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The OFFICIAL Hardwood Flooring Thread

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Apr 17, 2005
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mugs_64 wrote: Hey i need some input on the layout of the floor plan on what to do.

all the of the floor on the main level is vinyl except for the carpeted area in the living room. I don't know if I should put hardwood throughout the main floor and just have area rugs in the foyer, livingroom, and small mat in kitchen.
or put ceramic in some areas like in the kitchen or powder room. I want to know peoples thoughts on either way. its not a huge area. however I understand situations with hardwood in the bathroom with water and in the kitchen with the possibility of crumbs and such.

[IMG]http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8672 ... oor.th.png[/IMG]

give me your thoughts
Hardwood throughout main floor incl. kitchen & foyer is very trendy & popular these days. If your front door is your main & only entrance to the house, then the foyer will take a lot of abuse. And same thing goes for the kitchen as you already know. Area rugs/mats will help & you will have to take greater care. Or otherwise do a nice stone tile in the foyer/hall/powder/kitchen. And then install hardwood in living room but dinette would also look nice with hardwood.
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orispanerai wrote: I think it is plywood. Is that bad? There is a 25 year warranty though. Should I be looking at 3-ply or 5-ply instead?

Thanks.
I have never seen that product, so can't really comment & no info when you Google. So what kind of warranty can they offer if the company does not really exist?? The multiply (5 layer) is more structurally sound because the layers are thinner & pressed together with more glue.
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tommcl wrote: I bought some left over kempas (Red hues) from a local ad and really love the looks and contacted the store it was purchased from in London and they no longer carry it. I would love to get some more to do another room. Any suggestions on where to get it in southwestern Ontario? Thanks Tom
Goodfellow makes Kempas. So look for their dealers including Lowes.
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Sweeta wrote: Hi everyone,
Our builder is offering us parquet or carpet in LR, DR, FR. Eventually we do plan on getting hardwood floors (maybe in 1 year) so would you recommend getting the carpet or going with the parquet?

Thanks for your help!

Also I've read conflicting information on installing hardwood over parquet. Is that recommended or should we pull up all the parquet. How much work is it?
Take carpet! Easy to remove, still usable in the basement & you will reduce your height between hardwood & tile. You can install over parquet but your height between hardwood & tile will be dramatically higher & if you have any squeaks before hardwood installation over parquet, it's harder to fix.
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Nov 22, 2003
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Hi Patrob,

My central vac is up and running now and it works quite well on the hardwood. It will be a few extra passes before all that fine dust from the install is totally gone but I'll get there. In the meantime, I was reading your comments about the vintage floor cleaner and I see that it can be ordered directly off their site. Is the full kit worth getting? Seems pricey for what you receive. 3 bottles for $29 vs 1 bottle with a couple of cheap-looking plasticky accessories. The mop can't be worth that much can it? Would a regular dry Swiffer head do the trick (or any other mop head for that matter)?
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txenglan wrote: Hi Patrob,

My central vac is up and running now and it works quite well on the hardwood. It will be a few extra passes before all that fine dust from the install is totally gone but I'll get there. In the meantime, I was reading your comments about the vintage floor cleaner and I see that it can be ordered directly off their site. Is the full kit worth getting? Seems pricey for what you receive. 3 bottles for $29 vs 1 bottle with a couple of cheap-looking plasticky accessories. The mop can't be worth that much can it? Would a regular dry Swiffer head do the trick (or any other mop head for that matter)?
As long as you already have a plastic swivel head with a terry cloth, then just order the spray solution. You wet the cloth, ring it out as much as you can & spray the solution on the damp cloth. Don't spray directly on the floor. Do not use any Vim/OrangeGlo/Murphy'sOil/Pledge/Wet Swiffer hardwood cleaners, etc. The Vintage spray solution works the best.

I guess now you can post some pics :cheesygri
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Nov 22, 2003
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patrob wrote: As long as you already have a plastic swivel head with a terry cloth, then just order the spray solution. You wet the cloth, ring it out as much as you can & spray the solution on the damp cloth. Don't spray directly on the floor. Do not use any Vim/OrangeGlo/Murphy'sOil/Pledge/Wet Swiffer hardwood cleaners, etc. The Vintage spray solution works the best.
Thanks! The guys at Rome Flooring are recommending "Polycare". They will order the Vintage stuff if I want it but they swear by this stuff. Any experience with it?
patrob wrote: I guess now you can post some pics :cheesygri
I will soon be able to post some pics as I took advantage of the deal as posted at http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/fs-o ... -a-825795/. Been so busy that I haven't even opened the box yet though ;)
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Hi guys! We are changing the carpet in our 2nd floor (approx. 440 sqft.) to hard wood. We were quoted by Alliance $5700 + taxes installed for maple engineered. They also said we have to pay $100 for disposal of the carpet, etc.. so around $300 dollars of bs i think.

Do you guys think it's better to buy the materials ourselves and get an installer? if so, can you guys recommend someone?

Thanks!
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txenglan wrote: Thanks! The guys at Rome Flooring are recommending "Polycare". They will order the Vintage stuff if I want it but they swear by this stuff. Any experience with it?

I will soon be able to post some pics as I took advantage of the deal as posted at http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/fs-o ... -a-825795/. Been so busy that I haven't even opened the box yet though ;)
Never used Polycare, only Vintage cleaning solution. They are probably making more money on it, that's why they are "recommending" it :D
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azn_pnoy wrote: Hi guys! We are changing the carpet in our 2nd floor (approx. 440 sqft.) to hard wood. We were quoted by Alliance $5700 + taxes installed for maple engineered. They also said we have to pay $100 for disposal of the carpet, etc.. so around $300 dollars of bs i think.

Do you guys think it's better to buy the materials ourselves and get an installer? if so, can you guys recommend someone?

Thanks!
A bit on the high side. If you want, I can give you a quote :) PM me with more details, wood colour, plank width, etc.
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Nov 22, 2003
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patrob wrote: Never used Polycare, only Vintage cleaning solution. They are probably making more money on it, that's why they are "recommending" it :D
That may be true. Oh well. I'll try it out and order in a bottle of the Vintage stuff to try on a different section of the floor to compare.

Merry X-Mas!
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txenglan wrote: That may be true. Oh well. I'll try it out and order in a bottle of the Vintage stuff to try on a different section of the floor to compare.

Merry X-Mas!
Try both & then decide which one you like better. It might also be good, we just never never used it.

Image
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Oct 30, 2005
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Pat I have a question; I'm getting some mild buckling at the edge of a couple of rooms (solid ash, 4.25" boards) on both the main and upper floors of my house. Not enough to be visually noticeable, but when you step on the area there's about 1/8" of movement up and down. Humidity in the house is about 30-35% currently. If anything, shouldn't the boards be shrinking a bit?? The boards were installed in June, and they were acclimated to the house for about 10-12 days before install. House is 20 years old (so subfloor - plywood - was nice and dry).

Any suggestions on why this would be happening in these fairly dry conditions?? In the humidity of July/August there were no problems. Should I face nail them down at the perimeter?
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Jan 23, 2007
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GTA
Hi Patrob,

Awesome thread! We recently bought a house that has hardwood throughout (approx 4 yr old house). From an overall perspective the floors look fine, but you can notice scratches here and there. When you bend down and really look at it, you can see that there are actually quite a few knicks and scratches.

We're ok with the way the floors are now but in the future, if we wanted to refinish the floors, would that remove all these knicks and scratches?

We also noticed that some dings go beyond the surface and there's this one in particular that is pretty deep (images below). This one happens to be in a high traffic area and we're afraid that it will only get worse if we don't do something about it. What would you recommend we do to patch this up? We were thinking wood filler - would that work? How would we go about applying something like that without making things worse?

Also, if we were to use a damp mop (or say the swiffer wet jet) over these damaged areas of the hardwood, would water get into the wood and ruin it more? How would you recommend we clean the floors? Strictly dry vac and sweep/swiffer?

Sorry for the long post - we're really worried about the floors getting worse...

Thanks!

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chip enlarged
[IMG]http://img241.imagevenue.com/loc527/th_ ... _527lo.JPG[/IMG]
Member
Oct 30, 2005
312 posts
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Victoria, BC
noodlesoup wrote: Hi Patrob,

Awesome thread! We recently bought a house that has hardwood throughout (approx 4 yr old house). From an overall perspective the floors look fine, but you can notice scratches here and there. When you bend down and really look at it, you can see that there are actually quite a few knicks and scratches.

We're ok with the way the floors are now but in the future, if we wanted to refinish the floors, would that remove all these knicks and scratches?

We also noticed that some dings go beyond the surface and there's this one in particular that is pretty deep (images below). This one happens to be in a high traffic area and we're afraid that it will only get worse if we don't do something about it. What would you recommend we do to patch this up? We were thinking wood filler - would that work? How would we go about applying something like that without making things worse?

Also, if we were to use a damp mop (or say the swiffer wet jet) over these damaged areas of the hardwood, would water get into the wood and ruin it more? How would you recommend we clean the floors? Strictly dry vac and sweep/swiffer?

Sorry for the long post - we're really worried about the floors getting worse...

Thanks!

chip around middle of image
[IMG]http://img212.imagevenue.com/loc997/th_ ... _997lo.JPG[/IMG]

chip enlarged
[IMG]http://img241.imagevenue.com/loc527/th_ ... _527lo.JPG[/IMG]

Noodlesoup, just my 2 cents, but this is the nature of hardwood floors. They dent, scratch, and chip. You can buy a colour-matched putty that will fill in those nicks. Refinishing will be probably around $4+/sq ft... not worth it for some minor imperfections.
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canuck88 wrote: Pat I have a question; I'm getting some mild buckling at the edge of a couple of rooms (solid ash, 4.25" boards) on both the main and upper floors of my house. Not enough to be visually noticeable, but when you step on the area there's about 1/8" of movement up and down. Humidity in the house is about 30-35% currently. If anything, shouldn't the boards be shrinking a bit?? The boards were installed in June, and they were acclimated to the house for about 10-12 days before install. House is 20 years old (so subfloor - plywood - was nice and dry).

Any suggestions on why this would be happening in these fairly dry conditions?? In the humidity of July/August there were no problems. Should I face nail them down at the perimeter?
If it's along the outside walls, could be some moisture penetration (same as the condensation on the windows) from outside underneath the wall. You can still remove the quarter/baseboard & spray some insulation along the perimeter. Just remember about your RH levels, 4 1/4" will show a lot of gapping if too dry.
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noodlesoup wrote: Hi Patrob,

Awesome thread! We recently bought a house that has hardwood throughout (approx 4 yr old house). From an overall perspective the floors look fine, but you can notice scratches here and there. When you bend down and really look at it, you can see that there are actually quite a few knicks and scratches.

We're ok with the way the floors are now but in the future, if we wanted to refinish the floors, would that remove all these knicks and scratches?

We also noticed that some dings go beyond the surface and there's this one in particular that is pretty deep (images below). This one happens to be in a high traffic area and we're afraid that it will only get worse if we don't do something about it. What would you recommend we do to patch this up? We were thinking wood filler - would that work? How would we go about applying something like that without making things worse?

Also, if we were to use a damp mop (or say the swiffer wet jet) over these damaged areas of the hardwood, would water get into the wood and ruin it more? How would you recommend we clean the floors? Strictly dry vac and sweep/swiffer?

Sorry for the long post - we're really worried about the floors getting worse...

Thanks!

chip around middle of image
[IMG]http://img212.imagevenue.com/loc997/th_ ... _997lo.JPG[/IMG]

chip enlarged
[IMG]http://img241.imagevenue.com/loc527/th_ ... _527lo.JPG[/IMG]
For that you can use coloured putty sticks (wax sticks). HD or Rona will carry it or any hardwood flooring store. Just make sure you get the right colour. Don't use a mop or even wet swiffer is too wet. Hardwood flooring cleaning kit (read back couple of posts for more info). Hardwood will scratch & ding & I would not re-finish it just for that unless it's really damaged.
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patrob wrote: If it's along the outside walls, could be some moisture penetration (same as the condensation on the windows) from outside underneath the wall. You can still remove the quarter/baseboard & spray some insulation along the perimeter. Just remember about your RH levels, 4 1/4" will show a lot of gapping if too dry.
It's actually fine along the exterior walls; it's happening on interior walls where the final boards were facenailed (and cut to about 2.5-3" in size to fit)...

I can't figure out why it would be lifting like this when it's so dry... seems like the opposite of what should be happening... RH is 26% right now and I have no gapping. ?!

Going to be investing in a steam humidifier, but I still can't figure out why i'm getting this buckling... any other ideas??
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canuck88 wrote: It's actually fine along the exterior walls; it's happening on interior walls where the final boards were facenailed (and cut to about 2.5-3" in size to fit)...

I can't figure out why it would be lifting like this when it's so dry... seems like the opposite of what should be happening... RH is 26% right now and I have no gapping. ?!

Going to be investing in a steam humidifier, but I still can't figure out why i'm getting this buckling... any other ideas??
Do you know if the installer glued the last pieces? Sometimes glue holds the boards from expansion/contraction & causes capping of that last piece. Also is the last full row nailed? We find very often that some installers leave it un-nailed & only nail the last piece under the baseboard/quarter round.

Gapping does not show right away with low humidity. It takes some time & it may show in couple of weeks when the wood becomes dry, not the air in the house but both go together.
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