My mission this week is to choose the flooring we’ll be installing on our porch. Not that we’re finished with our structural work yet, but it’s always good to be ready, ya know? The top priorities are environmental impact and price. Oh yeah, and looks. And durability.

There are fewer options when looking at outdoor flooring. For example, oak wouldn’t be the way to go. Although it’s a perfect interior hardwood, it’s not water, insect or mildew resistant.

Right now it’s looking like we’ll end up with a local wood such as cedar or douglas fir, but I just started internet research mode and haven’t visited a flooring supplier yet.

Here’s the rundown:

Local woods include pressure treated pine, cedar, redwood and douglas fir. Pressure treated is full of chemicals, although not as harsh as they once were. Redwood is becoming scarce, so that can’t be very eco-friendly. That narrows it down to cedar or douglas fir, both soft woods.

The exotic wood species are more durable and more beautiful. Although FSC wood can be purchased easily enough these days, it still doesn’t sit right with me. Not to mention the price and difficulty of working with such hard woods. These would include the ever so popular ipe, mahogany, teak and tigerwood.

Of course, if we go the recycled route, we can justify any wood. This would be our number one choice if we can afford it. You’ll be the first to know what we decide.

I should mention that composite decking is yet another option that has come a long way. IMO, it’s not wood. It’s fake and it looks it. If we were talking a back yard deck, I might have a look into it, but this is the front porch of my soon-to-be gorgeous house. I just can’t….

Ooh, I love this! Birger Juell’s Cobbleblock Flooring is fabricated from antique beams and sliced cross-grain. The pieces are then sanded & oiled thricely. The flooring is available in oak or pine and needs to be grouted.

I want.
I want.
I want.

At $40 per square foot, it ain’t gonna happen. Cobblewood is just as lovely and half the price. Still out of my budget though.

Birger Juell founded the flooring company in 1946. A Norwegian immigrant, he learned the art of hand scraping wood as a young apprentice to a master craftsman. The showroom located in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart.

Via Materialicious

Yesterday we covered beautiful but costly antique tiles. There is a way to get the look without breaking the bank and I speak, of course, of the dreaded….reproduction.

I’m only talking encaustic tiles today since you can find ceramic reproductions just about anywhere. Encaustics originated in 18th century Europe and consisted of marble dust, cement and natural granite colors. Today’s less expensive tiles are made by layering cement and then adding pigment. They may not hold up as well as the originals, but we’re talking a huge price difference! There are still companies that fabricate handmade encaustics to match historic tiles, but let’s concentrate on affordability.

Tierra Y Fuego sells 8×8 tiles for under $10 apiece. I’ve dealt with this company before and keep coming back for more. They call these tiles “decorative cement”. When it comes time to do my brownstone front hall, I gotta get me some of these!

Villa Lagoon has 10×10’s for $9 and ships from Miami. Their “mosaic cement” tiles appear to be more pastel based than the Tierra examples. The website is extremely informative. They tested various sealers and posted all the results here.

And if it’s information you want, Concrete Cottage has everything you’ve ever wanted to know about encaustic tiles. They go over the process and list just about every place in the world where you can purchase these tiles. They also have several links to floor tile simulators.