House Remodeling Thread (long)

[ny biker]

So I'm working on "the last big project" in my condo. It's time to rip out the ugly dirty old wall to wall carpeting and get new floors. This will be for the living room/dining area, the bedroom and the hallway in between -- the entire apartment except for the kitchen and bathroom. I had been looking into new hardwood, but then decided that cork would be a good choice because it provides better sound insulation and also is a bit warmer underfoot. It took some effort but I found several local floor places that do a fair amount of cork installations -- most places either don't carry it at all or they carry one brand and make it pretty clear when you talk to them that they really just want to deal with wood floors or carpet. Three of the places I found are in the Maryland suburbs north of DC which is not convenient to my home or office, so I can only go there on Saturdays. Fortunately there is also one installer located a few miles from my house.

So I drove up to Maryland several times, looking at samples, borrowing them to look at at home, returning the samples, having long talks with the people who worked there to try to understand the features of cork. I'm looking at getting a click-lock floating floor. The hard part is finding the right color. I would like a medium brown, not light but not too dark either. I've seen some dark brown samples that are really nice and rich looking but I've heard that dark floors show dirt and I am too lazy when it comes to housekeeping -- I prefer to spend my time riding my bike. Also I think dark brown would look okay with the green walls in the LR/DR but would seem heavy in the bedroom with the light blue walls. So, medium brown. But here's the hard part -- many shades of medium brown have strong red, yellow or orange undertones which I don't like -- they don't look right with the cool paint colors that I've chosen.

After much perusal I thought I'd found a near-perfect shade -- Dark Oak from Duro-Design. But then I found out that it comes unfinished and has to be finished on-site, which will cost more to install and will mean I'll have to wait 10 days for it to cure before I can put the area rugs in, which adds the expense of hiring someone to help me move the furniture around to put down the rugs. More important, Duro-Design says it needs to be refinished every 5-7 years and I don't have the time or money to pack up my house and refinish the entire floor that often. I mean really, that's just impractical.

So back to square one. My choices are: go with a darker brown and accept that fact that it shows dirt and is too dark for the bedroom; go with something lighter than I really wanted which won't really look right with my dark brown and black furniture (and also tends to show dirt, from what I've heard); or give up on cork and get hardwood.

Right now all I know for sure is that I have to drive back up to Maryland on Saturday to look the samples again.

[emily_in_nc]

Tough dilemma, NY!

We are hoping to install a floating cork floor in our motorhome in a year or so (budget is too tight this year with all the more essential things we've had to purchase for it). From posts I've read in RV forums, it appears that for our small space, this is a pretty easy DIY project, so with my handy DH, we will order the materials and DIY. I looked at a bunch of them online from Duro Design (http://www.duro-design.com/index.cfm...cork-flooring/), and I am sure we will have a hard time with color choice too. They have 54!!!!

DH and I both have light-colored hair, so I will probably go with a light color as dark floors really show the hairs. Our dog is black and white, so both dark and light floors are going to show her hairs, so that's a wash. Dark floors do show dust, and light floors show dirt more. The light oak floor we had in our house in NC was VERY forgiving compared to floors we've had since (dark and white), so I think I'll stick with that tone -- not super pale but a bit on the blonde side. That's also the color of our motorhome's oak cabinets.

I can't help you with your decision since these kinds of decisions are super tough for me too (and I haven't seen your furniture, etc.), just wanted to empathize. I bet whatever you pick is going to end up looking nice! Please post back with your decision, and hopefully some photos afterwards!

[Pax]

We agonized over our new tile, trying several samples, moving them all over the place at different times of day to see how they'd look in different light. Finally picked one and had it installed, I didn't like it! It seemed darker than I was expecting when you could see so much of it... but after a short time I stopped caring, then stopped noticing.

Good luck with your pick, NY!!

[Helene2013]

We have darker wood floors in some part of our home and never again for us. EVERYTHING shows, even after just washing the floors. Also the fact that it is darker, it seems the rooms are smaller.

So if you are not a Mr.Net person, you may regret the choice. Worst case scenario, can you get the lighter brown you were looking for and just repaint at some point the walls to something else. It is much easier/faster than having to re-work on floors.

[emily_in_nc]

So if you are not a Mr.Net person, you may regret the choice.

What is a Mr.Net person?

[Helene2013]

Mr. Net is Mr. Clean in English.

[ny biker]

The thing is that I really love the wall colors. I spent a lot of time choosing them. So I don't want to change them to match new floors. Also I don't want a floor with a warm undertone because I really don't like warm colors for decorating. I think I am in a minority in that respect.

I am definitely not Mr. Net/Mr. Clean, so I am working on freeing my mind of all the flooring decisions I made in the past year or so. I need to be open to lighter colors, as long as they're not too light. And I need to stop telling myself how rich and beautiful the dark chocolate/mocha samples are.

The people at Duro-Design are very helpful, Emily. When the time comes, you can request samples directly from them. If you're doing a click-lock floating floor, they can tell you which colors are available pre-finished. If you want the glue-down tiles then I think they're always finished on-site after installation. Glue-down tiles are better in places that are exposed to water/flooding, such as kitchens and bathrooms -- I'm not sure if that's a concern for an RV. I would imagine that installing any floor in an RV is relatively simple, in the sense that you're not dealing with the types of leveling problems that my condo and many other old homes have.