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Retro floors – another choice is rubber tile

pam kueber - April 1, 2006, Updated: August 9, 2021






These rubber tiles appear to have the same features as VCT and linoleum – and I really love the marbleized effect. http://www.burkemercer.com/flooring/rt_marble.asp

 

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  1. Atomic Adam says

    Do you have any additional info about the general price, availability to residential customers, and resilience of these rubber tiles? We want to do VCT in our 1961 kitchen, but we’re worried that even if we put down new plywood underlayment the floor won’t be 100% perfect to lay down VCT. We don’t want to end up with cracks and chips. Also, the rubber tile company says they don’t need to be waxed or polished like VCT.
    Any info would be extremely helpful!

    • pam kueber says

      Hi Atomic Adam, I think you need to talk to a flooring professional about these questions…

      • Atomic Adam says

        I did some research, and local flooring stores can order it as long as you are getting at least 240 sq ft (probably just in one color?). It looks like this product is a little more flexible and does not require sealing, stripping, polishing, or doing the process over and over. The downside? It’s nearly $10 per sq ft!! I think I’ll head to the ReStore and buy VCT for a quarter a piece and deal with the maintenance. 🙂

  2. tear-down townie says

    I’ve got rubber flooring on the brain lately, and I came across this auction while looking for old ads for ideas on how to use my sheet rubber.

    For what these are, this seems like a really good price on enough tile to do a pretty good sized room…..and they are a period correct 9″ x 9″!!! the seller describes them as Olive Green, but the official RCA Rubber color is “Soft Jade”. It’s one of the colors on the RCA sample ring I got a few years back, and it really is a pretty color.

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-x9-solid-rubber-tile-/260977860821?pt=Tile_Flooring&hash=item3cc37e20d5

  3. tear-down townie says

    Rubber Report 2012:

    I went to check out some “industrial rubber” that was listed on Craigslist this weekend and came back with a truckload of incredible marbled rubber sheet flooring for around 20 cents a square foot! This stuff was all left over from a company that does bus interiors and is no longer going to do the flooring at their local facility. I ended up getting 2 shades of blue, mahogany, gray, tan, and a green that is almost a perfect match for the asphalt tiles in my 1956 ranch basement!

    Anybody in the Nashville/Atlanta/Birmingham interested in this type of flooring ought to check this out. I bought quite a bit of what the guy had in his garage yesterday, but I’m pretty sure he said he was bringing more home to sell. Here are the links to the ads he re-posted today:

    http://nashville.craigslist.org/mat/2836661390.html
    http://nashville.craigslist.org/mat/2836661390.html

    This flooring was made in India by a company called Zenith. For a better idea of the colors check out this link:

    http://zenithrubber.com/rubber-floorings/durafloor-marbles.htm

    I have no vested interest in the sale of this flooring, I just couldn’t buy it all and would like to see the rest find a good home

    In trying to decide how I might use my new found treasure, I came across this copy of the 1950 RCA Rubber Catalog(added to their site since I fist visited it back in 2008:

    http://www.rcarubber.com/historic/rca%201950%20catalog/index.html

    I’m intrigued by Wall-Flex, has anybody ever seen any houses/businesses from the 40s/50s that used rubber as a wall covering?

  4. Joel Kresner says

    I’m looking for rubber floor mats that look like linoleum to use on my ’20’s wood kitchen floor. Thanks
    jk