I am trying to get a client to use sand as flooring material

mud works pretty good too.

freq- where are you building this house? canada if I remember? look for local materials.

Yup, Canada.
I've got a pretty good handle on local materials and particularly local artisans that can be adopted for building use. For example, there are some great local stained glass and wrought iron crafters around, plus some really cool modern glass workers.
Also, there are some pretty cool sources of reclaimed wood in my area.

What I was really looking for was anything that really blew you away when you saw it. For me, it was the 'ecoflame' product I linked in the first message.
I tend to work in a bubble up here, and want to see what other people are using - tends to widen my view and inform better design solutions.

It's all about the living machine: www.oceanarks.com

That, and one day I would love to do large expanses of wenge wood floors.

i've been jazzed about agri-board products. compressed strawboard has a great tactile quality. but these would be found out in the praries of alberta and manitoba (don't remember much about the onterio farm scene).

houses can be quite simple and very beautiful.

Do you need any south of the border sources?

oh, subscribe to transmaterial newsletter for the best new ideas.

Dammit... www.oceanarks.ORG

mud floors need linseed oil in greater amounts as you build up...don't use straight mud...no bueno.

I would like to use some selective surface material in a project.

Medusa, I here you about the wenge. Love that stuff.
But, since budget was a concern in my house, I recently installed a glued and nailed 3/8" x 2 1/4" T&G Curapau floor (natural finish). It is an amazing looking floor (kind of like a walnut, only with huge variation ins grain and colour - some pieces are almost like pine, some are as black as night, with most a reddish colour). I'd never heard of the species until I saw it ant the Home Depot. And it is FSC certified to boot.
That floor, and the unique design of the house, is what got me thinking about alternative products in the first place. I'm also looking at some cool indirect lighting.

Wow, I just looked at the link you provided, Medusa. I've got a friend who was part of the development of the bio-aquatic wastewater treatment outlined there. He did a few on the east coast, now he's doing those systems in China and across the globe.
Small world!

Using in current project and love:

Nanawall


Using in my own home and can't stop raving about:

cork flooring


Using and love:

Neff cabinetry:


Really want to find the perfect job to use on:

Edelman leather floor tiles


Also, I'd like to use a cute hipster boy in one of my projects, as above.

saw this in dwell and thought it'd be pretty sweet to use somewhere

ps it can pivot 360 degrees

i installed a cork floor before..... it's work..... you have to make sure u have enough glue..... not all the squares are square either...... cork comes in different shades of brown.......can also use wood filler for small gaps and then use wood stain to go over it all.... then you have to sand it like a wood floor to even out the tile heights....then 3-5 coats of sealer.... sand btw each coat.............

i always thought a rusted steel floor epoxy coated would be cool...... but then again i've been influenced by factories/machines all my life....

2:37am

LB, I had no idea until I checked NEFF out online that they're practically based in my back yard!
I'm used to seeing cool products / companies and being disappointed that they're located somewhere in Nebraska or China, or wherever.
I will definitely look into them next time I'm doing custom millwork.
Considering that I come from a background where all the men in my family produce high end custom millwork for a living (except for me, who sometimes specifies high end custom millwork for a living), I'm not the easiest one to impress.

and 2:37 - I hear you about floor installations. My Curapau floor, while pre-finished, still took a hell of a long time to do right. I did a click product a few years ago, and regretted it almost immediately. High quality floors are more costly for good reason.

lb, did that hipster ever find his contact???

Sometimes using old is new: This is first building of three. We salvaged the Timbers from two old barns to reassemble this barn.
The field stone is local, the siding is recycled tabacco barn siding,
the brick is recycled. Kinda has a nice cozy feel for the Christmas Season.

snooker, Did you pick out the wicker on the chairs? Time's definitely past-due for a wicker revival - that's the product I'm hoping to put to serious use! Semper will be so proud. . .

Think those are Hitchcock Chairs, but I could be wrong. Company was sold a few years ago to and English Holding Company. The closed the furniture plant down last Spring, but I understand someone else has bought the rights to the Name and the designs. This company was one of the last Furniture Companies in Connecticut. Oh bye the way I didn't pick any of the furnishings. This is a local organic produce and crafts market. The produce is grown by people who live on a near by farm who have suffered turmatic brain injuries. All the crafts to be sold here will be by local craftsman.

I love it, snooker
it bears a striking resemblance to my thesis project (so many years ago), with the local artisanal influence, salvaged material, and community involvement.

snooker, that is a beautiful project, and the use of actual recycled materials makes it even cooler, as does the philosophy of the Owner. Nice job.

237, I installed pre-engineered cork planks, which can be clicked together but! We glued them to 1/8" cork sheet underlayments glued to slab. The glued installation is key. Nothing that clicks together is ever going to last for long.

LB -- is the project featuring the nanawall yours? If it is, can you tell me about the assembly of the metal-clad portion of the wall above the nanawall?

Nope, Rim, that's from fabprefab.com

LB -- nanawall in your own house? Nice.

The reason for my question about the metal assembly is that I'm always interested in very low-tech solutions. That metal looks like it's just screwed to the sheating, no evidence of rainscreening it or anything.

Or was it the cork in your own house? Either way.

The Nanawall pic is from this prefab house, more pics
here

and nice detail shots of what looks like brake metal screwed in place here.

The cork was in my own house, though the photo above is not my house, it's just a random cork floor pic I googled.

Thanks, LB -- those are nice details shots... hey, where's all the blobby caulk where the wood meets the metal?!