When conducting internal repairs in an apartment or a private house, the question necessarily arises of what to lay on the floor. This task is not easy, since today there are many materials that are endowed with their advantages and disadvantages, and it is quite difficult to decide which option is better and which is worse.
Which floor is better to lay?
When creating a floor covering , a number of factors must be taken into account. With the help of modern materials, you can give the surface additional moisture resistance and strength, protect it from mechanical damage, etc. That is why the question arises as to which floors to lay to take into account all the features of this room and at the same time also save.
Living Room Flooring
The drawing room is the center of attraction of the whole house or apartment: the whole family is constantly gathering here, relatives and guests are invited here, parties, celebrations and family gatherings are organized. That is why the choice of flooring for this room must be approached responsibly, not only from the point of view of such important properties of the material as quality, durability and ease of care, but also a beautiful appearance and originality. In the living room you can delicately emphasize the impeccable taste and wealth of the owners.
What to lay on the floor? Today, the choice of flooring for this room is truly huge. Art parquet, massive board, mosaic, parquet board, cork, laminate, self-leveling floors and much more. Each of these materials has its own functional features, advantages and disadvantages, its beauty and attractiveness.
Floors in the bathroom, bathroom
Among the main requirements for the material for floors in the bathroom and toilet, it can be noted moisture resistance, strength, hygiene, incombustibility and ease of cleaning.
What to lay on the floor? Best for this room is tile (ceramic or tile). The main thing is that it should not be slippery. You can also use mosaic. It is quite expensive, but it has a grid mount, so that it can be laid in the most difficult areas and places of the bathroom.
Today, a new technology has become popular - the bulk floor system (the so-called liquid linoleum). Such a surface is unusually smooth and can be of any color. You can create a 3D effect.
Kitchen floors
The flooring in the kitchen should be resistant to moisture, strength (have increased resistance to shock and other mechanical damage) and attractive appearance. What to lay on the floor? The most practical and inexpensive materials are ceramic tiles and linoleum. Bulk floors are also popular.
Bedroom flooring
In this room, you can lay any floor material on the market. But the main criterion for choosing a floor covering should undoubtedly be coziness and comfort, since the bedroom often walk barefoot. What to lay on the floors in a house or apartment? The most suitable materials are natural wood flooring, parquet, laminate, cork, carpet and leather floors.
Flooring in the nursery
Among the basic requirements for children's flooring are antistatic, hypoallergenic, environmental friendly and flame retardant. Such a floor must necessarily be warm enough, durable. The child should like it, be easy to clean, and preferably have a not very high cost. For this, parquet, laminate, cork, linoleum, pressed leather floors and carpets are best suited.
Floors in the hallway, hallway
Hallway - entrance to the dwelling. It is a kind of calling card of an apartment or house. Since this is the most passable place, it is also the dirtiest. As a rule, it is at the entrance to the room that the guests have an opinion about what kind of owners you are, therefore it is worth approaching the choice of floor materials with all responsibility: no matter how attractive the finishing material is, you do not need to choose it if after a while it loses its appearance. There is one important rule: use only wear-resistant coatings that will resist abrasion, slipping and reagents brought from the street in winter.
Such a floor should have strength and unpretentiousness, since it will have to be washed often. Of the materials in the hallway, it is best to use ceramic tiles and porcelain tiles. In the hall, parquet, laminated parquet, laminate, linoleum, cork and even parquet will look great.
Types of flooring
First of all, it should be noted that ideal floor coverings simply do not exist. For each room, it is worth choosing the material that most closely matches its features and characteristics.
Most often used as flooring in a house or apartment:
- linoleum;
- laminate;
- ceramic tile;
- carpet.
These types of flooring material are rightfully considered the most popular and common coatings. Further we will consider each of them separately and tell you how to properly lay the floor.
Ceramic tile
This is an indispensable building material. Today it is difficult to imagine an apartment or a house where it is not present.
The tile has excellent moisture-removing qualities, so it can be used in rooms with a high level of humidity (on the balcony, in the bathroom and kitchen). It is in these rooms that tiles are most often laid on the floor. Such material perfectly tolerates moisture and allows you to quickly and easily remove water from the surface. Tiles well tolerate sudden changes in temperature, high heat and various mechanical influences.
Among the disadvantages of this coating can be distinguished complex installation and the fact that the cost of the material is sometimes quite high. In addition, the tile is a fairly cold, slippery and hard material, so laying it in living rooms and bedrooms is not recommended.
Linoleum
This is a rolled floor material, which is made on a polymer basis and is designed to finish the floor in different rooms in apartments and private houses.
It has been on the market for a long time and is provided in a wide variety and color palette. This roll material is classified by environmental friendliness, wear resistance and thickness.
Some companies produce linoleum with a layer of insulation. It is quite soft, so experts do not recommend laying it in rooms with high traffic.
This material is considered universal. It can be laid in any room. Linoleum is of different sizes, width - 1.5-6 m.
Since this material is rolled, it is often used as a single piece for flooring in the whole room, which allows you to create flooring without joints.
Among the positive aspects we can distinguish ease of installation and relatively low cost.
The disadvantages include too large an assortment, which greatly complicates the choice when buying.
When purchasing linoleum, you should definitely pay attention to its environmental friendliness. It should not have a sharp and unpleasant odor, and to confirm the quality of the goods must have a special certificate.
Laminate
First of all, it is worth noting that the laminate floor is a prefabricated structure. To organize a solid surface, you need to dock the panels. Most often this is done in a checkerboard pattern. Laminate is one of the most popular coatings. It is widely used for flooring in many rooms of houses or apartments.
This product is produced in different sizes, while the parameters may vary: length, height and width of the panel. The most popular sizes of the laminated panel are 129 x 22 cm and 122 x 21 cm. There are longer products. As for the thickness of the lamella, it ranges from 7 to 12 mm, depending on the manufacturer.
In addition to the panel parameters, this material has its own specific classification. In addition, each class is intended for use in certain rooms.
Self-leveling floors
Today, this type of flooring is very popular. It allows not only to get a very flat surface, but also makes it possible to create real masterpieces with your own hands. The advantages of this material is that it holds heat very well, resists moisture well, and tolerates various mechanical influences. Among the shortcomings, a rather high cost of the mixture can be noted, but the life of the finished structure is large.
This type of coating is suitable for absolutely any room and can become a decoration of a very different interior.
Wooden floors
This is one of the oldest and most reliable types of flooring.
Among the advantages of wooden floors can be noted:
- Great aesthetic look. It is not in vain that many linoleum coatings are made with imitation wood.
- Relaxing effect on the human nervous system.
- Wood is a good heat-insulating material, so it’s nice to walk barefoot on such a floor even in winter. (Of course, if not very large gaps between the boards).
- Simple operation. Wooden floors are easy enough to wash, they can spill ketchup, jam and everything that is in the house, since you can only spoil the paint. If the floors are painted, they will again be like new.
- You can easily lay any new flooring on an old wooden floor.
The disadvantages include:
- Relatively high cost.
- Quite a difficult job.
- Significant labor costs for flooring.
- Such floors are almost never completely perfectly smooth.
- Often, wooden floors are made of not dried fresh planed boards. After a while, the boards will dry out and gaps will appear between them.
- Sometimes the wood floor creaks.
How to properly lay a wooden floor will be discussed later.
Mounting Features
The installation of finishing floor coverings needs to be given special attention, because their service life largely depends on this.
In order to lay the flooring in a quality manner, it is important to strictly observe the installation processes. Let us further consider how to properly lay linoleum, laminate and carpet on the floor.
Installation of linoleum, laminate and carpet
The requirements for installing these flooring are very similar. Any of these materials can be laid not only on the rough subfloor, but also on the old coating. But at the same time, it is important that the cover on which the coating will spread is perfectly even, without cracks or other damage. If there is any defect in the rough floors, it must be eliminated.
In order to repair cement screeds, it is necessary to use special mixtures that make it possible to repair all flaws and surface irregularities. The repaired areas need to be well sanded.
Many experts recommend laying these flooring materials on sheet rough flooring. It is made of plywood or OSB board. The thickness of such sheet flooring should be at least 12 mm.
Before laying the laminate on the floor, it is necessary to make a cork or polyurethane substrate, which is laid on plywood or another type of rough floors.
Features of the installation of carpet and linoleum are that they must be aged in the room in which they lie. Only then can this rolled material be rolled out.
Carpet and linoleum can be laid either with or without glue. When laying without glue, the coating must be properly leveled and distributed over the entire surface of the floor so that there are no waves.
Plinths will serve as fasteners. It is necessary to lay rolled construction materials on glue from the center of the room. The cut out part is conditionally divided into 2 parts and spread on the flooring site.
Initially, one part of the material is wound onto a roll, the floor is well coated and linoleum or carpet is laid. Further, the same operation is performed with the other part. Roll out the coating only from the center of the room, while expelling all the available air to the edges.
Laying tiles on the floor
As mentioned above, tiles in a house or apartment as a floor covering are mainly used in the kitchen, in the bathroom and on the balcony. To lay a tile in a quality manner, first of all, you need to make sure that the rough screed is reliable or whether it is worth creating it yourself.
If the material will be mounted on the finished draft floor, it must be carefully examined and necessary repairs carried out in the manner indicated above.
After this, the surface is well primed. Some experts advise waterproofing, and only then lay the tiles.
This material is mounted on a special quick-drying adhesive, so the amount of batch should depend on how quickly the material is developed so that the solution does not have to be thrown out.
In order for the tile floor to be attractive in appearance, it is necessary to try to make the inter-plate gaps the same. To do this, you can purchase special "crosses", which are installed in two or more on each side of the tile.
How to lay a wooden floor with your own hands on the ground in stages
1. Ground preparation.
A layer is removed, the thickness of which is at least 25 cm, the existing plant roots are removed, a layer of crushed stone and sand is poured and carefully rammed.
2. Installation under the logs of the supports.
On a cleaned surface, columns of 2.5 x 2.5 cm cross-section are installed from brick. The racks should be at the level of two layers of brick in height. After the supports are installed, the waterproofing sleeve spreads.
3. Laying lag.
You need to start work from the extreme lags. They are laid in level and pulled between them a fishing line, which will help to lay the rest of the logs evenly. To adjust the height, use wedges and gaskets. They can be added if necessary or removed.
4. Laying thermal insulation.
The material is placed in a space that is located between the lags.
5. Roughing
In order to get the floor as flat as possible and to lay the topcoat without distortions, use fiberboards or thin boards. How to lay plywood on the floor? It is lined on the logs as densely as possible to each other and securely fixed with screws. Screw them in often. The most optimal interval is 20-30 cm. Screw caps should be drowned in a slab so that they do not stick out above the surface.
If the plywood is very thin, it can be damaged during the screwing process. To prevent this, the hole can be pre-drilled. After plywood is laid on a wooden floor and firmly fixed, for a better work result, all surface defects are smoothed by manual or mechanized cycle.
6. Laying the finish flooring.
Consider how to make a wooden floor with your own hands (top cover). Laying boards - from glued beams or folded - this is the final stage of work, but also very important. It is important to ensure that the material has been treated with antiseptics. The rest of the flooring is the same as plywood. The only thing is important to pay attention to the density of the lumber. There should be maximum pressure on the boards. To do this, a bracket is driven into the lag (5 cm from the board) and a wedge is installed between it and the board. He presses a wooden plate. When the pressing becomes maximum, fix the result with screws and remove auxiliary materials. The same process is performed with each row.
So, we examined how to properly lay a wooden floor. After laying, it is necessary to repeat cycling and cover with a decorative and protective material, such as varnish or wax.
Sex in the bath
There are two types of wooden floors in a bathhouse (we will consider how to lay down below):
- Not leaking.
- Leaking. Water can freely drain into the gaps between the boards and soak into the ground under the bath.
How to lay the floors yourself? First of all, the base is prepared, and the logs are laid (as described above), then the floorboards are laid. The surface is treated with a protective compound.
Warm floor
So, how to lay a warm floor?
- The surface of the floor is prepared (the old screed, floor coverings, debris are removed).
- A waterproofing material (for example, a plastic film) is laid on the floor base.
- A heat-insulating layer is laid (for example, polystyrene foam, polystyrene foam, mineral wool, etc.)
- The heating pipeline is laid.
- The base of the warm floor is concreted.
- Finishing is in progress.
So, we examined how to properly lay the floor. Having familiarized yourself with the most popular and widespread floor materials and the principles of their installation, you can independently choose the material for a particular room and slowly lay it.