Post #649639 by Hale Tiki on Sun, Aug 26, 2012 2:22 PM

This is why I love this place, everybody is awesome.

So it's not tile like ceramic tile, it's Armstrong Imperial Excelon Tile. The stuff you'd see in a school or church. Vinyl composition.

I think I forgot to mention that part of the reason for scrapping the inlaid tile is that with the tiki bar and the dining area, a giant inlay will get lost, and look cluttered. Did I forget to mention the dining area? It's a 3x8 hand made bamboo table that was shipped over during the Korean War with matching chairs and a glass table top. So you'll be able to see the floor through the table top, but a giant Moai just doesn't strike me as a good idea anymore.

As far as it's durability, I stole the idea from Big Fun Toys in Cleveland, Ohio. They have old board games on the floor and it looks awesome. They've been down for a long, long time. Two years ago I did a similar floor for a broad I was seeing. It was old children's books from the 1960s. Learned my lesson with paper that you should coat it in white glue to prevent the poly from penetrating the paper and changing the color. Well, not so much learned my lesson as turned out to be right.

Anyway, you can put down paper of any kind, use high build polyurethane, at least 2-3 coats, and it'll last a long, long time. And like any floor that has polyurethane, sand it down every 3-5 years and put on another coat, which is a lot easier than it sounds.

As far as where I'm getting it printed, I have access to large format printers. It would be VERY expensive to have it down otherwise. Though still cheaper than the VCT, actually. I also may be able to have it done by a vinyl wrap company. The ones that do cars, buildings, et cetera. They have a HUGE printer, and aren't nearly as expensive as you'd think.