floor tile

[yankee44]

Not necessarly, there is also engineered wood floor.

True, but all engineered hardwood floors are prefinished with aluminum oxide witch gives you a more durable surface than non prefinished hardwood. You can also now get prefinished true hardwood floors that also give you more duribility than the flooring that is finished after instalation.

 

[godsbutterfly]

We pulled up the carpet in out house because it was too old and dirty to make cleaning worth it and were pleasantly surprised to find we have oak floors underneath. We want to get them refinished but apparently there are some broken floor joists underneath the house that have to be repaired. Anybody have ideas on the best way to handle that?

 

[kwillia]

When we redid our kitchen the contractor told us that we would have to beef up our subfloor to do ceramic because of the weight and not being slab construction. If you have any movement in your floor when you jump up and down you might want to go with a product like duraceramic. Ours looks really nice and it won't crack or break. It's wasn't cheap though.

We put Duraceramic down when we did our addition three years ago and I love, love, love the floor. I can't say enough wonderful things about it.

 

[StrawberryGal]

What is the best type of floor tile to go with? I see marble, ceramic, sand stone, and others.

Ceramic cames with highly recommended because they don't break as easily as others. It may be costly, but easier on your pockets because you don't have to replace the cracked or broken titles as often as others brand such as marble, sand stone, and others.

 

[StrawberryGal]

I'm with you on that. Most of the hardwood floors put down in homes nowadays are those cheap, snap together crappy ones. It's not like back in the day when it was 100% hardwood and you could just sand it down and refinish it...

You can find more information and save a bundle of money on REAL hardwood flooring at this site: Lumber Liquidators: Hardwood Flooring for Less!

I just bought real hardwood flooring for the family room from that website and saved alot of $$$ than it is to buy from any local stores in the area. Fedex will call and give you the exact time they will be delivering, so you can be home for them to deliver them into your house. They will carry them into your house for you.

There is another option to save money on shipping, go down to VA the nearest store and pick them up yourself.

You can put BIG area rug on your hardwood flooring like most people do.

 

[StrawberryGal]

Why are you always so naive as to think that I will be a renter forever?

When prices are right, I will buy or build a house...

Now get back to doing nothing at work...

Glad to hear that you won't be a renter FOREVER!

 

[Sonsie]

We put Duraceramic down when we did our addition three years ago and I love, love, love the floor. I can't say enough wonderful things about it.

I love ours too. The color we picked, baked clay, is warm and natural looking and everything from crayons marks to black heel scuffs have come off easily. I was worried about cleaning with the textured finish but so far no problems.

 

[chrissyhh]

We put Duraceramic down when we did our addition three years ago and I love, love, love the floor. I can't say enough wonderful things about it.

Did you DIY or have it done? Also did you go with the grouted or un-grouted?
The sales rep. told me he prefers the gouted.

 

[kwillia]

Did you DIY or have it done? Also did you go with the grouted or un-grouted?
The sales rep. told me he prefers the gouted.

Ours is grouted. I highly recommend you get an estimate from Parren's Flooring. His prices are great and he does beautiful work. The floor is very low maintenance and like Sonsie said nothing seems to affect it. I've even splattered paint on it and had no problem getting it up. It it beautiful and much nicer to walk on than ceramic tile.

 

[kwillia]

Here is their link...

http://http://www.congoleum.com/res-products.php?product_line=Duraceramic

 

[Sonsie]

Ours is grouted. I highly recommend you get an estimate from Parren's Flooring. His prices are great and he does beautiful work. The floor is very low maintenance and like Sonsie said nothing seems to affect it. I've even splattered paint on it and had no problem getting it up. It it beautiful and much nicer to walk on than ceramic tile.

Ours is grouted too, it looks better that way IMHO. Hubby spattered paint on it when painting the ceiling and even the dried stuff came off easily. We had it professionally done along with the rest of the kitchen. BTW, NEVER have your kitchen remodeled when you have 2 kids under two, it was a nightmare......

 

[tommyjones]

We pulled up the carpet in out house because it was too old and dirty to make cleaning worth it and were pleasantly surprised to find we have oak floors underneath. We want to get them refinished but apparently there are some broken floor joists underneath the house that have to be repaired. Anybody have ideas on the best way to handle that?

new floor joists will need to be married to the old. It will probably involve a little jacking....

 

[kom526]

There is another option to save money on shipping, go down to VA the nearest store and pick them up yourself.

Why go to VA when there is one in Baltimore and one in Beltsville?

 

[desertrat]

We pulled up the carpet in out house because it was too old and dirty to make cleaning worth it and were pleasantly surprised to find we have oak floors underneath. We want to get them refinished but apparently there are some broken floor joists underneath the house that have to be repaired. Anybody have ideas on the best way to handle that?

Broken floor joists? WTH have you been doing!

new floor joists will need to be married to the old. It will probably involve a little jacking....

Yeah, that. I would get 2Xs the same width and cut them at least 6' longer longer than the broken area if possible. Then jack up to the needed level, nail the boards in place temporarily and drill a bunch of, probably, 3/8 inch holes through the 3 boards. Then stick bolts in and tighten down. At least 4 staggered on each side of the break.

 

[godsbutterfly]

Broken floor joists? WTH have you been doing!



Yeah, that. I would get 2Xs the same width and cut them at least 6' longer longer than the broken area if possible. Then jack up to the needed level, nail the boards in place temporarily and drill a bunch of, probably, 3/8 inch holes through the 3 boards. Then stick bolts in and tighten down. At least 4 staggered on each side of the break.

Hey, I'm innocent! (Where the heck did I put that halo again?) My best guess is that this house has been dancing with hurricanes or something because I swear it looks like it has slid downward a couple of inches on one side! We think some of the joists that are broken happened when they did plumbing repairs or maybe when they changed the type of heating. Who knows?

 

[StrawberryGal]

Why go to VA when there is one in Baltimore and one in Beltsville?

The one in VA is a little closer for me than the one in Baltimore and Beltsville. It is depends on where you live for you to go to the nearest store.

 

[tes218]

I love ours too. The color we picked, baked clay, is warm and natural looking and everything from crayons marks to black heel scuffs have come off easily. I was worried about cleaning with the textured finish but so far no problems.

We have it too and love it. We put it in the family room and in the sunroom where we have a hot tub. It's great because it can get wet, not slippery, dogs don't slip, and warmer than ceramic for the bare feet. We used Edinger's in Mechanicsville and love them. They did my floors in my old house and in the one we're in now. We went with the non-grout and couldn't be happier! Their info is Edinger's Carpet & Flooring 301-290-0020
27970 Baptist Church Rd, Mechanicsville, MD 20659

 

[dobeday1]

Tile Floor

You would of course want to go with a floor that is durable, but is also easy cleaning maintenance. I own a residential & commercial cleaning business, and many of our customers have wood flooring. Wood floors look wonderful when they are first cleaned. But after a day or so smudges start to appear and they show foot prints, and any little scratch or dents. So wood floors are not as easy for up keep as many people think that they are.

Ceramic is nice. But if you drop something on it, in most cases it will crack or chip the surface. But it is pretty easy cleaning.

Pergo has been one of our easiest floors for cleaning maintenance. A lot of the customers have switched to Pergo flooring.

When choosing a floor you will also want to think about the grout cleaning. Most tile, marble, ceramic, etc. flooring all have grout. After a period of time the grout starts to look dirty, and unless you are on your hands and knees scrubbing the grout every few months, the color of the dirt will settle in the grout. And the only way to get it to look like new again is to re grout.

Good luck with your floor search.

 

[tes218]

You would of course want to go with a floor that is durable, but is also easy cleaning maintenance. I own a residential & commercial cleaning business, and many of our customers have wood flooring. Wood floors look wonderful when they are first cleaned. But after a day or so smudges start to appear and they show foot prints, and any little scratch or dents. So wood floors are not as easy for up keep as many people think that they are.

Ceramic is nice. But if you drop something on it, in most cases it will crack or chip the surface. But it is pretty easy cleaning.

Pergo has been one of our easiest floors for cleaning maintenance. A lot of the customers have switched to Pergo flooring.

When choosing a floor you will also want to think about the grout cleaning. Most tile, marble, ceramic, etc. flooring all have grout. After a period of time the grout starts to look dirty, and unless you are on your hands and knees scrubbing the grout every few months, the color of the dirt will settle in the grout. And the only way to get it to look like new again is to re grout.

Good luck with your floor search.

That's why we went with the kind without grout. Looks great all of the time and we knew we weren't the "hands and knees" cleaning type.

 

[GopherM]

I am also looking at new flooring. Has anyone had any experience with Dura Ceramic by Congoleum(sp). The salesman at the flooring store tells me how great it is, durable like ceramic, but not as cold to the touch. The styles available are great, but I'm just not sure. I have seen on some of the DIY sites that people have had problems with it not wearing very well.

We put down Dura Ceramic a little over a year ago and we really love it. If you are a do-it-yourselfer you better read the instructions and follow them to the Teeeeee. This stuff does not go down like regular ceramic or vinyl. After you get the sub floor anchored and leveled you coat it with a clear bonding adhesive that must set up before you put the tiles down. Once you drop the tile in place it is pretty much there. Some of the tiles that were set in place were defective and had to be removed with an industrial strength heat gun, but no additional adhesive had to be applied. The flooring mechanic just dropped the new tile in place and it was set. You can either butt the tiles flush together or leave a space for an acrylic grout. We decided on the grout.

The tile is much warmer on the feet than ceramic tile and is not as likely as ceramic to break things that fall on it. It is much thicker than normal vinyl products and looks very much like ceramic once it is installed. Some of the patterns we looked at looked almost like marble.