Best flooring for home office?

How is your style/taste in decor, beige or fun? VCT is available in a ton of colors, you can lay any design or pattern you can think of, and comes in around $1/sf. Easy peasy to install, I found it much easier and more fun than installing the click-lock vinyl plank. 

bluej (Forum Supporter) said:

Dead trees are renewable, and often a good choice for their material properties. There's a reason we've been using them for floors as long as we have.

/channellingfrenchy

We've been using stone longer.  Didn't you watch the Flintstones?

In reply to newrider3 :

I think this choice looks fine, it makes everything look fresh enough. 

ProDarwin said:

I have oak hardwood in my office (along with the rest of my house) I installed ~8 years ago, and no wear marks from the chair so far.  Other areas of the house are not holding up quite as well.  Still it looks like in the office it would go a solid 20+ years before needing any repair.

I had a friend get some sanded and refinished and I was blown away by how inexpensive it was.  If I were doing it again, I'd go with wider planks and have it finished after install instead of using the pre-finished stuff.

 

Most prefinished or professionally finished surfaces cannot be repaired.  Sanding off and starting over is your only solution. 
That's the chief reason I do my own finishing in shellac. No matter how bad a painter you are Shellac  goes down perfect. If I can anybody can.  It's a mop down/ slop down sort of finish. That's actually more durable than everything else.  If you look at my flooring, I did that about 2005 and since then I've stomped on it with construction boots for more than a decade.  I had a 150+ pound St Bernard and later the same size NewFundland ( who I never trimmed their claws. 
Look at that finish!  I dust it every 4-6 weeks. And drag equipment and wood across it during construction.   

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I just got some of these for my office chair.  They are poly rollerblade wheels with casters that fit in office chair legs.  I got them on Prime Day and I think they were $18, but back to $30 now.  Several options exist for $20-30.

 

 

Installed these today.  Wish I had bought them many years ago.  Well worth the money.  Side benefit is they are so much quieter!

frenchyd said:

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

Most professional floor finishes are a version of plastic and do scratch.  The terrible thing is  once scratched you need to sand them completely off and start over. There are only so many times you can do that before you sand down to near the tongue and groove thus forcing you to replace the flooring. 
     I used old fashioned Shellac. For two reasons.  It's harder to scratch and when scratched or otherwise damaged. It's repaired insanely easily. 
wipe some denatured alcohol over the scratched area and apply another coat. New melts right into old. And becomes invisible.    
 Here's the really great thing I'm the worst sloppiest painter on this planet. I have a big wide barn brush I slop shellac on like a drunken sailor.  Yet it comes out beautiful. No runs and no brush cleaning. Just leave it dry up in the can  and a year or a decade later pour some fresh shellac and alcohol on the brush and it's like new. 
Got some on you? In your hair(?) just take a long soaking bath and it's gone. On your clothes? Toss 'em in the laundry with the rest of your clothes. 
Oh by the way, Shellac is used on fine violins and antique furniture. And you eat some every time you take a pill.  Yes it's edible. Don't drink it because in order to avoid the liquor tax it's denatured.  2% of some poison has to be added. 
 

OK, risking the ire of some of the forum, frenchyd talk to me about shellac for hardwood floors. 

Do you buy flakes or premixed?

If premixed, do you add additional denatured alcohol?

Any preferred product/brand?

What do you use to apply to floors (what's a barn brush)?

How long is the pot life and how fast do you need to put it down? If you have a big room how fast do you need to get back to the start of a "line" or "row"? Do you need to keep the leading edge wet?

Roughly, what amount per square foot of flooring? I'm looking at 1100-1200sf.

I know you posted up about how many coats & what to do for prep between coats, but I can't find it tonight so can you give a refresher?

Thanks!

Steve

Had someone put in vinyl plank flooring downstairs in living/dining room and upstairs and have been happy with results. 

In reply to secretariata (Forum Supporter) :

I sent you a PM when the site was going through its problems. Did you get it?  

frenchyd said:

In reply to secretariata (Forum Supporter) :

I sent you a PM when the site was going through its problems. Did you get it?  

I have a yahoo email account so I don't get PM's.

In reply to secretariata (Forum Supporter) : 
  I buy my shellac from Menards premixed in gallon cans. Amazon prime delivers free  also. In addition to the premix. Buy 2 gallons  of denatured alcohol. To add to the premix. Buy cheap,  it all evaporates away.    Mix up what is easy for you. Good news shellac has a useful pot life of more than 5000 years.  Just add denatured alcohol to old shellac and it melts back to liquid. I'm using a brush I bought 20+ years ago and have never cleaned. I just wipe out any excess left and seal the can back up. Let the brush just dry. Don't wrap just set it on the top of the can with the brushes in the air.  I let the shellac dry up and just add denatured alcohol about a 1/2 hour before I plan on shellacking. 
it's magic.  Remember what the premix looks like  and just add enough denatured alcohol to look like that. Too much alcohol? It's ok just need more coats. Too little?  It's OK it will just show brush marks and flaws more.  Put the next coat on with more alcohol it will smooth those  out. 
    How fast to paint?  Well a floor 10'x10' will start to dry before you are done putting it down.  The first coat dries in 15 minutes. The second coat double that. The third coat doubles that the 4 th coat doubles.  Or 2 hours. That's because every coat melts the previous costs. 
  Do it quickly but don't get rushed. Mistakes just melt and blend away.    It's perfect for the less than perfect painter.  It comes out of clothes in the wash. If comes out of your hair in the shower ( don't ask )  it's on pills so it's not poison.  
   Breathing the fumes can get you  a little buzzed so don't plan on driving or operating heavy machinery. ;-).  So open windows help with Fumes but the smell goes away fast.  I use a wide soft brush.  6 inches wide.  
     The first coat will raised the grain. You'll feel it with your hands. The little nubs.  Sand those off using a random orbital sander. I use my little 6 inch Mikita and  220 grit paper. A typical bedroom takes me maybe 5-10 minutes.  And leaves a white dust where I sanded.  Use an old cotton t shirt or rag to wipe the dust away.    Feel it again to make sure you got all the nubs. re-sand if you missed some.      Slop on the second coat. 
takes about 1/2 hr to dry. Check for nubs sand if you find some. It's just telling you you didn't sand to a fine enough finish in the first place.  Don't worry, shellac always forgives mistakes. 
   I put 4 coats on.  But if it's really a heavy trafficked floor you might want more.   Real glassy tends to get slippery until traffic abrades things a little. 
  We use those damp mop Swiffers on the floor every two weeks. My wife has a clean and shiny fetish. A tiny amount of dust ( barely noticeable) requires a massive cleaning where everything has to be moved and a cleaning crew comes in.   
a thousand sq feet?  A couple of gallons will probably be enough.   Different woods absorb in different amounts. Since shellac never goes to waste I always have some extra around. 

In reply to frenchyd :

Thanks for the lesson!

Honestly, My favorite office flooring was a Barber high traffic carpet. Didn't get the temperature variations of hardwood or vinyl. There was no worries of the floor getting damaged with the chair. Also, didn't have any echos or anything when I rolled around and didn't crack my phone when I dropped it. 

Looking at some more for the new house when I convert the one bedroom. 

So is that what you'd line your canoe with?