How easily we forget what it was like to have months of continual
rain. Now with the warm, fine spring days next problem could be
not enough rain or the driest spring in memory. As they say the
only thing constant is change.
Last month I talked about laying polystyrene foam sheets under
concrete floors as a way of reducing heat loss. Polystyrene is
known to have high insulation properties. We used it for the first
time on a house we built in Featherston earlier this year. The
owners had decided they wanted to cover much of the floor space
with terracotta tiles and use the sun to heat the floor, store
or build up that heat during the day & release it at night.
Often I'm asked, what is the best way to go - concrete floor
or particle board over piles. At the end of the day I can only
give my opinion on the pros and cons of both options.
I used to live with a concrete floor. I find it's nice and quite
to walk on. But I believe if you are going to have a concrete
floor, you'd want to carpet it before you moved in because I couldn't
imagine anything worst than living on a hard cold surface. I suppose
now, after seeing the house in Featherston with its tiled floors,
I'm going to have to have a re-think and be very careful what
I say because it simply looked fantastic.
I suppose a draw back with concrete floors, could be that even
if a floor is covered with carpet, the continual walking on a
hard surface can put extra stress on our legs.
More and more innovative technology and inventions are being
placed in the market for the benefit of the new home builder.
This is one of the main reasons for my producing these newsletters.
When it comes to heating concrete floors the commonly used methods
in the past have been the installation of electric heating cables
inside the concrete, like an electric blanket. But just recently
I have been asked by several prospective clients if I could investigate
a relatively new product ( at least to me) called, "Florid".
Florid works on the basis of heating the flooring (either concrete
or timber, but not particle board, it must be plywood or tongue
& groove) by running a network of small diameter pipes about
20-30mm below the surface of the floor warm or hot water is then
pumped through them. This system is very flexible, the options
of units available to heat the water can be from solid fuel (ie;
your wood burner or coal range) gas fired, electricity or solar.
If this appeals to you and you want to know more, phone me on
our free help phone number located at the end of this letter.
As far as cost is concerned, building with a concrete or particle
board floor will cost about the same. But the more out of level
your building site is, the more expensive the concrete becomes
over particle board.
Construction time with particle board in getting frames standing
is faster, and at the end the floor can be sanded and varnished
to give a very nice easy to clean surface. One word of caution,
if it is your intention to go this way and varnish, be tough on
your builder and insist that at the end of each day they pick
up any nails they may have dropped during the day's work because
if it rains over night, the nails will leave a rust stain that
will not come out. Particle board floors are easily carpeted and
generally easier to walk on. Besides, most of us are not really
bothered by a bit of quiet foot noise that go with the territory
of living on a timber floor.
Right now we are building quite a large "Homestead"
style home in the south of the Wairarapa. The Homestead style
is similar to our showhome. This house is being built with particle
board, but the owners are going to do something very interesting
to the floor as a floor covering once the job is finished. I understand
that sometime in the not to distant future they are going to fix
recycled tongue and groove flooring board over the particle board
flooring as a feature to the kitchen, breakfast and family rooms
areas. The thing is, this will look so attractive and it's so
easy to do.
Some of the difficulties of fixing tongue and groove flooring
to open floor joists during construction is you can't lay the
boards until the house is totally locked up and water proof. The
boards must remain totally dry or they'll shrink later creating
unsightly gaps. Also working & walking over open floor joists
can be extremely hazardous to your health if you slip with a leg
going either side of the joist and end up squashing your......thumb.
You might even end up with lumps in your thro....shin.
By the way, even though my clients are using recycled tongue
and groove boards, new boards will look fantastic too. It's just
that the older boards will undoubtedly have a bit more character.
It's a bit like us seeing a lot of demolition Rimu being used
to make furniture these day's. It's a great use of a limited resource.
In fact, the furniture we have in the showhome at present is made
of recycled Rimu and it suits the colonial theme perfectly.
Next month I want to talk about what options are available in
generating your own electricity if the costs of having mains power
brought to your property out weighs its viability and, when living
with septic tank sewage system what are the dos and don'ts of
making it work properly.
I hope you enjoying getting this letter contact but if you don't
want it any more or think it's a waste of time, write or phone
me and I'll take the necessary action.
Oh PS: More and more inquires and sales are from beyond the toll
free area of our office. Because of this, for your convenience I
have installed an 0800 Free-Help phone line to our office. So if
you have any questions or queries you can contact me on:
