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enduring

Recommend a flooring in working farmhouse entryway

enduring
9 years ago

Iive in an old house from the teens or twenties. The back entry is a real transition between farm life and domestic life. This room handles livestock dirt, course dirt/sand, dogs, dropped tools, even the occasional newborn calf. Currently there is a sheet material 30 to 40 years old. No tears, but looks very tired and the seam is starting to gap.

What would be a good replacement product?

Joist are 21inches oc, 2x8 fir, 9.5ft long. Subfloor 6inch diagonal fir, fir t&g flooring, then the sheet product (vinyl ?). What ever is on this floor, has worn like iron. It looks to be from the 70s or 80s.

Comments (16)

  • speaktodeek
    9 years ago

    My first thought was slate flooring. Or porcelain tile. But you'd have to ensure your structure underneath them was appropriate for stiffness, etc. Were you thinking a similar product to the sheet flooring when you asked that question, or just any ideas on flooring surfaces, given the conditions?

  • enduring
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks Beautybutdebtfree for your response.

    I have tiled my bathrooms and am happy with them. I used the JB deflect-o-meter, or what ever it's called. I would use it again. I know the floor won't be suitable for stone unless we added more joist. The crawl space is not accessible. I am concerned about cracking tile if I used it. Tile is so hard I worry about dropping wrenches or something.

    I do have some click together hard laminate flooring that I bought 4 years ago from the Restore and never used. That is a strong possibility. I forgot about it when I made this post.

    Any high quality sheet product that I would have professionally installed? If something like vinyl tile or ceramic were used, I would Install the flooring.

    This post was edited by enduring on Fri, May 16, 14 at 20:38

  • speaktodeek
    9 years ago

    Here's a crazy thought: how about a rubber mat used to line horse stalls?

    Depends on the size of the room, but we used one of these from Tractor supply to make a platform under our washer/dryer, and it's a robust, cleanable, durable surface. You could cut it to line the room and if it ever got trashed just get another. They're pretty tough though as they are made for horse feet. They are about an inch thick, though. I could totally see a farmhouse mud zone lined in this!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Horse stall mat, nearly indestructable

  • speaktodeek
    9 years ago

    Here's another variety that is thinner and would be robust but a lot easier to fit to the room than the thick one.

    Here is a link that might be useful: quarter inch thick rubber stall mat

  • speaktodeek
    9 years ago

    Another out of the box robust option: garage floor mat.

    If you wanted an actual household flooring, then possibly marmoleum, but that would be a lot pricier. Not sure how robust it is for grit, but it's ok for wet.

    I would not do laminate. It's brittle hard, can be slippery, and many of them will not survive water as they are backed with particle board.

    Here is a link that might be useful: garage floor mat

  • enduring
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    These are great ideas, never thought of using a horse mat for flooring in the house. I was going to use one for my W/D too, sandwiched in-between some 3/4 plywood. It was tippy and not flat because of that darned plywood. Wasted my time doing that. But fortunately the W/D is rock steady on its own two feet.
    The garage flooring is interesting, I will keep that in mind. I have laminate in my kitchen and it is ok. Looks pretty nice because of the pattern and the color, but does look like laminate.

    I have slate in my bathroom next to the kitchen and it would be great to use something like that in the entry, but with the joist it won't work. I was watching the current This Old House and they put in a porcelain tile that looks like black slate - it was gorgeous. I just checked on JB forum and my floor has a deflection of L / 396. Maximum deflection for ceramic is L/360. So that cool porcelain could work. I wonder if I have another tile job in me this year :/ DH says "no". Oops, he caught me planning another project.

    Because the sheet vinyl has been so durable I was thinking I could replace it with something just as good. Again, that garage material might be a solution.

  • speaktodeek
    9 years ago

    Is the room 9 ft or less wide?

    Here is a link that might be useful: colors!!

  • speaktodeek
    9 years ago

    Lots and lots o' choices!

    Here is a link that might be useful: A whole wesite full of choices

  • speaktodeek
    9 years ago

    Oh! Oh! Flexible slate!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Slate you could do!

  • enduring
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Oh man, there are a lot of choices. Thanks again for the help.

    I was just looking on another thread and there was mention of LTV. I really don't know what that is. I need to look into it.

  • enduring
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I am liking that flexible slate. Thanks Beautybutdeptfree.

  • speaktodeek
    9 years ago

    Here's the parent company. They have wood look tiles as well, and you can order samples. I'm thinking about something like this for my mud room, now! I have two German Shepherds that track in grit every trip outside. One of these floors would be tough, easy to clean or replace, and would look PRETTY with a runner rug!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Parent company for slate and other tiles

  • enduring
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I ordered a sample board from Advanta Flooring, you can too :)

    The wear surface layer is 20mil PVC.
    Has a polyurethane coating on top.

    I copied this from their website"

    Specifications

    Material: Luxury, hot-pressed laminate vinyl with a patented grip backing
    Color: Pewter
    Size: 18 x 18 inch, 450 x 450 mm, (2.25 sqft)
    Thickness: .20 inch, 5 mm
    Weight: 4.68 lbs per tile, 47 lbs per carton
    Per carton: 10 tiles, 22.5 sqft

    They don't address the repeat frequency. I would hope there are more then 6 or 8 patterns.

    About $130/carton. Then you need to buy the peripheral tape.

    ...Fast forward an hour :)
    I just ordered samples of the Tuff Seal Tile by the same company.

  • speaktodeek
    9 years ago

    I'm totally into commercial/industrial finishes. Love that Tuff Seal description "suitable for driving a fork truck over" (paraphrase). Yeah, that sounds good to me. Plus I could have a lot of fun fooling with patterns. I am so tired of products that are disposable every 10-20 years yet costs thousands.

  • divine_serenity_gw
    9 years ago

    So has anyone used the Tuff seal? I was looking at the website, it looks really nice as does the Advanta flooring. Even though we aren't yet ready to build, I may start requesting samples to get ideas brewing. :)

  • loves2read
    9 years ago

    Sears makes a vinyl/rubber garage flooring that comes with various surfaces...
    we put some down in garages in two houses we have -- got the raised (low) circle tiles--they interlock and use border of same material to lock them from shifting...
    wouldn't recommend a raised pattern if you need to sweep/clean often--but husband can hose off garage floor as needed...
    not most attractive but definitely seems to hold up since we park cars with hot tires on it daily...