My Family Loves It

Almost a year ago we had flash flooding in the area. I had a rather harrowing drive home during a torrential downpour. When I turned onto one road I could see water going over the surface. I was debating whether to gun it when I realized I could not see either guardrail…the water was that deep. I decided to try another road home and once again I found myself very happy to have all wheel drive as I had to drive over gravel and pieces of pavement that had been washed onto the road. There was a small section of flooded road (only a few inches this time) that I had to pass, but I made it and thought how lucky it was that we live on the TOP of the hill and not at the bottom where all these small creeks were washing out roads.

The road I almost drove across

I did an inspection of our house and was surprised to find a large puddle in our basement. Sometimes during heavy rain an old footing drain backs up into the basement and I assumed this is where the water was coming from. Then I made a big mistake. I opened the back door…and was greeted by water about 6 inches deep rushing in around me feet. Our basement is a walkout, but with a step up…and that area was full over water that must have come from either blowing rain or an overflowing gutter.

After some inspection and consideration we decided we had to pull out the old carpet and tile and gut the walls along the flooded section of walls. We found mold starting behind the pine boards on the wall and the carpet was really really gross. After doing some research we decided to try using Flor carpet tiles instead of a traditional carpet. Our reasoning was that although Flor was more expensive, we could save the installation cost by doing it ourselves. We would also be able to pull up individual tiles to clean and dry in the event of future flooding or kid spills.

Ben finds a way to get comfy on the concrete.

We ordered our samples and found the cheapest tiles just weren’t soft enough. After another set of tiles we found a style we liked and placed our order. They arrive less than 2 weeks later in a large stack of boxes. After much elbow grease scraping the old adhesive and grout off the concrete floor and sealing it per Flor installation instructions we were finally able to install our carpet. Of all my DIY projects this may have been the funnest. Laying the tiles could not have been easier and in the end took less than a day to complete (although as parent DIYers it was spread over several nights for us). We were very pleased with the end result which has held up well to LOTS of foot traffic. I am amazed at how well the tiles stay down! I can pull our couch and chair around with the tiles budging an inch, but if need be I can easily pull up a tile for cleaning.

We just got the latest Flor catalog and part of me wishes we had the need (and finances) for another flooring project. Included on the catalog is a coupon for 15% off a Flor order (FF374 good thru 11/16/2007 OR FF773W also till 11/16/2007). If you can use it, please post a comment and let me know how your project works out. If you have any questions about installing Flor on concrete, ask away. Here is a picture of our finished product.