Concrete, Vinyl, Wood. Floors...oh my

[filthyrich]

OK, so I'm painting the studio and building bass traps and whatnot and I'm deciding on floors. I know about the advantages of having a hard floor and soft ceiling. My problem is that I'm not sure I want to have wood floors knowing that my band will be dragging our gear out when playing and bands will be dragging their stuff in and I'll be moving my band's stuff when recording. All this sounds like thousands of little scratches and crappy looking wood. I'm thinking about doing the vinyl tiles that look like wood. My problem with that is that in my kitchen or laundry room, moving stuff makes for big cuts in linoleum. Is this also going to happen with vinyl tiles? Obviously I could just leave it concrete and do some type of treatment.

Ideas?

[jsm355]

I'm new to this site .... saw your posting ...... You may want to check out Auralex at ... auralex.com

they have info on construction / applications for for a variety of situations for pro audio.

Best wishes ... Jim Mendolia

[Slaytex]

Stained concrete is pretty sweet. It's durable as hell, it's easly to wipe up spilled beer and stays fairly cool durring the summer (and stays very cold in winter). I've heard concrete vs. wood flooring is a bit different soundin, but subtle.
You be the judge.

[Cornvalley]

close up view
Commercial grade vinyl
Check out this flooring option. I saw it layed in the produce dept. at Pavillions market here in LA. I figure if it was durable enough for their traffic, the studio would do well with it.
I was right. This stuff is great.

[Cornvalley]

Here's a better view of the floor within the studio. People mistake it for real wood all the time.

[filthyrich]

I'm also thinking about grinding down the concrete by renting a diamond cut grinder and then acid staining the concrete. I've seen some amazing stuff done to plain concrete. It's about 4.00/sq ft though if I pay someone. I'd rather grind and stain it myself..but yeah. Acid...not sure on that.

[filthyrich]

That floor looks great, by the way. Congrats.

[jdg]

i used cork, sounds great, looks great, wears like shit.
i dont recommend it.

[filthyrich]

I can get this..

Lumber Liquidators: 6MM Swedish Maple Laminate

combined with a plywood bass (50 cents/sqf) it would come to about 1.30 per square ft.

Fake wood vinyl tiles stick right to the concrete and are going to run about 1 dollar per sq ft. So, it's only 30 cents more for real wood. I'm torn.

It'll be way easier to install the fake tiles...but..damn. I'm torn. I love wood; but I'm worried about it scratching up and looking like crap..quickly. Plus, I don't think you can re-do finished laminate once it's all scratched up. If you can; I'm guessing it's a pain.
I've also heard that laminate wood is loud and "clicky" to walk on..even with a plywood subfloor.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by Slaytex

Stained concrete is pretty sweet. It's durable as hell, it's easly to wipe up spilled beer and stays fairly cool durring the summer (and stays very cold in winter). I've heard concrete vs. wood flooring is a bit different soundin, but subtle.
You be the judge.

My girlfriend put that in her design studio and I must agree it does really look cool and this is coming from a guy that loves wood floors.


Glenn

[filthyrich]

And then there's this.

12" x 12" Solid Hardwood Parquet Flooring

That's 12X12" real wood tiles.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by Cornvalley

Here's a better view of the floor within the studio. People mistake it for real wood all the time.

I have never been a big fan of fake anything, but I must say that looks really nice.

glenn

[Drumsound]

FWIW Wes LaChott uses concret for floors a lot. He claims the sonic differences with wood are minimal. My wood parquet floors seem to be doing fine, and my space was "inhabited" by a bunch of guys with bands rehearsing there before I moved in. There's some cigarette burns and a few scratches, but no big deal.

[stevep]

I would either keep it concrete or do a wood floor..

when wood gets scratched it looks fine,




.

[Rick Sutton]

I had wood floors installed in my main room about 15 years ago and yes they do get somewhat scratched up but they still look fine. I had mine glued directly to the concrete and I like that a whole lot better than the wood floors with soft underlayment. It always feels real strange to walk on a wood floor that has that artificial padded feel. And my floors definitly don't click.

[boojum]

Smooth cement floors can be "painted" with 2/3 polyurethane and 1/3 MinWax stain. Gives a nice aged leather look. Takes two coats. See Malcom Well's stuff on his architecture. He recommends it.

[NathanEldred]

We used epoxy on our raw cement floors. It's a nice coffee color. Looks great, quite durable, and it sounds like it should (we have bass trapping and random absorption on the walls and ceiling, and the ceilings are 14 feet). Make sure you have A LOT of ventilation if you do this, and wear the expensive special masks (the ones that are like $30 from Home Depot).

[stevep]

Originally Posted by Rick Sutton

I had wood floors installed in my main room about 15 years ago and yes they do get somewhat scratched up but they still look fine. I had mine glued directly to the concrete and I like that a whole lot better than the wood floors with soft underlayment. It always feels real strange to walk on a wood floor that has that artificial padded feel. And my floors definitly don't click.

Same here, glued direct to the concrete thumbsup