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Flotex floor


blackrose

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I wanted a wood-effect floor. Wood is too cold underfoot in winter as I take my shoes off in the boat and don't always want to be wearing slippers either. I was thinking about Karndean but after getting some samples I've realised it's also too cold. So now I'm thinking about Flotex wood effect.

 

Obviously it doesn't look as good as real wood or Karndean, but the samples I've got don't look too bad and it's only up close that you can see the pile. It comes in 2m rolls and also planks, however the oak colour I want only comes in rolls and I'm not confident laying large areas within the time the glue goes off. I'd rather lay Flotex planks but they only come in a very limited range of wood effect colours. So I was thinking that if I made a plank sized template out of wood or aluminium I could cut out my own planks from a 2m roll of Flotex. Would that work? I would cut out all the planks with a Stanley knife and do a dry installation before gluing them down one by one. I'm not a carpet fitter so that just seems more achievable as a DIYer. Obviously I'd need to cut the sides of each plank very straight and accurately so that they butt up to each other properly.

 

This is the one I want: Flotex English Oak which comes in a 2m roll and is actually a carpet.

 

FLOTEX WOOD HD ENGLISH OAK | 55% OFF + FREE DELIVERY

 

My plan was to lay the Flotex over this Regupol 3mm rubber underlay to even out the floor a bit. This was the stuff Karndean recommended when I spoke to them about evening out my floor because it doesn't deflect under heavy furniture.

 

https://flooringwarehousedirect.co.uk/product/regupol-4515-multi-3mm/

 

Edited by blackrose
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It might be worth getting a carpet fitter to lay the flotex for you. In my experience no matter how much planning and care goes onto laying a floor covering you can tell it wasn't a professional job. But that might  just be me ?

 

Haggis

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We have Flotex in our boat - still the original since the boat was built in 1991 - and they fitted it by simply trimming to size with a Stanley knife and then putting a strip of double-sided sticky tape around all the edges of the floor. After all that time it's still good.

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I have flotex carpet, originally in saloon, but now removed to  the other areas.

I've not been able to source extra strong stanley blades, and gone though two or three box cutters and quite a few blades. My hands are nor really strong enough, though sometimes I used a metal straight edge with a guard for safety.

I removed the skirting boards, laid the carpet, the only sides that are perfectly  straight are the factory cut sides, I tried to get a fitter but they refused to do a boat. I have new oak skirting, using nice brass lookalike (gold) Torx screws for wood, and they seem to grip well to the ply lining. No problems having the skirting board off for painting, and spring cleaning.

I left it down loose to flatten then taped the tricky bits, the skirting board is screwed in and I have removed the Flotex carpet to wash and hose it off on a hot sunny day, no signs of wear.

It did not give the desired Cosy Cottage feel in the saloon, so I replaced it with an offcut of tough stuff from "wilsons", £50 for 6x2 m, the Flotex was Ebay offcut at £146 2x5m My Flotex is ribbed, blue with darker blue squares, excellent for hard wearing areas, I have it on my steps and in my galley, I use good s/s thresholds to clamp carpet edges, or the skirting.

I would not risk the home made planking. I think it has to be machine cut, I may be wrong.

J

My first attempt at floor covering was a fail, I used B&Q vinyl sticky back planks , ie not click, but they moved as the boat moved, so if tight together they might overlap and crack up, even rising over one another , or if not tight enough they relaxed and left dirty cracks and crevices. I 've laid the carpet on top, not ideal, but so far no problems

Edited by LadyG
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1 hour ago, Keeping Up said:

We have Flotex in our boat - still the original since the boat was built in 1991 - and they fitted it by simply trimming to size with a Stanley knife and then putting a strip of double-sided sticky tape around all the edges of the floor. After all that time it's still good.

We have flotex tiles in the galley area

 

Many years ago I lined an open Kit car out with it, its completely waterproof

Edited by ditchcrawler
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2 hours ago, Keeping Up said:

We have Flotex in our boat - still the original since the boat was built in 1991 - and they fitted it by simply trimming to size with a Stanley knife and then putting a strip of double-sided sticky tape around all the edges of the floor. After all that time it's still good.

Really? I thought it needed to be glued down. If it can be laid as you say then I could probably do it myself.

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8 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Really? I thought it needed to be glued down. If it can be laid as you say then I could probably do it myself.

Mine has a sort of grey backing, no need to stick it down in the main area, I think I used tape on steps and on tricky bits, but I think it's best left to it's own devices, as I say mine is not the same surface finish, but the backing may be the same,, the problem is if you have lots of small planks, I can see that is more problematic.

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15 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Mine has a sort of grey backing, no need to stick it down in the main area, I think I used tape on steps and on tricky bits, but I think it's best left to it's own devices, as I say mine is not the same surface finish, but the backing may be the same,, the problem is if you have lots of small planks, I can see that is more problematic.

Yes it could be if I don't get it right. I'm not doing it anytime soon so there's plenty of time to think it through.

11 minutes ago, matty40s said:

I cant believe you got rid of your stove and got big windows fitted to your widebeam......like the bar setup though....

A friend on another boat visited recently and told me wood on the floor was a bad idea if you have wood on the walls and ceiling and wooden cupboards I quite like the all wood idea. After all, you wouldn't walk into a log cabin and think "too much wood" 

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My tiles are 2 foot square and just laid flat on the ply floor, cut in snugly at the edges and have not caused any problem in 18 years . These are the planks if people are interested, probably the herring bone would be best rater than straight planks. We used Flowtext Offshore in the accommodation and it was 100% glued with something like Evostik

 

https://www.dctuk.com/carpet-tiles/tessera/flotex-wood

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7 hours ago, blackrose said:

I wanted a wood-effect floor. Wood is too cold underfoot in winter as I take my shoes off in the boat and don't always want to be wearing slippers either. I was thinking about Karndean but after getting some samples I've realised it's also too cold. So now I'm thinking about Flotex wood effect.

 

Obviously it doesn't look as good as real wood or Karndean, but the samples I've got don't look too bad and it's only up close that you can see the pile. It comes in 2m rolls and also planks, however the oak colour I want only comes in rolls and I'm not confident laying large areas within the time the glue goes off. I'd rather lay Flotex planks but they only come in a very limited range of wood effect colours. So I was thinking that if I made a plank sized template out of wood or aluminium I could cut out my own planks from a 2m roll of Flotex. Would that work? I would cut out all the planks with a Stanley knife and do a dry installation before gluing them down one by one. I'm not a carpet fitter so that just seems more achievable as a DIYer. Obviously I'd need to cut the sides of each plank very straight and accurately so that they butt up to each other properly.

 

This is the one I want: Flotex English Oak which comes in a 2m roll and is actually a carpet.

 

FLOTEX WOOD HD ENGLISH OAK | 55% OFF + FREE DELIVERY

 

 

 

Those breakfast bar seats look as though they are designed to massage your derierre.

Edited by LadyG
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22 minutes ago, haggis said:

An advantage of just laying the Flotex tiles without any adhesive is that if they get dirty or something is spilled on them, you can lift the offending tile, wash and dry it and put it back down

 

haggis

Spot on, don't scape it up, scrape it off

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Have a look in B&Q at vinyl planking. It locks together like a jigsaw both on the sides and each end. It feels a little soft, but not too soft, it is waterproof ( recommended for bathrooms) and does not open up at the joins like some laminates.. It is easy to lay and easily trimmed with a stanley knife.

 

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56 minutes ago, Ex Brummie said:

Have a look in B&Q at vinyl planking. It locks together like a jigsaw both on the sides and each end. It feels a little soft, but not too soft, it is waterproof ( recommended for bathrooms) and does not open up at the joins like some laminates.. It is easy to lay and easily trimmed with a stanley knife.

 

 

But like all vinyl planks they're cold underfoot. I have looked at the b&q vinyl planks but they are bottom of the range. Cheap and cheerful. If I was going for LVT it would be karndean.

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29 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

But like all vinyl planks they're cold underfoot. I have looked at the b&q vinyl planks but they are bottom of the range. Cheap and cheerful. If I was going for LVT it would be karndean.

You are like me,  like something warm and soft under my toes. another reason I wouldn't have an Oak floor. Even in the house I put underfloor heating in the bathroom, not to heat the romm but so I don't have a cold floor. I think Flotext is a good compromise, tougher than proper carpet and warmer and softer than a hard floor

  • Greenie 1
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I used Flowtex carpet inside a boat about thirty years back, it's single disadvantage I found was that moisture from the bilges tended to condense beneath the carpet and made the floor boarding wet. This only happened at the back few feet of the cabin where the ballast tended to get wet occasionally. It is absolutely superb for covering the deck boards and staircase of a cruiser stern boat, it can be hosed off easily and seemed  to be indestructible and totally waterproof and non slip.( I glued it down and edged round with alloy angle screwed in place with stainless screws.)

Edited by Mike Jordan
Spelling!
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13 hours ago, haggis said:

An advantage of just laying the Flotex tiles without any adhesive is that if they get dirty or something is spilled on them, you can lift the offending tile, wash and dry it and put it back down

 

haggis

 

That saved us on our first shareboat when someone dropped hot coals onto a carpet tile in the middle of the saloon. It was easily swapped with one under the dinette, where it wasn't so obvious. 

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