Replacing wood parquet floor in high rise condo
I desperately need input from flooring experts.
This is for a small condo (about 500 sqft) on the second floor in a high rise building. Ceiling/floors are concrete There's no tenant underneath.
The current floor is carpet on top of those what I think are old Bruce veneer ply 9x9 tiles from the 60s, like this:
My preference for the new floor is a light plank floor, either floating or glued down. This is what one floor contractor recommended, who has done excellent work for me; however, that was done on floors in low-rise apartments or single homes (no concrete floor). He has seen the condition of the floor before the current carpet was installed, i.e. the bare floor where the water damaged tiles had been removed and the remaining parquet tiles, but he hasn't seen all the concrete floor underneath.
A GC, who is very familiar with the building, recommends replacing everything with new parquet tiles, probably like these:
http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/site-search.asp?q=parquet
This would run about 9.00/sqft incl. new subfloor. He strongly advises against plank floor, because installation would be very difficult:
"I know that the concrete floors have HUGE
unevenness all around and leveling that concrete floor
(raising level of it up to 2” to 3” at certain spots) would take a lot
of time. Then, some wood type of subflooring would need to be installed
on concrete slab and only then the flooring. Whole floor would
rise for maybe 4” !
Any other method of hardwood flooring installation in that condo would not be proper and problems would occur after the installation. NO FLOORING company will
do it the right way and you would end up with problems. That is why parquet was installed initially. Floors do not have to be perfectly straight and you can not see unevenness.I'm not crazy about installing parquet, but is he right? Obviously, I don't want floor guy no. 1 to run into the problems the GC describes above and then end up with a horrible floor.
TIA
Comments (9)
nosoccermom
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Subfloor and soundproofing for hardwood floors in high rise condo
Comments (1)He may be doing what we call a floating subfloor over the concrete. It is two plywood layers attached to each other installed on a diagonal to the room walls. It is not attached to the slab in any way, which helps keep impact noise from migrating to the unit below. The flooring is nailed or stapled to the plywood. That is the way I would do it. Key to success using that method is that the plywood needs to be quality and dry. I would not specify cheap pine plywood for that kind of install. You want a sheet that is dry, flat and stable. But, of course, your GC may have something in mind altogether different. As long as your slab is reasonably flat, it does not matter whether or not small dents and dings are filled prior to installing the soundproofing material. That is my opinion...some others may disagree....See MoreEngineered wood floors in a condo - What underlayment? Floating? Glue?
Comments (7)Oh dear. Noise abatement requirements with hard surface flooring over light weight concrete (aka "gypcrete"). And you only have enough room for 6mm worth of acoustic insulation. Hmmmm. You are getting into expensive territory. First check what is ALLOWED by the HOA/Condo board. They will have ratings that will tell you what you have to MEET or exceed with hard coverings. Secondly check to see if the acoustic glue underlayments will even grab gypcrete. Most things HATE gypcrete. I mean HATE. There are many high-quality glues that do NOT grab gypcrete. And the one's that do, can be nasty. But don't worry. Being in California means you can't purchase anything that violates CARB compliance - unless you order it over the internet (ahem...best to stick with brick and mortar point of purchase for stuff like this). And just for fun, not all wood floors can be floated and not all can be glued. And not all glues grab gypcrete...see where we are going here? And then there is the noise abatement that MUST be addressed BEFORE you go any further. Without those numbers, you are flying blind and so are we. In the cork industry, I NEVER got my 6mm cork underlay to pass a SoCal condo boards requirements. My customers ALWAYS had to go 12mm with a wood floor (of any kind). You can get some decent sound reduction with mass loaded vinyl. But it is expensive. It is very thin and very expensive. And vinyl does NOT like sitting underneath wood. But it depends on the mass loaded vinyl product. And QuietWalk Plus is a product that is relatively thin and yet has some of the same acoustic insulation as 12mm cork underlay. It will save you the height at least. It too is not cheap. https://www.mpglobalproducts.com/flooring-underlayment/products/quietwalk-plus/sound-rating/...See MoreDuctless mini-split for high-rise condo
Comments (9)You might be able to put the compressor unit on the balcony, and then feed refrigerant to a unit on the inside wall abutting the balcony. Let it cool everything, or else you have to pay for more expander heads and the plumbing. Also the heads have to drain, and I will be happy to regale you with possible issues associated with doing so. A few years ago (in NH) I had installed two Mitsubishi systems, one 4-head and one 2-head. Four of these heads are on interior walls. I think the price was near $20k to cool 2600 sq. ft. If you are only supplementing the building AC in the summer, and doing moderate cooling in the fall, you may not need a very powerful unit. I can say that the compressors and the heads are very quiet. You can hear the fan at the outdoor compressor. It is about as loud as a window fan on low. At one point one compressor developed an intermittent racket, fixed by some adjustment, when the compressor iced up trying to pull heat from near freezing humid air. They are designed to de-ice, but I think between fan alignment and ice build-up there was a bit of overlap that needed to be adjusted. You will need a hole in the wall to contain two refrigerant lines and a control power line. The lines to the compressor unit will be covered by a plastic cover. You will need an outdoor disconnect switch and power feed of 20 to 40 amperes at 240 Vac. Your balcony may be subject to a warm air breeze from the compressor unit, depending how it is placed....See Morefloor options new condo
Comments (38)Is this a new build or a renovation project? If a new build best bet is to speak to your builder/design team. I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to help you with any needs. I see the address for the builder is in Denver. Most Coloradans know that hardwood isn’t always the best option up here. As far as sheet vinyl goes, you’re not limited for that I don’t think. There are so many engineered flooring options these days and they look great....See Morenosoccermom
6 years agonosoccermom
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoIt's actually not the little finger parquet but 9x9 that look like this.
I'll wait for the floorpros, but it sounds first order is to establish how even/uneven the floor is.
Easiest would, of course, be to find about 120 sqft of those tiles.
PROG & S Floor Service
6 years agommcgee2
5 years ago
Johnson Flooring Co Inc