Happy customers of engineered wood floors in condos in SF Bay Area
A G
3 years ago
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A G
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Dishwashers - trying to choose in SF Bay Area
Comments (13)As far as water hardness, it depends where in the Bay area you live. If you are in San Francisco or south til about Palo Alto, your water mainly comes from Hetch Hetchy and is pretty pure and soft. If you're just south of there like me or beyond including San Jose and Silicon Valley, much of your water can come from groundwater sources and is pretty hard. I just put in a water softener last week - they seem uncommon for this area even though water can be fairly hard, but I learned about them visiting my parents in Las Vegas where the water is very hard. With zero hardness I may even try doing without rinse aid altogether. Our friends were admiring one family's brand new Miele from a just-completed kitchen remodel. One couple with a Bosch weren't happy with the (lack of) condensing drying on their plastics, and admired that the new Miele pops open the door automatically to help with the air drying. So amongst our friends, two happy Miele owners and one somewhat dissatisfied Bosch owner. For ourselves, unfortunately we had a top-end Maytag carried over from before our own remodel - it is a fairly mediocre performer but just refuses to die (even when it was left in the yard for a year during the remodel). I do hope it does die prematurely, admittedly it mostly works OK as long as I clean out the holes in the spray arms from accumulated gunk about once a year....See MoreBay Area Remodel - realistic budget
Comments (21)Thank you all for your responses! I will clarify a few things, and ask for a few more thoughts. 1. We started out with 7 contractors, but 4 dropped out because they were no longer available. Of the 3 who bid, 2 were near the low end of the range and 1 was at the high end. 2. We got several rough estimates (including from the 2 contractors with lower bids) before going into design, and they were all significantly less than the bids (by about 1/2). That is part of why we were so shocked. 3. We also shared with those 2 contractors what our budget is, which is more in line with the original estimates. The 3rd contractor who bid never asked our budget, and put together his estimate in only a few days - however, it was rather detailed and he claimed it was well padded for our benefit. I'm not sure what that says. 4. I don't believe there is any additional cost for it being a condo. It's a 3 unit building without HOA restrictions, and the other tenants are very supportive of the renovation. I do think because demand is so high right now, pricing could have gone up even just in the few months since we purchased. 5. While we don't have $150K lying around, we could figure out how to make it work if that really is a reasonable price. We bought the place planning to renovate (we got the rough estimates before purchasing so we thought we knew what we were getting into), and after living with a dilapidated kitchen for a few months I would say we can't afford NOT to do the work! But if we're going to be eating ramen out of our gourmet kitchen for the next few years, I don't want to be wondering if it's because I didn't do my due diligence. Because there is a pretty significant gap between our expected/budgeted and the bidded costs, we do want to figure out a way to reduce it somewhat. I am planning to speak with our designer on Monday and see if there are any adjustments we can make that wouldn't destroy the overall look and feel but take out some of the cost. For example, cutting back on the built-ins? Or should we consider reaching out to additional contractors? I like the ones who bid, and I don't want to waste anyone's time, but if there are other reliable contractors who can do the work for significantly less I think it's worth exploring. Roo...See MoreIs This A Reasonable Charge To Install Engineered Wood Floors?
Comments (17)The plywood over the cork is needed for a NAIL DOWN hardwood. Nail down is the CHEAPEST method for installing any form of hardwood. Glue down hardwood is the most expensive. It is also the BEST for sound. So....the sound deadening for the area REQUIRES the plywood. You can't get around that. The cork is required so you can't get around that. You cannot nail INTO cork. You must glue to cork. That is the only option. So... you are adding the plywood for the sound requirements AND for the installation options. With all those layers, the labour costs are bang on. If you estimate $2/sf for EACH LAYER of prep....you come up with $8/sf without MUCH EFFORT. The glue for the cork to concrete = only option. The glue for the PLYWOOD onto the cork = only option. We call this a double stick. If you glue the hardwood to the plywood you would have a TRIPLE stick. This is the MOST IMPRESSIVE option out there. It is also the MOST expensive option. You can nail into the plywood = no problem SO LONG AS the plywood is THICKER than the nail shanks. You do NOT want nails reaching into the cork layer. If the cork layer is pierced by nails, you start to LOSE the acoustic properties of the installation. If you think of each nail as a small telephone wire (ahem...metal TRANSMITS NOISE REALLY WELL) that is transmitting noise from your space to someone else's...and vice verse, you get the idea. One nail is no big deal. A floor with 10,000 nails = 10,000 telephone wires transmitting noise THROUGH the cork insulation and into your space. This is a HUGE deal. Again, the nail down install into the plywood is NOT an issue so long as the nail shank does NOT reach the cork. That means you want a plywood layer that is roughly 1/2". And with cork costs that are MORE EXPENSIVE than the plywood, you must be purchasing 1/2" cork. The cost of 1/4" cork should be the SAME as 1/2" plywood. Check your thicknesses so that you can feel confident that the right thicknesses are being used for the type of install that is about to occur. Most of LA likes to see 1/2" cork. I hope this helps....See MoreRiva floors or other Select Engineered wood?
Comments (77)Good morning @HU-38570487. Thank you for considering RIVA for your project. We do have Pearl available. The only difference is that now our 8'' collection is called RIVA Elite and it is available in both select and character grade. It is the same high-quality as always and we guarantee 25 years with the proper maintenance. If you would like a sample, please send us an email to info@rivafloors.com with your address and we will be happy to process your order. Once again, thank you for choosing RIVA....See MoreA G
3 years ago
SJ McCarthy
3 years agoA G
3 years agoA G
3 years agonfreckle
7 months ago
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