Flooring Talk

[swapmeet]

Seems like we have a lot of DIY guys here, at least with your trucks... so I assume ya'll are probably doing a lot of remodeling to your houses... some of you anyway.

I'm in the market for wood floors and i'm looking for opinions/ suggestions.

Yesterday I bought some stranded bamboo from Lumber Liquidators and just read enough reviews on the product as well as their business practices that i'm taking it back today. Product warps, cups, shrinks etc etc... even with perfect installation methods.


So what have ya'll used? What worked? What didn't.

I have about 580 sqft to do and my budget is $5500 installed.

 

[Hepar]

I recently redid the floors in a rental with some flooring from Lumber Liquidators. Nothing special. Just some laminate wood that was on sale for 90 cents a sq ft with no sales tax. Installed it myself and so far so good. Seems durable enough for the rental and don't care if it gets beat up too much as long as it can last around 5+ years.

 

[swapmeet]

I recently redid the floors in a rental with some flooring from Lumber Liquidators. Nothing special. Just some laminate wood that was on sale for 90 cents a sq ft with no sales tax. Installed it myself and so far so good. Seems durable enough for the rental and don't care if it gets beat up too much as long as it can last around 5+ years.

Yeah, they have a lot of that. I'm looking for something that will last 20-30 years or more. I don't plan on moving.

 

[ndcent]

I have 1k sf of bolivian rosewood layed at the offset across my entire first floor and add that do your "what didn't" work list. It's beautiful, rich and deep - but also soft and an absolute son of a ***** to keep clean.

 

[wslytoy]

I've purchased from LL & from locally owned flooring companies. I've never had a problem w/ LL. I do know under bamboo isn't good w/ high traffic areas that get a lot of hard soled shoes b/c it's so soft. But, I've laid thousands of sq feet of flooring, quality is apparent very quick. I've got prefabricated maple in my house that I got from LL & I love it. My mom has prefabricated oak that's stained pretty dark... But it works b/c her house has a lot of natural light. I'm rambling... For that amount of sq footage, depending on the type of foundation, I'd glue it down & I'd go w/ something prefabbed. I lay flooring on the side while I'm in school & I can't tell you how much I absolutely loathe laminated wood flooring. It's absolute crap quality. Even w/ the best finishing blades you'll chip the veneer. It's clicky sounding & cheap looking. Prefabricated real wood isn't that expensive... It's the equivalent of buying particle board office furniture versus real wood. You can tell a difference & God help you if it gets any moisture. Same w/ laminated wood flooring... If that stuff is exposed to any moisture at all, it swells & buckles.

 

[swapmeet]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I stopped by a flooring store yesterday. They showed me some flooring by Anderson and I really fell in love with it.

It is engineered. But the plywood layers are all hardwood. No birch, no MDF. The total thickness is 1/2", with a hickory top layer that is in essence a veneer.

Its 100% hand scraped and stained in America by prison inmates... lol...

 

[swapmeet]

Sweet baby jesus I just got the quote on that ^^^ stuff...
$12.69/ sqft installed.

 

[wslytoy]

Good God!!!! I would literally do it for ¼th that. I typically charge $3/sq ft. Now granted, that $12.69 may include the cost of the flooring, but still... That's high. What's the cost per sq ft for the flooring w/o installation?

 

[macgyver_ga]

Here are my thoughts.

If you can (not on a slab). Put down solid nail down hardwoods. They can be re-finished many many times. Engineered hardwoods can usually only be refinished MAYBE one time. Sand too much and they're ruined.

if you have dogs (especially big dogs), try to pick a hardwood that's high up on the Janka scale. Such as Maple or even Hickory. I plan on doing hickory in my next house. Oak (most popular) will scratch and dent with the dogs nails.

I put down a nice single strip laminate from LL a few years ago and recently put that same flooring down in our other bedrooms since the carpet was done. I absolutely hate carpet. once you pull it up once, you will realize how vile and disgusting it is regardless of how often you clean it. I personally won't do laminate again, regardless of what the manufacturer will tell you, as soon as any water works its way in the seams, it will swell up/puff up at the edges. There's no removing that once its there. I have a few spots in the house that have swelled and they drive me nuts.

I don't have any experience with bamboo, but I've read mixed reviews on it.

Also,
DARK COLORS LOOK GREAT FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES AFTER YOU CLEAN THEM. Then they swill show every single smudge and speck of dust/dirt and pet hair. I will never do dark colored floors again.

 

[Nervo19]

Its 100% hand scraped and stained in America by prison inmates... lol...

I'm picturing guys in orange jumpsuits with toothbrushes with razor blades melted into the handle.

I have a beach house (lots of sand) with engineered oak floating floor installed eight years ago. I have Labrador that scratches everything but there is not a scratch on it, even in the high traffic area. It is the typical light oak. The finish is very hard. It came from Home Depot and was made by Tarkett. Of course they don't have the specific product any more. It's floating so it was as easy as laminate to install.

I've always heard that Lumber Liquidators doesn't take returns. Did they? I was thinking of getting the bamboo strand at one point for a different house and it had decent reviews. I researched it enough to learn you can get a floor nailer and pancake compressor from Harbor Freight pretty cheap. They even sell the required staples and nails. A miter saw would be handy too. I installed 600 square feet of laminate a while back without one and it was slow going. I would definitely DIY it before I paid $12 a foot installation.