I am confused with below grade slab and daylight, sounds more on grade than anything else. I would not use a tarkett fiber floor. I am sure you want to float the vinyl and the only way to go is Congoleum's Air Step Plus or Air step evolution. It is not your typical fiberglass floor, can float entirely or be just perimeter fastened and is guaranteed by Congo not to buckle. There is no other floor like it and Air step plus is relatively inexpensive. Armstrong also makes one `kind of similar but not the same. No one else...period.I am sitting here racking my brain and this would be the choice for the specifications you indicate. I have a ton of info on why no other ones comes close. Scotchguard..silver treated for anti microbial properties..12 mil..decent cushion to it..20 year warranty..the real deal and its the only floater that the manufacturer does not give itself a ton of sniffle clauses on why it should be glued. And USA made entirely which is another good thing and very green product.

Poolowner- Here is the radiant specs put out by the NWFA: With radiant heat, the heat source is directly beneath the flooring, so the flooring may dry out faster than a similar floor in a home with a conventional heating system. Wood flooring can be installed over radiant heat as long as you understand radiant heat and how it can impact wood flooring, what precautions to take, and what type of wood flooring to use. Types of wood flooring that are best suited-for radiant heat subfloor are products that possess improved dimensional stability such as: ⢠Engineered wood flooring is more dimensionally stable than solid wood flooring. ⢠Certain species are known for their inherent dimensional stability such as North American oak, American cherry, American walnut and others. Denser species such as maple and Brazilian cherry are less stable. ⢠Quartersawn and rift-sawn wood flooring is more dimensionally stable in width than plain sawn wood flooring. ⢠Narrow boards are more dimensionally stable than wide boards. So in that light I would look for an engineered product that isn't wider than 3", preferably quartersawn and unfortunately not Maple.

I recently went through this carpet->wood on stairs conversion myself. We had 17 stairs + a landing and an extra step up to the landing. I used pre-finished 5" maple planks (engineered) on the treads to match the wood in the rest of the house. We bought pre-finished nosing for each step ($$$). For the risers I used 1/2" birch plywood painted white (nice contrast with the dark wood). Overall, I'm happy with the end result. However, it wasn't easy and took a long time. 1) it's a lot of work, and, if you don't put some thought and time into it, it will show 2) Walls and stairs are rarely straight, perpendicular, parallel, or aligned in any direction to make this job easier. Each and every cut will be unique 3) Our staircase has a stringer on each side - no balusters to worry about, but that doubles the number of unique cuts to make 4) pre-finished nosing is expensive. Our steps are 42" wide. The nosing comes in 78" sticks. I didn't want a splice in the nosing, so that meant one stick for every stair 5) After we started, I found some places online that sell one piece treads. I'm not sure that it would have been cheaper than fitting multiple planks on each step, but it would probably be a lot less cutting. 6) with 17 steps, the less trips down to the saw and up to test the fit on the top step the better. Of course the top stairs are probably going to be the ones hardest to get right I found the hardwoodflooringtalk website to be very useful during our entire install. There are several guides and a busy message forum. I recommend you (or DH) spend some time browsing it before starting. Unfortunately THS won't let me post a link to them here, but a google search for "hardwood flooring talk" should get you there. Good luck!

While yes, it would be possible to use a different sander in those areas, I wouldn't head that direction if I had other options. First, the price quote was for doing the entire interior of the room with the big machine. If a smaller machine was used, the labor cost would increase and the refinishing will be more money. If you are looking to use stain on the floor, different machines remove material differently and if the surface isn't machined with the same equipment, it won't absorb stain consistently. It isn't just the grit used, it is the brand of paper, the type of abrasive, the speed and direction of movement, and any other seemingly unimportant detail that actually will impact the finish surface. If you have ever seen a floor with a darker or lighter perimeter, that is the result of trying to stain two unequal materials. I had noticed the picture frame effect on floors over the years and didn't know the cause the first few times I saw that, typically in properties for sale with listings touting newly refinished floors. The darker the planned stain, the more noticeable those surface irregularities that become glaring issues. Without stain, those issues will not be nearly as obvious and perhaps not visible at all to the untrained eye. Another concern is movement of the floor while being sanded. If the floor has boards not securely attached, the sander will bounce slightly and leave horizontal lines or longer waves in the surface. That is usually described as chatter and is sometimes visible on wood moldings as well.