The Wonder Weapon posted:

To add to the dog pile, 4500 total for two is offensive in its unbridled disdain. We bought a 2200 this year, only having gone that large because we intend to have children. At the moment a solid half of the house is dust storage because we simply have no use for it, and that's accounting for a large entertaining space and a shared 400 office.

To go a step further, they purchased an 8 acre lot. You're not getting that type of space in any urban setting, probably not even suburban. They're going to have something like 2000 that's basically strictly for entertaining, but they're going to be so far removed from population centers they'll be lucky to have people over once a month.

Cut 2000 off and donate it as an extension to some local clinic or something.

Motronic posted:

I've seen 200 year old hardwood floors. What's the oldest engineered floor you've seen?

If this is about durability......

meatpimp posted:

Floor chat:

Due to a dishwasher drain that blew, I'm looking at replacing flooring on my first floor. We're going to do most of the first floor in the same material, about 1500 sq ft. in total. We had a mix of carpet, laminate and bamboo up until this point. The bamboo was about 5 years old with an aluminum oxide finish and it held up fantastically well during the 5 years it was down. It stood up to kids and dogs with virtually no change or wear.

Now we're looking at primarily 2 options -- full thickness hardwood or a high-end engineered hardwood floor. Curiously, the engineered floor is more expensive, but it's thick plywood and a thick hardwood layer that would allow for sand/refinish after the factory ceramic coating is dead (hopefully well after we move in 10 years or so).

The company we're looking at it Uptown Floors http://www.uptownfloors.com/

What are thoughts on high quality engineered versus full thickness hardwood? We have a couple areas of the floor that have ~35' straight runs (both directions), so expansion/contraction is a concern. Part of me thinks that the engineered will give a better use as a floor, with lay-down and stability. The other part of me thinks that's true, but it's more expensive than full thickness and it's not full thickness...

meatpimp posted:

Floor chat:

Due to a dishwasher drain that blew, I'm looking at replacing flooring on my first floor. We're going to do most of the first floor in the same material, about 1500 sq ft. in total. We had a mix of carpet, laminate and bamboo up until this point. The bamboo was about 5 years old with an aluminum oxide finish and it held up fantastically well during the 5 years it was down. It stood up to kids and dogs with virtually no change or wear.

Now we're looking at primarily 2 options -- full thickness hardwood or a high-end engineered hardwood floor. Curiously, the engineered floor is more expensive, but it's thick plywood and a thick hardwood layer that would allow for sand/refinish after the factory ceramic coating is dead (hopefully well after we move in 10 years or so).

The company we're looking at it Uptown Floors http://www.uptownfloors.com/

What are thoughts on high quality engineered versus full thickness hardwood? We have a couple areas of the floor that have ~35' straight runs (both directions), so expansion/contraction is a concern. Part of me thinks that the engineered will give a better use as a floor, with lay-down and stability. The other part of me thinks that's true, but it's more expensive than full thickness and it's not full thickness...

TofuDiva posted:

The one thing I'd suggest to check is on the approved routine cleaning methods for both kinds, but especially for the engineered flooring, and think about whether you are able to deal with the restrictions. You might find that you are not supposed to use a vacuum with rotating bristles, that you cannot use a Scooba, and that wet mopping and steam cleaning are off-limits.

Not saying that these are necesssarily showstoppers, but it's way better to know going in instead of after you've installed it.

H110Hawk posted:

When you say "full thickness" what do you mean? They make hardwood planks in various thicknesses. My friends 119ish year old house has original oak true-dimensional lumber as his flooring. (as in, 2" x 4") It was built as they clearcut the area for houses. That wood will never die. Most of it comes down to proper care and maintenance. If you're definitely moving in 10 years I wouldn't put too terribly much thought into it. They will both hold up fine. I am currently sitting on my oak floors from 1947, and other than needing to be refinished and a couple of planks replaced where a dog tore them up over the course of several years (it's where their dog gate looked out into the living room/front door) it's solid. There used to be carpet and all the awfulness of glue etc on top of them, years and years ago. I don't think there is subfloor. They are likely also from the surrounding area, there used to be a LOT of oak around here.

meatpimp posted:

Good question. The definitely say no steam mops, but I'll look into it.


They're both 3/4" floors. One is solid wood, the other is a 5.8mm thick veneer on a 11 ply birch plywood substrate. Both nail down. The engineered version has lengths up to 8', I'm unsure of maximum length of their solid pieces.

Pic of the engineered:

durrneez posted:

Cross posted from the Florida LAN thread:

Is anyone a real estate lawyer or have one to recommend? I co-own some property near Tampa, Florida and am having some issues with it.

Kaiser Schnitzel posted:

A 35’ long run of solid wood is not problem. Wood moves less than 1% lengthwise from green to kiln dry-movement in service lengthwise is negligible. It does expand/contract a bit more width wise, but this is why floors are tongue and grooved together. If you do solid wood (I sure would) make sure the flooring sits unpacked in your climate controlled house for a a few days at least (weeks would be better) to acclimate to the humidity inside. If your dishwasher leaks again, solid wood floors might well survive it with refinishing-engineered are gonna be toast. There’s a good chance the solid is mostly short lengths of it is cheaper than the engineered.

toplitzin posted:

Legal Questions: Stop Talking Online and Ask An Attorney In Your Area

Kaiser Schnitzel posted:

A 35’ long run of solid wood is not problem. Wood moves less than 1% lengthwise from green to kiln dry-movement in service lengthwise is negligible. It does expand/contract a bit more width wise, but this is why floors are tongue and grooved together. If you do solid wood (I sure would) make sure the flooring sits unpacked in your climate controlled house for a a few days at least (weeks would be better) to acclimate to the humidity inside. If your dishwasher leaks again, solid wood floors might well survive it with refinishing-engineered are gonna be toast. There’s a good chance the solid is mostly short lengths of it is cheaper than the engineered.

meatpimp posted:

Floor chat:

What are thoughts on high quality engineered versus full thickness hardwood?

HycoCam posted:

Are you going to be living/have stuff in the house while the floors are being redone? Not having to deal with dust and urethane VOC's is a great reason to with engineered flooring. Even with the best abatement systems--finishing hardwoods just seems to get dust everywhere.

toplitzin posted:

Where's the line between lic/bonded handymen jobs and being your own/getting a GC for a job?

Example: I need to replace my bathroom fan and unfuck the ceiling. (It looks like a contractor stepped on the fan while reparing the attic trusses in the pre-closing window. Only found it on final walkthru closing day so its not a "hey fix this too you sellers").

I know a new fan would just be a straight electrician install, but replace and re-drywall is that better handled by a general handyman (lic. insured etc) or getting an electrician to do the fan and then a sheetrock guy for the ceiling?



I'm going to redo the bathroom eventually, but i'd rather get this fixed sooner than a whole reno.

Side note: this fan is plugged into a socket behind that shroud. it's not hard wired in.

That Works posted:

That Works posted:

What kinda difficulty would I getting into if I wanted to DIY removing the fireplace insert, taking the fireplace out of service and drywalling over the wall parts leaving an inset into the wall and tiling the floor of the inset out to the current tile on the hardwood there?

Motronic posted:

Your fireplace is not an insert.

You would have to demo all the tile/stone out from around it and, depending on how you want to build shelves/cubbies, demo the fire brick and parts of the chimney.

Jaded Burnout posted:

They're all kinda fiddly tasks so you can expect it to take much longer than a bevy of pros with experience, and/or it might not wind up with a perfect finish, but you're not going to collapse the chimney or anything.

The only note I'd give is that it's apparently necessary to provide venting from the chimney into the room via any closed up fireplaces to prevent that section of the chimney developing mould issues.

That Works posted:

The bricks in it are just some sort of masonry plates that only look like bricks and they sit above a metal grille etc that you can see into space underneath it etc. All of the plates / brick seem to be entirely placed within the surrounding metal enclosure on all sides. Would that still not be considered an insert? When I brought photos to the fireplace store in town they identified it as some model of "zero clearance insert" so that's why I had been calling it that.

That Works posted:

We would definitely be ripping out the hearth, tiles (except possibly the ones on the floor) with what we envison currently unless there's a good reason not to do so. Would prefer to make a cubby there so we could make use of the tiled floor portion and put things like a dog food and water setup etc that would be more out of the way.

Motronic posted:

IF they ID'd it as an insert than go with that. From your pic it looks like a regular built fireplace with a screen door pasted on the outside (very common). That should make things significantly easier on you.


A cubby on the floor where the fireplace used to be? Might look a bit odd, but yeah.....should be pretty easy. The worst thing you have to deal with here is the chimney, which is probably nothing more than galvanized double or triple wall pipe in an OSB box.

That Works posted:

So for the chimney, it seems to be just a pipe like you said enclosed in a box covered in siding on the house. I didn't plan on removing the chimney and if possible just sealing up the pipe on both ends and as Jaded suggested make sure the box itself still gets some kind of venting. Would that work or would the entire pipe etc going up the side of the house all need to be removed? If that was the case it's a much bigger job than I think I want to consider as DIY at all.

meatpimp posted:

Going with a pre-finished hardwood. I am sold on factory finishes versus an in-place poly.

That Works posted:

Thanks!

So for the chimney, it seems to be just a pipe like you said enclosed in a box covered in siding on the house. I didn't plan on removing the chimney and if possible just sealing up the pipe on both ends and as Jaded suggested make sure the box itself still gets some kind of venting. Would that work or would the entire pipe etc going up the side of the house all need to be removed? If that was the case it's a much bigger job than I think I want to consider as DIY at all.

As far as the cubby goes I think if we have the same tile on the floor going into the recessed cubby as well and then make the drywall and repainting etc all match it's basically just a dugout with some stuff in it. If it looks too poo poo I can just build in a low bookcase or storage cabinet with a bench top to sit on along that wall or something instead and just trim that up with the same baseboard moulding etc.