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Hard wood floors


drock59

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We are going to be installing hardwood in the house and I wonder how the heck it is possible to have hardwood and a tank?

 

Does anybody have their tank on hardwood? How do you keep it from warping when you inevitably spill? Any tips or tricks welcome...

 

 

If i cant figure out how to have the tank on hardwood, it will have to move to my office.....boooooo! I hate moving tanks.

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We have hardwood floors, but they are old and scuffed, so we don't mind a few small spills.

 

Couldn't you lay a nice piece of vinyl where the tank is supposed to be (make the area a little bigger than the footprint of the stand) and hold it to the floor with oak strips?

Or tile it, though I'd be afraid they might crack under the weight of the tank.

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I have hardwood floors under the tank, personally I would recommend you tile in the area where the tank is going even if they are just layed over and trim the edges (so you can easily remove after you move the tank) I have had no warping issues (about 200 gallon tank) however you need to really get a good sealant on there and make sure you keep it dry after spills. No standing water or it will find its way down between the wood and it will swell. I highly recommend tiling in the area, I can't say it enough times.

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Thanks for the replies.

 

We are going to do bamboo floors. WE have been looking into it for a while and the wife wants to make it happen.

 

As far as tiles go, do you mean just making a nice tile inlay or on top of the wood?

 

We also have dogs, so i am worried this stuff is going to get scratched up in a hurry. Is there some sort of coating I can add to the top to protect the wood? Polyurethane doesnt necessarily help with scratched....at least that is what I have read.

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Just a warning: I used to be a janitorial supervisor at Symantec and they have bamboo floors in the entrance hall.

Beautiful floor, but a real pain to keep clean. We had to stop mopping them wet because the floor kept bending up at the edges. It was really easy to scratch, too!

 

Of course, that floor had a lot of heavy traffic, and maybe they improved the coating in the last few years.

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Thanks for the replies.

 

We are going to do bamboo floors. WE have been looking into it for a while and the wife wants to make it happen.

 

As far as tiles go, do you mean just making a nice tile inlay or on top of the wood?

 

We also have dogs, so i am worried this stuff is going to get scratched up in a hurry. Is there some sort of coating I can add to the top to protect the wood? Polyurethane doesnt necessarily help with scratched....at least that is what I have read.

 

I did 4 coats of the best poly I could get, its been a year and it looks great, dogs, cats and all. If you can I would inlay the tile, if the floor is already in then you can lay over and put a wood trim around so it looks nice. Make sure you use a good grout sealer, I would probably do a few coats just to be safe.

 

Mine is overlayed at my entry and fireplace, its on top of hardwood floor, I have nothing at my tank, but I think it would be cleaner to put the tiles down I would put down a backer board then tile, calc out the thicknes and make your trim to fit, the backer board should be as thin as possible if you go that route (I recommend only because if you move you will need to remove it so people without a tank dont have this unexplained tile area)

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I did 4 coats of the best poly I could get, its been a year and it looks great, dogs, cats and all

 

Good to know. I was thinking if i put something fairly rigid over the top or do several coats of polyurethane it would be fine. Its good to hear that with those animals you are still pleased with the floor.

 

As far as the bamboo goes, ive heard about equal opinions both ways. Some say it is really good and to go with it, other say its the worst. I think we are going to go for it and put several poly coats over the top. Hopefully it will hold up.

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I just repaired a damaged hardwood floor. Had more than one incident of water flooding. Splashes are no problem, but do not forget to turn off the top off water and......

We have 3/4 by 21/4 and it is tight enough that there are no worries. I would be concerned with the pre finished floors that snap together. Water can get down the cracks. If you put a finish over the floor, you may want to talk to the guys at Ryerson Hardwood. They give classes in finishing wood floors. There may be a compatibility problem with the pre finish and poly that you get in the stores. If you do put a new layer over, consider either Bona or Dura Seal. These products have much higher % solids. I used Dura Seal Xtera, which is a catalyzed finish. Much harder.

I have heard both good things and bad about bamboo. It is very dependent on where you get the floor.

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If you have big dogs and they get crazy in the house you will be doomed no mater what you have, but the poly on our floors is pretty strong, I have three kids and they have yet to do damage, the only damage I ever did was drag a half filled 45 gallon tank across the floor, I just did a light sand and put a coat of poly on, light sand and on more coat. Learned my lesson there, glad it wasn't my 155 gallon. LOL

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Good to know. I was thinking if i put something fairly rigid over the top or do several coats of polyurethane it would be fine. Its good to hear that with those animals you are still pleased with the floor.

 

As far as the bamboo goes, ive heard about equal opinions both ways. Some say it is really good and to go with it, other say its the worst. I think we are going to go for it and put several poly coats over the top. Hopefully it will hold up.

 

Sounds like a good plan.

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I want to interject another issue into the mix, noise. I found that after I moved my tank into my new house with fresh hardwoods, I found my gen-x external pumps made noise a really inexcusable annoyance. That said, you want to insulate as much as you can under the tank. I used camping-based sleeping foam under my tank, and this worked well as a gasket. 6 months later I pulled the tank out and found the newly finished floors to be as good as the day the tank was layed down. Still, this was not enough to curtail the vibration that passed through to the floor and made so much noise. I'd suggest that you consider using multiple pads of differing material, one for water seepage, another for noise reduction.

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your right that is the best I think they carry, and honestly its pretty good, thats what I used and it worked good, I used it on raw sanded floors (80 grit is what they recommended final sand). I had to buy a few 100 bucks worth but it was worth it.

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I guess I did all of it when i put my tank down... I have a hardwood floor and belive me I thought this one through... so what I did was to add a piece of camping pad down, and then some a piece of pergo flooring over it. Still kinda looks like the hard wood, so you really dont know its there. hope it helps

 

SBK

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So there is a major change in plans....my Aunt in law has some guajava(candlewood, wild senna) that she is going to sell us super cheap. Supposedly this stuff is 40 times hard than oak which would be good for the pooches and much better than this bamboo. Back to costco with 26 boxes of bamboo!

 

Anyone familiar with this stuff? I cant find anything on the internet about it. I dont think it is imported any longer.

 

Also, i was able to find the Bona Traffic finish....whew that stuff is expensive....125 bucks for 500 sq ft.

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You can get Dura Seal at Crosscut, a division of Emerson Hardwood. They charge $98 per gallon and it is virtually the same formula as Bona traffic. Both of these are for heavy use. Possibly overkill, but your time will be a much larger investment than the extra price per gallon you pay over the standard finish (Bona water base).

Ken

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You can get Dura Seal at Crosscut, a division of Emerson Hardwood. They charge $98 per gallon and it is virtually the same formula as Bona traffic. Both of these are for heavy use. Possibly overkill, but your time will be a much larger investment than the extra price per gallon you pay over the standard finish (Bona water base).

Ken

 

I purchased my wood from crosscut, prices are good and they actually know what there talking about, if they don't have it nobody does. Mind boggling selection!

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Dan sounds like youve made up your mind as to what your doing, but wanted to let you know what I did with our small tank. its a 45gal corner hex, I cut up some tiles into roughly 1" squares, and used these every 4-6 inches on the base of the tank.

 

My theory is if you spill you would be able to use a fan to circulate air under the stand and dry it out. A spill isnt going to hurt, if you can dry it out in a timly manner.

 

I havent moved the tank yet so I dont know how successful my theory is, but ive only spilled a small amount of water one time.

 

At 1" or so per tile, I figure it can dry out even under this because its so small.

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