1. Housing Decisions by Evelyn Lewis & Carolyn Turner
Chapter 14
Creating Interior Backgrounds
Floors

2. They also hide construction details and provide insulation.
Floors walls, and ceilings create interior backgrounds for furnishings and accessories in rooms.
They also hide construction details and provide insulation.

3. Floor Treatment
Floor treatments consist of flooring materials and floor coverings.
Consider its appearance, comfort, durability, cost, and maintenance.

4. Flooring Materials
Flooring Materials are materials that are used as the top surface of a floor.
Common flooring materials include wood, tile, concrete, and brick.

5. Wood Floors
Wood has some resilience and is durable, but can be scratched or dented.
The cost is moderate to high, depending on the type & quality of wood chosen.
Hardwoods are typically more expensive than softwoods.

6. Hardwoods
Hard Maple
Oak
Beech
Birch
Hickory
Mahogany
Cherry
Teak

7. Softwood: used for floors
Southern Yellow Pine
Douglas Fir
Hemlock
Larch
Redwood
Cedar
Eastern White

8. Hard maple is also common because it is smooth, strong, and hard.
Oak is the most common hardwood because of it is smooth, strong, and hard.
Hard maple is also common because it is smooth, strong, and hard.
Types of wood floor installation (Unfinished solid wood and Pre-finished engineered wood flooring).
Installing unfinished solid wood
a. Give time to adjust to the house environment.
b. This wood will expand and contract during fluctuations in humidity and temperature.

9. Engineered Wood
Pre-finished at the factory and , therefore, already sanded and stained.
Can be installed over concrete and wooden subfloors.
Solid wood floors, require a plywood underlayment with installed over concrete.
Will withstand moisture.

10. Strip flooring
The planks or the sheets are tongued and grooved so they can be laid down on the floor with no gaps.
This floor is more durable, more resistant to marking and more colorful.

11. Wood flooring in widths of 3 inches or more.
Plank
Wood flooring in widths of 3 inches or more.

12. Parquet Flooring
Consists of small blocks of wood which are laid down individually in a pattern. Herringbone is the most common pattern.
This type of flooring is often referred to a parquet.
Decorative patterns, such as alternate plank and parquetry.

13. Wood finishes of polyurethane, plastic, wax, and oil make the task of maintaining wood floors easy. They protect the wood from moisture, stains, and wear.

14. Tile
Tile is a flat piece of fired clay or natural stone that is available in a wide range of sized, colors, finishes, and patterns. Tile feels cool to the touch and is therefore more popular in Sunbelt areas than in colder climates.

15. Residential Tile Choices
Ceramic
Porcelain
Natural Stone
Quarry
Amount of labor required for installation, tile can be expensive to install.

16. Ceramic
Ceramic tile is a flat piece of fired clay coated with a protective glaze.
Originated in Egypt about 4700 B.C.
Moisture resistant, durable, easy to clean, but chips and cracks easily.
Quality & cost can vary.
Glazed ceramic tile is water & stain resistant.
Grout is the substance that fill the space between the tiles.
Often used in baths and kitchens and come in various sizes.
Can be kept clean by mopping with soapy water.

17. Porcelain Tile
Porcelain tile is the highest quality ceramic tile made.
Withstands freezing temperatures and can therefore be used indoors and outdoors.
More expensive than ceramic tile.

18. Quarry Tile
Quarry tile is available in black and a range of golds, beiges, reds, browns, and grays.
It’s made of terra-cotta that has been mixed and fired, or baked at a high temperature.
Resists grease, chemicals, moisture, and changes in temperature.
Can be glazed or unglazed.

19. Natural Stone
Natural stone floors are beautiful and durable, but are usually costly to purchase and install.
Five types of stone
a. limestone c. Granite e. Slate
b. Travertine d. Marble

20. Limestone
Limestone comes from mineral springs which cause limestone to be porous.
Taupe
White
Gray
Light & dark brown
Gold or light green veins

21. Travertine-porous limestone that can be used on floors or walls.
Cream
Beige

22. Slate
Gray
Gold
Green

23. MARBLE Almost any color
GRANITE
Almost any color

24. The texture of stone tile may be rough or polished.
Stone floors are fairly easy to maintain by mopping with a solution of white vinegar and water.
Sealer protects them from grease, oil, and household stains.

25. Concrete Easy to clean and extremely durable.
Smooth or textured surface.
It can be hard on people’s feet and joints if stood or walked on for long periods of time.
It is often used in large stores, restaurants, garages and utility rooms.
It can be painted, stained or treated to be attractive.

26. Brick
Brick floors are beautiful, durable, and costly.

27. Ceramic Mosaic
Individual tiles mounted together on a sheet to help keep them together and make installation easier.

28. Mexican Made from clay taken directly from the ground.
Shaped by hand which results in uneven thickness.
Dried in a sun and often have prints of leaves, animals, etc., that fall into or step into the drying tile.

29. Vinyl Flooring one of the best resilient coverings.
resists many stains, including grease and bleach
durable and easy to clean
comes in many patterns and colors
can have no-wax finish with built in luster

30. Asphalt Is the least expensive resilient covering.
It can be damaged by grease or dented so it may not be good for kitchens but it is a good cover for concrete floors

31. Rubber resists denting and most stains is quiet and easy to walk on
often used in hospital for “static
electricity” reduction

32. Cork Environmentally GREEN … Quiet and comfortable easily damaged
Not stain- or grease- resistant
Best used on area of light traffic

33. Floor Coverings Floor Coverings are surfaces placed over the floor.
Floor coverings last several years and are expensive.
They can be changed often.
They include soft & resilient (spring back to natural form) floor covering.

34. Soft Floor Coverings Carpets & rugs are examples.
Manufactured fibers include nylon and olefin.
Natural fibers include wool, cotton, sisal & sea grass.
Carpets & rugs insulate cold floors, provide sound control and walking comfort, and add color & texture to a room.
Classified as wall-to-wall, room size, and area rugs.

35. Wall-to-Wall Carpeting
Covers an entire floor, making rooms appear large and luxurious.
Maintain by routine vacuuming. Stains can be removed by applying an appropriate cleaning product.
Through cleaning by professionals.

36. Room-Size Rug Exposes a small border.
Maintain the same as wall to wall
Carpet. There is separate cleaning
Procedures for rug and adjacent floor.

37. Area Rug Vary in size but smaller than room-size rugs.
Define areas of a room, add interest, and even serve as a focal point.
Maintain with routine vacuuming and spot stain removal.
They are portable.

38. Padding
Used under carpeting and rugs to lessen wear and increase resilience.
Made from hair, jute, sponge, or foam rubber. Different types of carpeting require specific products be used for padding.

39. Resilient Floor Covering
Floor treatments that are generally non-absorbent, durable, easy to maintain, and fairly inexpensive.
Vinyl floors come in lots of colors, patterns, and textures.
Either in tile or sheet form. Little or no waxing is needed.

40. Solid Vinyl Floor Coverings
Growing in popularity.
Made totally of vinyl.
Many colors, styles, and patterns.
May look like hard wood, stone, marble, slate, granite or geometric patterns.
Come in planks, tiles, blocks, or square.

41. Laminate Vary in quality depending on construction.
Produced by uniting one or more different layers, usually a decorative surface to a sturdy core.
Four layers (moisture guard backing, core of high density material, pattern design, and stain resistant finish).
Easy to clean, comfortable for walking, good sound absorption.

42. Cork Tile
Must be covered with a protective coating in order to be water resistant, durable, and easy to maintain.
w/o the protective coating, cork cannot be classified as a resilient floor covering.
Cork is rich in appearance and is good for walking comfort and sound control.
Cork is the woody bark tissue of a plant.