Let's See Your House Projects!

[DETRoadster]

Originally Posted by shimmy23

We're going to replace the hardwood (solid) flooring in our home; hallways, kitchen, great room.

I'm torn between solid hardwood and engineered hardwood. Price doesn't really matter. The old school part of me thinks solid is better just because? On the other hand, our contractor says engineered hardwood would be much easier to maintain and better for the kitchen.

What's everyone's thoughts? Engineered or solid?

I'm a big believer in real hardwood. I've had it in 2 kitchens and never had a problem. Contractors like engineered floors because they go down fast, are pre-finished, and cut with laser accuracy at the factory. Higher profit margin for him with less risk of any issues during the install.

I greatly prefer the feel of hardwood underfoot. it's warmer and feel more solid.

[Rmtt]

Originally Posted by Joekerr

Not bad at all for the city. To be honest, it looked like even more from the pictures out the back from the floor to ceiling windows, though of course I can't judge property lines.

We don't live in the city, so we are on a 2.2 acre lot, but I figure at least half, maybe more is wooded. And I just spoke to the guy who apparently is buying the 55 acres we (and all my neighbours) back onto, and he seems like a nice enough guy. He was enquiring whether some of my neighbours would be interested in purchasing some of the land to add to their own property since he doesn't need it all, which I suspect they would be interested.

And I would be very interested in purchasing (or even better, having my neighbour purchase who I know is interested) this little 33ft swath of property in between us, which this new guy will own. If we can get that, we can block all access to our private road, and keep things the way they are. We are 15 minutes drive (at least the way I drive) from a decent sized city, so I feel like we have the best of both worlds.

If you plan this as your last place, get as much of the land that he is offering if you are in the position to do so and your neighbors as well.

We are in a similar situation now although we're only on about an acre. We planned this to be our last place as we were in a nice area with access similar to you. We live on what was the last, back street in our neighborhood. Had a piece of property behind us that ran the entire length of the street that was about 35 acres wooded. Been that way for 30+ years.

Last year whoever owned it sold it....and they subdivided and started throwing in roads and building houses on 1/2 acre lots fitting in as many as they could. They sold so quickly! The last house they installed at the ending of the first street sold for about $15K more than the first one.....and they are basically the same house.

Now they are almost 3 more streets in, and building like crazy. So much more commotion and traffic now....and it looks like we will be looking to move now that we are empty nesters.

It doesn't bother me as much as it does my wife as she grew up on almost 100 acres in a farm setting.

I thought we would retire here, so we had done quite a bit of work to our house.

Only saving grace is that our house is pretty much the biggest in the neighborhood with the largest yard. So our property value is climbing rapidly due to comparable home sales.

Bad news is that it is our last expense we owe, and although we will walk away with quite a bit of equity.....anything like what we have now is going to eat that up very quickly.

[lsturbointeg]

finally had some time this week to get the trim done on the stairs!

[shimmy23]

Great work! Is this a hobby for ya?

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by shimmy23

Great work! Is this a hobby for ya?

Thanks! I use to do house projects as a side gig but not anymore. but because I moved into this house there's a lot of upgrades that need to be done

[David70]

Originally Posted by shimmy23

We're going to replace the hardwood (solid) flooring in our home; hallways, kitchen, great room.

I'm torn between solid hardwood and engineered hardwood. Price doesn't really matter. The old school part of me thinks solid is better just because? On the other hand, our contractor says engineered hardwood would be much easier to maintain and better for the kitchen.

What's everyone's thoughts? Engineered or solid?

Recently did a bonus room (3rd floor attic) with solid prefinished hardwood over engineered hardwood. Prefer prefinished as everything I have read says it has a more durable finish so at that point I see it as hardwood with a prefinished top coating or engineered with a prefinished coating on a thin layer of hardwood on the top.

Engineered is more stable which is a benefit if going in a humid or wide range of temperatures, thinner which can be helpful depending on the project, and also can be less expensive.

What I like about solid is it can be refinished multiple times without worrying about getting to the "plywood" part of the assembly.

With labor costs being close to the same and the overall cost being close I didn't see any real benefits to going with engineered on my last project. I might use it eventually to add over existing flooring in on our 1st floor but this would mainly be because of the thickness.

[hooligan_G01]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

I'm a big believer in real hardwood. I've had it in 2 kitchens and never had a problem. Contractors like engineered floors because they go down fast, are pre-finished, and cut with laser accuracy at the factory. Higher profit margin for him with less risk of any issues during the install.

I greatly prefer the feel of hardwood underfoot. it's warmer and feel more solid.

Engineered flooring's big advantage in cold climates, where there is the need to run forced air heat, it that it's got better dimensional stability due to the plywood core. If you don't have a good humidifying system attached to your furnace, you can get significant shrinking/swelling with solid wood.

I'm with you, I prefer solid flooring, the compromise I'm striking for our renovation is that I'm going to insist on an engineered floor that can be nailed down. I'm with you, I don't like the feel underfoot of "floating" floors.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by David70

Recently did a bonus room (3rd floor attic) with solid prefinished hardwood over engineered hardwood. Prefer prefinished as everything I have read says it has a more durable finish so at that point I see it as hardwood with a prefinished top coating or engineered with a prefinished coating on a thin layer of hardwood on the top.

Engineered is more stable which is a benefit if going in a humid or wide range of temperatures, thinner which can be helpful depending on the project, and also can be less expensive.

What I like about solid is it can be refinished multiple times without worrying about getting to the "plywood" part of the assembly.

With labor costs being close to the same and the overall cost being close I didn't see any real benefits to going with engineered on my last project. I might use it eventually to add over existing flooring in on our 1st floor but this would mainly be because of the thickness.

We have had engineered in our master bedroom and my office for 16+ years and replaced the guest room carpet (last room with carpet!) with engineered wood a year ago. I agree that you are restricted in terms of refinishing engineered (likely only once), but also note we have had no need to refinish the engineered wood after 16+ years so it is unlikely it will ever need to be refinished more than once, if ever. It has held up really well and no one has ever thought they were anything but hardwood (of course maybe they were just being kind). When we got the engineered my biggest concern was not being able to refinish as often but it has worked out well thus far.

At the time we went with engineered, there was a meaningful price differential. That may be because we were comparing apples to oranges as hardwoods can (at least at that time) fall within a pretty wide price range. Additionally, we live in humid South Florida and have some friends who went through a nightmare with expensive hardwood that warped shortly after install in their new house. So our decision was mostly price mixed with a little bit of concern based in their experience.

That’s not to say I think hardwood is a bad choice. To the contrary I think it’s really great and has much character over many years. But I also think engineered wood is an excellent substitute for many and I’d prefer either over tile, vinyl or other choices in most rooms other than bathrooms.

[lsturbointeg]

As a previous Building Inspector I've been in thousands and thousands of new homes as well as model homes with every possible upgrades. Also as a previous Technician I've been in countless thousands of customers homes and I can honestly say engineered flooring is more common than I've seen hardwood flooring. Probably from a cost perspective it's cheaper and there's alot more home owners doing their own installation as a DY to save even more money. It's funny because if you plan on selling your home it doesn't matter if your flooring is engineered or not...the most important question they want to know is it hardwood and what species cause most people think hardwood is better and holds a higher resale over vinyl or laminate.

[UncleWede]

Just a honey-do that has been about 3 years waiting

[EL Jeffe 5]

Originally Posted by David70

Currently putting in a 2 zone mini split A/C/heat system. Redid (gutted) 3rd floor of our 110 year old house and didn't want to go back with a window A/C unit. Then with the mini split decided to get a 2 zone to also cool our bedroom. Because bedroom is on the 2nd floor with a whole house A/C heat system, not as cool as we like when we go to bed. Normally turn whole house temp. down around 8:00 so that upstairs bedroom gets to desired temp after hours of running. In future won't need to worry about it and will be able to cool bedroom by itself to whatever temp we want. Mini split is more efficient than the whole house and bedroom is roughly 1/8 of the house so likely be much more comfortable and far more efficient. Installing most of mini split myself.

speaking of two zone I have tow zone in my house for first time I love it
currently using ecobee4 W/Alexa couldn't be more happy

[lsturbointeg]

next phase! bamboo flooring came in and I have them acclimating on the first floor. gonna wait 7 days so i'll probably start tackling this next Thursday on my day off! 45 cases (10per 6' lengths) =450 pieces
i'll have to start tearing up the floors in the mean time

[spazzyfry123]

I parked the moving truck with my old Jeep XJ in tow at the new place late last Saturday night. Don't get excited, we grabbed an apartment for our "trial year" to decide if/where we will buy a house in our new state if we end up liking the area. So no cool house projects for the next year

BUT, I installed some outdoor lighting on our patio to have a little ambiance while relaxing over a cigar and beer last night. Cool, high quality rope with Edison bulbs. My dumbass thought that the fifteen lights placed along the 48 feet of lighting was a total of 11 watts. I thought it seemed low, but figured the bulbs may have been LED or something. Turns out that each bulb is an 11 watt incandescent, so I now have 165 watts of bulb power on our relatively small patio. I am now surrounded by the sun

[buldogge]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

next phase! bamboo flooring came in and I have them acclimating on the first floor. gonna wait 7 days so i'll probably start tackling this next Thursday on my day off! 45 cases (10per 6' lengths) =450 pieces
i'll have to start tearing up the floors in the mean time

If you're trying to acclimate that flooring, it should have been left in bundles and cross-stacked...and elevated from the tile. With it all stacked tight, there is gonna be a moisture content difference between the top/middle/bottom.

Do you have a meter?

What's the subfloor?? (need to check the moisture content there, as well)

(this is all assuming a solid product with a nail down installation)

-Mark in St. Louis

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by buldogge

If you're trying to acclimate that flooring, it should have been left in bundles and cross-stacked...and elevated from the tile. With it all stacked tight, there is gonna be a moisture content difference between the top/middle/bottom.

Do you have a meter?

What's the subfloor?? (need to check the moisture content there, as well)

(this is all assuming a solid product with a nail down installation)

-Mark in St. Louis

my house stays at a room temperature of about 68 degrees. there's actually plenty of air going through these stacks as there's about a 1\2" space between stacks as the pictures don't do it justice. no need to cross stack them either as that could actually cause the boards to bow in the middle while they acclimate being these are 6' lengths. I had all boxes mixed together to keep a nice variance. these bamboo flooring are packaged in a tight plastic wrap and when open has a damp feel to it. after 3 days I than restack them from the bottom to the top again mixing up the stacks. after 7 days the boards are completely dry. been doing this for 20 years with no issues whatsoever from any of my past customer's whom a lot of them are friends and even after visiting them I have yet had any one of them tell me their boards buckle, shrink or move. these are not nailed down as they are floating. the subflooring has an insulated basement underneath so floor temperatures are fine. thanks for the concern tho

[Gray_Panther]

Ripped out the basic fireplace mantle and installed quartzite natural stone and a natural stone slab with my father.
The hardest and longest part was creating the frame to hold the stone slab.

[ShopVac]

Originally Posted by Gray_Panther

Ripped out the basic fireplace mantle and installed quartzite natural stone and a natural stone slab with my father.
The hardest and longest part was creating the frame to hold the stone slab.

Very impressive...nice work.

[bosstones]

Originally Posted by ShopVac

Very impressive...nice work.

The resident home reno king has spoken!

[TXSTYLE]

This is the money shot right here!



I did the same exact thing with our stairs and skirt boards! The white really pops against the hardwood. Although we elected to with a low-pile upgrade carpet on top of the stairs:

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by TXSTYLE

T

The white really sets it off. Totally agree! We were contemplating on whether to leave the riser white?

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by Gray_Panther

Ripped out the basic fireplace mantle and installed quartzite natural stone and a natural stone slab with my father.
The hardest and longest part was creating the frame to hold the stone slab.

Originally Posted by ShopVac

Very impressive...nice work.

Yes indeed! very classy

[BaseM3]

Father Live Oak decided he'd have his way with my driveway over the last 15 years by cracking it, pushing it over 4 inches and lifting it another 4". It was getting to the point when 3 point turning couldn't clear the M's under tray.

Moved the driveway over 18", leveled it as much as I could without damaging the roots and replaced with reclaimed brick from SC. to give me some time and repairability in the future.