Flooring options for survival retreats, cabins and backwoods homes.

Something people don't talk about much in these discussions of off grid living, survival retreats, alternate housing and backwoods homes. Flooring needs on these are unique, the places are often not occupied year around and can quickly deteriorate if not climate controlled. "Poverty of energy" requires efficiency not just in heating and cooling, but maintenance. Carpet is out of the question, a lot of fashionable floor coverings like Pergo are questionable, bare lumber gets dirty and depressing pretty quickly. Here are my thoughts and recommendations.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• flooring
• survival retreat
• off grid living
• cabins
• alternative housing
• solar power
• alternative power.

[ExpatPanthr]

In your trailer project, should weight be an issue? What I mean is if you use the stone tiles for example, and later you had to move your trailer, the weight may increase so much that you will have a hard time pulling it if you needed to. Does the weight of the flooring matter if you will eventually need to move the trailer? Of course in a cabin this wet uphills not be the case.I ask about trailers because I am building my own trailer prior similar to yours!

[8digitPDX]

@ExpatPanthr I mention elsewhere in the video that the plastic tiles are better for something that goes down the road. They look like stone, but it is actually the flexible plastic tiles that are on the floor of the kitchen area of the trailer. In some cases though someone might want the stone as ballast to lower the center of gravity to reduce top-heaviness. You see less concern for weight on micro-homes than on actual travel trailers.

[8digitPDX]

@ExpatPanthr Yeah, weight is an issue, but the trailer is not so huge that it makes a big difference. I am not coming up with a major weight difference on the imitation stone vs carpet, in fact, the vinyl materials are lighter than carpet. Some high end motorhomes now use real marble on countertops. Real stone for floors is not so good though. Real wood floors will have some insulation value, but again, I am recommending against pergo.

[pptgtool]

Awesome video. Like the hands on. Keep up the great work