Hardwood Installation Recommendations?

[amorak]

I should preface that I am doing this namely for resale, as I am moving into a new home in the next 6 months and wanted to remove the lino and burber I currently have, to complement the granite and stainless kitchen - I figured hardwood would help in that regard.

[Bigtime]

Granite and stainless steel eh? I wouldn't cheapen it up with a laminate then, go for a good engineered or cork floor and it should look pretty sharp.

Cork around town as low as $2.99/sqft to start (product only) and engineered from around $3.99/sqft. Installation tends to be in the $3-$5 sq.ft range with most installers around town.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by amorak

I should preface that I am doing this namely for resale, as I am moving into a new home in the next 6 months and wanted to remove the lino and burber I currently have, to complement the granite and stainless kitchen - I figured hardwood would help in that regard.

I feel like if you call it hardwood again, the universe will implode.


You're looking for laminate or engineered hardwoord. I can't see laminate raising resale all that much (unless its a really good one), whereas you can market engineered in your listing as "hardwood". The best you can do with laminite is "hardwood-esque"

[amorak]

Originally Posted by Ducay

I feel like if you call it hardwood again, the universe will implode.


You're looking for laminate or engineered hardwoord. I can't see laminate raising resale all that much (unless its a really good one), whereas you can market engineered in your listing as "hardwood". The best you can do with laminite is "hardwood-esque"

Thank you, I now present you with an advertisement for you:

[Ducay]

Cork is another good option because its so damned marketable right now. Install it and you could probably sell the place as an "environmentally responsible condo"

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Cork is another good option because its so damned marketable right now. Install it and you could probably sell the place as an "environmentally responsible condo"

I would actually consider cork slightly "greener" than bamboo. At least with cork they are not levelling indiginous forests in China and replacing it with nothing but bamboo to capitalize on the popularity.

Then you still need to figure in the carbon cost of the cork being shipped over from Portugal (or China, the cheap cork) in a container ship, put on rail across Canada, and finally being trucked up to the warehouse in Calgary from the intermodal yard.

[JustAnotherGuy]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Buy it and install it yourself. Paying someone for laminate installation is weak, the stuff on the market now just goes together nice and simple.
...

I knew somebody would say ... do it yourself it is easy.

rant on/

But, it might be easy for people who are handy and have been around tools all their life and know about these kinds of things. What about people who don't know how to use a hammer? What about people who don't have any spare time to fit in a quick floor install on a weekend? What about the people who don't really want to learn about doing this kind of install? What about the people who just want it done?

/rant off.

[Wookie]

I'd consider doing any of it myself except I'd be concerned about corners, angles, cuts, etc. the lying and clicking and moving and carrying stuff sounds easy.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

I knew somebody would say ... do it yourself it is easy.

rant on/

But, it might be easy for people who are handy and have been around tools all their life and know about these kinds of things. What about people who don't know how to use a hammer? What about people who don't have any spare time to fit in a quick floor install on a weekend? What about the people who don't really want to learn about doing this kind of install? What about the people who just want it done?

/rant off.

Lol. Doesn't matter what the job is, someone always says "do it yourself". A small job is one thing, but an entire floor can easily fall into the category of "don't trust myself with tools/don't have time/don't f'n care about saving a few bucks, just want it done".

My time is worth money to me. I'd probably do a floor myself, but you wouldn't catch me trying to assemble my own computer. That'd take me hours when I could pay someone a few bucks to do it in a quarter of the time. Screw that.

What's the point of having any services at all if everyone can do everything themselves? Damn, these pants are too long. Where's my needle? And the windshield in my truck has all those cracks.... Where's my suction cups? Eh, bartender... Move over. I'll handle this.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Lol. Doesn't matter what the job is, someone always says "do it yourself". A small job is one thing, but an entire floor can easily fall into the category of "don't trust myself with tools/don't have time/don't f'n care about saving a few bucks, just want it done".

My time is worth money to me. I'd probably do a floor myself, but you wouldn't catch me trying to assemble my own computer. That'd take me hours when I could pay someone a few bucks to do it in a quarter of the time. Screw that.

What's the point of having any services at all if everyone can do everything themselves? Damn, these pants are too long. Where's my needle? And the windshield in my truck has all those cracks.... Where's my suction cups? Eh, bartender... Move over. I'll handle this.

I have a buddy like that. He's so bad that he literally gets offended if you say you're going to pay someone to do something. "Oh c'mon, you're a guy, how do you feel knowing that you have to get another guy to do something for you?" Umm, well, I feel like I don't want to do it myself, so I'm paying someone else to do it.

The funniest thing though, is that he doesn't do a very good job of a lot of things. He installed his own laminate floor in his basement, and there's huge ugly gaps in various places.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by amorak

I should preface that I am doing this namely for resale, as I am moving into a new home in the next 6 months and wanted to remove the lino and burber I currently have, to complement the granite and stainless kitchen - I figured hardwood would help in that regard.

Be careful putting in a Laminate or Engineered wood in a Condo if their are people living below you. I had a two story townhouse and when I put in Laminate it was definately noiser. Though that was wood based construction rather than concrete but different floors and underlay will have different quality of sound insulation. So ask questions and don't cheap out.

[wooohooo]

Originally Posted by GGG

Be careful putting in a Laminate or Engineered wood in a Condo if their are people living below you. I had a two story townhouse and when I put in Laminate it was definately noiser. Though that was wood based construction rather than concrete but different floors and underlay will have different quality of sound insulation. So ask questions and don't cheap out.

Yes. Do not use laminate in a condo. Jeezus Christ when the people above me drop a pan or even a pencil.... it feels like a damn earthquake. I think it partially has to do with poorly insulated floors, but I think laminate exponentiates the sound waves 1000 fold.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Flames Gimp installs flooring for a living.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

Flames Gimp installs flooring for a living.

I believe I remember him saying he was getting out of it. But I'm drunk half the time I post on here, so I could be wrong.

[amorak]

Originally Posted by wooohooo

Yes. Do not use laminate in a condo. Jeezus Christ when the people above me drop a pan or even a pencil.... it feels like a damn earthquake. I think it partially has to do with poorly insulated floors, but I think laminate exponentiates the sound waves 1000 fold.

I live in a concrete-constructed low rise condo and have never heard the people below me (no one above me or beside). So if they hear more of me, too bad for them...Alls they gunna hear is moanin'!

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by wooohooo

Yes. Do not use laminate in a condo. Jeezus Christ when the people above me drop a pan or even a pencil.... it feels like a damn earthquake. I think it partially has to do with poorly insulated floors, but I think laminate exponentiates the sound waves 1000 fold.

They're probably just fat.

[Gozer]

You can get a good underlay that offsets the noise. TimberTown sells one rated around 73 decibals.