Engineered hardwoods... again

5 years ago

Hi all, new to these forums. I have read through many posts with questions similar to mine but nothing with my specifics.

We are purchasing a new home. In the main area (Foyer, office, DR, GR & Kitchen - about 1,150 s.f.) we are replacing carpet and tile with engineered hardwoods, as the home is on a slab. We are hoping for an installation that will allow us to do it ourselves, to save that cost; bf is no contractor but reasonably handy and we have help available. I understand that 3 mm veneer is the least I should go with and that 4mm will be even better. Our children are grown and we have one small dog - it will be just us in the home 95% of the time and we are not 'rough' on floors at all (he has experience moving furniture in high-end homes, etc. - we would not move anything that wasn't wrapped/padded). That said, obviously like everyone else, we are looking for durability as well as beauty.

We really want darker floors, and I have read that they show dirt more - maybe we could lean a bit medium (nothing light as our walls will be light, and the kitchen will be white)? We really want a very traditional, classic look. I have a design background (BFA) but have not had much experience in hardwoods and really need some guidance. As with most everyone, would love wider plank floors. I like the rough-hewn look (but not hand-scraped, HATE that 'wavy' appearance) and my BF seems to go toward the smoother, classic floors, but both of us are okay with the other. He likes the idea of bamboo, as he thinks it is stronger but I have read some bad things in regards to temps/humidity. We don't plan on any extreme changes in our home temps (if we go out of town we leave it the same for our dog and dog sitter), but who knows if there was a storm/power outage - would not want my floors warping. I probably have 100 samples from LL, HD, etc. and am getting overwhelmed. The floors and marble-look quartz countertops are killing me, lol.

We are probably going with Home Depot for our kitchen remodel (total gut), which will be done before the floors, simply because we can just get a project loan through them and keep costs down. I thought it would be easy just to go through them for flooring, too but now I am not sure if they have anything that would stand up in way of the style and quality I am looking for - I have several samples of the Malibu Wide Plank (Hickory Trestles and French Oak Francis) and on the surface (like many), they are beautiful, but the only reviews are again, from their website and the samples don't measure up in terms of parameters I have read by flooring experts.

Grateful for any feedback/advice.

Featured Answer

Lisa SW

5 years ago

In addition to helping you with product selection, you should expect a good flooring store with on staff installers to come to the house to measure and to carefully assess the work scope including contingencies for what is likely to be found under the existing flooring. Prior to contract, you should receive a detailed quote including contingencies. In our case that was a contingency for potentially replacing a section of subfloor. (Don’t ask about the dearly departed cat with behavioral issues.) We aren’t on a slab so I’ll defer to SJ on concrete remediation, but in our case we had approx 1,200 Sf that was an almost equal mix of carpet and tile. Carpet and tile removal, install pre finished hardwood throughout plus tile in laundry room — 3-1/2 days. Good installers are priceless!