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Flooring options and ROI

Superfly said:
OK so I am planning on changing out my flooring. I have been complaining about it for years, and it's time I pull the trigger.

When I built my house, my builder put in builder grade carpet, and it's absolute ****. I want to change it out.

For this I need some advice.

I am going to do the downstairs only, for now. The bonus room is upstairs, away from the rest of the house, so it won't look separated and disjointed if we have two different kinds of flooring (which bugs me).

I am estimating about 1,900 sf downstairs.

I love carpet, but have a fat English bulldog. She's housebroken, but the oil from the pads on her feet cause the carpet to smell. I love carpet but I want something that will look cleaner.

I am not a tile person. I have ceramic tile in my wet rooms, but that's it. I hate the square tiles all over the house. Would rather stick with my crappy carpet.

I can't afford hardwood right now. I would love it, and prefer it, but it's so pricey.

I don't want laminate. I may sell the house in the next year or two, and I want a good ROI.

So I have been looking at the wood-look ceramic tile. It looks like hardwood, but has the durability of tile. But if you put in wood-look tile, can you bump it up against each other, or do you have to grout it? I don't want to grout it, because the whole purpose of getting it is so it will look like wood, and not tile.

Anybody here that is knowledgeable in this area?

Also, any realtors who can tell me what the best ROI is for flooring? I live in coastal Georgia, and lots of people have tile because of the sand, but I hate square tile.
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This is where you need to know someone who is a contractor. My family growing up had carpet replaced with limestone, but only because our neighbor was a contractor and even had a full shed of limestone tile leftover from some bigger projects. The limestone was great except every so often you had to strip and re seal the limestone, and mop it only with hot water and no cleaner to preserve the sealer.
 
Superfly said:
Thanks, hon. I don't know - so many different options. My original wish was polished concrete. That would be the easiest maintenance, plus it looks great and it doesn't matter if your floor isn't perfectly leveled. I may look in Jax or Savannah to see if I can find someone to do it.
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Why such a hard time with concrete floors there? When I lived in cali I lived in a cheap duplex, and it had no real tile or carpet, rather it was concrete tile, or rather they shaped the top layer to look like tile. It was easy maintenance and always looked good, but I would imagine it would be harder in a house already built rather than doing it during construction.

You could get concrete tile installed, which with certain patterns looks amazing, and very low maintenance, but that concrete tile would be as expensive as real tile to install and probably much more if you want it polished.
 
beerftw said:
Why such a hard time with concrete floors there? When I lived in cali I lived in a cheap duplex, and it had no real tile or carpet, rather it was concrete tile, or rather they shaped the top layer to look like tile. It was easy maintenance and always looked good, but I would imagine it would be harder in a house already built rather than doing it during construction.

You could get concrete tile installed, which with certain patterns looks amazing, and very low maintenance, but that concrete tile would be as expensive as real tile to install and probably much more if you want it polished.
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Well I live in a pretty small town. I could probably call Savannah or Jacksonville to get a quote, but I always like to try using local contractors first. I'm pretty sure I can find somebody if I don't mind going outside my location.
 
countryboy said:
Pull saws are great for certain applications, but for cutting jambs, casings, and baseboards for flooring installations they are kind of a PITA. They can't reach into a corner like an oscillating tool can.
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Can't argue with that and if I weren't retired I would definitely get one...certainly more PITA without...fortunately, anybody who talks me into wwwwworking for them, I don't generally charge much, if at all...if I ever had use for one at this stage I'd opt toward meditation and take my time old school since we aren't talking production of any volume.
However many hours times zero has never caused any complaints that I am aware of.

Seriously though, it looks like one of the cooler tools created since the bread slicer.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
I also prefer cordless powered hand tools over corded versions in most cases. One big reason is that for my "make ready" work in rental units I often have no electric power (last tenant had service stopped and new tenant will not have it restored until they move in). My latest battery powered tool purchase was an Echo 58v chainsaw and it works amazingly well but I still preferred to use a gas or corded electrical powered chainsaw over a manual bow saw (or axe) for cutting large limbs or trees.
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I can see where the Echo could be handy but my base gas model Stihl gets me by to meet my minimal needs for personal use...in your case, I understand, good score for the right situations.

Back when Makita first came out with their 9.6 volt stuff, I bought some...one guy gave me $20 to drill one hole, lol...less than five minutes, saved hours going after the generator and drill.
 
AYSM said:
Can't argue with that and if I weren't retired I would definitely get one...certainly more PITA without...fortunately, anybody who talks me into wwwwworking for them, I don't generally charge much, if at all...if I ever had use for one at this stage I'd opt toward meditation and take my time old school since we aren't talking production of any volume.
However many hours times zero has never caused any complaints that I am aware of.

Seriously though, it looks like one of the cooler tools created since the bread slicer.
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Mine has gotten me out of a lot of tight spots, and you don't realize how versatile they are until you're in the field and find uses for them you couldn't have imagined. But mainly I use mine for cutting trim for flooring, cutting holes in drywall, and grinding thinset and mortar off of various substrates, for repairs.

If you want to try one on the cheap, you could always get a Harbor Freight version. Their blades and accessories aren't the best, but I occasionally use them. I am liking the Rockwell blades and rasps lately.
 
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