Floor Tile

Floor tile is a small segment of the flooring industry these days. Unlike back in the 50's and 60's where everybody put tile down in their kitchens, laundry rooms, bathrooms and basements most people these days will install wood flooring, ceramic tile, vinyl sheet flooring or even carpet depending upon the application.

Back in the day, vinyl tile was used extensively. It came in a different sizes such as: 6"x6", 9"x9" and 12"x12" tiles. Very common back then were the 9"x9" tiles and were probably vinyl asbestos.

If your home was built before 1980 and has the original floor tiles down in any room of the house then they probably contain asbestos. Especially if they were the 9"x9" variety. Most manufacturers stopped making vinyl asbestos tiles in 1978 but some continued until probably 1980. Even after that there was a lot of vinyl asbestos tile floating around in stores back rooms until the stock was finally exhausted.

Vinyl asbestos tile is not inherently dangerous. The asbestos was encapsulated into the vinyl tile itself. It cannot be released into the air (where it becomes a health risk when breathed in) unless something causes it to be released. Anything that can abrasively wear the surface of the vinyl asbestos tile can potentially release the harmful asbestos particles into the air. Normal wear and tear shouldn't be a problem. Never abrade the surface of a vinyl asbestos tile. Never clean it with steel wool or sand it for any reason as this will release the fibers into the air. Cleaning it with vinyl floor cleaners is fine and is the preferred method of cleaning. Be careful even scraping the surface of the tiles.

So if you do have vinyl asbestos tile in your home there really shouldn't be a health risk.

When the time comes to install a new floor in the room containing vinyl asbestos tile there are many options. Most companies, when they find that vinyl asbestos tiles are present on the job, will refuse to do the job until the tiles are removed. This has to do with the liabilities associated with vinyl asbestos tiles. But this is an overblown reaction to the situation. New flooring can be safely installed over vinyl asbestos tiles without any health risks whatsoever.

One option is to remove the asbestos tiles. This can be a very expensive proposition when employing a certified asbestos removal company or using a contractor that is asbestos certified.

Another option is just to go over the existing asbestos flooring. If the tile is installed on a concrete floor, such as you would find in a basement, you would just need to skim coat the surface of the asbestos tile. There are products out there designed to be applied to the surface of the asbestos tile that will allow another floor to be glued down on top. Covering the old asbestos tile is a safe and entirely satisfactory solution.

If you have asbestos tile on top of a wood substrate such as plywood, OSB or any other suitable base layer then you can install a layer of luan over the top and then the new flooring thereby sealing in the asbestos tile underneath. The old tile needn't be removed.

So there you have it. Vinyl asbestos tiles are not inherently dangerous and shouldn't be a cause of concern. Whether you are installing a new floor over the top or still using your current asbestos tile flooring, vinyl asbestos flooring is a safe and durable floor that will last decades. On the other hand, a new floor would look pretty good right about now, eh?  LOL




Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Some Stuff on Laminate Flooring.....

Laminate flooring is a hard surface flooring that has a lot of uses. You can use it in kitchens, laundry rooms, entry ways, living rooms......really any room in the house (maybe better not in full bathrooms, too much water potential).

It has a very hard surface with a melamine wear layer. Very scratch resistant and dent resistant. You can scratch a laminate flooring surface if you try hard enough (don't try this at home....lol). You can hit the floor with a hammer and not leave a mark. Whereas hardwood flooring will scratch and dent. Try hitting a hardwood floor with a hammer and see the results. Walk inside from the outside on a hardwood floor and see how the floor will in time start showing lots of scratches and wear and tear. A laminate floor will hold up better to this type of abuse than hardwood flooring.

Laminate floors have come a long way when it comes to water resistance. In the old days (maybe 20 years ago) laminate floors were very susceptible to moisture. Now most laminate floors are treated for water resistance and will stand up to water (a flood, a water leak under the sink or a washer overload will put enough water on and under the floor that you will probably still get swelling and cupping that will ruin the floor). Water resistant but not water proof, remember that.

Laminates are marketed for the DIY market. Most people that are handy can install this type of floor which can save you money. Professional installation is still the best way to go but you can still install this floor yourself. Unlike vinyl flooring or ceramic tile which are much harder for the do-it-yourselfer to do.

The visuals in laminate flooring have improved over the years also. They have a very lifelike look to them these days. Some of the older laminate styles looked unreal. They looked fake. Not so some of the newer styles. They look real and you can hardly tell some of them from the real thing.

Laminates have a niche in the flooring industry these days and can be a great addition to any home.




Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Random thoughts on carpet padding.....

Carpet padding. Carpet cushion. You know, the stuff that goes under your living room carpet. It's not just to make your carpet feel softer and cushier. Padding has a distinct function....

Carpet cushion does make your carpet feel softer and nicer. It is one of it's functions. Another function of carpet cushion is to support the wear and resilience factors of your carpet. I've heard from people for years that the pad is more important than the carpet. That as long as you get a good pad then everything will be great. In my experience, you will get a better overall job if you buy comparable pad to comparable carpet.

What I mean by this is this: if you were to buy a cheap carpet and a great pad then you will still have
carpet that will wear out in 5 years but the pad will still be good. You've overbought on your pad. The job will still only be a 5 year job. On the other hand, if you buy a great 25 year carpet and a cheap pad then the pad will not support the wear characteristics of the carpet. The carpet will wear out prematurely because the pad isn't good enough.

How does pad protect carpet? The pad acts like a shock absorber. It takes the wear off the tips of the carpet yarns. It helps cut down on abrasion from the bottom of your feet/ shoes. It helps the carpet move with each step you take so as to reduce the abrasive rubbing that you would get with no pad or cheap pad.

So a good pad is important but not more important than the quality of carpet you purchase. If you have budgeted $10.00 per sq. yard to spend on carpet and pad, then buying a $5.00 per sq. yard carpet and a $5.00 per sq. yard pad will give you a lousy carpet and a great pad. Not the correct way to spend your $10.00 per sq. yard. You would be better off spending $7.00 per sq. yard on the carpet and $3.00 per sq. yard on the pad. This combination would provide you with the best and longest lasting solution. Your pad's not a great pad but good enough in this case.

A good pad is important and you should buy a good pad with every new carpet you purchase but a good pad is not a substitute for a good quality carpet! A good pad will allow the carpet to perform in the way it was designed to perform. Lousy carpet will still be lousy even over a great carpet pad. A great carpet will be great with a good pad underneath.

Nuff said? I think so.....

Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Best Types of Flooring for Laundry Rooms......

Okay. This week we'll talk about which types of flooring will perform best in the laundry room or mud room areas.

Ceramic Tile In Laundry Room

Of course most laundry rooms and mud rooms can be areas of high wear and high moisture. Mud rooms will get the wear and tear of people traipsing in from the garage with all kinds of foreign matter on the bottoms of their shoes. Sand, grit, oily residue and all manner of contaminants. This can cause much damage to any existing floor in this area. So we would need a floor that can stand up to abrasives and high wear. Also, when coming in from outside, we can bring in water or snow depending upon the season. So this floor must be able to accept high moisture without being ruined.

Some of the best types of flooring to be used under these conditions are: ceramic tile, vinyl flooring, laminate flooring (some limitations apply) and even hardwood (probably not the best choice).

Let's take them one at a time shall we?

1. Ceramic tile: Probably the best choice. It's durable, high wearing, extremely long lasting and almost (and I said almost) indestructible. It is impervious to water, hard to scratch, won't gouge and really won't wear down either. Ceramic tile is meant to be a permanent floor. Some ceramic floors in the middle east are thousands of years old! The weakness in a ceramic floor is mainly in the grouted area. With enhancements to the grouting systems this is really no longer a weak link. Epoxy grouts resists stains and water unlike standard grouts. There are also some newer grouting systems that are easier and cheaper to use than epoxy grouts. Also, ceramic tile can chip or crack if something heavy or sharp is dropped on them. Pricing can be prohibitive too. But all in all a great choice for mud rooms.
2. Vinyl flooring: The absolute best flooring for water resistance. Because vinyl sheet

   

   Vinyl Flooring

   flooring is one solid sheet of flooring, no water will penetrate of get through the wear layer on a vinyl floor. So spill all the water on it you like because water is really no issue (now too much water can travel to the outer edges of the room and creep up under the shoe molding and penetrate into the sub flooring below which will cause issues but you would need lots of water standing for a long time for this to happen). Most new vinyl flooring is very scuff, tear and gouge resistant unlike the old vinyl flooring momma used to have. Vinyl flooring is not as tough as ceramic tile but pretty darn tough anyways. Plus, vinyl flooring will not last as long as ceramic tile but will still last for 10, 20,30 and even 40 or more years which is plenty enough for most people. Pricing is better than ceramic tile and lots of new technology in styling will give you great visuals.
3. Laminate flooring: Hard, durable, somewhat water resistant and installer friendly. Laminate

   

   No mud just laminate flooring

   flooring can take a hard hammer blow and not indent (unlike hardwood which will indent or vinyl flooring which will show the dent from the sub floor underneath or ceramic tile for that matter which will crack or shatter) but if you were to drag something sharp over the surface it will scratch. Lots of flooring salespeople will tell you that laminate flooring is almost indestructible but that just isn't the case. Laminate flooring is resistant to scratching but it will still scratch and once scratched it really can't be fixed but must be replaced at that point. The wear layer on good quality laminate flooring will last a long time (unlike cheap grades of laminate flooring). Water can also be an issue with laminate floors. They can take light water but heavy water can start to work through the sides of the boards causing swelling, warping and peaking of seams. Wood and water don't mix and laminates are made with wood byproducts. Laminate floors can be installed easily by most homeowners and easier still by professional flooring contractors.
4. Hardwood flooring: not the best choice for areas with high wear and moisture but can be

   

   See walk off mat

   serviceable if maintained correctly. Walk off mats are essential for this area. Taking off your shoes before entering the wood area itself is best. No water or very low water is also best. So if you take off your shoes, wipe your feet on the mat and keep the floor clean, wood flooring can be used here (in mud rooms not laundry rooms).

Flooring for laundry rooms is similar when it comes to flooring choices. Everything written above will apply to laundry rooms except hardwood flooring. Hardwood floors really should never be used in a laundry room because of the potential for flooding from an over flowing washing machine. This risk is not important for mud rooms but as you can imagine is critical for laundry rooms. An overflowing washing machine or laundry tub will just ruin a hardwood floor (probably a laminate floor too). So, no hardwood or laminate flooring for laundry rooms. Vinyl flooring is probably the best choice followed up with ceramic tile.

The newest hot trend in flooring is vinyl plank flooring which can be used in these areas. While it is impervious to water it does have joints between each individual plank that can allow access for water if left standing long enough. Like peel and stick tiles. They have joints every 12 inches and water can seep into them. Vinyl plank flooring is in essence just vinyl tile that is shaped differently. Instead of 12" squares they are shaped into planks (yes I know the composition of the planking is different but I said "in essence" they are the same).

And leave the rubber flooring for the gym, ok?



Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Some Facts About Hardwood.....

Hardwood flooring is beautiful, durable and long lasting. Most hardwood flooring is designed to last a lifetime in your home if you take care of it correctly. So, how do you take care of a hardwood floor?

First of all, hardwood flooring is a natural wood product with a wear layer on the surface. Some people think with the newer, harder finishes (aluminum oxide infused, UV cured urathanes) that are applied to the wood that they can just walk all over them without a care in the world. I don't know of any flooring (maybe concrete.....lol) that this is true of. Okay, ceramic tile is extremely tough to ruin also but we're talking about wood here.

A pre-finished hardwood floor still needs careful attention to allow it to remain beautiful for years to

Walk Off Mat

come. A walk off mat should be located at every doorway leading to the outside, whether that's a garage door, entry door or a door wall leading to the deck. Wherever dirt, sand or other abrasive materials are located that could potentially lodge into the bottom of footwear (and hence scratch the surface of any hardwood flooring), this would be the place to set a mat. Anybody coming in from the outside should be encouraged to wipe their feet on the mat before entering onto the wood flooring or better yet, to take off their shoes. Anybody who has a hardwood floor and has scratches from shoes will know what I'm talking about. Better to be safe than sorry.

Another fact about hardwood concerns the weather and changing seasons (and thereby changing

Gaps Between Boards

humidity levels). Wood flooring is still a living (kinda....lol) breathing product. It will expand and contract with differing humidity levels. I've written a blog on this in the past so I won't go into detail here but suffice it to say, wood will contract in the winter with dryer air in the home and will show tiny gaps between individual boards. This is not a defect of the flooring but is a natural reaction to lower humidity levels. The wood will expand and close the gaps when the humidity rises. Either add a humidifier to the home or wait till spring!

Swiffers Are Best For Cleaning

Another fact: wood and water don't mix! People like to keep their floors clean and spotless (at least some of us do. lol) but resist the urge to wash your floors as if they were a vinyl floor. Since hardwood flooring is being installed so ofter in kitchens these days (where we cook and drop stuff on the floor. Yikes) people will just grab their mops and have at it. Don't do it. Wood floors are not meant to have that amount of water applied to them. Just spot clean with a damp (not wet) cloth and wipe dry. If you would like to clean the whole floor then a swiffer that cleans with hydrostatic electricity works best for dirt, dust and other dry type particles. Some hardwood flooring manufacturers make a spray cleaner designed specifically for wood and laminate floors which can and should be used (ideally no water). We here at Dover Floor Covering carry Mohawk hardwood flooring and they make their own hardwood flooring cleaner. If you must use water then you would need to squeeze out the excess water from the mop and it should have no more water in it then the clothes in your washing machine after the spin cycle would have.


Another fact: Harder wood flooring will wear similar to softer hardwood flooring. Even though the

urethane finishes applied to most hardwood flooring products these days is the same or similar, differing wood species themselves are vastly different in hardness. So you may buy a Cumaru hardwood floor (which is extremely hard and dense, almost 3 times as hard as red oak) with an aluminum oxide infused, UV cured finish and it will resist surface scratching the same as the afore mentioned red oak floor. So the two hardwood floors will perform about the same when it comes to surface scratching and wear through. What you gain from a harder, denser floor like Cumaru or Brazilian Cherry is dent resistance and deep scratch resistance. The harder wood will be tougher to gouge then it's softer counter parts. Always use floor protectors under any piece of furniture to protect your hardwood flooring from surface scratches.





Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Pre-finished Hardwood vs Site Finished Hardwood

Pre-finished Hardwood vs Site Finished Hardwood

This week we'll discuss some differences between a site finished hardwood floor and a pre-finished hardwood floor. In general we will be talking about solid 3/4" thick hardwood flooring. This can be of any species because the finish will generally be the same whether it's an oak floor or maple floor or any other species of hardwood.

Pre-finished hardwood flooring in most cases (not all) will have aluminum oxide injected into the finish. Why is that important? Well, aluminum oxide is the second hardest mineral. Only diamonds are harder than aluminum oxide. Putting aluminum oxide into the finish on a hard wood floor will make the finish extremely hard. It's so hard that it is also hard to sand down and refinish the hardwood floor at a later date! Now, ideally, with these new floors with aluminum oxide in the finish, you will not want to sand them down and refinish in the future. If your finish starts to look scratched and worn down (which will be a lot harder to do with these new wood floors) you will want to screen the top layer and apply a new finish. Sanding down through the finish won't be necessary in most cases if you catch it before you have wear through.

Aluminum Oxide is what they use in sand paper!

Aluminum Oxide

Aluminum oxide is added to the urethane in the finishing process and then the wood floors are UV cured. There is no harder finish out there at this time.

Site finished hardwood is the process of sanding down an unfinished hardwood floor, then applying a sealer and a couple coats (or more) of urethane. The urethane is what constitutes the wear layer on a wood floor. This process is the only way to spruce up an existing floor but not near the best way for a new hardwood floor. You don't have aluminum oxide infused into the urethane wear layer and it's not UV cured. You can use some of the best site finishes out there (such as Mega Traffic) but it still will fall far short of the hardness and wearability of a prefinished hardwood floor.

So, when buying a new hardwood floor, the best way to go is to buy and install a pre-finished hardwood floor that has aluminum oxide in the finish.




Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Best Carpet Yarn 3.....

Solution Dyed Carpet Yarn. Simply The Best....

We finish up our discussion on best carpet yarns this week with this blog on solution dyed nylon. The solution dying process is mainly used in commercial grade carpet. You don't see this process used very often in the manufacture of residential carpet but one of the big three carpet mills, Beaulieu, has a new line of carpet using this dying process.

Simply put, solution dying is the process of injecting the dye into the carpet yarn while it is still in liquid (solution) form. When the yarn is extruded the color (dye) is all the way through the yarn. Most carpets are made with greige goods and then dyed to a specific color. In this process the carpet is made with greyish/white colored yarn and then run through a dyer where the yarn is dyed. If you were to cut a carpet yarn in half that is dyed in the conventional method, the inside of the yarn would still be the greyish/white color. If you were to cut  a solution dyed nylon carpet yarn in half, you would see that the yarn is colored completely through. Inside and out.

Because of the way solution dyed yarn is dyed, it is very stain resistant, extremely fade resistant and still wears like a nylon yarn (because it is a nylon yarn). So you get all of the benefits of nylon yarn (wear resistance, resiliency and softness) along with the fantastic stain resistance that you would normally see in olefin yarns or polyester carpet yarns.

Some of the best warranties in the business are attached to this style of carpet (and I mean actual warranties, unlike some of the warranties that mills put on their carpets that have so many restrictions and limits that they will almost never pay off on any of their warranties!!).

You can even clean some of the toughest stains using a mixture of half water and half bleach! Try that with any other type of carpet yarn and see what happens........large whiteish blotches will form on your carpet if you were to try this cleaning solution with just about any other type of carpet.

So in our humble opinion, solution dyed nylon is the best carpet yarn to use for residential carpet. Really no need to say anything else....







Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com