KAREN WIGHT -- No Place Like Home

There are many choices for the surface beneath your feet. Flooring

materials are abundant; sometimes it seems there are as many products as

square footage to cover.

Do you like wood? Get ready to do some homework. Your decisions

include plank size, grain texture, stain color and sealer finish. We’re

not done yet. Do you want a laminate, an engineered floor, a vinyl

look-alike or the old-fashioned strips nailed in place?

The choices don’t end there. What kind of wood do you want? How about

traditional oak, contemporary maple, pine for a “barn� feeling, or an

exotic wood for an unusual appearance?

These decisions are made even more difficult because there are so many

new products on the market. It’s hard to keep up with all of the

developing technology.

Last summer, I went to the Pasadena Showcase house and the material

used on the kitchen floor was surprising: bamboo. Thin strips of the

fibrous plant were bonded together, stained and manufactured into

prefinished planks. Very different and very cool. It didn’t give the room

an Asian feel; it looked like thin, irregular wood strips. I checked with

the supplier and found that it comes in several stains, is easily

installed, is well-priced and is gaining market share rapidly.

Add another flooring to a confusing list of choices.

If you’re looking for a surface that will stand up to a beating, you

need to consider ceramic, porcelain or natural stone tiles. Tiles have

been around for centuries and can’t be bested for durability. They are a

popular choice for bathrooms, kitchens, mud rooms and areas that are

exposed to a lot of weather.

More decisions. If you like stone, your choices are even more

complicated that for wood flooring. Mother Nature created dozens of

granites, slates and limestones. The nuances with stone are very

important, and each quarry can have significant differences in stone

“personality.� The finish on the stone may be polished, honed, tumbled,

sandblasted or acid-washed to give it various textures.

Natural stone can be fabricated in any shape or design. Your

imagination is the only limit you have.

Are you looking for something soft, warm and comfortable under your

feet? Carpet could be your best choice. More than 1.3 billion square

yards of carpet is manufactured and installed in the U.S. every year.

Have you been to the new Home Expo in Huntington Beach? The store has

more than 3,000 square feet of display space dedicated exclusively to

carpet. Color and pattern choices can send you into paralysis.

Nylons, wools, linen, cotton, natural fiber rugs and carpets are

readily available in stores, through catalogs or online. The choices for

carpet style sound impressive. Frieze rugs and carpets have a rough

texture with a pile that is tightly twisted. Saxony floor covering has

yarns that stand upright in a sense pile. Plush carpets have a luxurious

thick appearance. Multilevel loop rugs have an uneven texture.

And the showrooms tell me that shag is back, baby. I have such vivid

recollections of the shag carpet in our house when I was in high school.

It was green (everything was green, gold or orange). After I vacuumed, my

mother insisted that I use the “rug rake� on the shag. This was like

adding insult to injury. Especially when my younger brother and sister

made an Olympic competition out of how fast they could ruin the freshly

raked look my mother coveted.

Can’t do shag again.

Other popular choices are floor coverings made of materials in the

sisal family--hard-wearing natural fibers that can be woven into rugs or

laid wall-to-wall.

Seagrass, unlike its name, is a tough fiber made from the leaves of a

tropical tree. This material is strong, resilient and exceptionally

sound-absorbent. The reed fibers are tightly woven to prevent heavy wear

and unraveling. This style rug blends in with most styles: from antiques

to contemporary.

Choices? Lots. Simple? No way. Do your homework. Research and get

samples. Don’t let the flooring walk all over you.