OT: Does anyone have Milliken Legato carpet tiles?

Hello Folks,

Hopefully I'll have some time early 2009, new office and lab floors, and if it looks good other parts of the house. Does anybody have experience with Milliken Legato carpet tiles?

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Kinda pricey but, oh well, they have the colors that the missus wants :-)

The guys in a German NG said it should be ok to roll around on those with office chairs. But they don't have the exact same products and they don't experience extreme heat over there (sometimes >90F in the lab), so I just want to make sure I don't buy stuff that ends up failing. The tiles aren't glued, there is some kind of Post-It tack on the back. Of course, since there is concrete underneath here I've written to them to see if that needs a sealer before installation.

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Joerg
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I have seen oversized dual wheel casters made for office chairs that are supposed to eliminate the need for a chair mat.

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Michael A. Terrell

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Well, I don't want to go to that length. There's also stuff like tool cabinets and such. Then an orthopedic type chair for back training with non-standard rollers. A chair mat isn't cool either because I am going to be rolling around the whole lab depending one which equipment needs to be fired up.

I need a carpet that can take the load. The wall to wall I've got now does but it's shot and clearing out office plus lab for a new one just isn't an option. Too much down time.

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Joerg

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The replacement wheels are about twice the size of the original, and either screw or pop into the base of the chair. A few minutes, at most.

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Michael A. Terrell

(snip)

(snip)

True that some "identical" products - German/other - commonly are different. Dunno if you were referring only to the carpet. In the 80's I visited the German lab of my U.S. company and noticed right away that the design of the office furniture was light-years ahead of the Steelcase(?) stuff in my home lab. High-back, pneumatic-height-adjust chairs that supported in all the right places and, very notably, had 4 or 5 legs, each with a large double-caster (as opposed to the tipover-prone, 3-leg, ball-castered thing back in my U.S. office). While the German offices were not carpeted, it occured to me at the time that 8 or 10 wheels would probably be gentler to carpet than 3 ball casters.

{Personal-rambling: ON} I've heard and read that Germany has been forging ahead with solar panels and grid augmentation for some years, and it's not hard to think of other areas in which Germany - as well as other European countries - are leading the U.S. ... and even going ahead *without* the U.S. But there are anomalies too. In the case of Germany, wall switches are wired upside-down!! ;-) (But it's true; up is OFF and down is ON) Over lunch one day I quipped to some German colleagues that I could not get used to the "backwards" light switch in my office, had considered "flipping it over the right way", and that the only reason I hadn't done so was my conviction that I would find it magically flipped back over very next morning. "Or very soon after", one of them said with a solomn nod. Ya gotta love the way Germans handle humor.

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Michael

Dunno if you were

company and noticed

Steelcase(?) stuff

all the right places

to the

German offices were

be gentler to carpet

Once upon a time I saw casters that were spheres instead of the usual flat-sided wheels. But I haven't seen them recently. It always seemed to me that that shape was ideal for carpet.

[snip]

...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson

Dunno if you were

company and noticed

the Steelcase(?) stuff

all the right places

opposed to the

German offices were

be gentler to carpet

T'is why I have German-made office chairs throughout the office and lab. And yeah, they all have five dual-casters.

But I was only referring to the carpet. Milliken did not answer on Friday, maybe they gave everybody the day off. I hope, else that would not be so good. Anyhow, it seems to be the only stuff available out here. Other tiles are glued down with things like round tape snippets at the corners and that most certainly will not work. This stuff is expensive at >$3/sqft so I want this to work until I retire.

grid augmentation for

well as other European

But there are

;-) (But it's

colleagues that I could

"flipping it over the

would find it

them said with a solomn

Don't forget the side effects. Yeah, they have a large solar program but it is a forced subsidy bankrolled by regular ratepayers. Since I moved to the US in the 90's the cost of electricity seems to have tripled. No wonder, because they dole out huge "backfeed reimbursements" to solar panel operators. Hurts business and hurts the little guy (for example renters).

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Joerg

Dunno if you were

U.S. company and noticed

the Steelcase(?) stuff

all the right places

opposed to the

German offices were

be gentler to carpet

Carpet wants casters with the most surface contact area possible. The problems arise when you happen to sit on the chair for an extended CAD session while one caster is at a tile seam and parallel to it, then the phone rings and you scoot over.

But I don't want to also buy new chairs because these are "the good stuff", ergonomic designs north of $500 a pop. Not the budget warehouse club chairs.

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Joerg

Joerg wrote: (snip)

Oh, make no mistake... I was not defending the German implementation of solar "backfeed", just mentioned solar because solar could be good and is under-utilized here (IMHO).

Yeah, I guess juice comes dear in Deutschland. After watching a TV program a couple years ago about Germany's methodology for merging solar with the grid I emailed a German friend and asked her what a KWH costs in fabulous, dynamic Holzgerlingen. She didn't have even a ballpark figure and promised to ask hubby. Nothing further! After I reminded her a month later she replied simply, "Too much". Poor solar program? 1980's "Atomkraft? Nein danke!" rant too influencial? Russian LNG priced high? All of these? More? I have no idea.

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Michael

"backfeed", just

couple years ago about

friend and asked her what a

figure and promised

replied simply, "Too

influencial? Russian LNG

Russian gas isn't too expensive but many are blissfully unaware how easily Vladimir or someone else can issue a valve closure to make a strong point. Very efficient when a cold front rolls in. Last I heard kWh prices are north of 20 Eurocents over there. We used to pay about

6-7, less for the heat pump kWh.
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Joerg

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Just as an addendum: Today I called two HD and one Lowes store inquiring whether I could see a sample. All their samples for carpet tiles have been tossed. At one HD store the clerk told me he had someone ask the same question about an hour before I called. That guy left empty-handed. No sale, no deal. I just cannot believe that. I mean, what effort does it take to keep a small stack of samples?

Sometimes I am flabbergasted how easy business opportunities are wasted away. In this day and age that is IMHO not a smart thing to do. They could have made a quick $1500 from me tomorrow. Now they don't. Ain't that just great for the economy?

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Joerg

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Oh, that's just great! Now you'll need a new table, too.

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Michael A. Terrell

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You assume that the manufacturer never changes the product. Samples have to represent the actual product or they're not very useful.

They can only go by historical sales. If they've never sold that product in the store, the space (and money) to stock samples is wasted. Every business has to make similar decisions.

Reply to
krw

Dunno if you were

company and noticed

the Steelcase(?) stuff

all the right places

opposed to the

German offices were

be gentler to carpet

They are available:

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Reply to
JosephKK

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I know the product still exists. At the medical company I worked at before starting out on my own our marketing guys sure were on top of things at all the distributors. Watching what they offered in samples, how it all was presented on the web sites and so on. They were on the horn in milliseconds if something wasn't alright. Because that would start cutting into the bottomline right away. As it did in this case.

According to one of the clerks it did sell, and the fact that another customer had asked one hour before me sounded kind of normal to him. The fact that they were made to toss the sample stack didn't sound normal to him.

This stuff is the only product where you can re-carpet a room without a total clear-out of the room. Now they do not have any alternatives left, neither HD nor Lowes. Makes no business sense to me.

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Joerg

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Oh, I'm sure the product still exists. That doesn't mean the manufacturer didn't change colors, weave, or something else that would require new samples.

I'm not the manager of said store. I'm sure they had good reason. Sales not meeting quota for floor space is a pretty good guess, though.

You can with carpet an occupied room with roll carpet too, it just requires lifts over the roll. Installers don't like to do it, but it can be done.

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krw

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Sure, but the smart thing to do is: Get the new samples in _before_ chucking the old ones. Pulling samples without replacement does not exactly instill confidence on the side of the end customer. Especially not in this day and age.

For a floor space of about one square-foot? The clerk sure did not sound that way, and he personally didn't understand this "strategy" either.

Not with this dreaded tack strip and stretch carpet we are more or less stuck with in the US. If I could get foam-backer wall to wall like I easily could in Europe I'd be done by now. However, I only found one roll of that and it wasn't even enough material for a single room. Over there in Europe you poured out a milk-like substance, rolled it all out, finished the perimeter in that area, heaved the desks and stuff across the roll, did some more urgent work while sitting at the PC on the "new" side, and continued the next day. Piece of cake. Then when this carpet was worn down you watered it gently which made the goo release, old carpet came out in one nice roll, then wet-mopping, let floor dry, spread a new layer of milky goo and lay the next carpet. Technologically we are certainly more advanced out here but definitely not when it comes to non-electronic home improvement.

Still on hold with this mfg right now. At least the phone is playing some nice bluegrass tunes althuogh it sounds like a distant AM station after midnight :-)

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Joerg

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This assumes the retailer uses enough to justify the cost ($$, space, and time) of the samples. It seems they've decided they can't. I've noticed a lot of products disappearing from the box store's inventory and are now either (blind) special order only or completely unavailable. HomeDespot seems to be carrying only the cheaper lines of many tools (very little Bosch), for example.

Box store clerks aren't the best source of information. They can't even get an order straight (grumble).

without a

Sure it can. I've seen it done. It's a PITA, so installers will tell you it "can't" be done, but it can.

Foam backer? You mean "padding"? That's available in many varieties. It only gets taped together until the carpet sits on it. Then gravity and friction hold it in place.

I've seen similar things for vinyl flooring, but for some reason it isn't common. Glue and carpeting seem to be a no-no on wood subflooring. It's always done (no choice) on slabs. It's a PITA to reverse though.

;-) At least it's not blaring Barry Manilow. ;-)

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krw

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Seems like it. After some more calls I found out they changed the sizes to 50cm square and tossed the 22" samples which were of same construction. Oh man. That's what I'd call a serious S&M blunder. All I need is to look at the material, not the size. My former boss would have ripped the VP of Sales' head off. Also, they should have measured the average American bedroom and would probably have found out that going to

19.7" isn't smart (a lot more cut-off loss, meaning more $$, meaning people not buying).

The topper was the mfg not knowing (!) the phone number of our local dealer. Plus the street address they have in their database is wrong. I simply can't believe it.

IIRC you must stretch starting at the four corners. Kind of hard to do. Using the middle instead might work. Or not.

Yes, a foam padding. In Europe it's embedded into the back of the carpet. Sure makes life easy. You don't even have to glue it down but if rolling office chairs are around it's better.

You have to properly pre-treat wood subflooring. In Europe that is done all the time. Here we have a 2" mud bed (like concrete) over the wood and still they had put tack strips down. Which is just great, as heavy file cabinets bend over the nails and you can never pull it back up.

Absolutamente :-)

And the folks answering the phone sure sound southern which is kind of nice.

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Joerg

Foam backed carpet is rubbish with rolling office chairs. The foam will break down and turn into dust which is shoved onto a big piles by the wheels. I recently threw the foam backed carpet out of my office and put carpet tiles on the floor (coudn't / didn't want to clear the room like Joerg).

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Nico Coesel

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