Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 18 of 18

Thread: Only carpet flooring?

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Wellington, NZ - Yay!
    Posts
    1,091

    Default

    If you want wooden floors, I'd recommend getting insulation made from recycled polystyrene put in under the floors (most houses have underfloor access that the fitters can get under to fit something like that) Depends on where you're moving to but Trash Palace (recycling centre) in Porirua has a company that does it in the Welly region & it works out much better value than getting in someone to fit non-recycled insulation. A friend of ours fitted it recently in an old house with beautiful wooden flooring & when she came home from work she was running around looking to see which heater she'd left turned on - she then realised the insulation was doing its job & no heaters were on!!

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Akl
    Posts
    13

    Default

    Hi Blingk, you are getting a lot of good advise and comments.

    NZ has a lot of wooden flooring, some are over 50,000 years old! (Swamp Kauri). To hard core Kiwis, winter here is something to be tolerated for a few months, health be damned.

    We get asked for just about every type of floor with our energy effficient homes; with one exception: cushion floor. Cushion floor is a kind of soft lino with confined small air bubbles, which is nice and soft (and warm ) to walk on, in any temp.

    As an ex Canadian, our homes were all centrally heated, it sounds trite but they had to be, it was survival; the coldest I have personally experienced is –58c (but even in Canada that’s a rarity) now thats is almost uncomprehensibly cold to a New Zealander.

    In most places in NZ, they don’t “Have” to be warm all year, so they aren’t . The centrally heated home is becoming accepted here, mostly because of imports like us and Energy Efficiency is becoming an important item, mostly due to the price of Gas (Petrol). It has a huge trickle down effect and as I have said before on this list: “There is so much solar energy in NZ that there is no reason for any home to be cold”. We practice what we preach .

    If you have a hardwood, tile, concrete, or any other type of floor that’s cold, normally it can be rectified, quite often with insulation and an application of heat. When renting, you don’t want to spend your own money upgrading the house for the landlord, there are other ways that you can take with you. After all we all want healthy happy homes.

    When looking for a home to rent I recommend you do what I do: Get them to show you the heating system. If they don’t or give you excuses, walk away.

    Stay warm!

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Darfield, NZ (orig. Essex)
    Posts
    74

    Default

    Hi Blingk

    We are renting a house with Rimu wood floors downstairs and it is very cold, we only have a wood burner in living area and a chippy in the kitchen. Luckily we have an upstairs that is carpeted and they have left the flue open from the fire, so upstairs is usually warmer than downstairs.

    We have friends who built there own 1 storey house about 10 years ago, it has good insulation and they have vinyl wood look flooring on cement in their living, dining & kitchen area. It is much warmer to walk on than tiles.

    Diny - How long does the underfloor heating take to warm up? Is it electric? We are due to build our own house soon & are looking into the heating options.

    Regards
    Karen

  4. #14
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Raumati South
    Posts
    661

    Default

    Hi Karen
    I'd be very wary of electric underfloor heating. We've just moved into our house and we have underfloor heating in tiled areas - this equates to 3 bathrooms, laundry and (big) hallway. We have just received an electric bill for 400 dollars for 18 days. This was with the underfloor heating set to 20 degrees in these areas and being on for at most (in hallway) for 3 hours in morning and 5 hours at evening/night; less in the other areas. The most annoying thing was that although we had nice warm stone tiles the effect on the temperature in the rest of the room was minimal.

    I have now worked out how to operate the things and the temp is down to 18 degrees in most areas and 20 degrees in some and on for less hours. I have been keeping an eye on the meter and the usage has dropped by at least half it seems so I am pretty certain it is the underfloor.

    Couple of heat pumps at 2100 dollars each for us are about to be ordered !

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    north of Wellington
    Posts
    2,202

    Default

    Our current house is far too small for us.......


    BUT..


    It has carpets in most rooms and ducted air central heating (gas).
    And so we are staying. At least until the winter is over!
    Our combined electric/gas bill this month was $400 for a family of 5.
    I really like the instantaneous heat of ducted air.
    (Unfortunately it also works in reverse....)

    We've just had laminate flooring put down in the kitchen/dining room.
    The cork that was down before it left it for dead as far as warmth is concerned.
    And it NEVER looks clean!!!!!!!!
    grrrrrrrrr

    Wouldnt ever do it again.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Inland Canterbury, NZ
    Posts
    8,390

    Default

    Wasn't someone testing out Kim's underfloor heating for us??

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Manawatu - NZ
    Posts
    4,450

    Default

    Carol - we had laminate flooring put down in our old house back in the UK. From the moment I saw it in the show room I covetted it. from the moment it was laid I hated it. never clean, always cold and VERY noisy !!!!!! I know where you're coming from mate.

    Karen - we don't have under floor heating, we have underfloor insulation. It's fantastic !!!!

    Diny

  8. #18
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    7

    Default

    (rubbing my palms together) boy oh boy...these are pearls of wisdom...am writing all these down....thanks folks....

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •