We’ve just purchased a beach cottage that has it’s vinyl-tile-made-to-look-like-hardwood-flooring coming unglued from the substrate. We wanted to replace it with something else like Pergo or some sort of pre-finished hardwood or engineered wood flooring, but I had some questions:
1) What products will withstand things like sand and moisture the best, and
2) What would be best for withstanding lots of use (the house will be a rental for most of the season), and
3) Cost is also a consideration, what is going to do a decent job meeting the above requirements at a reasonable price?
Thanks,
Tom
Replies
I'd think for a beach cottage you'd be better off to go with real tile rather than with wood. Wood doesn't like moisture and the finish won't like the sand.
When I travel around the country doing my real job, I spend my evenings attending seminars at Lowes and Home Depot.
One was on the flooring you mentioned. It looked great and my mind was running a mile a minute figuring out how I would do it.
An elderly lady sitting next to me asked if I thought it was pretty good material. I said, "yes".
She went down to the presenter and took the spec sheet from the open box and brought it back for me to read. She said, "always read the caveats / warnings before you buy anything like this." I won't go into the details but I don't want it in my place now. I especially would not want it in a place where I had no control over what the occupants did to it.
In my opinion If you are talking a beach house or camp it would be better to consider sheet goods and budget their replacement after some number of years. Easy to clean, fairly tough, not THAT expensive, easily renewable.
Jerry
tile, as 'aimless' said. You might try, at a pinch, cork tiles heavily urethaned.
cheers
***I'm a contractor - but I'm trying to go straight!***
I'll agree with the other posters saying tile- nothing I've ran into holds up as well or lasts as long in a rental situation as tile does. And it looks good, too.