Office floor: laminate vs. tree wood

We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used as an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move the chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something from the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad, but real wood would look so much better. Which would be harder wearing, bearing in mind that I'm 18+ stone (about 115kg), so there's going to be quite a load on said surface? If wood parquet is the better, any recommendations as to type of wood and type of varnish?

Reply to
Peter Twydell
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Do you get chairs with big "low-pressure" wheels?

Reply to
Ian Stirling

I'd suggest addressing the problem in a different way.

No, I'm not going to suggest addressing kilogrammatic challenge - it is as it is...

Personally I abhor laminate floors and if it were me I'd rip it out and burn it.

So to real wood. First of all go for a pretty hard material. Oak is pretty good.

Secondly, take a look at the chairs and obtain them with or fit wide wheels tyred with rubber to spread the load. Herman Miller Aeron chairs have these as an option, specifically for hardwood floors, but will set you back £650 new, around £300 "pre-owned". I have seen Chinese copies.....

Finally, if you treat the floor with an oil/polish rather then a varnish it is very easy to remove any minor indentations whould they occur. A steam iron and a cloth will do the job very effectively. The fibres swell with the heat and the indentations disappear like magic.

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

Noise plus scratches come to mind, my suggestion would be carpet tiles of good quality, many an office use them without to many problems / wear etc.

Reply to
Jerry.

In article , Andy Hall writes

The weight is not really a "challenge", as I'm 6'6" (2m). Think Martin Johnson-sized. Older, less talented, less fit, less almost everything, especially scary. I was 14st/97kg once (I'd not been well), and could hide behind fence posts. A stone less wouldn't hurt.

I do agree, but it might come down to cost and time. I hope not, though.

So far I've managed to get 2 new chairs under guarantee. Didn't know you could get rubber tyred ones, though.

Thanks, Andy.

Reply to
Peter Twydell

Hi,

There are a wide variety of chair mats available for carpeted and hard floors.

Personally I think laminate flooring is fine in places where you don't spend much time looking at the floor.

cheers, Pete.

Reply to
Pete C

From the "thinking sideways" corner: we've just recently ripped out the manky carpet from a small upstairs bedroom which has become my wife's study; and the flooring we put down was cork tiles (from those nice people at Siesta Cork Tiles, Croydon - Google for them). With a couple of coats of a water-based acrylic varnish from Rustins (also available from the same source in the one delivery with the tiles), they've made a very nice surface: "domestic office" feel, i.e. neither too much like a bedroom, nor too cold-n-clinical. Laying was pretty much a breeze (some prior planning with to-scale plan of room and tiles helped put part-tiles in reasonable places and avoided narrow strips: and *do* punch down flooring nails even if you think they're "practically" level already!). Of course, I'd d-i-y'ed a spreader out of some scrap ali sheet and finished the job before finding the freebie steel-with-wooden-handle one they'd thrown in the box... You might even be able to lay right on top of the existing laminate to cover it up ;-) - the "Acrylicork" tiles I used are, from memory, just 6mm thick.

The more demanding usage-test will happen in a few months' time, when I do the same in my home office next door to hers - she's a svelteish

60kg or so, I'm less than twice that - but not by much! ("not overweight, jsut undertall" ;-) But her office gets a fair bit of traffic from me and the kids, and there are no early disappointing signs of wear...

HTH - Stefek

Reply to
stefek.zaba

Thanks for the suggestions, Stefek, and good luck!

Reply to
Peter Twydell

Talking of thinking laterally, since body mass index varies with the square of height, I'm surprised that nobody has thought of the idea of some means of making people taller.

Somebody with a weight of 90kg and a BMI of 30 would have a height of

1m73. By increasing their height to 1m90, their BMI would become 25.

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

They have, it's called a 'Rack' and IIRC there is an example on display in the Tower of London - were it was last used...

Not sure if that should be followed by a :~) or a :~( !!

Reply to
Jerry.

I wouldn't want chairs on castors, as they apply very high point loads to the floor, and I'd be surprised if either survived that. Better would be to use wider pads for chair feet, fitted with a piece of cord carpet, then your floor should survive.

If you have laminate and it looks ok, it seems unnecessary to rip it out. The main downside with lam is its lifespan: ripping it out only shortens that dramatically, achieving little.

Regards, NT

Reply to
N. Thornton

It works fine if you have castors with rubber tyres. I've done this with Aeron chairs on a hardwood floor with no problems at all.

It's *always* necessary to rip out laminate floor because it looks tacky :-)

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

Who does?

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

That rather depends on the quality and how it's been installed. Well done you don't notice it.

Exactly the same applies to other floorcoverings.

Mary

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Reply to
Mary Fisher

OK. However, I've never seen any, even allegedly good stuff that I would give house room.....

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

I guess that it would be a case of being between a rack and a hard place....

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

The problem is not an height to weight ratio but the need for women's breasts to stick out versus the need for orthpaedic footware in their later years.

In the meantime the need to wear out shabby floors is best fulfilled with stilletto heels.

Reply to
Michael Mcneil

In article , Andy Hall writes

I'm not convinced about the worth of the BMI. As I mentioned, at 2m tall, I weigh 115 kg, for a BMI of 28.75. I accept that's overweight, but the theoretical healthy limit of 25 would make me 100kg, which is

15st 10. That seems far too light for my build. What about Jason Leonard? Is he clinically obese? Or Dean Macy?
Reply to
Peter Twydell

In article , Michael Mcneil writes

Oooh, what a good idea! (simper, simper) Where can I get some in size

13? (that's 48 for the Europeanised) As if I didn't have enough trouble with doorways as it is.
Reply to
Peter Twydell

In article , Mary Fisher writes

Whether you spend more time looking at the floor rather than the ceiling depends on your personal habits. Or vice versa. Or any other kind of vice.

Reply to
Peter Twydell

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