First floor flooring - manufactured wood or replace vinyl and carpet?
Our house is 19 years old and has original carpet and vinyl downstairs, about 1100 square feet, that includes an office, living/dining room, family room, kitchen, 1/2 bath, and laundry room. The vinyl runs through the kitchen into the laundry room. (First photo is near the front door, second photo is to show the place where the different floorings all come together.) We've recently replaced the carpet on the stairs and in all of the rooms upstairs with Shaw Anso nylon carpet. While I'm happy with that choice, I don't want it downstairs for a bunch of reasons. We recently got an estimate from one of the most reputable flooring places in town to put Abode Maple Harvest Moon manufactured wood flooring all downstairs. It's a color that we felt contrasts just enough with the maple cabinetry and goes nicely with the darker countertops, but isn't *too* dark (3rd picture is from the computer generated room you can create on Abode's website - wish I could throw an area rug down in the photo!)
Because of some bathroom updates along with the new carpet upstairs we've done the past year, we don't have an unlimited budget, about $10K is what we can spend, and the estimate is $16K, which includes all of the demo, a new subfloor (curious what people think about this part), the cost of the flooring, and moving of appliances. We'd have to put the baseboards back ourselves or find a handyman to do it, so that's potentially another cost (my husband is handy but his knees are bad so I don't want him doing this. Maybe I could though?)
I'm curious what others here would do?
1) Keep on with the hardwood plan but get more bids to see if the price will come down?
2) Or look at carpet and vinyl options and keep the wood entryway and flooring as it is now? And if you choose this, what would you go with in that regard?
Thanks for any help with this!
Comments (13)
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Comments (15)So it's preferable that the rooms be totally empty? Ideally, but it's seldom practical unless someone is moving in. Moving all furniture to one side of the room, then moving it onto the finished part works. Or clear the living room, install flooring there and then move all the bedroom stuff into the LR so they can do all of the rest of the rooms with no waiting. If you are having the floors site-finished, moving out is the only way to do it because of dust, sticky half-dried floors, etc. Ship the kids to the grandparents. You can save time and maybe money by removing the carpet yourselves. Actually, if you have patience, laying flooring it's not a difficult project. TEDIOUS, but not difficult. You need a compressor, finish nailer gun, pneumatic floor nailer (which can be sold for almost as much as you paid for it), floor nails and a miter saw. I went for pre-finished because of time issues. Just one strip at a time, lay it out and nail it down ... then do another one. With two people, one can be laying out the row as the other nails....See MoreParadigm vinyl floor review-White Sand replacing oak floors
Comments (3)I think it’s Kardean. I decided against it because I did a hammer test and paradigm, cortex and Adura did better. My final two or grey or oak vinyl (same color as the original). The grey flooring matches my tiles. But Oak seems to be warmer and not have heavy contrast with furniture. I have a lot of artwork in different colors, I’m using neutrals, deep green as my palette, and will add accent colors through out....See MoreWood floor or Luxury vinyl for kitchen/first floor of new build home?
Comments (18)I've been part of a Residential Home's purchase of 8mm cork glue down cork tiles in their common area. The tiles were site finished with 2 coats of Loba 2K Supra AT. The cork is thick with natural energy absorbing abilities. The Loba 2K Supra AT is a HIGH GRIP product - even when damp. An elderly resident fell from a standing position. They landed heavily on their hip. They were taken to EMERG for X-Rays. There was no sign of a break. The resident was Dx with a 'deep bone bruise' and sent home to rest. The Home's director stated that previous falls of that nature usually have resulted in broken bones. This was the first time the home had seen a serious fall that did not result in broken bones. The cork was the difference maker. Cork is finicky but can be made super tough without compromising on aesthetics. It can be used INSTEAD OF carpet. In fact it is a 'carpet replacement' product. When done properly it can last 130+ years (Library of Congress received their cork floor in 1890's....it is STILL THERE...in it's original state)....See MoreHelp with flooring choices for DIY bedroom carpet replacement
Comments (7)Let's deal with the Elephant in the room: floating floors have a hollow feel = BAD subfloor preparation. I'm going to tell you a little secret about carpets. They HIDE the WORST SUBFLOORS in the building industry. I mean people have found cigarette butts, gum wrappers, saranwrap, drywall cuts, etc under their carpets. And that's just the stuff you can sweep up. Now for the 'never flat, never level' subfloor. These builders use lowest of the low/crappiest of the crappy materials under carpet and sheet vinyl (I doubt you have linoleum...I'm guessing sheet vinyl...but never mind). They use PARTICLE board or OSB - the nasty stuff. Now imagine trying to tile over top of that crap. New subfloor anyone? And the other issue, if you have wood joist/wood subfloors...the DEFLECTION RATING! The deflection rating is only good enough for CARPET...or a floating floor. It might not be enough for regular hardwood (it all depends on where the joists are and the thickness of the subfloor). Whomsoever you spoke to at LOWES is telling you the truth (wow...a dude at Lowe's knows what he's talking about??? never happens!). Imagine you have a deflection rating that is 1/2 of what you need...and you have crappy OSB as the subfloor. Cement backer board does NOT add to the stiffness rating of the subfloor. You need REAL plywood (subfloor grade thick enough to get you to the Deflection Rating of the tile = could be VERY thick...depending on your joist distance). That stuff is not cheap. You are looking at $1.00 - $1.75/sf. Plus all the SCREWS (no nails...you need to SCREW the new subfloor to the old one...that's fun in with a capital SUCKS!). The screw pattern is tattooed onto the wood. Which is every 6 inches on the edges and every 4 inches in the field! That's A LOT of GALVENIZED SCREWS. Your screws will cost $50. Now we move onto the ditra/schluter system. And the spacer system (as you already know) and the thinset and the grout and the tiles. So far you could be into the tile job for $3/sf...now you have the other $3-$5/sf for the tile/thinset/mortar. Sigh. Now lets look at laminate. How does $2/sf for a decent midrange plank sound? Not bad right. Good. Now imagine the cost of 6mm cork UNDERLAY. That's another $0.80/sf. Excellent. Now imagine LOOSE LAYING the cork sheets (do NOT purchase the role...you loose 10% to the inside curl) DIRECTLY to the subfloor. No glue. No nails. Nothing. It just sits there. Now that you have the spacers at the walls (your expansion gap spacers = 1/2") and your cork sheets are laid up to the spacers (give the cork the same amount of expansion as the laminate). Now click together your laminate floor. Excellent. You have eliminated the BOUNCE of laminate (due to the subfloors being uneven) and the HOLLOW sound of laminate ('cause cork eliminates that as well). With cork underlay you can make a sh!tty $0.79/sf laminate feel like solid hardwood. And vinyl does NOT like underpad. You have to get that subfloor STUPID FLAT (sanding/patching/floating self leveler if you have the right PLYWOOD on top). Hmm...laminate with cork underlay sounds might nice right now....See More
latifolia
4 years agoLisa S.
4 years agoLisa S.
4 years ago
Connie Stackhouse
4 years agoWe have installed both hardwood in the main living area and manufactured hardwood in our below grade bar. I find both to be preferable to vinyl. You would be amazed how easy it is to diy hardwood with a good quality floor nailer. Hubs wanted to rent a mailer when we started, but the dealer said if he bought it and then wanted to return it next month, they would taken it back at a discount . He kept it and has used it with several jobs at our friends’ houses. The point is that you can find a quality wood at a discount if you shop around. Then educate yourself and add a little sweat equity, and you can have a beautiful floor for $100’s less. We are a teacher (me) and a business CEO (hubs) and still did a pretty good job while saving
thousands on our home projects.
Lisa S. thanked Connie Stackhouselatifolia
4 years ago
jhmarie
4 years ago
Kelle Finochio
2 years ago
SJ McCarthy