Many of the products post temperature limits. Do these limits apply to an unheated, unused cottage in New England? Or does this simply mean that when cold the flooring should not be used?
Would not consider any type of laminate or hardwood flooring for any building with no heat.
Try to stay with a Pine Board something soft that will expand and contract in summer and winter, this will minimize buckling of boards from cold to hot with season change. My recommendation would be a stone application.
Any wood base flooring component specially flouting installation system needs to be stored in room temperature 24 hours before installation and still needs to provide expansion gap at the all outer sides. The size of gap is depends to the deference of high and low temperature in that space.
You can ask the manufacturer with your temperature information and there is possibility for you to do the installation and have bigger gap and normally those gaps will covered by shoe molding.
What we usually do is, whenever we are using a wood flooring product we let the flooring acclimate for at least 2-3 days in whatever area it is being installed in.
I agree with Michael on the application of stone flooring instead of wooden.
Hi Jim,
To begin with thing to do is contact a certified floor controller that checks the moisture level of the floor. I think Laminate flooring is the better option. It looks great and stands up to scratches and dents. It looks like real hardwood without the cost, and is available in a number of different styles including oak, hickory, bamboo and mahogany. Laminate flooring is typically available in 7-millimeter, 8-millimeter, 10-millimeter and 12-millimeter thicknesses. Some retailers will market the thickness of the product, including the core and attached pad .If you can use floating laminate flooring, which does not require glue. The individual pieces of the flooring lock together over a foam pad. Only gravity holds floating laminate flooring in place. Floating laminate flooring can fit over an existing floor, eliminating the need to remove the old floor.
Tiles is also the best option. There are many different types of tile. Professional installation can run into the hundreds of dollars depending on the size of the area. Tiles are water resistant and comes in a variety of sizes and materials like marble, slate, and granite.
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