I have a unit with 2 carpet bedrooms and a vinyl kitchen that I'm looking to replace with an environmentally friendly, non-toxic, strong and durable, and inexpensive flooring solution. The other areas of the unit are white tiles (terribly hard to keep looking clean and require constant vacuuming) . Ideally I would like to rip up all the tiles, carpet, and vinyl and replace the lot with a new flooring solution. But that may be a bit pricey to replace the tiles, so I'm looking to just replace the carpet bedrooms and vinyl kitchen with polished concrete or tiles. The flooring under the carpet and vinyl is already concrete. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding this situation, for example is polished concrete a good solution and which tiles do not show up dust/hair/fluff so clearly??
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Anything with a fleck pattern will hide almost anything.
Keep in mind that you will possibly need authority from your Owners Corporation to polish concrete as it may form part of common property. Also, there may be an obligation to lay some sort floor covering to limit noise to neighboring lots.
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Mistro you might want to consider cork tiles. Some pretty mad textures and designs available now. It's relatively easy to self lay as well. They even make tiles for showers.
Awesome, thanks for the information all.
I researched cork today, and think it may potentially dint a lot with use over time eg.furniture legs, high heels, when things are dropped on it. I also researched rubber flooring and I'm still considering rubber flooring as an option. Polished concrete flooring may be body corporate/noise insulation issue as I live in a unit.
propertymistro wrote:I researched cork today, and think it may potentially dint a lot with use over time eg.furniture legs, high heels, when things are dropped on it. I also researched rubber flooring and I'm still considering rubber flooring as an option. Polished concrete flooring may be body corporate/noise insulation issue as I live in a unit.You can make a case against any flooring type. They all have their pro's and cons. For bedrooms you can get feet for furniture to minimise timber/cork flooring damage. The big advantage is that cork is easily repaired by the DIY guy rather than a tradie. I've seen cork flooring in schools, commercial buildings, retail shops and many older homes. For toughness and reparability I'll take cork over a floating timber floor system any day.
Cork kitchen/bathroom floor tiles used to be the poor mans flooring many years ago. I've seen stuff that's 40 years old and still as good as the day it was laid.
Below is a recycled cork kitchen counter top… You can cut and chop stuff on this one!!
The reality is that modern cork composites are designed for the job. Choose accordingly.
Thanks Freckle for your suggestions. Do you have any suggestions about cork vs polished concrete or cork vs tiles? It is for 2 bedrooms currently carpeted with concrete underneath, and for 1 kitchen with concrete underneath.
P.S. Those cork bathroom wall tiles looked very nice.
Polished concrete has been around for the best part of 30 years. The secrete to good polished floors is setting it all up prior to pouring. Trying to stain and polish old floors is a dog in my book. Your basically stuck with the original grain and a stain is usually some poxy color.
If I had a choice between polished concrete and cork I'd always take cork .. no question. The smell, look and feel is streets ahead of concrete.
Great information! Thanks for your quick response. Do you think cork in bedrooms is a nice look and feel or is it only good for living rooms, kitchens etc?
My first preference for bedrooms is carpet then wood followed closely by cork. Ceramic tiles never.
For kitchens I’d almost always go sealed ceramic tiles.
The modern floor covering layout today tends to favor carpet in bedrooms and cinema rooms (better sound), ceramic tile in kitchens, laundries and bathrooms. Hallways, dining room and family rooms are generally timber floors.
A combo of the three breaks up the aesthetic texture while serving a functional purpose. You can exchange timber for cork but I think timber floors have a much wider buyer appeal. There’s still a bit of resistance to cork because it was perceived as a cheap option years ago. Timber still says class and expense by comparison.
What you do depends on the value of a rental or its market and the type of tenant you are marketing too along with your expected asking rent. It goes without saying the more attractive a property the more rent you can ask, the better the class of tenant and the faster it will usually rent. It actually doesn’t take much extra to make a property look a million bucks.
Is it your PPOR or an IP?
I do find tenants prefer tiles because you don't need to have them steamed cleaned like carpets at the end of the lease.
Also better wearing around pets & kids. Large tiles (non-white!) seem to be best.
Also look at the laminate flooring. Timber looking which is easily laid, replaced and very hard wearing.
Cheers,
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