HELP! Remodeling home and have questions on new flooring.

[SunQuest]

Hi All,

I have to refinance my home, so thought I would put in new carpet and linoleum (or vinyl flooring) at the same time. Currently our home has a vinal floor directly over another one in both the kitchen and the bathroom. The contractor that we talked with to get estimates for remodeling our bathroom said that he doesn't pull up the old vinyl flooring. Instead, what he does is lay a new subfloor directly on top of the old one. Is this correct? Our home was built in the mid 70's and is nothing fancy, but I just wanted to know if this was the correct way of doing this. I suspect that the bottom layer is original when the house was new as the colors are just right for that decade.

:

Anyway.... Can anyone tell me what is the right way of doing this??? And if they lay a new subfloor over the old one, won't there be a noticable difference when going from the carpeted area to the kitchen or bathroom?

Gosh, I feel like such an idiot for not knowing, but I know that someone here will have answers and that may help alleviate my concerns about if the contractor is telling us the way it really is supposed to be done. I did do a seach on the web, but couldn't find much about how this is done

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(MARTY!!!! I just remembered that you would know!!! HELP!!!!)

 

[Marty]

HELLOOOOOOOOO! Here I IS.

Ok you do not need to lay a new "subfloor" NOPE.

That would mean plywood or something, no, you don't do that for a subfloor.

What you do is to add LOUAN (spelling) pronounced LOU AAN

That comes in 3/16" and is 4 X 8 sheets and it's perfectly fine to put it over your old vinal.

That is probably what they meant.

 

[Triggy&Blue&Daisy Too]

Yes it's possible as long as the floor is in good shape and well adhered and they put luan plywood (1/8")over it if it has texture or it will "telegraph" that texture to the new floor over time.

There are all configurations for transition strips for going from carpet to other materials so it shouldn't be much of a problem unless you are thinking ceramic tile which with the backer board can be over a 1/2 inch differnce.

Hope that will help you some.

 

[Marty]

OH and as for going to one type of flooring to the other, mostly there is just a metal strip called a "carpet to vinal" strip and it's no big deal. It just finishes it off at the end where you would go from one room to the other. Unless of course you want a big threshold there.

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

LOLi had to laugh.. we are re financing as well and the kids want to pull up the carpet (which I agree with) and for flooring they feel they need to put down rubber mats :new_shocked: this way they can play and tumble on the floor is there thinking anyway.

Ok now I love trading spaces and am usually a big fan of the wierd one Hildi but.. rubber mats (like the kind in the barn) is just a bit far out there for me lol although on the plus side on a summer day i can hose out my house LOL

your traditional floor sounds much better

 

[minimama]

Here is my little heads up. In our house, if we had that done, it would put us in a position that the building codes would be violated and we could be fined. So, somethign to be aware of if you have any kind of short ceiling is that if you add height to teh floor you may mess wiht the building codes. We have to be at least 7.50 feet floor to ceiling and even a quarter inch would put us off that here.

 

[SunQuest]

Thanks eveyone!!! The bathroom does have the vinyl lifting in the corners around the bathtub so clearly it is not adheared anymore in these areas. Of course there is some waterdamage there and that will be repaired as well as that is what caused the vinyl to lift. Basically our whole bathroom is going to be ripped out and reinstalled as it is a tiny area and we want to update the fixtures anyway. (Yippy!

: Our home only has 1 bathroom!!!) The thing is that I expect the current vinyl to not be in good shape when he is done fixing the water damaged area.

If I understand this right, one would put down the luan plywood over the old vinyl to create a smooth finish to work from. It wouldn't matter the condition of the vinyl below it then as long as the subfloor is in good condition, right? I assume that they nail down the luan so it doesn't matter how well the old vinyl is adhered right?

I am thinking he was just trying to tell us how this is done in layman's terms so that we understood. I will definately clearify this with him though before we have any work done. It is just that we needed an estimate of somekind to know about how much equity to pull in order to fix what we want fixed and also do the carpets, paint, and central air! Urgg sure adds up in a hurry.

Thanks for the building code tip. I will definately check this out, but our house doesn't have extremely low ceilings, but I will have to make sure to ask the contractor about that. (Of course I will most likely check the building codes here seperately from what the contractor says

: )

Now, Any advice on good brand names to check out and ones to stay away from? I am not looking for the cheapest flooring, but this home is in a lower end neighborhood and putting the deluxe super nice expesive stuff in wouldn't pay off when we sell the house. So just looking for the average grade stuff that is durable and won't crack because of the sun shinning in the sliding door which is west facing. No kidding! The old vinyl discolored and then the top shiny part of it seperated where our sliding door is. It looks as if it burnt, but only between the currtains and the door! Gotta love our over 100 degree F summers!

And what about a good average carpet? Again, not anything fancy, but durable and hides the dirt as we all know that pets and spotlessly clean floors don't go together. LOL.

Also, what is the most popular colors for flooring. Sculpted or just plain? Multicolored or one even color? I want a classic style that will not be fadish. (Sorry, no RED carpet or deep shag! Mom has red carpet and when the sun reflects off of it, it turns the white walls pink! Hubby is not much for pink!) Laughs! I think I need an interior decorator, but am too cheap to pay for one! It is just that we want to try to sell the place in 2 years or so and want something that will please a wide range of tastes.

Thanks again!!!

 

[Triggy&Blue&Daisy Too]

You should go with good vinyl because if you don't it will look really bad in a short time with heavy traffic. Some of the laminates are getting pretty reasonable now and wear well with pets, don't scratch or cut as easily as vinyl. The no glue type can be fixed if something dings it badly. It's much better than the old Pergo type floors like I have now and has a dull finish so you don't see streaks when it's damp mopped.

For pet friendly carpets my favorite is a berber which is actually the description of the color rather than the carpet. It's kind a tweedish instead of solid although you can get it without other color. Kind of low pile loop but can look pretty classy, is hard wearing and doesn't show the as dirt much as a cut loop will. I will never have saxony (I think they're called) carpets in my house ever again! The pets totally trashed it and it's only 2 years old

 

[Marty]

Ok first off, in the bathroom, when you tear out your tub, if there is water damage to your exsiting subfloor you will then have to rip out that old vinal of course and repair the subfloor. . So while you are tearing it out, just rip out the whole thing if you have to anyhow. Not that big of deal. Do it all the time. But if you don't need to then don't bother. But you will need to take a look under there first so you don't lay new vinal over a damaged floor.

Yes you nail down luan. As long as your floor is straight and level and don't have ruts in it, it will be fine.

As far as vinal goes I hate it all. We sold many varietys and the best in my opinon is Tarkette. Comes in a variety of colors, just depends on what you like. I like the color of dirt! Blends in here great.

Same with carpet. I prefer Mohawk enviormental carpet over the other companys we had. We used one kind in our living room and it would have been fine for normal people but we aren't and didn't last too well. But in the bedrooms we used Mohawk berber and it looks as new today as it did years ago. It has saying power. It's more expensive and a bit more difficult to difficult to lay as it's stiffer.

By the way, I'd never have vinal or carpet in my house again. I burned holes in the vinal everywhere from smoking and have made tear places in it moving the refriderator to clean under it and the way we track in mud around here on the carpet doesn't make sense to do that again. Just too high maintence.

I prefer ceramic tile and hardwood. Easy maintenence and you can always get it clean.

About 3 times the cost though.

 

[SunQuest]

Thanks Marty and Triggy!

I knew I could count on you all to help me out!

Marty, we definately have some water damage in the bathroom on the floor. There is one spot at the tub that is sort of softish. That was why we called a contractor in to look at it. Then we decided that if we have to rip out the toilet and tub to repair that we might as well rip out the sink and cabnet so that we update it all. And the bathroom has a huge window over the tub. We are going to make that a small window that is up high so that the water doesn't get in the window track and run down the outside of our house and cause the sidign to warp as it has from the day we moved in. Yep, we are really going to tear the heck out of that room, but it will be really nice and fixed right when we are done.

I will definately be looking for what was suggested. I have 2 large indoor / outdoor dogs. Needless to say we wash their feet when they come in if they have mud on them, but still that mud manages to follow them. Lucky for me that the horses are at the farm and not at my home in this case as that does help to minimize the mud. I will definately check out some of the other choices, but since we are planning on selling the place in the next 2 or 3 years, we don't want to sink too much into the place as it is a 30 year old home in a lower income neighborhood and the money spent on the super deluxe stuff won't be recovered. I do want good quality though as I want the things to look new when we sell. But, I will certainly check all the options and see where it goes. Our home is a non-smoking one, and it is just my husband and I, so the linoleum or vinyl will be ok in the kitchen. But I do know one thing I would like to change! The entrance to the house has carpeting right up to the door. So when you come in with wet feet or muddy shoes from the front side of the house, you have to step directly on the carpet and I don't like that! We are thinking about a non-carpeted entrance where you can walk on it and take off your shoes when you come in. And I will definately check on the other options like hardwood floors or maybe even Pergo and depending on how much money we have, I will see what we can do. I am planning on taking a trip to a flooring facility and see what options I have.

Thanks again!!!!!!

 

[Marty]

Nila what we did in our living room was in the entrance where you come in from the front door was to cut away the carpet there and laid tile. We did a free form right there so when you step in from outside you step on the tile, It's straight on two sides and then comes out into a curve. If you do something like that, use dark grout too. Black or brown.

I wouldn't wish Pergo on anyone. We used to sell it to anyone that wanted it, but I personally don't like it. I don't like the floating floors. I prefer the nail down but a lot of people do like their Pergo and we sold lots of it. It was a popular item for the do-it-yourselfers and cost efficient.

Since you are selling in a couple of years, then I would highly suggest that you stay with a minimal pattern and use a basic earth tone in color like beige or grey and stay away from any loud colors. I've got taupe all over the place here.

 

[wildoak]

When we redid floors in our old house, we put laminate floors in the kitchen and den, and were very happy with them. We used Formica brand instead of Pergo, because it had a better water damage guarantee. The only drawback to it was scratching if you happened to track in little pebbles (think arena sand lol). As to carpet, my all time favorite is also similar to Berber. It wasn't actually a loop pile, but was an off white with litttle flecks in it that looked like it already had shavings tracked in. :bgrin Worked for us lol, and didn't show dirt like the solids.

Jan