Posts tagged home decore

Regardless of the fact that it is the most difficult to keep clean and maintain, and does not last as long as tile, hardwood, or vinyl flooring, carpeting is still, today, the biggest selling type of floor covering for the home or office. When it comes to comfort and warmth, nothing, it seems, comes close. Aside from beach sand, most of us would probably choose carpeting as the most preferred surface in the world to walk on when barefooted.

It’s no wonder that we are willing to sacrifice money in our pockets to replace them every few years.

The list of reasons for choosing carpeting is about as long as a parade route. Carpeting, with its typically installed foam padding underneath, provides a flooring that helps emit much desired warmth on those cold days. For employees in positions that require standing during a considerable portion of the work day, carpeting greatly reduces the onset of fatigue. Carpeting reduces the sound of foot traffic to practically nil when compared to any other flooring.

Furnishings stay in place, not sliding around or becoming accidentally relocated by the mere touch of a hand. Families, especially with young children, may even choose to “throw themselves” down on the carpet instead of on furniture for relaxing, watching television, playing video games, and sometimes even a quick nap or full night’s sleep. (Solid floors are never, it seems, as inviting for doing any of that).

Pet owners would already know from experience and observation, and from clearly understand a pet’s expressions and reactions, that dogs or cats, for example, will prefer carpeting as a haven when lounging around the house; which only goes to prove that animals, while sometimes accused of being lazy, aren’t as dumb as some may think.

There is also incredible versatility in the world of carpeting.

Whether the carpet is for a child’s playroom or an entrepreneur’s place of business, there are many different styles, designs, and textures to fit every need. The World Floor Covering Association lists the “basic six” types of carpeting as “textured, Saxony or plush, frieze, cable, looped, and cut & loop”. Different kinds of carpet may have tight or thickly woven twists of wool, polyester, nylon, or other yarn.

The yarn or fiber in carpet will also range in various pile heights (the term used in the carpet industry for length or height of the yarn). Carpets are available in almost any color, combination of colors, or can be custom-ordered using the design of one’s masterful work of art.

Frequent and laborious mopping, wiping, scrubbing, or shining is never necessary with carpeting.

A vacuum cleaner is usually all that’s needed, and the possibility of shampooing it a few times a year, when that carpet has been subjected to high foot traffic on a daily basis. Shampooing machines can be rented from many local supermarkets or department stores, or one can pay a little more and hire a professional to have the carpet shampooed. Quite often, the carpet looks almost as good as new after a good shampooing.

The difference in price between carpeting and hardwood or tile flooring can be significant, with carpeting a few rooms instead of tiling them lowering one’s expense from several thousand dollars to several hundred. With all the benefits that carpeting has to offer, maybe it’s not much of a sacrifice at all of the money in our pockets.

Mira Floors and Interiors is Greater Vancouver’s premiere floor and window covering specialist for both home owners and commercial spaces. Mr. James Alisch and his team can assist in all aspects of floor installations, carpet, hardwood, laminate, vinyl and tile. For further information about your flooring options go to Mira Floors and Interiors

Joe Harr built his home in 1886 in the Fairmount community of Stuttgart, Arkansas. The old Harr house today still stands with original hardwood flooring in a section of its interior. Hardwood floors installed in numerous historical houses and public buildings at the time of construction can still be found around the country. And there is a very good reason for this; most hardwood floors are extremely durable, and with some minor maintenance may last well over a century. (Meaning that, eventually, someone else will have to do the maintaining).

The natural durability of wood floors often ensures a wonderful sight for those that walk across them.

It is not, however, only the elegance, beauty, and alluring attraction of hardwood flooring that homeowners and potential real estate buyers find appealing, but also the almost effortless chore that is realized when it comes to cleaning and maintaining them. Hiring a professional contractor to refinish hardwood floors is no longer necessary.

There are a wide variety of finishes readily available on the market, allowing just about anyone to lay a protective surface coating on the floor of an entire room with relative ease in about an hour’s time. A simple task that will add to the overall longevity of the floor.

Attempting to clean up a spill or remove a stain from carpeting may seem like a nightmare. The mere thought of an accidental tip-over of a mug filled with coffee is enough to cause paranoia. There are constant worries of a toddler spilling grape juice or fruit punch, and teens running across the carpet with dirty or muddy tennis shoes. Or a “spill” from the family dog that had lifted a leg when no one was looking.

Why not indulge in a bit of laziness, when there are so many other problems to worry about? Most spills or tracking soot on hardwood floors are gone with the simple swipe of a mop or piece of paper towel. Even paint spills are easily removed.

Wood floors are also better for your health, especially when there are household members that suffer from asthma or allergic reactions. Even carpet manufacturers admit that carpeting is a magnet for dirt and allergens such as pollen or dust mites. Dirt, in turn, can draw mold, mildew, and fungus. Some new carpeting may even emit harmful chemicals. Most or all of these problems, including the development of undesirable odors that a carpet may eventually emit, can be avoided with hardwood flooring.

Yet another excellent feature about hardwood floors is its ability to maintain a room’s temperature by improving the performance of air conditioning or heating systems.

The natural composition of wood makes most hardwood flooring a great insulator. The hardwood floor itself normally has a tendency to remain considerably cool in summer and warm in winter, adding to the comfort of one’s home.

Usually priced much lower than marble, granite, or other types of tiled floors, hardwood flooring is obviously an excellent investment and substantially increases the value of a property that had featured carpeting. With many older homes, it may be a matter of simply lifting the carpet and finding a magnificent hardwood floor hiding underneath that can be refinished with some over-the-counter wood polishing. It would make a lot of sense to do so.

Mira Floors and Interiors is Greater Vancouver’s premiere floor and window covering specialist for both home owners and commercial spaces. Mr. James Alisch and his team can assist in all aspects of floor installations, carpet, hardwood, laminate, vinyl and tile. For further information about your flooring options go to Mira Floors and Interiors

A sudden rush may come over you and you rip out the rugs in your home. The time has come to install that beautiful wood flooring you’ve been dreaming about. You call a flooring contractor, or you make a bold move and decide you’re going to lay the floor yourself and stop by your favorite lumber yard. But whether it’s a flooring contractor or lumber yard worker, the first thing you hear is, “Okay, do you prefer engineered or solid hardwood?” And you have no clue what to do next.

Ah-ha! The Internet is a start. So you surf the web and discover that most explanations are so technical, it seems you need a scientific calculator to figure them out (and that’s if the dreadfully boring technical reading hadn’t put you to sleep).

You encounter discussions about dimensions, layers, values, and pressure. Now you’re wondering if you should have left the rugs alone.

Something that web authors may not be aware of is that the difference between engineered hardwood and solid hardwood can be explained quite simply.

Another word for “engineered” is “constructed”. In the flooring industry, however, the term that must be used is engineered. (Fine, for now we’ll just think “constructed”, and keep it to ourselves). The reason it’s called engineered is because someone-well, more likely a machine-constructed it.

Try to imagine stacking together about six to eight typical twelve-inch wooden rulers. Yeah, I know; who has eight wooden rulers? Then, by undergoing some sort of amazing process, the rulers are practically fused together for life. The final product is an engineered hardwood about inches thick, roughly the width of an adult’s thumb.

Engineered hardwood is layered thin strips of different kinds of inexpensive wood, such as plywood or fiberboard, that are permanently attached. The very top layer is what creates the illusion of real solid hardwood (instead of a bunch of layers), since it is the only part one sees after the flooring has been installed. The top layer is actually “good finished wood” such as oak, maple, cherry, or walnut. Because most of the layers “hiding” underneath is inexpensive wood, and the “good wood” layer on top is quite thin, the entire product is usually much more inexpensive than a section of solid hardwood that is completely oak, maple, cherry, or walnut all the way through.

It is a fact that the natural grain lines one sees in almost any piece of wood is what gives wood its strength.

What is very important to understand is that when engineered wood is manufactured those grain lines are crossed, so that if you were to x-ray the thing after it is done you would see a long line of X’s completely up and down the strip. That crossing of the grains is what creates a strip that is extremely strong and durable, far more than solid hardwood, and adds the possibility of decades to its longevity.

Engineered hardwood is also made with an inserting slot along the entire side edge, and a ridge sticking out from the other side. It’s called the tongue and groove feature (T&G), and allows strips of engineered hardwood to be connected together like pieces of a puzzle. The layering process of engineered hardwood, along with the T&G feature, offers flooring that withstands moisture and extreme changes in temperature better than solid hardwood, which has a tendency to crack or create gaps in certain conditions.

The T&G also allows engineered wood to be installed almost anywhere. There are limitations as to where solid hardwood can be placed.

Deciding whether to have engineered hardwood or solid hardwood installed is a personal choice. Engineered hardwood certainly appears to have many more advantages than solid hardwood. Cosmetically, they both look virtually the same, and can be cleaned or treated just as easily. The solid hardwood aficionado, however, may choose solid hardwood flooring for the mere satisfaction of knowing that he or she is walking across the real thing. Even if no one else knows it.

Mira Floors and Interiors is Greater Vancouver’s premiere floor and window covering specialist for both home owners and commercial spaces. Mr. James Alisch and his team can assist in all aspects of floor installations, carpet, hardwood, laminate, vinyl and tile. For further information about your flooring options go to Mira Floors and Interiors