YNAB You Need A Budget

[malisab]

We're starting to plan for new flooring throughout the house. I've pulled up about 2/3 of the carpet that was throughout the house (minus kitchens and baths). The house was built in the 40's and I'd guess that the pad was from no later than the 50's. The carpet wasn't all that old, but the padding. Yikes! We live in a very dusty area (both because of where our house is situated and due to the fact that our windows don't seal all that well...they're on the list too). Even my Dyson couldn't suck up that many years worth of dirt. There was a VERY thick layer of dirt under the pad in most areas. I vowed I'd never get carpet again.

We've got some concrete exposed and some old floor tile. I put laminate down over the floor tile in one spare bedroom, just to see if we'd want to do it throughout (and if I could do it myself). It was fun and easy enough to do the one room, but I decided that with the sq footage that we'd want to do all at once, I couldn't handle it. Not to mention I'm great at doing the 'body' of projects, but then not finishing the small bits (ie: no edging in the spare room...it's been 2.5 years).

In regard to the laminate in general, I dropped a clock radio on it and it took out a big gash. That and the clickety-click of pet nails on it made me decide not to go with laminate throughout.

We're thinking hardwood now, possibly bamboo. We have concrete floors. Eco-friendliness is a concern, as is cost. We thought that maybe since we'll end up spending more than we'd anticipated by going with hardwood in the "public" areas (living room, dining room, hallway and entry hall), maybe we'd carpet the "private" areas (bedrooms and den).

Thoughts? Suggestions?
TIA

[jjsouth]

A few quick thoughts and then I need to put my daughter to bed.

1) If you have concrete floors, have you considered doing the painted/stained concrete? I'm not 100% sure of the technique for getting it done, but we have it in our kitchen/dining/hall area and I love it. The previous owners did it and it's very easy to maintain.

2) In our house we sold a couple of years ago, I priced having laminate installed in the kitchen and bathrooms and found that I could put in ceramic tile myself for under half the cost. Tiling is a tough job, no doubt, and it sounds like you're not wanting a big project right now, but for the money, if you can manage to do it on your own, it's definitely a cheap way to go and will yield maximum return on dollars. We did one section of our house at a time. It really was tiring, but sooo worth it in the end.

3) I LOVE bamboo flooring. If I can save up enough for it, I'm going to rip out all carpet on the main floor in about 8 years and put in bamboo.

And I think carpet in the bedrooms is always a safe choice.

Good luck!

Joyce

[woodnboats]

I'm thinking about hardwood, too, when I get a little money ahead, so I've done some research. YMMV, of course.

First of all, I'd recommend against bamboo. I know, I know, it's "green chic", but until you get into the exotics like mahogany and teak, which I need for boat building, there is little to worry about with regard to "eco-friendliness". Most of the standard species, such as the oaks and pine, are in good enough supply as shown by their price. When we get short, the market will tell us by pricing them out of sight. Bamboo, as far as I have been able to find out, is practically unrefinishable, so when it gets scarred, marred and stained (and it will), you are out of luck.

Personally, I'd go with oak, red or white, solid and unfigured, to maximize the refinishability. I like the idea of site finishing, but the finishes the Feds permit in the field now don't produce as durable a finish as the factory finishes (more progress), so if that's a concern, then you have to put up with the tacky rounded edges that fairly scream Home Depot.

Just my $.02 worth.

Kirk

[malisab]

1) If you have concrete floors, have you considered doing the painted/stained concrete? I'm not 100% sure of the technique for getting it done, but we have it in our kitchen/dining/hall area and I love it. The previous owners did it and it's very easy to maintain.

That was on the top of my list. I have calls in to three guys to get prices/etc. We went to look at flooring this past weekend, to see if DH and I are on the same page at all, and we got so excited about the pretty flooring...this got pushed to the back burner. But yes, I'm still going to check on that. And depending on how much it is, I may have them do a room or two to see what I think about it.

2) In our house we sold a couple of years ago, I priced having laminate installed in the kitchen and bathrooms and found that I could put in ceramic tile myself for under half the cost. Tiling is a tough job, no doubt, and it sounds like you're not wanting a big project right now, but for the money, if you can manage to do it on your own, it's definitely a cheap way to go and will yield maximum return on dollars. We did one section of our house at a time. It really was tiring, but sooo worth it in the end.

I bought some 'real tile' (I can't remember now whether it was ceramic or porcelain or even what the difference is) to do my hall bath last spring, but ultimately I chickened out and took it back. I did the 99 cent stick down vinyl tiles instead. I've threatened to do the hallway and entry hall in that too, for the time being, since that's where we're down to bare concrete. I think it'd be fun to do tile, but it scares me. It seems so unforgiving. Maybe when we re-do the tiny master bath. Then no one but us would see it if I mess up.

[jjsouth]

I think it'd be fun to do tile, but it scares me. It seems so unforgiving. Maybe when we re-do the tiny master bath. Then no one but us would see it if I mess up.

This is exactly how we started: the small hall bath was my first tiling project. You'll be surprised how forgiving it is. I had wood subfloors, so we put down the concrete backerboards and tiled over those. If you have concrete, I think you can just level it if it needs it and put the tile directly over it. And even then, I think I've seen that if your floor isn't badly unlevel, you can just use extra mortar in the low spots. But don't quote me on that. I'm sure it would make a professional shake their head. But we had good success with the tiling. I had several spots where the spacing between the tiles wasn't even, but it just didn't show as much as I was concerned it would. Use darker grout and it will be pretty unnoticeable. I did our large master bath second and did better and by the time I did our kitchen, it was almost perfect. It's hard work, but it was worth it to me for the savings, and the beauty of the floor was amazing. I couldn't believe that I could spend so little and have tile floors.

And interesting to hear woodnboats description of bamboo. If they can't be refinished, then I won't use them... I'll have to look into that sometime in the next 8 years.

Joyce

[malisab]

Thanks for more detail on tiling. It's tempting!

And interesting to hear woodnboats description of bamboo. If they can't be refinished, then I won't use them... I'll have to look into that sometime in the next 8 years.

Yes, I've added that as a definite question. I'm sure we asked it and were assured that it could be refinished as any hard wood can. I know that we've been told that the stranded bamboos are the most durable. I've read that the carbonized ones (darkened) are softer.