DIY: FLOORING
August 15, 2007
Since moving to my new home a year ago, I’ve replaced 95 percent of the flooring in my home. It was previously carpeted nearly everywhere, even the bathrooms. I presume home builders in the Midwest put carpet in bathrooms to keep your piggies warm in the winter, but unfortunately it’s a horrible idea. If you have just one flooring project in your house, please put some other kind of flooring in your bathrooms. It’s the hygienic thing to do.
We wanted to put something other than carpet in the living area and bedrooms of our home. Carpet retains plenty of dirty and allergens no matter how often you vacuum and clean it. After completing a couple of projects using reasonably priced bamboo hardwood flooring, I presented the option to my wife. Bamboo hardwoods are incredibly trendy, especially due to the green factor. Bamboo is a renewable resource and using it is preferable to cutting fully grown domestic forests. The bamboo product we chose fit within our budget and can even be sanded and refinished.
The bathrooms were floored with decorative slate, a very popular product for homeowners due to its durability and versatility. Slate comes in beautiful natural hues, though the cheaper slate is mostly dark grays. I prefer the lighter colors, which are generally tinted with oranges and yellows. Natural products aren’t subject to color trends and fashion fluctuations as much as the avocado green ceramic tile you may have installed in your home in the 70’s.
Our kitchen had a well-worn white vinyl floor when we bought the house and it was the first thing we decided to replace. We opted for a mixture of a travertine and slate floor. I trimmed the corners from the 16-inch travertine and installed a small, one-inch mosaic slate in a diamond pattern as a decorative element in between. It takes an extra investment of time, but the finished look is well worth the effort.
Another option is laminate snap-together flooring, a choice popular among do-it-yourselfers because you don’t need a lot of specialty tools for installation. I’m not a big fan of laminates because they simply don’t look like wood, but I’ll admit they’re a viable solution for many homeowners. If you do choose to put laminate floor in your home, don’t buy the cheap stuff. It’s cheap because…it’s cheap.
Ceramic is also a great choice, but I definitely recommend professional installation. It’s not nearly as forgiving as natural products, and your grout lines really need to be uniform and precise or the finished product will end up like the many botched homeowner efforts I’ve witnessed over the years.
A few of the worst flooring mistakes I’ve seen made are:
1.Failure to install a proper substrate under tile. Plywood subfloors are not suitable for tiling installation. You’ll need to put down a solid underlayment to prevent expansion and contraction from loosening the thinset and adhering the tile to the floor.
2.Tiling around a toilet. The toilet needs to be removed and reinstalled after the floor is installed. One time I literally had to break a toilet with a hammer to remove it because the installer had grouted the toilet to the floor.
3.Failure to undercut door jams. Cutting the door jam at the exact height of your flooring makes for a simpler installation and makes it look much better than any other method.
Carpet technology has made impressive advancements in recent years. There are many stain-resistant options and even products suited for basements, which are susceptible to moisture problems. If you can’t afford a pad upgrade or a better grade of carpet, wait until you can. Some of the incredibly cheap builder-grade carpets don’t have more than a couple of years of use in them. If you spend just a few more cents per square yard, you can have a product that may wear well for 20 years or more.
There are dozens of questions to be answered when making a flooring choice for your home, so make sure you consult a flooring professional before making a significant investment into materials. One homeowner I know bought laminate flooring for his library and office, spending $4.00 per square foot, which is pretty expensive for a laminate. In addition to that, he had oak wainscoting on all the walls and the method in which it was installed precluded the install of a floating laminate floor. For less money, I installed a tongue and groove-oak plank flooring, which not only matched the rest of his rooms but matched up well with the oak floor already in the kitchen.
I don’t have nearly enough space in this column to share all the tips and tricks to floors, but I hope some of the knowledge I’ve shared is helpful. Many of the homes in this area are 15 years or older and in need of flooring upgrades. If I can be of assistance in this regard, don’t hesitate to contact me via phone or email. Questions are free.