HOA Board Meeting and Flooring Concerns

The homeowner's association board of directors meeting occurred on May 14th of 2009. A full twenty days after I closed escrow. I attended the meeting and still did not receive a verdict on whether my plans for renovations are acceptable or not. I was told I would have a verdict by Monday, May 18th. However, I was advised that my choices for flooring materials are not strictly limited as long as I install an acoustic underlayment to accommodate the homeowner beneath me and to abide by the State of California building code which requires the floors of multi-story apartment and condominium buildings to achieve an IIC (impact insulation class) rating of at least fifty. This squashes my plans for polished concrete floors. The board mentioned at least one homeowner in the building has polished concrete floors and lives above other homeowners, but apparently the underlayment requirement applies to me and not him. I'm disappointed because polished concrete floors would've been an economical choice that would've provided great resale value due to its popularity. My goal for flooring is a material used consistently throughout the entire unit, including the kitchen and bathroom, with no variation and no thresholds. I refuse to install carpet. To me, ceramic tile is completely played out and I despise grout. Hardwood or laminate flooring is attractive, but not advisable for installation in kitchens and bathrooms. The look of natural stone such as marble or honed slate is too opulent for this application. The performance of vinyl sheet flooring is impressive, but almost all vinyl sheet attempts to mimic either ceramic tile, slate tile or hardwood...which I don't want. An exception to this rule is the vinyl flooring from Lonseal, especially their Lonnova UV. I've seen this stuff in person and it's amazing. Mirror-like gloss and metallic, but upwards of $6 per-square-foot uninstalled and I'm not paying that for vinyl flooring. Vinyl composite tile, or VCT, is a great economical choice (around $0.90 per-square-foot uninstalled) that's certainly authentic for the mid-century-modern home. My opinion is that AzRock makes the most attractive VCT. While poured terrazzo flooring is out-of-reach for most homeowners (upwards of $60 per-square-foot installed), FritzTile offers an affordable solution (around $5 per-square-foot uninstalled). FritzTile is terrazzo in tile form, but to be honest, I don't really like terrazzo.

Despite my admiration for VCT and the desire for the cost savings it provides, I don't want a tile product even if it doesn't require grout. I don't like the grid lines. If I didn't have the money for another product, I'd be happy with VCT even with the increased maintenance requirements (annual sealing, polishing, buffing, etc). But I can spend more, so I choose natural sheet linoleum.

To be honest, linoleum was always MY first choice due to it being soft and warm underfoot unlike concrete, but linoleum isn't exactly cheap and concrete would've provided better resale value. Linoleum is still pretty stigmatized because of the drab appearance of past products and the maintenance it required versus vinyl sheet flooring, which eventually caused linoleum's extinction in the 1970's. Nowadays many people refer to linoleum and vinyl sheet flooring interchangeably, but they're very different. Linoleum has recently made a comeback and it's more attractive than it ever was due to innovative manufacturers like Forbo. Armstrong recently resumed production of linoleum after abandoning it in 1974, but Armstrong's products seem to be geared more towards commercial installations and the availability of their product is scarce compared to Forbo's linoleum product titled Marmoleum.

Linoleum will provide a homogenous appearance like concrete, yet it's more durable (the concrete itself is durable, but even simple masking-tape will lift off the concrete's sealant) and it's more comfortable to walk on. Chances are linoleum will be more attractive too, because I doubt the cracked, splotchy, gypsum light concrete subfloor could ever be stained or polished into a presentable material. The product I've chosen is Forbo's Marmoleum. One of the many great things about living in a big city is the variety of goods and services available. Despite its resurgence, linoleum in residences is still pretty obscure and who would've thought there would be a linoleum distributor a couple of blocks away, then alone one named Linoleum City? I love Los Angeles.

Above are several choices of Marmoleum. #2 is my favorite, but I cannot use it because it's a strange color. It's called "Papyrus White," but it's not really white or gray and it's not really ivory or tan either. It's got a slight green tint to it and it doesn't jive well with anything white. If I was planning on painting the walls a light grayish-green, this would be my choice...but I'm not. #6 would be my second choice, as it closely resembles used, beaten concrete, but it's a little dark and too olive green for my tastes. It's very nice though. #4 is actually called "Concrete" and it does resemble a clean, freshly poured slab, but there's something about it that I don't like. I think it's the gray with the ivory marbling. It just seems like the marble vein should be the darkest color present. #1 is too yellow, #3 is too baby-blue and #5 is too orange.