kitchen floor......Help me please

[Cassandra]

We are putting a new kitchen in. The floor butts up again the family room floor and the 2 are virtually level. We really don't want too much of a step up or ledge from one area to another. What sort of floor could we have? It MUST be wood or wood lookalike. We are thinking about Amtico vlnyl. Has anyone had experience with that? The other choice is Slimlime from Boral (real wood that is 20 mm thick with under preparation. ) I prefer the look of real wood and the kowledge that it can be re-polished when it needs to be is good. What do you think?

[seriph1]

Hi and welcome

What sort of floor do you have now? Was just thinking that while the kitchen is all out you may be willing to replace the existing floor if its not concrete, with real timber flooring...... if it is concrete then you will have to live with a step, though all is not lost ..... to make the transition easily, people often put a wide piece of contrasting material across the opening and "feather" it (like making a very shallow wedge) to cover the height differences..... done with care, this produces a very attractive result where the union between the two spaces is celebrated instead of hidden, unsuccessfully.....

Let me know if you get what I mean as I may not be being particularly clear at this time of night



... I don’t have any pics at the moment of these transitional pieces but could probably dig around for an example if necessary.

Cheers

[Cassandra]

Yes I get what you mean and several frinds have this "feathered" step. However, my husband doesn't like it and mentions it each time I look at a real wood floor. The existing floor is wood except in a small 2 square metre patch which was the laundry in the 1930's before extensions number 1,2,3 & 4. Each extension has been done beautifully and makes the house look planned from the start but this bit of concrete has remained. I think we'll eventually go for vinyl (UGH) just because of the step.
Has anyone had any experience with AMTICO? Does it hold up to 2 dogs and a builder/bricky/carpenter son who tramps through the house in his work boots (believe me, I've tried telling him not to but in the end, I just feel life is too short to sweat the small stuff), not to mention 3 other sons with big feet? Sydney being such an expensive place to buy into, I think we'll have these sons with us for the next 5 years so I need to think about durability.

[seriph1]

re: hubby & sons - wife's best mate is visiting for a cpl days and we all got to chatting - she maintains you must "pick your battles" - you girls actually know a bit about covert warfare obviously..... more than us blokes anyway

if the floor is wood then why not replace or polish it, removing the concrete & adding boards to that area? Find a demo yard - my client has one in Alexandria under the name Delta or Whelan. I actually believe it would be a cost effective solution against something neither of you really want & that will wear out.

finally, opting for vinyl or lino is fine too, though your question may be a little less focused than it could be to get accurate info....I am uncertain about this, but imagine each manufacturer would have a range of qualities from Rolls Royce to Kingswood.....it may be best to ask them directly about wear propoerties of the ones youre interested in ..... ntoe I said manufacturers, not sales-drones.






just my .002c

cheers

[Cassandra]

I have talked to the manufacturer of Amtico, which is the supposedly Rolls Royce of vinyls and ought to be at $170/sq mt. More than real wood. They say it has a 20 year guarantee but a friend of mine has it and hers is really scratched and dirty looking even when clean. But then again, hers IS 15 years old so maybe the materials are better now.
As for your wife's friend..........yep, pick your battles. With 4 sons in 16 months, I have learned they are what is important to me, not a clean house (Well, I try to tell myself that ......sometimes I even listen!)
Thanks for the advice. I really love reading this website. Much better than that Homeideas one. Someone told me about this one and they were right...........more ideas.
Cass

[DPB]

I have this at a number of points in our house. All the wet rooms (bathroom, toilets, laundry, etc.) have ceramic tiled floors on concrete. The rest of the house is Vic Ash previously covered with carpet; everywhere, except for the kitchen and family room which has a floating wood laminate floor on top of the Vic Ash sub-floor.

When we removed the carpeting throughout the house the various levels became apparent at almost every internal doorway in the house. I wasn't about to remove the tile, or wood laminate as these were in good condition.

To rectify the transition levels, I created door stoops (I can't think of a better word) from Tassie Oak 85mm wide (about the depth of the door frame) to straddle the two levels. The two edges are rounded over, to prevent tripping. The underside is rabbited to accommodate the two levels. In other words, the front half of the stoop may be 5mm thick and the back half 10mm thick. These are not apparent because one can only see one side or the other. The top of the 'stoop' is level, rather than "feathered". They have been in place for three years now and none have split, a problem I thought I might have.

I am very pleased with the results, particularly as the purpose for these is completely masked.

Hope this makes sense Cassandra.

[seriph1]

excellent response to the problem too .... if I understand correctly, you have two floors 5mm different in height so to counter this in the threshold you have created two apprently identical pieces to fill the gap though one is "deeper" than the other. Is this right or am I off-beam?


feathering - tapering the thickness of the material (sometimes in multiple directions) in order to disguise the unevenness on either side of the transitional space, or threshold

[Sturdee]

Don's solution to this problem was common in Holland in older houses when I lived there, not because the floors might have been uneven but to stop the draught and keep the heat in the room.
With central heating now common it may not be done anymore.

Peter.

[DPB]

Steve, you are close. My solution is one single piece - what you are calling a threshold, and I am calling a stoop.

Whatever it is called, this one piece is rabbited to compensate for the difference where the two floors abut. So, if there is a 5mm difference in the two floors, there is a 5mm step on the bottom of the piece. The thinner portion of the piece fits over the floor that is 5mm too high, and the thicker part fits over the floor that is 5mm too low.

The overall thickness of the threshold may 9mm. So the thinnest portion of the threshold in this example is 4mm. There is no taper. The top face of the threshold piece is level and parallel to the two floors surfaces. It is this that disguises the difference in the two heights.

[seriph1]

got it thanks

isnt language a wonderful thing

[DPB]

This is one example of the doorstoop, or threshold I've constructed to cover up the uneven transition between two floor surfaces.