John Armstrong wrote:

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:56:16 -0000, Mark wrote:


Hi

I've recently laid laminate flooring on the lower (open-plan) floor of
my house, which I'm very pleased with. I need to cover the expansion gap
around the walls, but I'm not too keen on paying over £3.50 per 2m strip
which B&Q charge (especially as I need about 30m of it).

Is there anywhere cheaper I could get some? The floor is beech coloured.
I know wooden quadrant would be cheaper, but I lso need to factor in the
hassle of varnishing and trying to match the colour to the floor.


Would matching the colour to the skirting be easier? Thats what I did, and
looks fine to me.



Actually its not as hard as it sounds. I finally got artound to
installing oak skirting over my oak laminate, and beliebve it or not I
have oak beams - somewhat rough - stained with teh same stain as teh
dors and skirtings and door frames, plus a bressemer beam in a mixture
of stain and linseed oil and roof beams in stain and linseed, and Kahrs
flooring in wheyever 'oiled finsih' they use.

The BEST mastch is between the kahrs unkown oil and the stained skirting.

The kahrs itself is ageing a sort of golden color, except where the
puppy ****ed on it, which has produced a lovely dark coloration in te
grain. The linseed on sanded oak is going russet, whlst the rough sawn
oak is much darker.


What am I trying to say here?

(i) Wood is wood, and trying to get perfect matches should be reserved
for plastic laminate manufacturers

(ii) It all ages and changes colour anyway, so just use what looks
decent, stain it up approximately correctly, and sit back and watch the
'patina' so beloved of the Antique Roadshow to develop...