Handmade Rugs

  I am a sucker for wood. Despite knowing the risks, I have installed wooden flooring in three different properties over the past eight years. Each time I told myself that I had learned from previous mistakes. Each time I discovered new problems. Here is the honest truth about wooden flooring in Dubai. Solid Hardwood: My Worst Mistake The first villa I owned, I imported solid oak flooring from Europe. The wood was beautiful quarter-sawn oak with a natural oil finish. The installer did everything right. He acclimated the wood for two weeks, used a moisture barrier, and left expansion gaps. By August, the floor had gaps between planks wide enough to see the underlayment. The boards near the patio door had cupped, meaning the edges were higher than the centers. I called the installer. He said the humidity difference between winter and summer in Dubai is too extreme for solid wood. The only solution is to keep the villa at constant 50% humidity year-round, which is impossible with our ...

  My garage floor was a disaster. The previous owner had painted it with cheap gray paint that peeled in sheets. Oil stains from my old car had soaked into the concrete. Every time I walked from the garage into my house, I tracked dust and oil on my clean floors. I tried everything. Here is what finally worked. Why Garage Floors Are Harder Than House Floors People do not realize that garage floors face different challenges than indoor floors. Temperature swings are extreme. My garage hits 45°C in summer afternoons and drops to 20°C at night. Cars park with hot tires that transfer heat. Oil, gasoline, brake fluid, and coolant drip constantly. Heavy tools and jacks are dropped. Snow chains are not an issue in Dubai, but tracked sand acts like sandpaper. I learned that a simple painted floor will not last. Neither will standard tiles. The only solutions that hold up are epoxy coatings and heavy-duty rubber mats. I ended up using both in different parts of my garage. My First Attempt: ...

  When I told my contractor I wanted cork flooring in my bedroom, he laughed. He said cork belongs on wine bottles, not floors. I ignored him and installed it anyway. That was four years ago. My bedroom has the warmest, quietest, most comfortable floor in the entire villa. Here is why cork worked when everyone said it would fail. The Myth That Cork Cannot Survive Dubai Humidity Everyone assumes cork absorbs moisture and swells. That is true for raw cork. But modern cork flooring is different. The cork is baked into blocks, then sliced into sheets, then fused with a high-density core and sealed with multiple layers of polyurethane or ceramic. The result is a floor that resists moisture almost as well as vinyl. I tested this myself. I left a piece of cork flooring in my bathroom for one week with a wet towel on top. The cork did not swell. The edges did not curl. Water beaded on the surface. I also left a sample outside during a rare Dubai rainstorm. It got wet but dried without dama...

  Terrazzo is having a moment in Dubai. I see it in cafes, hotels, and high-end villas. The speckled look is beautiful and timeless. When I decided to renovate my entryway, I wanted terrazzo. But I quickly learned there are two types: poured terrazzo and terrazzo tiles. I tried both. Here is what happened. Poured Terrazzo Failed in My Home Poured terrazzo is a mixture of marble chips and cement that is poured on site, then ground and polished smooth. I hired a specialist to install it in my hallway. The process took two weeks. They poured a 50mm layer, let it cure, then used heavy grinding machines to expose the aggregate. The result looked stunning. But after six months, cracks appeared. The building settled slightly and the terrazzo cracked with it. Poured terrazzo is rigid. It does not flex. In a Dubai villa with concrete block construction that expands and contracts, rigid floors crack. I also noticed stains from spills that seeped into the porous surface despite sealing. The s...

  I used to hate my bathroom walls. The tiles were from the previous owner, a weird beige color with yellow grout that never looked clean no matter how much I scrubbed. I considered retiling but the thought of demolition dust and weeks of work stopped me. Then a contractor suggested pvc wall cladding . I had never heard of it. Now I recommend it to everyone. Why Bathroom Walls Fail in Dubai’s Humidity The problem with traditional bathroom walls in Dubai is that grout is porous. Even with sealer, water seeps into grout lines over time. Behind the grout, moisture builds up. Mold grows. The grout cracks and falls out. Then water gets behind the tiles. Before you know it, you have a musty smell and loose tiles. I had this exact problem in my main bathroom. The wall behind the shower tiles was wet. The wood studs had started to rot. The tiles were held on by nothing but hope. When the contractor removed them, the drywall crumbled like wet cardboard. PVC wall cladding solves this because...