birchoakmaple

today was about .. wood. i accompanied a friend to check out possible wooden floor options. she has a wooden floor in her living room already - only that it's covered with carpet that dates back to the time when carpets were THE THING to have. and everyone went and bought carpet, to lay it on floors and stairways. like it had happened here, too. and oh my, i wished they hadn't used all the glue back then.

still, i didn't realize that i actually was partly lucky with the glued-on carpet here: once the carpet was unpeeled again, and the floor polished, it came out really beautiful. (it's the one in the picture above). and even the one and other flaw and spot are fitting, and telling of its history.

"wooden floors usually easily last 60-80 years," the woman in the floor shop told us. which matched with mine. only that in my friend's case, the workers who laid the floor messed up the grounding. she had 2 craftsmen come and check it. both adviced to remove it. "so i need a new floor", she told the shop woman.

the shop woman showed us around: from oak to cherry, from birch to maple. all this wood. all those trees it came from, as far as Canada. a whole forest, there, in the shop. but yes, it looks great, natural. "the new systems, you don't have to glue them," the woman continued. "they are laid 'schwimmend' ('swimming') and thus can be easily maintained."
"they aren't fixed?" i wondered.
"no, they aren't fixed. which also is a benefit when you decide to renovate again - the average usage time is around 20 years, and then you might want another colour."

gross, i thought. all those floors that are meant to last for almost a century, laid, then thrown out again, in average cycles of 20 years. and oddly clicking into this: the large section of brand-new old-looking floors.

i wonder what the real-old floor here would think if it knew of all this.
~