Kinark Sustainable Living Centre

Floors

As the part of a building we are constantly touching, floors are important structurally and aesthetically. What do we want under our feet?

Crushed limestone and 2x4 runners support the pine floor

Design Intent

1. To create comfortable, long-lasting floors with natural materials
2. To showcase several sustainable flooring options
3. To challenge the “flat floor” aesthetic

Materials and Methods

All three flooring choices in the building rest upon the same subfloor. On top of the existing grade, we laid a vapour barrier, which prevents humidity in the soil from rising into the building. We then laid and compacted a sand/gravel/stone fill to bring the floor level up to the proper height inside the building. A finely crushed limestone was laid and compacted to level out the floor and provide a stable base. The clay and stone tile floors were laid directly onto this limestone. The clay floor is a mixture of clay, sand and gravel, mixed and poured into place much as concrete. Once dry, it is finished with heated, natural oils and sealed with wax. The stone tiles are a limestone quarried near Owen Sound. They are laid in a bed of mortar directly on the limestone base. For the tongue and groove, red pine wooden floor, 2x4 runners were laid on the limestone, and then additional limestone was laid to bring the level flush with the runners. The pine floor was then attached to these runners.

Stone floor tiles from regional quarry

Questions

Why are none of the floors perfectly flat?

We did not strive to create perfectly flat floors. Human feet were never intended to spend any time on perfectly flat surfaces, and there is research to show that foot, leg, knee and back problems can all be attributed to too much time spent on flat floors. Natural materials do not lend themselves to perfect flatness, and we chose not to fight them just to create a potentially unhealthy surface.

Why a clay floor?

While the words “dirt floor” may have negative implications, compacted mixtures of clay, sand and stone can be made into very durable and beautiful modern floors. We wanted to show people that what they think when they hear “dirt floors” is not necessarily the case!

What does it take to maintain a clay floor?

Clay floors do require some maintenance. Typically, this involved re-waxing the surface when it starts to appear worn. Depending on traffic, this could be annually, or it could be much longer cycles.

Why a pine floor?

We chose softwood over hardwood flooring for several reasons. Softwoods grow faster than hardwoods, and can be replaced more easily when harvested. Hardwood floors typically go through a very intensive process to go from tree to finished flooring, which requires a lot of energy. Most of that energy is expended to make a floor that stays perfectly flat and shows little wear. We didn’t want flat and we don't mind wear, so we chose softwood.