90# roofing felt???!?!

[cc-rider]

Is there such a thing? Big-box store says "no". I read the "forever floor" article and it said to use 90# tar paper.

Edited. Oops...just read it again. It says #90 rolled roofing. Is that the same thing as tar paper? Any idea of the cost of rolled roofing??

[ronbre]

Same Thing..

[PyroDon]

Originally Posted by cc-rider

Is there such a thing? Big-box store says "no". I read the "forever floor" article and it said to use 90# tar paper.

Edited. Oops...just read it again. It says #90 rolled roofing. Is that the same thing as tar paper? Any idea of the cost of rolled roofing??

90# roll roofing is not tar paper .
what are you doing with this ?
given the choice between 90# and modified you'd be ahead to go with modified

[cc-rider]

They are glueing it to the floor and putting several layers of cheap paint over it, then faux painting it and polying to make a very durable flooring. Google "forever floor". I think it's a Backwoods site.

What is "modified"?

[texican]

You might want to put a piece of roll roofing on your existing floor first, before doing the whole room or house... Roll roofing is smooth on one side and has granules on the other. Personally I wouldn't want either side, with or without paint on it, for a floor... unless you're putting it on top of dirt. If you have dirt now, the traditional route was to pour ox blood on the floor to seal it. A more modern 'trick' is to pour an adobe floor with cement additives to harden it.

I'd definitely want some great air conditioning if I had roll roofing on my floor. Otherwise, it might get squishy. I'd also worry about offgassing... and, having a petroleum product, that'd burn, for my flooring.

Any links to this forever floor?

I've only used 15 and 30 pound felt.

[Jim-mi]

And with the smooth side up your still going to get big streaks of VERY hard to remove black tar on your shoes and else where.

I'd call that a 'for ever pain in the butski floor'

not one of somebodys better ideas.............

[Curtis B]

There are many types of rolled roofing. Pretty much any type of finished surface roofing that comes in a roll is rolled roofing. They are usually have a petroleum or rubber base. There are some rubber types that wouldn't leave marks and are very smooth, but the adhesives that you have to use to put them down just about singe your nose hairs outside on a roof let alone inside your house. The pertrol ones are almost as bad and in some cases worse. They are very prone to punctures, and don't stand up well to blunt "trauma" and traffic. Other than some rubber roofs that wil come in a 12' wide roll, most come in a 3' roll like tar paper, so you will have many seams to come loose. I really can't see how that type of floor could hold up better than hardwood or tile or concrete. BTW rolled roofin is very expensive between the material and adheasive I have installed some that were upwords of $300 a roll(30' rolls) sorry, can't remember the price of the adheasive. Could you post a link, you have kinda peaked my curiosity on how they could claim a forever floor. Unless you didn't walk on it.

[glazed]

Here's the link I posted a few days ago on another thread ... my husband and I are looking into doing this when we build ... and if it is NOT a good idea, I'd like to know before we get started

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/lee92.html

[cc-rider]

Thanks for posting the link, Mama Crow. I think that's the same one that I was reading. You put the roofing granule-side up, and by the time you put a few coats of paint on it, they are all sealed down tight.

I hadn't thought about the off-gassing and petroleum product, though.

Please look at the link and let me know what you think about it. Since I can't afford to put REAL flooring down yet (Gosh, it costs alot to build a home!!!!!) I was hoping to do this "forever floor" in the sunroom, foyer, and maybe baths and/or kitchen, and then do the routed plywood thing in the living room and the entire upstairs (because the upstairs is ALREADY plywood floored).

Mama Crow...if you do it before me, let me know how it turns out!

[7thswan]

Sounds like it would work to me. Those little granules, usally are fiberglass. I think one could come up with a toned down pattern for the art work. I would expect to have to lay down atleast 3 coats of paint. Wounder if you could top it with some sort of waterbased clearcoat.

[cc-rider]

I agree, I definitely wouldn't do that crazy mosaic they demonstrate, but was thinking a very realistic faux slate, stone, or ceramic tile-type of thing. Being a bit artistic, I think I could pull that off. And having two relatives that are art teachers...I'd have help!

But, if the rolled roofing, adhesive, etc., are too expensive, I might as well just wait and put down real hardwood later when I can afford it.

[7thswan]

Well I just called my local (small town) lumber. A 90# rool of roofing is $29.79. It is 3'X33'. Didn't ask about the glue as I don't know anything about that, we just nail it down on roofs arround here.

[watcher]

Originally Posted by Mama Crow

Here's the link I posted a few days ago on another thread ... my husband and I are looking into doing this when we build ... and if it is NOT a good idea, I'd like to know before we get started

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/lee92.html

Try it out on a small section of floor somewhere, a patio or shed, first to see how you like it.

[Curtis B]

I guess that it would work, the latex paint might encapsulate the offgassing, but I wouldn't count on it. At least the article mentioned having to repaint, that is something to consider also, as latex paint barely holds up on walls, let alone the floor. FYI the granuals are asphalt not fiberglass. There is fiberglass in the roofing material though, that is what holds the oil together.

[cc-rider]

What would a roll of the rolled roofing cost - just to try it out?

[glazed]

We weren't going to do the bold/wild patterns on the floor ... we were going to put 5-6 layers of solid color (use up mismatched colors from local paint centers.)

But, we didn't think about the fumes/outgassing either

My husband paints for a living and is terrified of all the chemicals he has breathed and been exposed to all these years ... we really wanted the house we build to be healthy (another reason we are doing the earthen plaster and homemade milk paints.)

When we build my husband said he didn't want to have to paint/repaint ANYTHING.

[glazed]

So ... having said all ^^THAT^^ ... I really suppose our "cheap" idea is kinda stupid ... defeats the purpose

[PyroDon]

Cheap is relative consider your looking at $3+ a square yard for the roofing $? for the paint , your time and labor .
you can find peel and stick tiles on sale for $1 a ft and laminate snap together floating floors for $2 a sq ft

[MELOC]

Originally Posted by Curtis B

I guess that it would work, the latex paint might encapsulate the offgassing, but I wouldn't count on it. At least the article mentioned having to repaint, that is something to consider also, as latex paint barely holds up on walls, let alone the floor. FYI the granuals are asphalt not fiberglass. There is fiberglass in the roofing material though, that is what holds the oil together.

having worked at a roofing granule mine, i am pretty sure we were mining and milling metabasalt and not asphalt. it is a crushed stone commonly known as "greenstone".

[chickensense]

I saw a really gorgeous cement floor at a model home. The cement had been tinted greenish, and the trowel marks were left in and looked very pretty, sorta like a lot of big fans. It looks like a darker green had been lightly sponged on in places, then the whole thing was sealed with a very shiny, clear coat. It really looked spectacular and nearly indestructible.

Wouldn't that be really inexpensive? Couldn't a person put down a 1/2" of cement easily enough to do the work themselves? Since the cement is tinted it would never need repainting. Maybe every once in a while you might have to re-do the top coat.

(I'm not a painter, or cement layer but it seemed like it would be do-able.)