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Redoing floors in the condo
mr_mich
Mmmmagic.MDRegistered User regular
Mmmmagic.MDRegistered User regular
So the last project in my condo is looming over my head...new floors. The living room and hallway (~250 sqft) are basically carpet remnants that look and feel like shit. The kitchen (~180 sqft) is tiled, poorly. The tiles are ugly and cheap and scraped, the groutwork is bad/chipping, and a couple are a little loose.
I don't really plan on staying in this condo for more than a few more years, and no matter what I know I won't be able to sell/rent it with the floors looking so bad. Thus, I'm inclined to splash out the money to fix the floors sooner rather than later, so that I can at least enjoy them.
One of the reasons I've held off for a couple years is that it's a big pain in the ass...on top of moving the kitchen appliances, I have to move all of my couches and home theater shit out of the living room.
One of the other reasons is the ridiculous range of quotes I've gotten. Some places want like 3-3.5k to rip out the carpet and tile and drop in some pergo-type stuff, which seems ridiculous for <450sqft. One place suggested that I just put laminate over the tile, if I'm looking to save money and deal with a slight drop in height where the current tile/carpet transition. That would probably save me $600-700 in tile removal, but it sounds like a real shortcut to me and I'm a bit leery of it.
Does anyone have any advice here? I'm in MD, for reference.
I don't really plan on staying in this condo for more than a few more years, and no matter what I know I won't be able to sell/rent it with the floors looking so bad. Thus, I'm inclined to splash out the money to fix the floors sooner rather than later, so that I can at least enjoy them.
One of the reasons I've held off for a couple years is that it's a big pain in the ass...on top of moving the kitchen appliances, I have to move all of my couches and home theater shit out of the living room.
One of the other reasons is the ridiculous range of quotes I've gotten. Some places want like 3-3.5k to rip out the carpet and tile and drop in some pergo-type stuff, which seems ridiculous for <450sqft. One place suggested that I just put laminate over the tile, if I'm looking to save money and deal with a slight drop in height where the current tile/carpet transition. That would probably save me $600-700 in tile removal, but it sounds like a real shortcut to me and I'm a bit leery of it.
Does anyone have any advice here? I'm in MD, for reference.
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If you want to go the more real wood route, laminate wood flooring isn't that hard to put in yourself, just need to have a table saw for a day, and a free weekend. And that would be a lot cheaper then pro installation. I put in new floors with the laminate from IKEA at a buddies place, neither of us had done it before, and was about the same size of area that you have. Took us about 6 hours from what I remember, to rip out the carpet in 2 bedrooms and tile in the kitchen and lay down the new floor.
For cheap materials you could find discount outfits that trade in irregular runs or overstock. If there is a habitat restore near you then check it out, you can sometimes score pretty good deals there. Buy all your materials at once and overbuy 10% more than you need to budget for wastage and bad cuts.
i would do laminate wood flooring in the entire floor. it is not that expensive and you can find deals. we put it in our kitchen and it looks great. it will look nice if you have a unified floor . costco sells laminate wood flooring for pretty cheap, though you can also find deals at home depot or lowes.
also, absolutely rip out the carpet yourself. all you need is a utility knife, pry bar and some plyers. the actual carpet ripping will take you maybe an hour. assuming you don't have tacks everywhere.
most of the estimate is demo, so if you do it yourself, you should save some money.
also keep in mind you need to think about resale. it is probably better to pay a bit extra if it looks nice. it will pay off better if you leave
Also it can be cheaper if you buy the flooring (and possibly grout) you want, then pay someone to just do the ripping out of the old stuff and installing the new.
this. by and do everything you can. and just have someone do the install
I'm pretty sure I want to go with the faux-hardwood planks. I'm really reluctant to do it all myself, because a few of the people I work with say it will take me and the lady a whole weekend, easily. Especially given the shitty grout work on the existing ceramic tile; I'm scared to tear that up and spend a whole weekend with a trowel and quickcrete just to smooth things out. The carpet is barely tacked in, when FIOS came to install stuff we just lifted up the carpet around the baseboards, lol.
I guess my question is, rather than the cosmetics of having that seam transition, is it bad to have laminate planks over ceramic tile long term? I've googled around and haven't found anything besides Yahoo question-caliber discussions.
We have a bathroom where they put laminate over without removing. Don't do it. *shudder* I've had hardwood removed and installed carpet for cheap, similar size area I think, and it was very elaborate small finicky bits of hardwood, not your usual stuff (but it was 50 years old), so it was serious work to remove it.
I find pretty good success with Home Depot (they'll post the price per sqft right there in the isleway for installation of whatever it is you're looking at). Ceramic isn't that much more expensive and it's infinitely better.
We did the best when we really shopped around and found guys (foreign residents: the ones who did the granite countertops super cheap and super amazingly well were slavic, and the ones who refinished our hardwoods for half the price anyone else offered were Vietnamese) who do the work themselves, don't contract to anyone else, and have great relationships with their suppliers.
As for tear-out of the existing stuff, you can find how-to videos and do that yourself, then get somebody to put new stuff in for ya. But get the full quote first (like with tear-out and new installation itemized) because they inflate the tear-out manual labor costs. So when they give you that quote, you can just say "ok, just do the 2nd part."
One thing I've read and heard from family is that kitchen tile is a whole different beast to remove, because I could seriously damage the existing counters and stuff. Oi.
They can look quite good. Bear some things in mind: you'll need someone comfortable with a proper saw to make cuts. These cuts and the slat offsetting will take up a big chunk of your install time. It's also strenuous friggin' work. Be ready to be kneeling on concrete (or whatever floor surface you've scoured and cleaned and leveled within an inch of its life) for hours and hours, gingerly using rubber mallets to link slat connections and hoping it all stays tightly connected when you get to the last piece (which will inevitably need to be cut longways with utter precision). Also, closets. Oh jesus. Closets.
I would never do it again, and I only did a pair of 12x12 rooms.
But it was a big improvement to the rooms, was very resilient to scratch and stain, and was inexpensive. It's just a lot more consuming than the commercials and Home Depot will have you believe.
Basically the stuff is a thin concrete or epoxy-based product that will settle in the low spots in your floor (such as your grout lines) and smooth it out. It is designed for scenarios much like the one you're dealing with, and it's pretty easy for an amateur to use. If you were adventurous and handy, you might even be able to use it as it sets to smooth the transition between your kitchen tile and the rest of the house out to the point where you could simply floor over it without a defined threshold: depending, of course, on how big an area it is and how high your tile is.
If it were me I'd probably still tear the stuff out, though. The problem is, if the tile is set on concrete, you will probably have to grind protruding bits of adhesive and grout off the concrete before you can lay hardwood, and if the counters were set on top of the tile instead of before it, then you will have to lift the counters or cut the tile. Of course, you should be able to determine both of these things before you start and make your decision based on those factors.
yea puppy pee can be pretty caustic if allowed to sit. when our dog was a puppy she peeded on our laminate (tile not wood) and it left a noticable spot since it burned off a layer or so. sounds like it just reacted with your flooring. it probably wasn't the moisture so much as the ammonia in the urine.