When buying, also check the strength of the tread layer, which gives you information about the thickness of the upper part of the part. This is important because it absorbs pressure. Again, the higher the better. 0.2 millimeters is considered the minimum for less stressed rooms. Classification into so-called load classes is closely related to the thickness of the tread layer. These are determined by a specific European standard and indicate which areas the covering is intended for and how much load it can handle. The classes are divided into three basic groups – for households, commercial premises and industrial premises. Each of them is indicated by a two-digit code. The first number represents the space type. Households have the number 2, the second number from one to three indicates the degree of load. If your floor has a mark of 21, it is designed for a moderate load, while a mark of 23 already guarantees handling of intensive traffic.

Author: (ml)

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