So we officially have access to our new home now! @stochastic_forest and I went to see them today, and to take a last-minute chance to plan the refurb. He’s already been busy pulling out some old stuff we don’t want and dismantling some old furniture that was left behind.
The plan at the moment is for @stochastic_forest and myself to spend all of tomorrow pulling out the inconvenient dividing walls that currently split the space into three compartments (“room” is too grand a word for them individually), and then hopefully that will leave time for me to run some preliminary electrics around the place.
After that, it’ll be all-hands to the pumps for a lick of paint, and to construct the furniture that we want to get in as a priority.
Yep, everyone is welcome to pop in for the usual Friday session, but I wouldn’t expect too much actual hacking to get done Also, I would ask people not to bring stuff to the space just yet, until we’ve got somewhere to put it!
Primarily @stochastic_forest and @Jagmills as we’ve been talking about this earlier, me and my apprentice popped in at Costco and B&Q on the way home to look at flooring options.
Costco was a write-off, nothing much there really of relevance, apart from maybe some of those hard-wearing clear plastic mats to put under a workstation.
The best thing I saw at B&Q was something I hadn’t really thought of, but @stochastic_forest mentioned, which was laminate flooring - it worked out cheaper than almost anything else, is hard-wearing, easy to clean and mostly spill-resistant.
It’s only £4/sq.m, so even with an underlay to help with the noise, it’s still only £6.50/sq.m. That means we can make the whole floor pretty and easy-clean for about £100.
Any comments? It’s what I would like to pick up and make a start on tomorrow.
Forgot to add, carpet tiles are also a good idea, as we can move any damaged ones around, and even take them with us when we move. They work about £10/sq.m
Laminate flooring is a good idea as it makes it easy to use chairs with caster (and anything heavy that needs to be slide across the floor), whereas on carpet tiles they drag. Also it is easier to keep laminate flooring cleaner than carpet as a liquid spillage can be quickly wiped or mopped up and the whole floor swept easily & quickly, whereas a carpet tiles soak up liquid and need a vacuum cleaner or similar.
Also in the event of serious damage to laminate flooring, then it could be relaid with replacement boards, though it is not really advisable or easy once a load of kit has been installed in the room & I don’t think that re-use of the flooring in the event of move should be a factored into the decision, unless there is definite plan to leave at a specific date in the very near future.
How about just sanding the floorboards & varnishing/painting,all the advantages of laminate but probably cheaper (depending on hiring a floor sander & varnish/paint)?
You might think that it will take a while to do, but I doubt that laying laminate flooring would be any quicker.
@MikeBookham I think we need some covering for the floor. @Cylindric had raised good points; not only will it keep us in favour with the landlords, it will help to soundproof the room internally, good for those noisy jobs.
Having laid a fair amount of laminate fleer in the past, I am sure that
laying that is quicker than sanding floorboards. Laminate flooring will
just cover all the cracks, unevenness (within reason) and other issues with
the base floor and give you a nice smooth surface. The other day I even saw
that you can now buy foam strips to fill the expansion gap around the edge,
reducing the risk of water getting into the ends of the boards. I certainly
would recommend staying clear of the rock bottom range as that will chip
quite easily and have annoying ridges at the joins.
If that is any use, I have a laminate floor fitting kit with wedges to get
the expansion gap and a block to tap the boards in place.
Let me know when you want to do it and I’ll see if I can come over and help.
Florian
PS: Have you priced lino? I though that was the front runner. Vinyl seems
to be able to be got pretty cheaply:
Vinyl has the advantage that spillages won’t leak between gaps as might happen with laminate and it will also be quieter for those in rooms below.
The downside is that the floorboards should first be covered with thin ply or flooring grade hardboard to provide a sound, flat surface (stagger joins of adjacent sheets), which adds cost. Don’t forget to glue the vinyl to the floor, which is particularly important with cheap vinyl (another reason to board the floor).
I agree that cheap laminate is not very hard-wearing, however costs are a significant factor here and mid priced laminate will not be a lot better with premium flooring being significantly more expensive.
The primary factor is to get some sort of flooring down soon and cheaply, there might be better options but we don’t have the time or money to have the perfect floor.
B&Q did have some heavier duty 12mm laminate identified as splashproof, as opposed to the 6mm, which was priced at £10sqm that might be worth a glance. It certainly felt very substantial and the extra mass would help with sound attenuation.
Some of the laminates seemed to have a thin layer of foam already attached on the bottom side, I don’t know if that would eliminate the need to install foam underlay.
No voting Mike, we’re keen to get this done today.
I think for the ease, laminate is the way to go - the floorboards are unfortunately rather uneven in places so I think this limits us and excludes thin coverings like vinyl.
Ultimately, it’s not going to have a huge impact. Easy to clean, chair friendly, cheap and replaceable are probably the key features we want.
Although saying that, the astro turf is pretty cool
Also, I would ask people not to bring stuff to the space just yet, until we’ve got somewhere to put it!
