The thickness varies depending on the area. Some places is are as high as 1/4 inch. Existing tile flooring is dug up and re leveled with dry pack. We made the mistake several years ago to replace the carpet with hardwood first, and we weren't made aware that they could of raised the wood floor to the tiles at that time. The hardwood people just put little strips of wood where the tiles where higher than the wood as transitions. They basically just nailed the thing to the sub floor. And we had gotten 5 quotes too! But didn't research on the internet. When we were getting quotes to replace the tiles, everyone is telling us we should of done tile first! Anyways..... There is 3 areas with a door, 2 (60inches x 3) pieces will be to an entrance to a sunken room, 1 piece will be at the end of the service stairs, and the largest piece which I quoted wrong earlier is actually 81 inches x 3 1/2 and goes to the living room. The wood floors in the living room already has the wood transition piece like Unique Wood Floor's pic, where one piece of the wood is across all the other pieces. The space I'm retiling is the main foyer which connects to all the rooms, continues into the kitchen and eat in area, powder room, laundry area, service stairs, and the entrance to the garage. The space is 700sq. Standing from the entrance,I will be able to see 4 transition pieces. The tillers was telling me that he can make the transition pieces like Creative tile eastern pics, but the transition for the sunken living room and the staircase will still have to be a solid finished piece because I will be able to see the sides. If he cuts the tile, I can see it's unfinished. So I would have quartz pieces in some areas and the custom tile threshold in others. I would rather have one uniformed look. I will try to take some pics, but everything is a mess, and I need to find my camera too! I will ask the tiler if he's planning to use the Schluter Dilex . Thanks for all the advice everyone! This tiler is highly recommended. Plus he said if you don't like it don't pay me! We have not paid him a penny. And I feel kinda bad about it too.

Thank you to everyone who has responded so far. There is obviously a clear preference here to keep the hardwoods. Just to clarify a few things: - We can't ditch the dining room, though I understand the sentiment there. Formal or not, our house is small and we don't have an eat-in kitchen so the dining room is the only place we have to eat and, unlike many families, we use it every day. - I agree that the two existing wood floors in the do ing and living rooms could easily be refinished. My concern is the dust, the fumes, the pain of having to be out of the house for days while everything dries. If we did refinish, I would want to find a better, more matte coating than what is on there now. - The wood floors can remain untouched, even if I hate looking st them every day. there is no pressing need to replace or refinish them, other than wanting consistency if we do the other floors. However, not ripping out the carpet and worn kitchen flooring is not an option. Both are so old and dingy (they were here for years before I moved in) that no matter how much I clean, vacuum, or shampoo, it still feels dirty. I can't in good conscience allow a baby to crawl on that, which is the impetus for replacing the floors to begin with.

So here' the deal. I've investigated sound transfer because I used to sell cork flooring and underlayment products. Here's what I know: 3/4" wood = 5 dB of noise reduction Regular "pink" R19 insulation = 5-10 dB of insulation (IIC and STC) 6mm of cork (1/4") = 11 dB of impact and airborne (Delta IIC rating) noise reduction 12mm of cork (1/2") = 22 dB of noise reduction (Delta IIC rating) Consider: a human conversation at 3 ft apart = 60 dB. Your set-up so far = 5 dB + 5 dB + 10 dB = 20 dB of reduction Your set-up is considered 'normal' for a family home. Nothing more..nothing less. If you intend to glue down the hardwood, I would recommend 6mm or 12mm cork for underlayment. The cork can be glued directly to the substrated (plywood) and then the wood floor can be glued to the cork. This is called a double stick. If you are planning on nailing down, you can sandwich the cork between the 2 layers of subfloor. Do NOT pierce the cork with metal. Metal conducts noise (aka...phone lines used to be made of metal) over distance. If the entertainment room is in the basement, this is easier. You only have to work with 5 of the 6 sides of the cube. If the entertainment room will be sitting ON the hardwood (as in the theatre room is UPSTAIRS) then this just got more difficult. Now you have to mitigate all 6 sides of the cube to reduce noise transfer from one area to another. And remember: the low-frequency sound emitted by theatre sound systems can be a BEAST to deal with. This is different from regular airborne transmission. Theatre noise usually incorporates HUGE amounts of volume throughout the entire human acoustic range 20Hz - 20,000Hz. Regular human vocal sounds (airborne sound) sits in the 300 - 800Hz range. This is what most "regular" insulation deals with. Green Glue, Mass Loaded Vinyl, Rubber and cork all deal with the 500 - 2,000Hz range quite nicely. The problem comes in with the lower stuff (20-300Hz) that you FEEL in your chest but don't recognise as "hearing" it. These deep vibration noises are often used in the movie industry to bring about the unnerving sensation of "tension" or "being watched" or any other form of sensation common with thrillers, suspense or horror movies. The UPPER range (the extreme range of violins, piccolos, cymbals like high-hats, etc) are also a problem. Not many products on the market can deal with high pitched noises (4,000Hz = most annoying noise to the human ear = finger nails on a chalk board = highest note in the piccolo's range). These "bothersome" sounds are rarely found in the day to day running of a household. Talking on the phone, cooking a meal, typing on a keyboard, walking down the stairs are all noises that are either intermittent (foot steps) or of such low volume (not very loud) that normal insulation practices are considered adequate. The problems are magnified when these problem noises are PROLONGED or of such VOLUME that they overwhelm the acoustic system....as would be the norm for a home theatre or home entertainment system. In otherwords it is SOOOO much cheaper to assume your theatre room is GOING TO BE A NUISANCE and mitigate it to the point of financial hardship. Do everything you can think of to keep the room as isolated as possible. How much irritation are you and your family willing to put up with? If your love of a theatre system out-weighs your irritation, then you are just fine. If you WANT more insulation and you EXPECT more noise control, your set-up won't do a thing towards what you want or expect.

I don't think the hardwood from today is nearly as good as the hardwood from even a few decades ago. I have small dogs - both less than 20 pounds. But they're young, like to play, and they've left some pretty amazing scratches and skitter marks in the hardwood - in 2 different homes. Yes I keep their nails trimmed, they get a quick dremel every week. The old floors were site finished oak hardwoods. And there were spots where the scratches were getting pretty bad. The one house in question is in a beach town, so between the dogs and the sand, the floors were very scratched up. I deliberately chose a wood look LVP and it's held up incredibly well, but no one will mistake it for site finished hardwood either. I have engineered wood in my primary home - and while they've scratched that up too, it's somewhat less noticeable because it's a matte finish, and it's pre-finished engineered, which I've heard may be somewhat harder.