- In this video, you'll learn about flooring alternatives.
What are the different types?
Are they easy to maintain and some of the cost?
That's starting right now.
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by Brookfield Residential.
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So today, I'm joined by Rebecca Hotchkiss,
Interior Designer with Brookfield Residential
and we're gonna talk about flooring alternatives.
So, Rebecca, let's say I have a room inside my home
that I kinda wanna do a little differently.
Let's say a gym or rec room.
What kind of alternative flooring would I use?
- So, one of the most popular for a gym scenario
would be a rubber floor.
You can get a couple different types of rubber.
You've got solid, you've got flex.
It's nice 'cause there's a little bit of give.
It's not too hard of a surface, good for running,
jumping, for kids playing.
We use this a lot in kid's rooms too.
It's just a nice kind of alternate to a hard wood
or a carpet that has a bit more longevity and very durable.
- I guess that was my next question is how often
would you need to either replace it
or does it even need to be replaced?
- No, it is extremely, extremely durable.
I would say probably one of the most durable floors
that you could put in one of those spaces.
It's great with water, it's great with,
because of that little give there,
it really works if you're dropping things, heavy things,
treadmills, you name it.
It's a great option.
- And does it cause any type of warping or no?
- No, it's pretty good just as is.
- And tell me, what do we have here?
This is very interesting.
- So, this is a cork floor.
- Yes. - This is an option that
sometimes people choose to do in smaller spaces
at their home, maybe just their basement,
maybe just their upper floor.
It's a unique option instead of doing carpet or hardwood.
You can see there's some pretty neat colors.
It does come from a cork tree,
so it also kinda taps into those eco-friendly people
because it is harvested from a living tree.
You don't have to cut the tree down to harvest.
- Okay. - So, it's that it has
that aspect to it.
- Why would you use something like this?
Just a different,
just something different? - For a different look.
Yeah, for a different look.
I mean, in any applications that you would use hardwood,
you could use this for sure. - You could use this.
- It's just kind of a little bit of an interesting
kind of focal point.
- Now, 'cause I have a dog,
when I look at something like this,
I have a feeling my dog will scratch this within
maybe a day.
- So it's not the most durable.
I mean, dog nails probably don't work well for this.
I mean, this one on the bottom here, you can see,
it has a lot more going on as far as color goes.
Sometimes that hides things like scratches,
but again, this would be your most durable floor.
I also would probably stay away from water with this.
- Okay.
- You would worry a little bit about bubbling
if it was an area where you're sitting with water.
So, I wouldn't do it in bathrooms,
wouldn't do it in kitchen.
More of like a recreational basement room,
TV room, that kinda thing.
- How is this for maintenance?
- I mean, one cool thing about it is you actually can
refinish it, similar to some hardwood floors.
It definitely depends on the product.
Some manufacturers may be a little different than others.
But it's neat that you can actually kinda
sand it down and refinish it if you did wanna
do that down the road. - Oh, you can sand it?
Okay, how often can you do that?
- It does depend on the product, depends on the thickness
of what that actual material is.
I wouldn't say more than once usually and I would definitely
go to your supplier for recommendation before
doing that initially.
- Perfect.
Do you have anything else to add in terms of
flooring alternatives?
- I mean, they're both beautiful.
You can use them in lots of different applications.
I think some people think that wow come from color but,
it is pretty neat to see
a different texture, - Yes, definitely, yeah.
- different material and you still get
that same impact.
- Perfect, so the question of the day for you.
Have you ever used flooring alternative in your home?
Let us know in the description below.
So, if you wanna know more about flooring,
check out our playlist here, as well as our other
interior design videos here.
I'll see you in our next video.