wah-washitsu, a 畳 crisis
Nov. 29th, 2022 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_losI have a small bedroom that is 274.32 cm x 249 cm. A while ago, to deal with its tiny size, I bought 4 gently-used tatami mats and a Japanese futon. The mats can make a single or a double bed or stack against the wall as needed: so far, so good. I like them, and it's a much better solution than trying to fit any kind of Western bed in that room. I cannot use the mats as a primary floor surface at present, however, because they sit on top of the shitty fake hardwood we put in as an emergency stop-gap measure when we moved in. This means the door cannot properly swing open with them in the way.
With the baby coming (Katy is 14 weeks along), I'd like to actually lay the tatami mats. They will be softish, making the whole room a safe play area/crib, basically: a child can't fall if they're low to the ground. The mats are relatively easy to clean, and have a long life-cycle: the underlying block should be good for about twenty years. After about 5 years of solid use, one flips the woven grass layer on top over. After another five or so, one buys a new top and then, in time, flips it over as well. Only once this cycle is complete does one think about flipping or changing out the whole body of the mat.
On Monday, I'm collecting free, salvaged English Oak parquet blocks (enough to also do the hallway and maybe the main bedroom, which is another story). This will enable me to create a traditional wood border around the mats, and also to make up for any sizing issues (I can fit the blocks around the perimeter in a pleasing way to eat excess inches). Bringing them level with the depth of the mats should be fairly easy, I just need to add an under-layer wherever we set them.
The problem came yesterday, when I measured the mats. Tatami mats all have a standard size in Japan. They are:
Length 180cm, Width 90cm, Depth 5.5cm approximately.
This is so standardised that Japanese properties' sizes are often reckoned up in mats as a unit of measurement. A dining room is 6 mats or whatever.
Futon Company, a popular UK business importing Japanese-made mats, however, bucks this to match their mats to UK bed sizes. Their mats have a couple size option, but the one we have ended up with four of is:
L198 x W76 x D5cm.
So, if I can get some guys to set these mats to the right depth (and if I can't, I'll have to start thinking about a barn door/shoji apparatus, which would itself need a certain amount of clearance, or shaving a little off the bottom of the door--though I do want the floors to be level, from room to room), do I:
1. Set the mats I have:
- they're an unusual size and won't quite make the classic patterns because they're not 2:1 length:width.
- They are abundant in the UK now and can be relatively easily fully replaced if something serious happens to a mat, but I can't count on the company to still be trading in 30 years. If I set the parquet around a weird-sized item, this could be annoying later.
- Will I be able to find replacement top layer tatami in this weird size?
- Does this matter, given the difficulty of changing the top layer on my own (without training and a HUGE fuck-off needle to secure the ribbon) and/or the potential difficulty of finding a guy who can do this?
- The radiator's two pipes (currently extending 7cm from the wall) would probably necessitate two small accommodation holes being cut into one mat. This would be hidden by the radiator cover, but might stress the binding on the overall cover.
- I suppose the parquet could always be adjusted later, because it lays in snug interlocking blocks, but I don't LOVE leaving a problem for future me or the next owners.
- For now, the Futon Company's leavings are prevalent in the country, and their full replacement mats will be cheaper.
- see Plan 3 and Plan 4 (doesn't require any radiator adjustments).
2. Sell the mats I have and buy the classic sized mats?
- It's annoying to sell the ones I have and not deathly expensive, but kind of expensive, to buy properly-sized mats. (I'll recoup a fair amount of the cost in selling the ones I have, though).
- The classic sized mats are more universal, though not in the UK: I am more likely to find replacement tops pre-cut to this size. (Or at least I think I am: I haven't actually replaced a top before. I watched a guy do it in a video? Maybe there's a guide to this.)
- The classic installation patterns will match up, and not look dumb.
- The radiator's two pipes (currently extending 7cm from the wall) would have to be moved back to inside 4cm. If this is somehow impossible, see above the the issue.
- I will have to be VERY CAREFUL about buying any used replacement mats, because they may well be the Futon Company's bullshit, and Western auction houses will not know enough to know to mark them as non-standard.
- see Plan 1 and Plan 2.
With the baby coming (Katy is 14 weeks along), I'd like to actually lay the tatami mats. They will be softish, making the whole room a safe play area/crib, basically: a child can't fall if they're low to the ground. The mats are relatively easy to clean, and have a long life-cycle: the underlying block should be good for about twenty years. After about 5 years of solid use, one flips the woven grass layer on top over. After another five or so, one buys a new top and then, in time, flips it over as well. Only once this cycle is complete does one think about flipping or changing out the whole body of the mat.
On Monday, I'm collecting free, salvaged English Oak parquet blocks (enough to also do the hallway and maybe the main bedroom, which is another story). This will enable me to create a traditional wood border around the mats, and also to make up for any sizing issues (I can fit the blocks around the perimeter in a pleasing way to eat excess inches). Bringing them level with the depth of the mats should be fairly easy, I just need to add an under-layer wherever we set them.
The problem came yesterday, when I measured the mats. Tatami mats all have a standard size in Japan. They are:
Length 180cm, Width 90cm, Depth 5.5cm approximately.
This is so standardised that Japanese properties' sizes are often reckoned up in mats as a unit of measurement. A dining room is 6 mats or whatever.
Futon Company, a popular UK business importing Japanese-made mats, however, bucks this to match their mats to UK bed sizes. Their mats have a couple size option, but the one we have ended up with four of is:
L198 x W76 x D5cm.
So, if I can get some guys to set these mats to the right depth (and if I can't, I'll have to start thinking about a barn door/shoji apparatus, which would itself need a certain amount of clearance, or shaving a little off the bottom of the door--though I do want the floors to be level, from room to room), do I:
1. Set the mats I have:
- they're an unusual size and won't quite make the classic patterns because they're not 2:1 length:width.
- They are abundant in the UK now and can be relatively easily fully replaced if something serious happens to a mat, but I can't count on the company to still be trading in 30 years. If I set the parquet around a weird-sized item, this could be annoying later.
- Will I be able to find replacement top layer tatami in this weird size?
- Does this matter, given the difficulty of changing the top layer on my own (without training and a HUGE fuck-off needle to secure the ribbon) and/or the potential difficulty of finding a guy who can do this?
- The radiator's two pipes (currently extending 7cm from the wall) would probably necessitate two small accommodation holes being cut into one mat. This would be hidden by the radiator cover, but might stress the binding on the overall cover.
- I suppose the parquet could always be adjusted later, because it lays in snug interlocking blocks, but I don't LOVE leaving a problem for future me or the next owners.
- For now, the Futon Company's leavings are prevalent in the country, and their full replacement mats will be cheaper.
- see Plan 3 and Plan 4 (doesn't require any radiator adjustments).
2. Sell the mats I have and buy the classic sized mats?
- It's annoying to sell the ones I have and not deathly expensive, but kind of expensive, to buy properly-sized mats. (I'll recoup a fair amount of the cost in selling the ones I have, though).
- The classic sized mats are more universal, though not in the UK: I am more likely to find replacement tops pre-cut to this size. (Or at least I think I am: I haven't actually replaced a top before. I watched a guy do it in a video? Maybe there's a guide to this.)
- The classic installation patterns will match up, and not look dumb.
- The radiator's two pipes (currently extending 7cm from the wall) would have to be moved back to inside 4cm. If this is somehow impossible, see above the the issue.
- I will have to be VERY CAREFUL about buying any used replacement mats, because they may well be the Futon Company's bullshit, and Western auction houses will not know enough to know to mark them as non-standard.
- see Plan 1 and Plan 2.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-30 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-01 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-01 12:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-01 06:01 am (UTC)But all the real Japanese repair products like new layer mats and ribbons will presumably be for the actual size of mat. And I could maybe adapt them to this, but?
no subject
Date: 2022-12-01 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-01 06:09 am (UTC)Luckily, the way Victorian floorboards are constructed means that shaving off a couple cm shouldn’t necessarily be that hard. Say the current laminate is 1cm, well that’s gone. Say the sheeting the idiot who used to live here replaced the floorboards with at some points is gone, that’s another two. Then the boards, on their sides, are about a foot deep, and snicking a 2, 3 cm groove into them is minimal, a couple hours’ work maybe with little structural impact. The issue then is, if I cut that groove to the size of one of these mat types, it won’t be compatible with another. That’s mendable I suppose in 20 years with some adjustments to the parquet and all, but I’d rather measure twice and cut once.