Floors

another Linda · 10-03-2009, 09:42 AM

I need to replace carpet in our CYV and I'm still dithering about what I'm going to do -- ceramic tile, laminate, engineered wood, hardwood, new carpet or ... I've heard good and bad about all of them. In any case, I thought I would get some estimates for a bunch of choices from a couple of different places. Floor Master will be one. So my question: what other companies do a variety of installations?

Any words of advice? If I don't make up my mind soon I may just dither myself to death.

ijusluvit · 10-03-2009, 08:15 PM

For my money, there is nothing which compares to real hardwood floors. In TV homes, that's engineered hardwood, glued down, not floating. You can pay lots at the independent flooring companies, but be sure to compare those prices with Lowes. Their selection and quality is very good and I've known a couple of people who thought their installers were very good as well.

schotzyb · 10-03-2009, 09:07 PM

We used Great Lakes Carpet and Tile for our laminate floor in the living room, tile in the kitchen and baths and carpet in the bedrooms. Very pleased with price and workmanship

another Linda · 10-04-2009, 08:24 PM

Thanks to both of you. I just read up on engineered wood and it sounds like it might be ok for TV. But what happens if it gets scratched? I found phone numbers for both Floormasters and Great Lakes. Now to make up my mind!

zcaveman · 10-04-2009, 08:37 PM

I have been here eight years and it is time to replace my carpets and linoleum. I am thinking about going to Great Lakes Carpet myself.

I am not a fan of the fake wood flooring that everyone is installing in homes. It looks fake. It is not wood.

Carpet is soft and comfortable and looks good.

Just my opinion.

another Linda · 10-04-2009, 09:10 PM

The fake wood you are talking about is laminate, right? I think that is different than the engineered wood, but I really want to see both. I've been discouraged with carpet since it seems to get dirty so quickly, and even more quickly after it has been cleaned. But we rent our place when we aren't there, so that makes a difference. I've been thinking about ceramic tile, but again I've heard good and bad.

otherbruddaDarrell · 10-05-2009, 07:08 AM

We also have a courtyard villa and had all the carpet and linoleum removed. We then had the whole house done with Italian ceramic tile. We also had the master shower re-built and tiled as well.
I would suggest using the smaller (12") tile instead of the larger (18-24") tile in case you need one replaced somewhere down the road.
We also had him remove the carpet from the Lanaii and had it tiled before we had our glass sliders installed.
The old carpet was in good shape, and was donated to habitat for humanity. We replaced both toilets with higher toilets since they were removed for the installation and they were also donated.
Since we have a teacup chihuahua and a Bichon.....and cats...we did not want carpeting.
There are several tile people that are listed in the paper that will give you a good price, but I really do not want to recommend one over another.
I have installed pergo before and do not like the "plastic" sound when walking on it. We prefer a nice wood or tile.
You might want to consider solar lights also....they are great!
Clean, fast installation and they give lots of natural light.

Army Guy · 10-05-2009, 07:18 AM

We have a 2bd/ebath CYV, and although it was brand new, we didn't want carper so we had ceramic tile installed throughout the whole place, closets, and lanai. We did it all through Home Depot and recommend highly. We used 16 inch, installed diag. and it turned out great! The whole thing, install, the tile, plus the crack fillin stuff if you have any surface cracks and the lanai seams, plus carpet removal was right at $8000, then getting the grout sealed was right at $900. That is the total cost for everything.
Army Guy

starflyte1 · 10-05-2009, 08:27 AM

Army Guy, Does the $8000 include removal of old flooring? Thanks, Pat

otherbruddaDarrell · 10-05-2009, 01:20 PM

Hi another Linda
I don't know if you got the reply, but yes we are neighbors!
Christine works full time at freedom point but still gets all the villa ladies together on a sat. for lunch.
When you get back to TV stop by and we will show you all that we have done to our Villa.
We have more in our place then we could sell it for, but we are frogs and fixed it for us to enjoy and live in.
We also changed our landscaping to where it just about maintenance free.

Mikitv · 10-05-2009, 02:33 PM

Linda last year I put engineered wood floor in a small office I had in the home we just sold. It looked nicer than the laminate and cleaned up very easily and I did get a couple of scratches that I fixed with a permanent marker that matched. My only complaint was it did dent easy from the office chair in their and the scratches. I also had real wood and tile in the same house but I love the real wood better than engineered.

another Linda · 10-05-2009, 04:44 PM

Thanks Darrell, Mik, and everyone who shared their experiences. I guess I'm really coming down to tile as the best solution for us -- plus I do like it. Now, I haven't lived with it during January in Florida, that's true. But how cold can it be? I've lived in Syracuse for all these years. I'm tough!

ijusluvit · 10-05-2009, 08:24 PM

A few comments about above posts:

- engineered hardwood is real wood. It looks and feels exactly like full 3/4" hardwood, but is better suited to the TV concrete slab floors. It is nothing like laminate, which does look more like plastic because it is.

- if you 'float' engineered hardwood, instead of glueing it down, it will feel funny, just like laminate does.

- if you think "tile is best" you should consult the threads here which air many complaints about tile being very hard to keep clean, cold, too hard, etc.

- In my first post above I was talking about cost from direct experience. I paid a fortune for engineered hardwood from Great Lakes. A year later I saved a ton by buying the same quality flooring and excellent installation at Lowes.

Army Guy · 10-06-2009, 06:52 AM

Pat, yes the $8000 includes pull up and total removal of the carpet even to the dump.

Army Guy

l2ridehd · 10-06-2009, 07:06 AM

$8000 seems somewhat high to me. I did about 1100 square feet in my home, everywhere except the bedrooms. This included everything. Remove old tile and carpet, remove it to the dump, special sealing under the floor (forget what it was called, something to prevent floor cracks cracking the tile), laying the tile diagonally, tile, grout, sealing the grout, and clean up. Removing tile was $1 a square foot, Install was $1.50 a square foot, I did get a deal on the tile as it was a close out price at .78 cents a 16 by 16 tile, and all the other materials was a total cost of under $4000. I thought is was around $3400, but when I went back and checked everything it was closer to $4000. I guess the difference could have been the cost of the tile as I know that can vary from .50 cents to $8 a square foot. But everything except the tile came in at about $3.20 a square foot.

Floors

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