Marmoleum?
Our 1960 atrium model Eichler has carpeting that needs to come out (hallway, living room, family room). I have seen discussions posted about various floor coverings such as linoleum, vinyl, tile, stained concrete, cork, etc. We are considering Marmoleum as it is a natural product that would apparently work with the sub-floor heating. It would be installed on sealed slab and in some sections on top of old linoleum. If any one has experience with Marmoleum installation and/or durability to share it would be greatly appreciated. (I am told it fades like cork.)
consider Armstrong VCT 12 inch tiles. The Excelon Imperial Texture line offers some patterns close to the original tiles installed in Eichlers. Not only do they look great and work great with radiant heat, they are also inexpensive (about 2.50 per sqft installed). Plus, if you ever have a leak in your slab, you only need to pop up the tiles, rather than cutting a hole in your marmolium. I have never seen any marmolium that looked to good in an Eichler. If someone does have some and it looks good, please share.
We had installed marmoleum about 4 years ago. 16x16inch tiles in our home office. It was very nice looking, very durable, and fairly easy to install. If you had the money it would probably be even nicer looking to get continous sheet professionally installed.
Last year we redid the whole house in slate so reluctantly got rid of the marmoleum.
Radiant heat works well with the marmoleum (but a little better with the slate). Overall would highly recommend the marmoleum.
Anyone had any experience with the new Marmoleum 12x36 "click" product?
I went to Textiles and Interiors in Palo Alto and they don't yet have the samples. But the salesman said it should be installable over existing vinyl flooring...
I second the VCT. It's inexpensive, has the original look that adds to the beauty of the architecture and it does come in handy when the 50 year old radiant system leaks. I had six leaks in my last Eichler and all were fixed without having to remove more than two tiles per leak. Most of the tiles were then just popped back into place.
I looked at the marmoleum and it's too pre-1940's looking for my tastes. I grew up in a 1920's house and it had lineoleum. In addition, unless you cut into squares, the big sheets have seams in weird places.
