what on earth is this flooring??

[brookster]

am stumped so any comments much appreciated.
i am half way through renovating a late 1920's stone semi in west yorks, all is going well except i have a quandry about my ground floor flooring so to speak. the property has 2 entrances - front door which seems to only have been used as a "best" door, and a side door c/w letter box which is obviously main entrance. the floor from front door is timber boards over a small cellar area, but the floor at the back of the house is concrete. however as you come in the side door the flooring is raised by about 25mm and looks to be about a 1.2m wide by 2m long section of marble or something?? its got a red border about 250mm wide and the centre is a blue/green mottled effect. being where it is is a real problem as we want wooden flooring in the hall from front door to kitchen diner door and slate tiles in kitchen diner - and this unknown floor is slap bang in the middle, ive tried to chisel from the edges but it just broke off and didnt seem like it was just laid onto the concrete sub floor, any ideas of how to get it up or what it is or what to do?? helllllllllpppppppppp please!!

apologies for long rubbish post.

 

[JohnD]

Sounds like it may be Granolithic flooring. Can be a very good quality floor if in good condition. I expect you're going to say it isn't to your taste It's going to be monolithic with the concrete. Can you think of a way to avoid taking it up?

 

[brookster]

cheers for your quick reply John, it sounds like you have identified it. the name seems to fit the flooring very aptly - its completely morphed into the concrete sub floor. the problem is we cant cover it with anything with any thickness as this will foul the side door opening and will look ridiculous alongside our proposed timber flooring if its 20/30mm higher.
it wouldn't be so bad if it was somewhere we were ideally moving into - its a part time renno with a view to putting it back on the market asap - so we need to appeal to as wide a market as poss - and like you say it may not be to many peoples taste even tho its a quality mega hard wearing floor. i was thinking maybe vinyl to cover it - only 2mm ish thick but would it look cheap do you reckon?

 

[JohnD]

You could try giving it a clean and polish, and put a mat on it. Some potential buyers will say "Oh, lovely, original granolithic flooring" and some will say "I'll soon cover that up" The ones who don't appreciate it are unlikely to know how difficult it is.

 

[brookster]

good shout John, many thanks fella.
I'll have to remember the "granolithic" term - its gonna impress a few potential buyers i hope.
thanks again.