What kind of floor do you recommend?
I just bought a house in PS, and our living room/dining room area (aprx 400 sqft) is covered with marble tiles. I don’t like the look of it, and it feels too cold. Also, we’re expecting a baby, and I’m worried about the hard surface. We’re planning to do gut reno in a few years…
I just bought a house in PS, and our living room/dining room area (aprx 400 sqft) is covered with marble tiles. I don’t like the look of it, and it feels too cold. Also, we’re expecting a baby, and I’m worried about the hard surface. We’re planning to do gut reno in a few years when we have enough money saved up, but what can we do for the time being? I thought about laying down laminate floor ourselves, but someone said it’s toxic. Is that true? I was going to buy some IKEA laminate floor, because they’re cheap. Is it a bad idea? We can only spend up to 2K. I thought about carpet too, but we have a dog who sheds a lot. Any suggestions??
I’m a bit confused. I love the look of hardwood. I have approx. 450 sq. ft to cover over slab concrete with vinyl tiling on top.This is the living rm. (or great rm). I’m concerned about scratching due to heavy traffic and water damage due to weather as well as furniture moving. Also cash is limited. What would you recommend?
On the other hand I was considering some type of tiling in the kitchen and maybe the livingroom if it’s reasonable. (Kitchen = 190 sq ft.)also vinyl tiling over plywood over cement slab. What would be your recommendations? Help!!!
As far as your floor, here are some tips to get you on the right track from my home improvement site:
The Wood Flooring Cheat-Sheet by cityhammer.com
So you’ve chosen to do a wood floor in your house or apartment…congratulations, you’ve made a popular choice! In fact, wood flooring demand in the US is projected to grow to over 12 Billion square feet by 2011. But before you start ripping up your carpets, let’s break down the basic choices you’ll have to make.
Types of Wood Flooring
There are three basic types of wood flooring and you must determine the wear and tear you expect to inflict so you know how durable a product you need.
Solid Wood: This is the best selection for authenticity. Solid Wood flooring is made from the timber of hardwoods, or of spruce or hard pine. This product used to come unfinished, and once installed, was sanded and then finished on-site. These days, the product is pre-finished in a factory. The products that are pre-finished often come with a polyurethane finish that has added aluminum oxide or titanium dioxide. These metal oxide finishes are used in various types of floor coverings and increase the wear a hardwood floor can handle.
Synthetic Wood/ Laminate: This type of wood flooring is made with a fiberboard center and wrapped in high-pressure laminate. They can be installed easily but cannot be re-sanded or refinished. Instead, they are meant to be removed and replaced once they wear out. These types of wood floor usually come with a warranty and should last at least 25 years. This is not your daddy’s laminate, these products have come a long way even from a decade ago. While purists wouldn’t even consider this option, today’s laminates are made to be ultra-realistic with beveled edges, textured surfaces and almost unlimited choices in color. This is a product that won’t fade in sunlight, can withstand pets, spills and heavy foot traffic, and can be installed on almost any surface.
Engineered Wood: For many people, engineered wood represents a great compromise between durability and authenticity. Unlike synthetics or laminates, engineered wood is made of real wood. This is done by either using wood from different tree species or using the same wood in different grades stacked together in layers and glued together with heat and pressure. The advantages here are that warping is not a problem, this flooring can be installed either above or below ground, and if you buy a think enough, high-quality product, you can sand it down or screen it at least once or twice for a new finish.
The Look of Your Floor
No matter what type of flooring you’ve chosen, the manufacturers are going to provide plenty of choices in terms of both species, shape and color.
Species: Most New Yorkes don’t moonlight as lumberjacks or carpenters, but we know what we like aesthetically, and that’s what counts. You are basically making a decision based on how much or little “character†the wood has. We’re talking about the grain, the knots, the swirls etc. Walnut, for example has a lot of character. For a smoother look, oak or maple might be a better choice. Hickory, Ash, Beech, Birch and Pine are the most common as far as “American†styles and then there are the more exotic woods like Teak, Cork or Bamboo.
Shape: The two most popular layouts for a wood floor are parquet or planks. Parquet is very versatile and allows you the most design possibilities because they come in typically in 6†x 6†squares. More popular nowadays however are planks, which give your home more of a country look and feel. Most of these products come in boxes and within each box are planks of different lengths (some 1 foot long, some 4 feet long and so on). This variation will add to the genuine look you’re aiming for. Also, keep in mind you can have the width of these planks be 3 inch, 5 inch, etc. I would base this decision on the size of my rooms; the more space to fill, the wider the plank I’d use.
Color: What color you choose is almost entirely a question of personal taste but here are some guidelines to help you decide; The color of your furniture needs to be either in contrast or in the same family of brown, trying to match exact wood colors is impossible. Some wood has a honey-yellow tinge to it and other wood has a mahogany-reddish tone, so mind the timbre of your timber! Also determine whether your home is filled with light or tends to be a bit darker, and choose the darkness of your floor accordingly. A chocolate-brown tone can look great in a showroom, but if you don’t get much sunlight, it can transform your home into a pool of black if you go too dark.
Installation
How you lay the floor will depend on what surface it’s being laid on, what product you’ve chosen, and what the professional you have hired suggests. Basically you can go two ways: a floating installation, which uses the tongue and groove method, or a glue-down, which is self-explanatory. There are benefits and advantages of both methods and cityhammer.com strongly recommends that you get an expert opinion from a flooring pro on which is best for your situation.
So now you’re ready to shop for wood flooring. The fall is the busiest time for installers as everyone is looking to get their new floors down for company in the holiday season, so avoiding this time of year may save you money and time. Make sure to bring this cheat-sheet with you when you visit showrooms. Also, be sure to ask others when you visit their homes what they have installed so that you can see real-life examples of what you like and don’t like. This is a big decision, so do your homework…I know I wood!
The suggestion for Flor tiles is a good one. If you want to see them in a person, Design Within Reach carries them. Go directly to the their website for better selection. Also, sign up for their email list and you will get coupon offers. We ended up putting down a rubber no slip grip thing and then the tiles on top instead of sticking them down. It was very baby and pet friendly since they clean easily. Good luck!
you should probably keep your baby in a padded cell.
We have shedding pets and area rugs. May I recommend the Dyson vacuum? It’s every bit as awesome as they claim and has been a lifesaver. I’m sure that (being plastic and running on electricity) it is inherently evil and someone will come along and suggest you use a cornhusk broom in it’s stead, but believe me: when it comes to pet hair pickup this vac is without peer.
I agree, though- lam floors are unappealing on just about every level. It sounds like your funds are best spent elsewhere. Electrical repair can be extremely pricey yet I’d consider it a priority.
Lastly, check out Build It Green’s warehouse in Queens- ( http://www.bignyc.org) last time I was there they had a ton of maple hardwood flooring – unused- going cheap. You never know what you might find over there and you might find an affordable solution.
Yes, I was thinking about those click-together type floor that doesn’t require nails. I guess it’s not that easy to un-click them. The house is definitely livable now – I just have a problem with its layout. The previous owner added many walls to create many small rooms. I’m hoping to change the layout so that it will better suit our family life. I’m not sure how much of it I can keep.. House is old & charming, but it’s so outdated. Our electric wiring is apparenlty cloth-covered and dangerous , all the toilets seem to use like 100 gallons everytime I flush, and I’m looking into cleaner heating system than the huge oil heater we have in the celler (I had a nightmere that it burst & spilled oil all over…is it common for a house-owner to have such a dream?) I guess I could call this “updating” than “gut reno”, but we’ll see. I have a few years (or longer!) to plan this – I’d better decide what to do with the floor first before the baby’s arrival…which is happening in 2 months! AHHHHH!!!
By glueless, you mean click-together wood flooring? Most are engineered wood and have a quite thin wear layer (2-5mm). Not sure if it’s that easy to take up after installation. Comes in multiplank strips, a look that many might not like as joints are lined up too well. Also requires very level surface (more than nail down.) So surface prep may be more expensive.
Finally, you talk about a “gut reno,” which personally I’m very against unless your house is unlivable (and yours is clearly not.) You can protect the floor and there’s no need to remove and reinstall it, in which case you might as well put in a good permanent floor in now.
In most cases, walls can be fixed without tearing the plaster down to the studs, obvious exceptions like removing or building new walls aside. Skim coating old plaster walls is much preferable to putting in sheetrock.
I would strongly urge you to consider gentle reuse and redo instead of destroy and rebuild, particularly since you say you are “saving up” for the reno. Sorry, maybe guess previous comment about money to burn was too hasty.
A gut reno in 2~3 years hopefully, but it may take 3~4 or more years..it all depends on how economically we can live. ($8 sandwitch I just bought doesn’t help…) We used to have an area rug in our old apt, and I used to vaccum every other day. Maybe I have to invest in a better vaccum cleaner instead…and start packing my lunch! Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
If you’re doing a gut reno in two years, why would you even put down ANY kind of Pergo or other permanent floor? If you don’t want area rugs, you could go with those Flor carpet tiles, which would be easy to remove and would be softer for your kids. But again, even Pergo is too much trouble and expense in your situation as described.