Wide choice for flooring materials

Press, 9 April 1981, Page 21

Wide choice for flooring materials

Flooring finishes appear tc be timeless. The cave mar used skins and hides for warmth, the Romans usee mosaics and marble, the Turks pebbled their courtyards, ancient China wove the finest carpets, and rush matting was used in Egypt in the days of Tutankhamen and is still used all over the world to this day. But though natural materials do not change, the greatest growth has been in the field of synthetics. The first of these was invented in the nineteenth century, a mixture of natural rubber and cork which led to the first linoleum. Gradually, linoleum has developed to a sophisticated standard and has led the way for the most commonly used synthetic today — vinyl sheeting or floor tiles. Patterned and in good colours, they are easy to lay and fairly durable. The future will continue to bring developments of synthetic materials with improvements in quality, range of colour, surface texture and ' patterns. But for real quality, dura- ' bility and beauty it is hard to go past the natural materials such as stone, slate, marble, tiles, timber or cork. In recent times the tradi- > tional ground level suspended floor has given way to the concrete slab floor, both for housing and apartments. With solid floors any type of floor can be used and, if you are about to change your

flooring, now is the time tc consider the installation ol eating in the sub-floor. Not all floors will be appropriate for underfloor leating and it is best to ollow the advice of the manufacturers on the most suitable range of surfaces before deciding. We are still admiring the mosaic floors in the ruins ol Pompeii and though no-one expects present day houses and apartments to last that long, if you are considering a new bathroom floor, mosaic tiles are really the very best surface to use. Durability of floors can be considered to be one of the most important criteria of all. Hard floors on the whole are more durable than soft, but durability is also related to resilience; for instance, whilst rubber is not a hard floor it is extremely durable.. Durability means the length of time that selected qualities (appearance, colour, suface, pile) will last. In the field of carpets, the synthetic fibres such as nylon are hard wearing, but their appearance after a short time is less good than wool mixtures which are more springy and retain their appearance over very long periods of time. So carpets should be judged from a different standpoint from hard floors such as stone or concrete. Consider as many factors as you can think of for the function of your floor before making decisions. Resistance to chipping and cracking, resistance to scratching and abrasion, resistance to heat, burning coals, resistance to acids, resistance to water, rot, oils, fats, alkalis and insects. In a kitchen all these factors must be taken into account and one would expect to find surfaces which can resist all these attacks. Yet is is surprising how in many kitchens, for reasons ol economy, thermoplastic tiles have been used, which do not withstand heat or acids, are subject to cracking, and are constantly affected by many

ordinary household fluids. The best kitchen floor solution would be found amongst the hard floors, such as quarry tiles, stone or slate. These are also colourful and tremendously easy to keep clean. At the same time the very nature of the material allows it to develop a patina over the years which mellows the hard look. Bedrooms do not demand high durability so one can afford to indulge in whatever finish — within reason — one fancies. The essential quality is comfort coupled with warmth for bare feet. This generally means a carpet or rug over a timber floor; it is not very often that a persor associates stone floors with ; bedrtfom.