If you were to look down on entering any slightly older residence in the city, the odds are close to certain that you won’t find fancy marble or designer tiles beneath your feet. Instead, you will behold a simple sprawl of mosaic, pristine in its spotted glory. While some might consider it classic, most tile houses in the present day claim there is little or no demand whatsoever for what was once the most used form of flooring. Saptish Kumar, Manager at Tile Bazaar, Vadapalani confirms, “Mosaic is completely out of date. Nobody asks for it anymore.” He adds, “These days most people have a host of options from wooden flooring to vitrified tiles.” No surprises there, considering how much more people are willing to spend on making their living space look that much better.Vandana Gopikumar, co founder of the Banyan recently opted to give her 70-year-old house a facelift, long overdue. Amongst other things she considered, the sprawling mosaic flooring certainly needed some upgrading. But the alternative needed to be traditional yet contemporary, she decided. And so it began. She explains, “I retained the mosaic on the stairway and the verandah, but in the dining and living area we replaced it with solid wood. In the bedroom, we used marble and in the study, a touch of Jaipur stone.”While hard flooring options such as marble and granite are the most sought after options today, the market does offer options as diverse as rubber (used in gymnasiums), linoleum and even glass mosaic. Says Muthukumar, owner of Global Enterprises, Koyambedu, “Glass mosaic is usually purchased by our clients in the service industry and upmarket homes, for their swimming pool areas and sometimes a backsplash in kitchen.” He does agree that in recent times, customers aren’t merely opting for ‘different’ flooring options based only on a need-to-use basis.For residential purposes, however, it seems the fore-runners in the floor market are vinyl flooring and laminated wood. Anantharaman, marketing executive at Endura Floors, Kodambakkam explains, “Vinyl flooring comes in three forms — rolls, planks and tiles. It’s quick to lay, there is no breakage involved and it can be stuck on top of the previous flooring. “He adds another advantage, “It can also be welded in so that the joints in the tiles appear completely seamless.” Now, that’s convenient and makes for tidy footing!In fact, in the last five years, this market has grown over 30 per cent according to industry sources; along the same lines of demand as real wood. Laminated wood has grown by over 50 percent as Anantharaman elucidates, “Laminated wood has multiple layers, the base is either plywood or spruce and the top can be made of anything from teak to walnut, oak, maple, mahogany or merbau.” Also, there is no need to worry about your wooden floors playing catalyst to a fire because each plank is ‘kiln-dried’ for fire-resistance and termites.(Prices vary depending on brand, design, cut and quality)
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