So this new-floors thing is all new to me. Lived in this 24-yr old house for 19 years, and the floors are the original ones. Carpet everywhere except for the sheet vinyl in the kitchen/laundry. I am putting in new carpet on stairs/FROG, LVT in the kitchen/laundry, and engineered wood in the living/dining room. Hallway to 3 bedrooms is off the living room, and the existing carpeting will stay in hall and bedrooms, for now. My kitchen has a peninsula separating it from the dining room, and the dining room opens into the living room. It's not a large house, so more of a traditional room layout. I enter the house, always, from the garage, straight into the kitchen. I never come in from the front door. I live alone, son comes home to visit occasionally, BF does not live with me. No pets. House is on a crawlspace.

I have had a helluva time picking floors as the sheet vinyl, for me, was the perfect kitchen floor, and carpet is, well, easy and very very comfortable, to me. (I know lots of people hate both but that doesn't matter here).

When I decided to redo the kitchen and dining room, I knew the floors had to go. The stairs to the FROG is off the kitchen; it's ugly old beige carpet that I will be happy to get rid of. I only had a slight idea of what I even wanted when I started looking, and honestly I am SO TIRED of looking at samples. This is the curse of being a picky person I guess. Plus I am indecisive as hell, and constantly second-guessing myself.

I materials I have chosen are Armstrong Vivero Cinder Forest/Cosmic Gray for the kitchen/laundry, Tuftex Castelana/Glide carpet for the stairs/upstairs (color is the same but it will be a pattern on the steps), and Harris engineered wood (Aspen-Hickory Roaring Fork) in the living/dining rooms. I am doing the LVT as a glue-down - not floating - my personal preference.

I have had 3 estimators come, so far, just one gave a price, the others will email me. The last one that just came, brought up questions/issues that the others did not. And the others mentioned things that this one did not.

For example:

1) floor joists - the 3rd guy had to pull up a corner of the carpet to check the length of the joists (mine are 16" which is good) as he said that he often runs into 24", which would require additional thickness for subfloor (stability issue). The other two estimators never even mentioned this or looked at it.

2) pulling up existing vinyl and luan, and putting in new luan, before installing LVT. 3rd guy said that since my kitchen floor was in such great shape, we had the option of putting the LVT on top of it. He said this would save me money, and was certainly the way to go in his opinion. The other two estimators did not even mention doing it the other way - they just both say that the existing floor was in good shape and the LVT would go on top of it.

3) The laying of carpet on the stairs - waterfall vs hollywood. I did not know anything about this- only the 2nd estimator brought it up. He explained it, and I chose Hollywood. The first guy never mentioned it...I did bring it up to the 3rd one as soon as we got to the steps, so maybe he might have asked, I don't know.

4) The direction of the wood floors. First guy said that front to back would be fine. (My joists run in that same direction). The 3rd guy (middle estimator was only doing carpet and LVT) The 3rd guy said that there was no option - wood had to go across the joists in order to get a proper install. I am a bit bummed by this as the natural direction of the rooms would be front to back. REALLY had only pictured it that way.

5) 2nd guy talked about seam options in the FROG - and explained them. Told me the way that it was currently installed was probably the best for me, given how the room is used. First guy just glossed over it - 3rd guy said he normally chose the layout that is the best for the customer, financially. He said that seams, if done correctly, would not even be noticeable, so he did not like to spend money to avoid a seam, but he would see how it worked out and let me know.

There may have been some other things, but this is all I can remember right now. I wanted to get it down before I forgot it! Sorry this is so long, (and if you are still reading, thank you!). How did you find the different estimators to be? Was there a big difference in the information and options that they offered? For me the money is not quite as important as the install itself - I want it done properly. But I don't want to throw money away, either.

Thoughts?