by Mary Knippel

Rick Bauman and van. Photo: Mary Knippel.

Do your decorating ideas include handsome hardwood flooring, recreating Grandma’s retro kitchen, or carpeting your living room using recycled plastic bottles? From classic to contemporary, earth-friendly to economical, simple to stunning, Bay Flooring Solutions brings a world of choices to Coastside clients. A family business since 1986, Bay Flooring Solutions recently changed its name — it was previously Rick Bauman Floors — to reflect the geography and expertise of the company. Serving the Bay Area from San Jose to Marin and across the bay, Bauman and his crew provide hardwood, carpet, tile, laminate, linoleum, area rugs, blinds and refinishing. Clients may choose anything from familiar product lines to exotic decorating options.

“Everything old is new again,” said Bay Flooring Solutions owner Rick Bauman as we sat among the samples surrounding us in the Pacifica showroom at 580 Crespi Center, Unit O. “Hardwood is becoming very popular. Ten years ago we’d do maybe two or three hardwood jobs; now, out of 10 jobs we’re doing at least six or seven hardwood jobs. Maintenance is simple – just damp mop the floor. A lot of hardwood products have made hardwood floors more affordable, such as engineered hardwood.”

Hardwood veneers such as oak, pine, ash, teak and bamboo are used for the top layer of engineered hardwood floors, which allows the flooring to have the same visual beauty as natural hardwood flooring. A core layer made from other materials is glued to the bottom of this top layer. Natural hardwood flooring is constructed entirely out of a single piece of hardwood. Engineered hardwood flooring is less affected by environmental conditions and can be installed in more areas than natural hardwood flooring.

“The best part of my job is the customer,” said Bauman, a Pacifica native son who began the business with his wife, Jolie, 23 years ago. “I enjoy the interaction and the fact that we know 90 percent of our customers by their first names.” After a time working for Hostess Bakery, Bauman pursued the flooring trade. “I had good mentors; guys who were sharp,” he said. “I worked with one older gentleman who had been in the business since the ’30s. He was an old-school businessman who gave me the confidence I needed.”

The showroom contains products from 40-50 different companies. “We hand-pick the ones that we know have good guarantees and perform well,” Bauman said, “besides being user-friendly for our clients and our installers.”

Rick Bauman with a few of his product choices. Photo: Mary Knippel.

Carpeting made from recycled plastic bottles and old-fashioned linoleum are among the eco-friendly products carried by Bay Flooring Solutions. Invented in 1860, linoleum flooring is both contemporary and something from a time long past. Linoleum’s natural ingredients are renewable — linseed oil, ground cork or wood, pine rosin, crushed limestone and mineral pigments for color — which creates less of a draw on the earth’s resources than other types of flooring material.

Unfortunately, plastic bottles can rarely be recycled and reused as drinking-container plastic due to the chemical properties of the plastic, but they can be recycled into carpet. According to the Container Recycling Institute, eight out of 10 plastic water bottles become landfill waste. It takes 32 two-liter bottles to weave one square inch of carpet. One eco-friendly product found at Bay Flooring Solutions is the carpeting from EcoChoice Flooring, made from recycled plastic bottles.

EcoChoice carpets are made using a closed-loop recycling system where clients are given the opportunity to minimize their impact on the environment. When the carpet reaches the end of its useful life, it is simply brought back to the recycling facility for the carpet production process to start all over again, instead of the carpet being buried in a landfill.

For more information or to schedule an appointment at the Bay Flooring Solutions showroom, call 650-355-0324 or e-mail bfs235@sbcglobal.net.