I’ve really been wondering about a curious thing lately. As many of you know, in addition to my own site, icanfixupmyhome.com, I’ve also been the home repair and renovation topic writer over at Suite101.com for just under two years.

So as you can imagine, there’s quite a bit of content up at both sites. From day one, the article I get more hits on than any other at S101 is about installing laminate flooring. Not surprising since it’s such a popular building material. It does have some advantages over hardwood.

Since about 90% of all traffic comes from Google, you would think that by ratio (since the two sites have different Google Pageranks), laminate content would score pretty high on my personal site as well. Not so.

In fact, on my site, my article on cutting and installing baseboard is king. Odd. Not that I’m complaining. I just find it interesting and also complementary. After all, the two topics are closely related. Eh? Baseboard isn’t even what it once was. You can still get it in pine or something more exotic, but it’s also increasingly available in repurposed green materials. Go figure.

A lot of building materials are now made from recycled or repurposed things. Remember when only trendy restaurants took apart barns and old gas stations to decorate with? And distressed denim blue jeans cost twice as much as “new” looking ones?

But I, for one, am glad to have the green movement finally make sense instead of only being about some nutball chaining himself to a tree. Sure, there’s still a lunatic fringe out there but at least most of it makes sense. I wonder what’s next…

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I’m a big fan of laminate flooring, no bones about it. It’s inexpensive, easy to work with, and is available imitating almost any natural wood species you could imagine.

I wrote an article on installing laminate back in July, 2007, shortly after being promoted to feature writer for the home renovation/repair topic at Suite101.com. I’ve got 177 articles posted there now, and from day 1, that article has been number one. Awesome.

That one article is currently garnering 444 page views per day, so yeah, I’d say there’s a whole lot of DIY going on. I followed up with an article on how to maintain these floors, but it doesn’t even come close. I can only speculate on what that’s saying.

This material does have it’s limitations, though. For example, since it’s a floating floor system, you can’t do anything to anchor it down. One reader asked me if she should lay the floor in her kitchen and then install the cabinets over them or the other way around.

I recommend the cabinets first and running the floor up to them. That way, the weight won’t impede floating, she’ll save on material, and future remodelling will be easier.

Last week, another reader clued me in on how he had solved the problem of installing bi-fold doors over laminate. First, use a trackless door (eliminates securing the track, which would impede floating.

Next, he figured out how to install the pivot bracket. Brilliant! Read how he did it.

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Bamboo is a Green, Sustainable Building Material

Bamboo is fast becoming one of the hottest green flooring materials. Why green? There are at least two reasons. First and foremost, it’s sustainable.

If you’ve ever had any in your backyard, you know how hard it is to contain. Even worse if you don’t want it, but it’s an under-the-fence gift from a neighbor!

Yes, I know there are non-spreading varieties. But the point is, compare the renew rate to hardwood. The second green building aspect of bamboo is that it’s a natural product.

Carpet usually has a lot of synthetics in it, and that means petrochemicals and gas-off issues. Formaldehyde may also be an ingredient. Yuck.

There’s a variety of choices for installing bamboo flooring. It requires a dry floor and a membrane or layer of felt. Other than that, it can be nailed, glued, or installed like floating laminate floors. There’s something for whatever kind of subfloor you have!