[quote=spdrun]Do it yourself or hire from in front of Home Depot. Cheaper than dotting/crossing the correct letters.[/quote]
I’m going to try my hand at this, spdrun. I have a friend who did her 1500 sf condo in floating wood floor (6″ wide planks) and it looks really nice. Her daughter helped. She’s been a seamstress all her life and had her long tables set up in the garage to lay it all out first and match it and make the cuts.
She’s offered to help me try my hand at it and I’m going to take her up on it with my study (a smallish bdrm) for starters and then I’ll go from there. (Due to furniture moving, etc, I can only do one room at a time.)
I priced JUST my living room in 2.5″ red oak about five years ago and the estimate (with installation) was over $4400! (It had to be nailed and then professionally finished.)
I have a 1.5″ red oak dining room and hallway which has been professionally finished and is still beautiful but those planks have long since been discontinued as they were used from about 1948 to 1952 (when the 2.5″ planks began to be used en masse). On the back of these original planks, it says “Hurtsboro” (a mill in Kentucky at the time).
I went to Lumber Liquidators in Nestor several years ago and found acceptable pre-finished 2.25″ planks (mfr Durawood) but at $3.49 sf, the cost for me would be ridiculously high with installation as they have to be nailed. I’ve been getting ads from them for small lots of same for .99 sf so if I bought enough from red oak end lots for 1-2 rooms at a time and did just those room(s), I don’t think the difference in color/pattern would show up that much from room to room but I’m not sure.
I could buy a new floor nailer for $170, which would be cheaper than renting it on several different occasions. I just don’t know how to use it or know all the tricks for nailing against the wall, etc. Thus my idea for the floating floor after seeing my friend’s. I just wonder how the 6″ planks would look butted up next to existing 1.5″ planks (which I’m not going to replace). I guess I could go to Lowes and get a sample to check.
Mine is a real dilemma but there is no way in h@ll I would spend $10K+ on wood flooring. I don’t know how handy you are, OP or if you’re willing to try DIY, but spdrun is correct in that it is MUCH CHEAPER to DIY flooring than have it done.
However, to lay tile, you would need to be very proficient at using a wet tile saw so as not to waste any (expensive) tile and they cost over $850 to buy, are expensive to rent and are dangerous. I’ve used a very good, efficient and reasonable licensed tile person in SD County for setting over 150 sf of a ceramic mosaic pattern. I don’t know where you’re located, but if you are interested in the referral, feel free to pm me.
