Our vinyl floor covering was laid this week by Ian Oldcorn and Martin Wilton from Flair Flooring, Carterton. Looks pretty snazzy, I must say.
Paulo, my purist architect son-in-law, might not agree. He turns up his nose at vinyl masquerading as timber. We did consider real wood and found some excellent recycled matai floorboards that came from an old wool store in Napier. The price was out of sight. Then we discovered how good some of the timber-styled vinyls are today. They’re good enough! The difference in price was about the cost of a holiday in the UK for both of us.
Ian Oldcorn preparing the concrete slab for vinyl laying. Left: grinding the concrete smooth (he had to do more grinding than normal because the original concrete contractors did a lousy job of smoothing it off with the power float machine). Right: Ian applying concrete seal. This was needed because the concrete wouldn’t be bone dry – a four-inch concrete slab needs about four months under cover to dry out.)
Ian applying adhesive with the sheet of vinyl rolled back.
Ian and Martin smoothing out the vinyl.
Sunlight highlighting some of the new vinyl. It has a greyish bleached quality, like timber that has been lightly treated with limewash. We might have gone for a more traditional wood colour, but our friend Janet Weir, a local interior designer, persuaded us to give this a try. I’m glad we did, and as she predicted, the vinyl combines well with the green cupboards. (Click to enlarge.)
Martinborough Musings 