Need advice on type of flooring

[Smeyer]

I need to replace 10 yr old carpeting in the bonus room over my garage and need some recommendations. Here's the situation.
1. It's over a hot garage in summer, (cold in winter). 2. It is my professional longarm quilting studio which means lots of standing and walking. 3. Lots of thread and dust. 4. Very heavy cabinets located around and in middle of room.
5. Heavy (noisy)12' longarm quilting machine on one side of room 6. I spend 12 hrs a day in this room. I like the idea of laminate with cork underlayment, but comfort of carpet. Also concerned about noise reduction and insulation. What can you recommend? Thank you.

 

[rugaddict]

carpet tiles

 

[Smeyer]

Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of that. What about a cork floor in that environment? It seems expensive, but will it hold up over time? Thank you.

 

[rugaddict]

in my limited experience cork tends to dent easily and the finish is challenged in any high traffic enviroment

 

[DennisT]

If you want the floor warmer then you will need to insulate the ceiling of the garage. Nothing you do on the floor side will have a perceptible impact on floor temperature (other than in floor radiant heating).

Done properly (resilient channels, specialty drywall,etc) you'll be able to have a pretty significant reduction of noise going through the floor when you insulate the garage ceiling.

If you go from carpet to anything else you will see a increase in noise in the bonus room. This is because that carpet is absorbing/diffusing most of the sound that hits it. Any hard floor will just reflect sound. If you have wall space you can install acoustic panels which will help a lot in controlling sound. try http://www.acoustimac.com/acoustic-insulation-materials/acoustic-insulation/eco-core-acoustic-insulation/

If you install a hard floor you can reduce some of the impact noise (IE walking) going through the floor with cork or a cork underlay. However over a garage that would be wasted money.

For the dust all you can do is vacuum (though a good filtered air recirculation system would be nice). If I were in your situation I'd look into installing a central vacuum in the garage with a port in the bonus room. Then when vacuuming all the dust will be removed, not just a portion like using a regular portable vacuum (yes, even a Dyson will send a portion of the dust back into the air).

If you're looking into a super durable floor surface, vinyl is a good choice. I noticed a very good looking vinyl floor in a store near here. This store is in a very heavily used tourist area and gets immense traffic 7 days a week. 10 years after I first noticed the floor it still looks new. However vinyl, though easier on the feet than laminate or tile, isn't in the same comfort level as carpet.

 

[Smeyer]

Thanks so much for your feed back. I am having insulation to this room added to the walls and ceiling, but not the floor. We are also replacing the windows with energy efficient ones. As well as looking into adding garage door foam insulation to keep the heat down in the garage. I measured 101 degrees by the garage door yesterday when it was 94 outside. Reducing the heat and cold in the garage can't help but improve the temp upstairs. I must admit I enjoy the comfort of carpet while working in there. That may be the best solution . Thanks again.

 

[woodfloorplanet]

you might want to consider carpet floors in this matter, carpet floors provides actual thermal resistance, improves indoor air quality, softens slips and falls and reduces noise.

 

[DennisT]

Interesting - why do you say that carpeting improves indoor air quality? Everything I've read indicates that air quality is the main downside to carpeting.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Interesting - why do you say that carpeting improves indoor air quality? Everything I've read indicates that air quality is the main downside to carpeting.

It keeps the dust and dirt from flying around. They removed it from schools a few years back and found out kids were getting sick more often. So now they are putting it back. So I've been told and read.

Daris

 

[Floorist]

It keeps the dust and dirt from flying around. They removed it from schools a few years back and found out kids were getting sick more often. So now they are putting it back. So I've been told and read.

Daris

There was a study a few years ago that showed air quality was better with carpet than hard surface flooring. Carpet traps air pollutants until vacuumed. With hard surface flooring, the pollutants continually float in the air.

 

[yugabharathi]

thank you so much for the advice