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Home reno WDYT?

mrsconn23mrsconn23 member
Knottie Warrior 10000 Comments 500 Love Its First Answer
in Wedding Woes
OK...SO our plan is to upgrade our counters in the kitchen and rip out the laminate (and parquet in the foyer) and put in engineered wood floors. Our house is tri-level and the middle level, foyer/kitchen/my office is over the crawl space. 

However, our bonus room is on the lowest level and on slab.  It also has laminate (ALL of the laminate in the house is shitty and peeling/buckling in areas).  DH wants to do wood down there as well.  I think tile would be a better option.  It's not a big space and also, it's where we mainly enter and exit the house (the door to the garage and an exterior door that faces the drive way are off that room)...So I'm thinking tile will hold up better in the long run and be easier to clean. 

Opinions/suggestions?  Other thoughts or ideas?  

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Re: Home reno WDYT?

  • 0Face0Face member
    Tenth Anniversary 250 Love Its 500 Comments Name Dropper
    I wonder about the floor sweating in the basement.  Do you know how the water is handled, and if there is a sump pump and what kind of water situation is going on there?  I said water enough.

    Because the laminate is already peeling my thoughts are that the water has led to that situation---and putting down wood might only be asking for trouble.  Just throwing that out there.

    I think the tile would be a better option, you could always put infloor heating too, the kits aren't terribly expensive and I love ours---yep.
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  • mrsconn23mrsconn23 member
    Knottie Warrior 10000 Comments 500 Love Its First Answer
    The bonus room is adjacent to the laundry room, which is where the water heater, well tank, a toilet, sink, and water filtration are housed.  The sump pump is in the crawl space and directly below the kitchen.  Our crawl space is encapsulated, which is awesome. 

    It's more buckling than bubbling.  I think it was a shitty install.  Around the sink in the kitchen, it's bubbling a bit from water.  I've heard laminate is not ideal in kitchens because of water ending up on the floor due to sink usage or if a dishwasher leaks or whatnot.  

    I have thought about heating the tile, if we install it.  Our bonus room is the coldest room in the house. 

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  • dharmabunnydharmabunny member
    Ninth Anniversary 500 Love Its 1000 Comments First Answer
    I'm with O. Given that it's a bottom floor and sounds like its a main entry point into the house...and there could be moisture or flooding concerns...tile will be best bet. You could play with finishing the concrete slab itself...but that may take a bit of artistry and more work in getting the slab the way you want it than its's worth.

    In floor heating sounds delish...especially since tile can be viciously cold in the winter
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  • tawillerstawillers member
    Ninth Anniversary 5000 Comments 500 Love Its Name Dropper
    Here is your compromise:


    YWIA.

    Really though, tile sounds most reasonable.
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  • HeffalumpHeffalump member
    Knottie Warrior 5000 Comments 500 Love Its First Answer
    From an aesthetic perspective, I prefer wood.  From a practical perspective, it sounds like tile is a better choice there.  Definitely ditto the heating:  our house is on a crawlspace, and the downstairs bathroom is the only room on that level with tile.  It is noticeably chilly when I step onto it this time of year!
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  • PMeg819PMeg819 member
    Knottie Warrior 5000 Comments 500 Love Its First Answer
    We just finished our floors. Originally, we were going to do a mix of hardwoods and tile but opted in the end for all tile. It is colder but that's fine where we live. With our dogs, the kids, and the sort of traffic we have it just made sense to go with tile. We opted for porcelain tiles and they are more or less no maintenance other than cleaning. The wood look tile is nice- we considered it but very expensive. Yes, you can find it for cheap. But it looks cheap. The nicer ones will run you $6 a sqft (that's starting). The other consideration is how they are laid. You need a good installer as those tiles need to be laid a certain way or you will have cracking. But when done right, they really are beautiful. We found some we liked but I think it was going to be like $15,000 for just the tile and I really didn't love them that much. I know this probably doesn't help answer your question, but just a perspective from someone who has recently gone through the floor process.
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  • mrsconn23mrsconn23 member
    Knottie Warrior 10000 Comments 500 Love Its First Answer
    Thanks PMeg.  I was hoping you'd chime in. 

    We do have plenty of people who can help with install and also helping us pick the right materials.  DH has a friend who will do install on the cheap with DH's help.  BIL has also said he'll drive up to help us with some house projects and I know FIL will want to help. 
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  • PMeg819PMeg819 member
    Knottie Warrior 5000 Comments 500 Love Its First Answer
    edited December 2014
    Yeah, we ended up doing the install ourself. If you do tile, it will be a mess. I am still cleaning up tile dust a month later. But I really do love our floors- they are so easy to maintain. I sweep and mop once a week, that takes me about 30 minutes. Then I'm done. The downside is the noise. It is way noisier and echos more in the house. I don't have rugs yet for every room.
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  • mrsconn23mrsconn23 member
    Knottie Warrior 10000 Comments 500 Love Its First Answer
    I can close off the bonus room, so that's the nice part about it. 

    The worst is my office when everyone is home.  It gets so noisy in here because the kitchen/foyer are hard floors.  We are planning on putting french doors on it ASAP.  I think once the holidays are over, we're going to order the doors and plan a weekend to install them. 
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  • baconsmombaconsmom member
    Knottie Warrior 5000 Comments 500 Love Its First Answer
    Why not just stain the concrete? Cheaper, easier, and it looks lovely. We have one room that's slab, and we just did that, because it was fast cheap and easy (just like us). 

    I mean, obviously, if you love tile, do tile. But I would be annoyed with grout cleaning in, like, four seconds flat. 
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  • Peaseblossom55Peaseblossom55 mod
    Moderator Knottie Warrior 10000 Comments 500 Love Its

    I don't typically comment but we just did kitchen renovations.  We found a tile that looked like wood planks.  It looks really nice and I love it. I think this is the brand we got I think this is the color we have: http://www.efloors.com/daltile-yacht-club-bridge-deck-6-x-24-glazed-porcelain-tile-yc02/glazed-porcelain/catalog_72353.htm

    Anniversary

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  • MesmrEweMesmrEwe member
    Knottie Warrior 2500 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers

    IMO - There was just a discussion with Nicole Curtis (Rehab Addict) on her personal pages about Engineered wood flooring - and I wholeheartedly agree with the outcome - go with hardwood, they'll last longer and be much easier down the road to fix/maintain. 

    As for the lower level - I'm with you for going with tile.  If moisture gets in some how or some way, tile will be the most forgiving.  While carpet is easy to rip out, it's still a pain compared to wiping it up off the tile...

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