Sitting area under oaks - what to use for 'floor'?
pam29011
13 years ago
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Comments (6)
isabella__MA
13 years agolazy_gardens
13 years agoRelated Discussions
What grow under Valley Oak?
Comments (11)Josh have you only seen Astroturfî, or have you seen some of the modern day artificial grass? The comment you made sounds like a comment that I routinely made before seeing modern day - not Astroturfî- artifical lawns. The difference is that you don't know the fake stuff is fake unless someone tells you. Whether the site prep damages tree roots or the stuff doesn't let water pass through, I don't know. What I do know is the OP ask for something that doesn't exist. Drought tolerant grass that grows in the shade. Alternative ground covers would be another solution, one I personally would do but it sounds like OP is dead set on turfgrass....See MoreWhat to plant under Live Oak?
Comments (19)The most shade tolerant varieties of St. Augustine are Bitterblue, Deltashade, Captiva, Delmar and Seville. Floratine, Classic, Jade and Raleigh varieties also do well in the shade. Similar sounding Floratam and Floralawn are NOT as shade tolerant. All St. Augustine varieties are more shade tolerant than other lawn grasses. Tree leaves are meant to be the mulch that prevents other plants from growing. The leaves break down to feed microbes which make soil nutrients more available to the tree. The problem with live oak leaves is that they are leathery and take much longer to break down, and they smother any emerging plants when they drop in the spring. I have had good results with Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum) under my mature oak. I do have to water these twice a month in the summer in Central Texas....See MoreBedRoom: Area Rug on Carpeted Floor and Under the Bed
Comments (12)I did that in my guest room - no problem at all. The carpet is pretty low pile and the rug is a fairly thick sculpted type oriental. I have no pad under the rug. I also have a very short, dense wool oriental rug on the carpet in my living room. That also works fine. I have all these rugs on carpet because I moved from a house with wood floors to one with more carpet. I hope to get rid of the carpet someday when I feel like moving everything again. So then I will need the rugs and in the meantime I can't stand the plain beige carpet. In another room I have a thick wool runner that covers the width of carpet from the deck door to the wood floor in the dining area. It has no furniture on it that holds it in place so it ripples a bit. I need to find a way to keep it flat....See MoreHardwood Oak Floor under probable asbestos
Comments (12)Many years ago when we lived in a house in St Louis that was built around 1936-38, the old peel and stick tiles on the floor were coming up. I asked my husband if I could remove them and he agreed. After removing them, I discovered a plywood floor. I called DH at work and said "I thought plywood came into being after WWII?" He said that generally, that was so. Hmmm. Then I realized that the floor in the small walk-in pantry was different than the kitchen - it was red linoleum and it was LOWER than the kitchen floor. So I grabbed a hammer and started pulling up the plywood. Under that was red linoleum. It had practically "liquified" over the years - it was a gooey mess. By this time, DH was home from work and took a paint scraper to this mess. Under it, we discovered tongue and goove hardwood floors! It was like finding buried treasure! Now, this was in the late 1970's when there was little talk about asbestos and its dangers in removing it. DH spent the next couple of weekends, scraping all the old red linoleum and the goop underneath, off these floors. We then had a flooring company come and sand and polyurethane the floors. Did it harm us? Who knows. DH died in 2005 from prostate cancer - it was presumed to have been inherited. I have had respiratory problems since 1970 - they are progressive and have worsened. I don"t think removing this small kitchen floor had anything to do with our health issues, but we'll never know. Today, we would hire someone to do this properly. Fast forward to 18 years ago and a pipe break in a 2nd floor bathroom. Water ended up coming all the way to the basement when peel and stick tiles floated up over the floor drains. It was very easy to get them up, but the glue most likely had asbestos in it and that was a BIG problem. It had to be done properly. And it's a BIG basement! We hired an asbestos removal company to do the work and used a commercial orange gel cleaner that loosened the glue so it could be scraped off and removed, then the remains were allowed under local Code to be washed down the floor drain. What was key was to NOT sand this stuff off. That would have released the asbestos fibers into the air, they would have gotten into the duct work and the entire house. Most likely, you do have some form of hardwood floor. Red oak was typically used as "sub flooring" under linoleum. It was cheap in those days. Call a flooring company and get some advice and bids....See Morepam29011
13 years agopam29011
13 years agoreyesuela
13 years ago
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