YEA Bill! I'm so excited to read that your choosing this for your own home. Makes me feel VERY confident to look at this brand. I had seen some Porcelenosa that was beautiful but $14 a sq. ft. just for material. I just ordered three samples direct from Datile. I've been looking all over the internet and have found all sorts of brands... anywhere from around $3 - $12 a sq.ft. I wanted unglazed through body color. Could I install this tile with Spectralock and a 1/16th grout line? Would it be ridiculous for us to try and install it ourselves if we really took our time? A fellow forum member whose in the design business sent me some beautiful Italian samples but the colors weren't quite right. And the ones that the color almost worked were too shiny. I want a matte finish. Thanks for posting! Elyse

Absolutely NORMAL! The age of the house = expensive to put flooring in the basement. Age of the house = expensive to fix all the problems you have run into. The problems you have = EXTRA expensive to install a floor that will survive standing water. Sorry but your situation = very expensive. There is no getting around it. And if you think loose lay are expensive, wait until you see the cost of glue down vinyl! The choices are: 1. Go SUPER expensive; do ALL the preparation NEEDED (that includes the $5/sf moisture mitigation for the slab AND the foundation walls); add more concrete and then lay any floor you want so that you no longer have any concerns. Go SUPER CHEAP = couldn't care less if the floor gets ruined. You simply buy a new one and keep going. Option #1 will cost 3-7 TIMES more expensive than option #2. That means you can replace the SUPER cheap floor 3-7 TIMES before you "hit" the price tag for the "FULL FIX". If loose lay vinyl is getting too pricey, then I would say option #2 just became your best friend.

I’ll play. And I appreciate the education. I wrote in another thread that getting it right is one way, but getting it wrong is thousands of different ways. Like every time someone builds something idiot proof, a better idiot evolves to sabotage that too. I don’t have the experience with the 1001 different ways of getting things wrong. Just maybe the usual 20-30 that I see on a regular basis. So honestly, some of what is happening in that picture, I’m not really sure what is going on. Other than the better built idiot wuz here. To me. It looks like the drywall wall (A) (that should have been demo’d!) was so out of plumb, that some wood scraps (D) were used to sorta frame it in enough plumb that they applied cement board to that scrap. With insufficient support and the wrong fastening schedule no doubt. Did they try to glop in some thinset in between the two layers? (B) Why? I don’t get this construction at all. Nor do I know what C is doing, unless it’s some sort of Bubba shim. (E, F, G) is a freaking wood curb not even properly covered by the waving in the breeze pan liner and some thinset. That’s an abomination that I do have experience with. One thing I don’t see is the pan liner up the wall in that weird sandwich construction. Nor do I see any poly there either. Or anything red, green, or orange. I’m on a phone, so none of the images will enlarge too much for me. (Excuses, excuses.LOL!) Let millwork and others play before posting the teacher’s key.

The hardwoods are extremely valuable. I would work in a medium brown that eliminates all yellow/orange/red. To do that, the stain will have to have a green undertone. That means a specialized mix for your situation. A HIGH END hardwood flooring professional can do this for you. It will take a couple of weeks to find the right colour/mix. The professional will come in and strip a section of flooring (like 20ft x 20ft). S/he will then apply different stain mixes to this area for you to view. You will then choose the colour that is the best fit for your situation. At a mutually agreeable time, the professional will come in and refinish the entire house - including the stairs (quite expensive but well worth it). The banister can then be stained/painted to match the hardwoods. The only time I would look at moving away from hardwood is in the DEEP south or in very hot climates. And it would be VERY helpful if the entire house was built on concrete and not wood joists. Tile is very heavy. It often requires wooden subfloors to be beefed up (decrease the deflection rating = no movement that would damage the tile). The wood is worth saving - unless you absolutely hate it (disregard the colour). If you love tile and wish to have it everywhere, then go for it. But realize that hot climates are some of the few places where this is considered normal. Everywhere else (any place with "winter") would find this a nuisance should you wish to sell the home. Besides, you mentioned budget. Ripping out the hardwood and replacing with tile would be double the cost of refinishing the hardwoods.