Most of the loft buildings in Kansas City had beautiful maple flooring throughout, and 90% of those floors were in good renewable condition at the time that the buildings were renovated.smh wrote:It looked like there were some coffee stains on the floors below what I assume were giant bean grinders. If it were up to me I'd try hard to retain those circular stains whenever I had the floors refinished. I think it adds to the character of the building, a nice recognition of its former use.pash wrote:Ha, like the commenters, I also noticed the great floors. They better reuse those.
Most developers in KC poured a couple of inches of gypcrete (a lightweight concrete formulation) over these beautiful floors. In most cases they did this, choosing to leave the wood ceilings exposed, as you have to either put a firebreak in as part of the construction of the floor or within the ceiling assembly (gypcrete on floor/or sheetrock ceiling).
Many developers poured gypcrete on the maple floor, even if they were sheetrocking the ceilings, in order to cut down on noise transfer. Tenants living in buildings that have retained the original floor system do have noise issues as part of their experience. If your neighbor above or beside you, comes in after a night in the bars, wearing her best heels, or him in his cowboy boots, you hear every step. The floor will also carry bass from your neighbors sub-woofed compilation of hip-hop, or the awesome home theater that the guy next to you scored at Costco.
Life's a series of trade offs.
