We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used as
an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on
it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move the
chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something from
the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better. Which would be harder wearing,
bearing in mind that I'm 18+ stone (about 115kg), so there's going to be
quite a load on said surface? If wood parquet is the better, any
recommendations as to type of wood and type of varnish?
--
Peter

Ying tong iddle-i po!

Peter Twydell wrote:
We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used as
an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on
it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move the
chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something from
the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

Do you get chairs with big "low-pressure" wheels?

On Mon, 24 May 2004 22:37:19 +0100, Peter Twydell
wrote:

We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used as
an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on
it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move the
chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something from
the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better. Which would be harder wearing,
bearing in mind that I'm 18+ stone (about 115kg), so there's going to be
quite a load on said surface? If wood parquet is the better, any
recommendations as to type of wood and type of varnish?

I'd suggest addressing the problem in a different way.

No, I'm not going to suggest addressing kilogrammatic challenge - it
is as it is...

Personally I abhor laminate floors and if it were me I'd rip it out
and burn it.

So to real wood. First of all go for a pretty hard material. Oak
is pretty good.

Secondly, take a look at the chairs and obtain them with or fit wide
wheels tyred with rubber to spread the load. Herman Miller Aeron
chairs have these as an option, specifically for hardwood floors, but
will set you back £650 new, around £300 "pre-owned". I have seen
Chinese copies.....

Finally, if you treat the floor with an oil/polish rather then a
varnish it is very easy to remove any minor indentations whould they
occur. A steam iron and a cloth will do the job very effectively.
The fibres swell with the heat and the indentations disappear like
magic.




..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

"Peter Twydell" wrote in message
...
We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used as
an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on
it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move the
chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something from
the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better. Which would be harder wearing,
bearing in mind that I'm 18+ stone (about 115kg), so there's going to be
quite a load on said surface? If wood parquet is the better, any
recommendations as to type of wood and type of varnish?

Noise plus scratches come to mind, my suggestion would be carpet tiles of
good quality, many an office use them without to many problems / wear etc.

In article , Andy Hall
writes
On Mon, 24 May 2004 22:37:19 +0100, Peter Twydell
wrote:

We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used as
an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on
it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move the
chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something from
the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better. Which would be harder wearing,
bearing in mind that I'm 18+ stone (about 115kg), so there's going to be
quite a load on said surface? If wood parquet is the better, any
recommendations as to type of wood and type of varnish?

I'd suggest addressing the problem in a different way.

No, I'm not going to suggest addressing kilogrammatic challenge - it
is as it is...

The weight is not really a "challenge", as I'm 6'6" (2m). Think Martin
Johnson-sized. Older, less talented, less fit, less almost everything,
especially scary. I was 14st/97kg once (I'd not been well), and could
hide behind fence posts. A stone less wouldn't hurt.

Personally I abhor laminate floors and if it were me I'd rip it out
and burn it.

I do agree, but it might come down to cost and time. I hope not, though.

So to real wood. First of all go for a pretty hard material. Oak
is pretty good.

Secondly, take a look at the chairs and obtain them with or fit wide
wheels tyred with rubber to spread the load. Herman Miller Aeron
chairs have these as an option, specifically for hardwood floors, but
will set you back £650 new, around £300 "pre-owned". I have seen
Chinese copies.....

So far I've managed to get 2 new chairs under guarantee. Didn't know you
could get rubber tyred ones, though.

Finally, if you treat the floor with an oil/polish rather then a
varnish it is very easy to remove any minor indentations whould they
occur. A steam iron and a cloth will do the job very effectively.
The fibres swell with the heat and the indentations disappear like
magic.




.andy

Thanks, Andy.
--
Peter

Ying tong iddle-i po!

On Mon, 24 May 2004 22:37:19 +0100, Peter Twydell
wrote:

We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used as
an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on
it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move the
chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something from
the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better. Which would be harder wearing,
bearing in mind that I'm 18+ stone (about 115kg), so there's going to be
quite a load on said surface? If wood parquet is the better, any
recommendations as to type of wood and type of varnish?

Hi,

There are a wide variety of chair mats available for carpeted and hard
floors.

Personally I think laminate flooring is fine in places where you don't
spend much time looking at the floor.

cheers,
Pete.

In uk.d-i-y, Peter Twydell wrote:

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better.

From the "thinking sideways" corner: we've just recently ripped out the
manky carpet from a small upstairs bedroom which has become my wife's
study; and the flooring we put down was cork tiles (from those nice
people at Siesta Cork Tiles, Croydon - Google for them). With a couple
of coats of a water-based acrylic varnish from Rustins (also available
from the same source in the one delivery with the tiles), they've made a
very nice surface: "domestic office" feel, i.e. neither too much like
a bedroom, nor too cold-n-clinical. Laying was pretty much a breeze
(some prior planning with to-scale plan of room and tiles helped put
part-tiles in reasonable places and avoided narrow strips: and *do*
punch down flooring nails even if you think they're "practically" level
already!). Of course, I'd d-i-y'ed a spreader out of some scrap ali sheet
and finished the job before finding the freebie steel-with-wooden-handle
one they'd thrown in the box... You might even be able to lay right on
top of the existing laminate to cover it up ;-) - the "Acrylicork" tiles
I used are, from memory, just 6mm thick.

The more demanding usage-test will happen in a few months' time, when
I do the same in my home office next door to hers - she's a svelteish
60kg or so, I'm less than twice that - but not by much! ("not overweight,
jsut undertall" ;-) But her office gets a fair bit of traffic from me
and the kids, and there are no early disappointing signs of wear...

HTH - Stefek

In article , writes
In uk.d-i-y, Peter Twydell wrote:

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better.

From the "thinking sideways" corner: we've just recently ripped out the
manky carpet from a small upstairs bedroom which has become my wife's
study; and the flooring we put down was cork tiles (from those nice
people at Siesta Cork Tiles, Croydon - Google for them). With a couple
of coats of a water-based acrylic varnish from Rustins (also available
from the same source in the one delivery with the tiles), they've made a
very nice surface: "domestic office" feel, i.e. neither too much like
a bedroom, nor too cold-n-clinical. Laying was pretty much a breeze
(some prior planning with to-scale plan of room and tiles helped put
part-tiles in reasonable places and avoided narrow strips: and *do*
punch down flooring nails even if you think they're "practically" level
already!). Of course, I'd d-i-y'ed a spreader out of some scrap ali sheet
and finished the job before finding the freebie steel-with-wooden-handle
one they'd thrown in the box... You might even be able to lay right on
top of the existing laminate to cover it up ;-) - the "Acrylicork" tiles
I used are, from memory, just 6mm thick.

The more demanding usage-test will happen in a few months' time, when
I do the same in my home office next door to hers - she's a svelteish
60kg or so, I'm less than twice that - but not by much! ("not overweight,
jsut undertall" ;-) But her office gets a fair bit of traffic from me
and the kids, and there are no early disappointing signs of wear...

HTH - Stefek

Thanks for the suggestions, Stefek, and good luck!
--
Peter

Ying tong iddle-i po!

On Wed, 26 May 2004 08:16:18 +0100, Peter Twydell
wrote:

In article , writes


The more demanding usage-test will happen in a few months' time, when
I do the same in my home office next door to hers - she's a svelteish
60kg or so, I'm less than twice that - but not by much! ("not overweight,
jsut undertall" ;-)

Talking of thinking laterally, since body mass index varies with the
square of height, I'm surprised that nobody has thought of the idea of
some means of making people taller.

Somebody with a weight of 90kg and a BMI of 30 would have a height of
1m73. By increasing their height to 1m90, their BMI would become
25.




But her office gets a fair bit of traffic from me
and the kids, and there are no early disappointing signs of wear...

HTH - Stefek

Thanks for the suggestions, Stefek, and good luck!

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
snip

Talking of thinking laterally, since body mass index varies with the
square of height, I'm surprised that nobody has thought of the idea of
some means of making people taller.

snip

They have, it's called a 'Rack' and IIRC there is an example on display in
the Tower of London - were it was last used...

Not sure if that should be followed by a :~) or a :~( !!

Peter Twydell wrote in message ...
We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used as
an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on
it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move the
chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something from
the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better. Which would be harder wearing,
bearing in mind that I'm 18+ stone (about 115kg), so there's going to be
quite a load on said surface? If wood parquet is the better, any
recommendations as to type of wood and type of varnish?

I wouldn't want chairs on castors, as they apply very high point loads
to the floor, and I'd be surprised if either survived that. Better
would be to use wider pads for chair feet, fitted with a piece of cord
carpet, then your floor should survive.

If you have laminate and it looks ok, it seems unnecessary to rip it
out. The main downside with lam is its lifespan: ripping it out only
shortens that dramatically, achieving little.


Regards, NT

On 26 May 2004 03:36:33 -0700, (N. Thornton) wrote:

Peter Twydell wrote in message ...
We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used as
an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on
it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move the
chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something from
the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better. Which would be harder wearing,
bearing in mind that I'm 18+ stone (about 115kg), so there's going to be
quite a load on said surface? If wood parquet is the better, any
recommendations as to type of wood and type of varnish?

I wouldn't want chairs on castors, as they apply very high point loads
to the floor, and I'd be surprised if either survived that.

It works fine if you have castors with rubber tyres. I've done this
with Aeron chairs on a hardwood floor with no problems at all.

Better
would be to use wider pads for chair feet, fitted with a piece of cord
carpet, then your floor should survive.

If you have laminate and it looks ok, it seems unnecessary to rip it
out.

It's *always* necessary to rip out laminate floor because it looks
tacky :-)

The main downside with lam is its lifespan: ripping it out only
shortens that dramatically, achieving little.


Regards, NT

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

"Pete C" wrote in message
...



Personally I think laminate flooring is fine in places where you don't
spend much time looking at the floor.

Who does?

Mary


cheers,
Pete.

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On 26 May 2004 03:36:33 -0700, (N. Thornton) wrote:

Peter Twydell wrote in message
...
We're about to move house, and one of the "new" bedrooms will be used
as
an office.

Our present office has a carpeted floor, and moving an office chair on
it has f^hrucked the carpet and underlay. SWMBO tells me not to move
the
chair around on the floor, but to get up each time I want something
from
the bookcase or whatever. I ignore her.

The new office has a laminate floor, which doesn't look all that bad,
but real wood would look so much better. Which would be harder wearing,
bearing in mind that I'm 18+ stone (about 115kg), so there's going to
be
quite a load on said surface? If wood parquet is the better, any
recommendations as to type of wood and type of varnish?

I wouldn't want chairs on castors, as they apply very high point loads
to the floor, and I'd be surprised if either survived that.

It works fine if you have castors with rubber tyres. I've done this
with Aeron chairs on a hardwood floor with no problems at all.

Better
would be to use wider pads for chair feet, fitted with a piece of cord
carpet, then your floor should survive.

If you have laminate and it looks ok, it seems unnecessary to rip it
out.

It's *always* necessary to rip out laminate floor because it looks
tacky :-)

That rather depends on the quality and how it's been installed. Well done
you don't notice it.

Exactly the same applies to other floorcoverings.

Mary

On Wed, 26 May 2004 16:22:47 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:



That rather depends on the quality and how it's been installed. Well done
you don't notice it.

Exactly the same applies to other floorcoverings.

Mary


OK. However, I've never seen any, even allegedly good stuff that I
would give house room.....


..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

On Wed, 26 May 2004 09:20:40 +0100, "Jerry." wrote:


"Andy Hall" wrote in message
.. .
snip

Talking of thinking laterally, since body mass index varies with the
square of height, I'm surprised that nobody has thought of the idea of
some means of making people taller.

snip

They have, it's called a 'Rack' and IIRC there is an example on display in
the Tower of London - were it was last used...

Not sure if that should be followed by a :~) or a :~( !!

I guess that it would be a case of being between a rack and a hard
place....

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

"Andy Hall" wrote in message


Talking of thinking laterally, since body mass index varies with the
square of height, I'm surprised that nobody has thought of the idea of
some means of making people taller.

The problem is not an height to weight ratio but the need for women's
breasts to stick out versus the need for orthpaedic footware in their
later years.

In the meantime the need to wear out shabby floors is best fulfilled
with stilletto heels.


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

In article , Andy Hall
writes
On Wed, 26 May 2004 08:16:18 +0100, Peter Twydell
wrote:

In article , writes


The more demanding usage-test will happen in a few months' time, when
I do the same in my home office next door to hers - she's a svelteish
60kg or so, I'm less than twice that - but not by much! ("not overweight,
jsut undertall" ;-)

Talking of thinking laterally, since body mass index varies with the
square of height, I'm surprised that nobody has thought of the idea of
some means of making people taller.

Somebody with a weight of 90kg and a BMI of 30 would have a height of
1m73. By increasing their height to 1m90, their BMI would become
25.


I'm not convinced about the worth of the BMI. As I mentioned, at 2m
tall, I weigh 115 kg, for a BMI of 28.75. I accept that's overweight,
but the theoretical healthy limit of 25 would make me 100kg, which is
15st 10. That seems far too light for my build. What about Jason
Leonard? Is he clinically obese? Or Dean Macy?


But her office gets a fair bit of traffic from me
and the kids, and there are no early disappointing signs of wear...

HTH - Stefek

Thanks for the suggestions, Stefek, and good luck!

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

--
Peter

Ying tong iddle-i po!

In article lgate.org,
Michael Mcneil writes
"Andy Hall" wrote in message


Talking of thinking laterally, since body mass index varies with the
square of height, I'm surprised that nobody has thought of the idea of
some means of making people taller.

The problem is not an height to weight ratio but the need for women's
breasts to stick out versus the need for orthpaedic footware in their
later years.

In the meantime the need to wear out shabby floors is best fulfilled
with stilletto heels.


Oooh, what a good idea! (simper, simper) Where can I get some in size
13? (that's 48 for the Europeanised) As if I didn't have enough trouble
with doorways as it is.
--
Peter

Ying tong iddle-i po!

In article , Mary
Fisher writes

"Pete C" wrote in message
.. .



Personally I think laminate flooring is fine in places where you don't
spend much time looking at the floor.

Who does?

Mary

Whether you spend more time looking at the floor rather than the ceiling
depends on your personal habits. Or vice versa. Or any other kind of
vice.


cheers,
Pete.



--
Peter

Ying tong iddle-i po!

"Peter Twydell" wrote in message
...
In article , Mary
Fisher writes

"Pete C" wrote in message
.. .



Personally I think laminate flooring is fine in places where you don't
spend much time looking at the floor.

Who does?

Mary

Whether you spend more time looking at the floor rather than the ceiling
depends on your personal habits. Or vice versa. Or any other kind of
vice.

When I'm in a room I'm looking at other things - mostly people. If I'm alone
I'm ironing, reading, sewing or whatever. Certainly not looking at the
floor, ceiling or walls. If they're so noticeable as to be looked at there's
something wrong, IMO.

Oh - except that I do look - for a few minutes - at the bedroom ceiling when
I go to bed.

I don't look at the bathroom ceiling because we have a sculpture above the
bath, which I delight in seeing.

Mary

Mary

"Michael Mcneil" wrote in message
news:7b83a19a89b11cc8ee9b3720dbd3a983.45219@mygate .mailgate.org...


The problem is not an height to weight ratio but the need for women's
breasts to stick out versus the need for orthpaedic footware in their
later years.

You know, seeing the large number of men's large bellies I often wonder what
back problems they suffer with. Their bellies are far, far bigger than most
women's breasts.

It also makes me wonder about other thigns, which I shan't go into here ...

Mary

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 26 May 2004 16:22:47 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:



That rather depends on the quality and how it's been installed. Well done
you don't notice it.

Exactly the same applies to other floorcoverings.

Mary


OK. However, I've never seen any, even allegedly good stuff that I
would give house room.....

You have a choice. To date Our Glorious Leader hasn't dictated about floors.

Perhaps I shouldn't have said that - perhaps he has moles here looking for
ideas ...

Mary


.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

On Wed, 26 May 2004 16:20:26 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


"Pete C" wrote in message
.. .



Personally I think laminate flooring is fine in places where you don't
spend much time looking at the floor.

Who does?

Not so much look at the floor maybe, but be in view for more than a
short time.

Laminate would be OK for me in a kitchen or bathroom, but in a lounge
or conservatory I'd prefer real wood.

cheers,
Pete.

"Pete C" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 26 May 2004 16:20:26 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


"Pete C" wrote in message
.. .



Personally I think laminate flooring is fine in places where you don't
spend much time looking at the floor.

Who does?

Not so much look at the floor maybe, but be in view for more than a
short time.

Laminate would be OK for me in a kitchen or bathroom, but in a lounge
or conservatory I'd prefer real wood.

We have neither lounge nor conservatory so it doesn't matter :-)

Mary

cheers,
Pete.