Whether its aesthetics or the urge to recycle, many people choose to put antique flooring in their homes. Most people think of wide hardwood boards as the only type of antique flooring, but in fact antique tiles and stones make popular floors too.Wood You Help Me Out?
Deciding on wood antique flooring can be an expensive decision. At an architectural antique store, the prices can far surpass anything at the home improvement warehouse. But so can the quality, and, if you dig enough, the selection. Going antique can net great finds that are just not quite available today to most people. Wide planks and odd hardwoods are not easy to get in any situation, but they’re much easier to get hold of as antique flooring than as new pieces.
To cut back on costs, do not go straight to the antiques high road. Check out salvage shops and the internet. If you are willing to do your own refinishing, you will save money.
And take a look in newspapers’ classified ads. Sometimes an old building is put up for a demolition sale: that is, you bring your own tools and buy anything you can pry out. Or you may get lucky and find someone selling antique flooring that is already been removed from its old home.
And naturally, do not forget your dimensions. With antique flooring, what you see is what you get, imperfections, scarcity and all. If you find a good thing at a good price, but it’s just a little short, see if your room could take a different trim around the edge, or a complementary patch near the furniture. It will add character and a conversation piece to your home.
Tile for Hot Climates
In hot climates, tile floors have always been popular. The Roman mosaics at Pompeii are tile. Some centuries’ old palaces in Europe are floored with Roman mosaics that were taken from ruins that had already been buried for hundreds of years when they got dug out.
But you do not have to loot a Roman villa for antique tiles. Victorian tiles are readily available, but to find enough to cover a floor, you will probably have to look on the internet or engage a specialist dealer.
The most durable tile antique flooring material is encaustic tile. These thick Victorian tiles come mostly in muted shades and usually make an intricate geometric pattern on the floor. Even incorporating a few of these into a modern tile floor makes a unique statement.
The national treasure hunt, Antiques Roadshow is, in its third season, the most popular show on PBS. Every week it draws millions and millions of viewers to the edge of their seats as independent dealers and specialists from the country’s leading auction houses appraise family heirlooms and flea market finds alike. Now this knowledge, authority, and passion is distilled in the Antiques Roadshow Primer, an introductory guide to American Antiques and collectibles. 
Thanks to Antiques Roadshow(tm), the highest rated, long running prime-time series on PBS(r), with millions of viewers a week, we are a nation seeking fortune in our attics. And thanks to Antiques Roadshow Primer, with 572,000 copies in print, we are highly antiques-literate. But there’s another audience out there, too, showing up ever more frequently on Antiques Roadshow-those obsessive, bitten-by-the-bug collectors. Bring on the “Maltese Falcon” posters! 
