The advantages of natural flooring

Want a different kind of carpet? Forget wool and synthetic fibres and go for natural flooring, such as seagrass, coir and jute, instead.If looked after properly, this flooring is no harder to maintain than carpet and, unlike synthetic carpets, it doesn't attract dust, making it a good choice for allergy sufferers.

Natural flooring is made of plant fibres, but the plants are usually grown in Asia and other places thousands of miles away, so it's often not as environmentally friendly as it might seem.Wool and cotton can be combined with other natural fibres to produce flooring offering the best of both worlds, but if you'd rather be a purist, these are the most popular types of natural flooring:

While you should always follow the manufacturer's care instructions for the type of flooring you have, tips for maintaining natural flooring include using doormats by outside doors, vacuuming regularly, putting something underneath chairs and sofas on castors and immediately treating stains and spills in the recommended way. Some natural flooring has a latex backing, which helps to prevent dirt and dust building up underneath, and some can be treated with a stain inhibitor, which is obviously one of the easiest ways to keep it looking good.

Mohawk Acquires Belgian Panel Manufacturer Spano

Flooring giant Mohawk Industries said today it would purchase chip board and melamine panel manufacturer Spano Invest NV, based in Belgium, for $168 million in cash.Spano's 2012 revenues were €180 million ($231 million). Mohawk said the buy would close the second half of the years, and it expects an earnings gain in 2013 from the acquisition.

Spano-produced chip board and melamine board are used to produce furniture and building products mostly for the Belgian market. Spano introduced the first continuous press operations for chipboard manufacture in 1977, significantly increasing its capacity.In addition to panel production, Spano operates facilities in Belgium and has an electricity plant joint venture that converts waste wood into green energy.

Mohawk, which also produced carpeting and tile, just last week closed on the acquisition of plywood manufacturer Sweden's Pergo, including its Garner, NC-based U.S. business, from Germany's Pfleiderer for $150 million in cash.Mohawk acquired another Belgian panel producer -  Unilin - in 2005."Spano expands not only our customer base with a focus on different channels of distribution, but also our knowledge and technical expertise, which we can leverage," Lorberbaum said.

Armstrong's rustic American Scrape floors

Looking for a distinctly American look for your home? A new Armstrong flooring line showing at the International Builders' Show, American Scrape, is a richly textured floor that comes in domestic hickory and oak. Inspired by "the American landscape," as the company claims, the wide-plank solid- and engineered-wood floors attempt to invoke our nation's heritage. A portion of sales also benefits veterans.

American Scrape sells in five-inch planks with a choice of stains named for different regions of the country, such as Red Rock Canyon. The solid plank is stapled and costs about $4 to $5 per square foot, uninstalled. The engineered costs $3 to $4 uninstalled and can be glued or floated as well as stapled. Both solid and engineered floors should be available nationally by the spring.

The manufacturer is also devoting some of the profits from its American Scrape sales to Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that builds specially adapted homes for severely injured veterans. Armstrong is the charity's flooring supplier and will donate floors, using a portion of the sales, for about 30 homes to be built across the country in 2013.

Caring For Your Hardwood Floors

When it comes to cleaning hardwood flooring it is not as expensive or as time consuming as many people assume that it would be. It is possible to keep your hardwood flooring looking clean and new for years to come, you just need to do a little research to see what the best ways to clean the floors actually are. So here you will find a few tips to help you to keep your floors looking clean and new and that will hopefully help you to see that cleaning hardwood flooring is not as difficult as you may have originally thought.

Generally the main thing that you will need is a soft broom. Obviously the reason that you should not use a hard broom is because it could easily scratch the flooring instead of simply cleaning it. Luxury of an air bath- New Drop-in Acrylic Air Tubs from Signature Hardware.Soft brooms are easy to pick up from most department stores and they are not overly expensive either. Ideally using the brush twice a day will really make a difference and it will keep the floor dust free too.However, simply just brushing the floor will not completely get rid of any dirt and dust. You will need to pick it up too and that is where a vacuum cleaner comes in.

You can purchase special vacuum cleaners which are designed for hardwood flooring and they will do the job perfectly without causing any damage to the floor.If your hardwood floor seems to have a coating over it then it is possible that you can mop the flooring with a damp mop. Never use a mop which is ringing wet as this can cause damage by causing the flooring to expand. Hardwood flooring often needs to be mopped because whilst a vacuum cleaner can help to pick dirt up, it cannot deal with spillages or stuck on stains.

Luxury of an air bath- New Drop-in Acrylic Air Tubs from Signature Hardware

Featuring a powerful 400-watt blower and an air-heating element, the new drop-in air baths soothe muscles and offer relaxing and rejuvenating results. Customers may choose from shapes including oval, round, rectangular and hourglass. Air tub sizes range from 55" to 71", to accommodate bathroom space and to suit personal preferences.

Matching jets in the new air bath tubs are the heart of the new line, and the number of jets varies by design style. For instance, the 59" Cullen Drop-in Air Bath Tub features eight matching jets and an angled end for relaxing, while the 71" Brayson Drop-in Air Bath Tub has 10 jets, and is designed with sloping ends to support the head and neck while leaning back. The Leith Acrylic Tub is one of Signature Hardware's most popular freestanding styles, and is now offered in both drop-in and freestanding formats.

Customers may customize tubs with a wall-mount tub filler of their choice and add a hand shower for even greater bathing flexibility.Signature Hardware's new drop-in acrylic air tubs are 4 mm thick and constructed of three layers of fiberglass. The air tubs feature a 180-watt air-heating element that heats the air from the jets, maintaining a warm and comfortable temperature. Jets in the air bath tubs have an anti-return valve to prevent water from flowing back into the blower.

Mocksville manufacturer looking for workers

A Mocksville-based manufacturer of hardwood flooring, is looking for workers, according to an announcement from the Davie County Economic Development Commission.The company has 20 to 30 open positions at its manufacturing plant located at 192 Industrial Blvd. as well as sales and administration positions.

The company was originally headquartered in Wisconsin, but relocated to Mocksville in 2011."We expect Made in America, Made in Davie County and Made in Mocksville, N.C., to continue to be in high demand over the coming years," said Lee Harmeling, owner of American Hardwoods.The list is certainly not exhaustive. Laminate flooring is a comparatively new concept in the world of flooring but it has already become a popular choice of flooring.

There are many reasons behind its popularity. It is long-lasting and versatile with the gorgeous look of hardwood floor. But, there is no actual wood present in laminate floors, which makes it a more affordable option in comparison to hardwood flooring. laminate floor fitting is easy and can be installed above any other flooring surface except for carpets.

Temporary Floor Protection Product Helping Glasses Manufacturer See Clearly During Refurb

Manufactured in the USA, Ram Board is an ultra high-performance hard floor protector with huge dirt, dust and impact stopping power. It was selected by Rodenstock, the world's leading manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses and spectacle frames, to protect the floors of its UK factory during heavy-duty refurbishment works.Founded in Germany in 1877, Rodenstock is represented in more than 80 countries worldwide and has 14 dedicated production sites in no less than 12 countries. The internal refurbishment of its UK location will go ahead with the help of Ram Board, a unique hard floor protector suitable for a range of applications.

Originally developed for use on American construction sites and Hollywood film sets, Ram Board's strength sets it apart from other temporary floor protection products. Tough, durable, long lasting, supremely impact resistant and able to hold the weight of a fork lift truck, it is ideally suited to refurbishment projects such as Rodenstock's thanks to its vapour permeable layer and Flex-Fiber technology which allows newly laid floors to cure even while covered.

Designed to cover hard floors quickly and easily, Ram Board is supplied in roll format for convenient application, transportation and storage. It is made from 100% recycled materials, including cardboard, paper, ply-fibres, and reinforcers, making it ideally suited to large commercial projects where corporate social responsibility is an important consideration.

Floors, Stairs, Lifts and Wayfinding

Wayfinding, one of the more charming neologisms to enter architectural discourse in recent years, is a topic which sits comfortably with floors, stairs and lifts and, as it's a newcomer, we'll discuss it first. Although many architects regard signage as an admission that a building has failed to communicate by architectural means, just as they might argue that a good plan needs little annotation, users sometimes need hints which operate at a more detailed level while many architects now collaborate with communication designers, such as Thomas Matthews.

This consultancy's expertise is to communicate architecture by using scale, space and surface. 'We often deliver ambitious communications projects that go beyond the principles of graphic design and could, for example, involve hanging 5,000 polystyrene cups to create a statement,' says founder Sophie Thomas. 'We prefer to work at the very beginnings of a project where disciplines are able to coalesce and architectural communications are easier to integrate,' says Alexie Sommer, communications director. 'The stuck-on-at-the end approach to identity and wayfinding is always disappointing.'

'New cities so often struggle to deliver similar qualities in a single planned event.' For Lloyd, the workplace is a similar organism, which is often configured in a manner that forces occupants to establish their own physical and social communities largely unsupported by architecture, layout and furniture. 'Over the last decade a movement has emerged that espouses the concept of the legible city, seeking to unlock our post-industrial urban spaces as open, easy and connectedcommunities through high-quality mapping and information resources that enhance the subconscious wayfinding already present in neighbourhoods, districts and the unplanned pathways between them.'

Here's what it takes to build CES

For those who've never helped run a booth at a trade show, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the temporary city — an endless sea of lights, sounds, and humans pressing past one another in search of the next great gadget — takes weeks to assemble before the first attendee even hits the floor.Designer Commercial Flooring Adds Grace to Perfect Ambience. It's a choreographed symphony of thousands of laborers, installing everything from flooring to televisions to washing machines.

The Consumer Electronics Association, which runs CES, accompanied us on a tour of the show floor today to see exactly how the sausage is made. To put it mildly, it looks different than it will less than three days from now when the doors open. In fact, it's practically unrecognizable.Hardwood flooring and oversized woodwork on the first floor were priorities, but the kitchen was the main focus. "I like to cook, so I knew what I wanted in the kitchen — a Sub-Zero refrigerator, Wolf oven and big island," Scott said.

Be sure to compare these photos with the ones you see of the live show floor this week — they're both chaos, just very different kinds.The couple spent a week in Illinois making product selections, then kept in touch with the builder by email and phone. About four months after the ground was broken, the family closed on their new house.