Staying out in the woods or by the riverside in your log cabin is a relaxing, refreshing experience. But just like with your home, log cabin needs attention and especially its flooring.
You might ask why flooring is the main focus. Simply put, it’s the surface of the log cabin that received the most impact on daily basis. Depending on the size of your cabin, the daily impact severity can vary based on the room. Perhaps the kitchen and the entrance hallway receive the most action during day and night because of the amount of time you spend there. If it’s a single-space garden room, all of it receives same amount of impact and will need to be changed at the same time.
Then there is the flooring type that determines when and if you need to change it. In this post, we will cover different types of most common flooring and discuss when it’s best to change it.
Carpet flooring
If you’ve chosen large wooden log home as your summer resort or a permanent place of living, chances are you will want to cover the floor with carpet in one or more rooms. It’s a fair choice and often a gorgeous one, but there are key signs to watch out for.
If you enter the room and there’s an unwanted smell that lingers, it might be from the carpeting. Carpets absorb dust and liquids very well and accumulates them over the years. Regular wet cleaning is a good idea, but there always comes a point when carpeting of a log house needs changing. Once there are too many stains and the smell is no longer removable by deep cleaning, those are signs that the time has come.
Tile flooring
More often than not, log cabin homes are lined with tiles in many rooms other than the kitchen. It’s a sensible choice to place around the mantelpiece to stop embers from popping out straight on the floor. It’s also great in hallways where everyone takes off their shoes and bring all the mud and dust from the outside. If you have a single-space garden room or a camping pod, in summer tiles can keep the heat down.
Although they’re easy to clean and are durable, time comes to change the tiles too. When cracks begin to show, some of them can be reattached if the pieces are not too small. But when many of the tiles start cracking, either due to constant use or an accident, it’s time to change the whole lot. Tile shards are a significant hazard and should be taken seriously.
Wooden flooring
The wear and tear of wooden flooring and how long it lasts largely depends on your choice of wood and care. Some wood, like oak or cypress, can be long lasting and with proper varnish can withstand harsh use. But just like the logs of your cabin need a refreshing coat of paint even now and then, so do your flooring.
Taking care of wooden floors, smoothening them every few years and applying fresh varnish can reduce the tear greatly. However, when splinters start pealing off and gouged out places where chairs or other furniture in heavy use are situated no longer smoothen out, it’s time for a change.
Whether it’s laminated wood, or pure wooden planks, renewing your flooring is a great opportunity to give a fresh look to your entire log cabin.
Allergens to look out for
Just like pollen allergy, less common dust, insect and pet allergies are also often triggered by dirty flooring. Carpet floor is the biggest offender here, trapping anything and everything that lands onto it. However, dust and pet fur can get trapped underneath the flooring as well, especially wooden one. With micro gaps between the planks open, much of dust can fall through and accumulate over the years. That is why it might be a good idea to open up the floor and change it every now and then, especially if you or your family member has a serious allergy.
Flooring is the biggest surface we live on in our log cabins. It only makes sense to take care of it at regular intervals, like we do with the rest of our log home. There are many contemporary solutions that can make changing of any flooring easier, so take good care of your log cabin outside and in. Good luck!