In case you didn't know we will be starting a new house soon. We're having the house pretty much built, but we'll be finishing out the interior starting with the drywall...

and my questions here pertain to mostly the living/dining/kitchen area that will be under a vaulted ceiling, and dividing by an L shaped bar with the stovetop in it... However, all the floors in the house will be wood except the kitchen and bathrooms. Those will be ceramic tile.



I've heard laminate wears good, doesn't stain, and is less involved to install... But it doesn't appear to be to much difference in price.

We just priced real wood at roughly $2.30/sqft, and laminate floors were anywhere from $2-$4/sqft.

I know real wood has its downfalls, but we can stain it whatever color we want.

Any ideas here?

Plus anyone have any opinions on countertops? We've been thinking about doing our own tile countertops. We'll have one countertop with the sink 10' lg, one with a top mount range 7' lg, and one with nothing in it 7' long. I've got a friend who's brother-in-law is a retired marble guy, and he still has all the tools, but only has the composite marble. I can't remember what its called, just that its made with marble dust... I haven't gotten a price from him yet, but just looking for opinions. He claims its just as good as marble, but doesn't chip as easy.

The wife really wants to do tiles for the countertop, but we're already planning to do ceramic tile floors, so I like the marble composite for counter tops...

any thoughts?

As far as cabinets, we're going to go with prefab unfinished, and stain them ourselves...

We haven't picked a stain yet, but it will be something along the lines of a dark walnut. Floor tiles for the kitchen/dining area will be multicolor slate (dark red, green, brown, etc), countertops will probably be a medium to dark gray or brown. Walls will be off-white, and all trim will match the cabinets... We're still debating appliances, but for now they'll either be black or stainless. Floor color we haven't decided on...

any thoughts?

Front door will be a solid wood with oval window stained to match trim. There'll be deck on the back of the house over the driveway, only accesible from the kitchen/dining area, with wooden french doors stained to match the trim...

any thoughts?

Nothing is set in stone, but we're meeting with the builder tomorrow to try to narrow down some things, and maybe see about a start date...

 

Please don't go with the "floating" laminate....not in a new house. You'll regret it. It might be easy to install and more durable but you'll hate the hollow sound it gives off.

Solid wood flooring (3/4") is nice but you'll have to decide on that before you pour your slab, if it's a conc. foundation, unless you want to chip out the conc. to match finish floor levels.

What I would suggest is an engineered wood flooring product. Typically 3/8" thick, can be nailed to a wood subfloor or with an adhesive to conc subfloor. They come prefinished and last as long as the floating laminate, plus most brands have a veneer thick enough to be refinished at least once.

 

No not the floating. The laminate I'm talking about is very similar to real wood.

We both like the idea of real wood better...

BTW, there will be a basement, so no slabs here. Basement will be a garage and a large unfinished room to later be finished out for a family/game room...

 

Have you looked into Bamboo flooring?

MR

 

Not to get into a debate on flooring here, as I'm sure EVERYONE will have a differnet story or experience...but.. I put down the floating laminate floor in my family room. The room is 33' x 13.5', the ceiling is sloped from 8' up to 10' and the floor is a concrete slab. I put down a moisture barier, then a felt pad ( pretty much like what you put under carpet ) and then the laminate on top of that. It looks great, will last long and does not sound hollow at all. The room gets a ton of traffic so carpets only lasted 2 years at best. This floor has been down 3 years now and it looks as good as it did the day I installed it.

Real wood floor is deff. nice but the drawback is that it will have to be sanded and refinished every couple of years, depending on the traffiic it sees. My brother has it in his entryway and hallway and hates it. We will be putting laminate over that very soon.

For counter tops, look into Corian. My brother just put new tops in his kitchen and after pricing everythign out, he was able to get the Corian cheaper than the best grade of laminate counter tops ( formica, I guess is what it is ) The Corian holds up really well and if you scratch it, is solid, so you can just sand, buff and polish the scratches out.

Just my opinions, not meant to start any debates on who or what is better. Good luck with the house. I wish I could build one, but its way to expensive here for any piece of land thats worth building on.


BREW

 

closer....you are the MAN ! ! ! ! !

I want a basement SOOOO bad. They make AWESOME home theatres.

Anyway...carry on.

 

Yes and no. I have an insulated, drywalled finished basement. The acoustics are a beee-yatch to deal with due to all the hard surfaces (you are in a big concrete bowl after all. The BEST location I feel is a huge room OVER your garage, mainly 'cuz you can crank it up and not disturb anyone below you...

 

Really?

I figured the thick solid walls would help with sound.

hmm, imagine that, jamzwayne is wrong again.

 

You probably don't want tile countertops in the kitchen, in a functional sense. If only for the reason that tile is a biatch to clean when compared to a smooth countertop. Just think of spilled chicken juice and making sure you get that out of the space between the tiles.

We have the laminate in the kitchen, we ripped up the linoleum and carpet that were in there and replaced. Couldn't be happier with it, I just wish I would have had a little more patience in installing it with regard to undercutting the doorway trimwork and cutting the corners a little tighter around exposed edges. But I'm a stickler for details, with the right tools I'd have been much happier. Can't blame that on the flooring. Looks good and stands up to dropped items pretty well. We also installed it in the entryway with the scraps from the kitchen and is holding well there to.

Good luck with the house!

Jamzy, just to keep you jealous; I am currently in the slow process of finishing my basement. Planning on having in-ceiling surround for the left and right channel, then real speakers for the right, left, and center rear in my 7.1 setup. Still debating whether I want a HD projector or a big LCD/Plasma. I may make some modifications for a media cabinet also. I'm loving it.

 

Sound bouncing off things = bad. Sound needs to be absorbed (on the opposite end you can have too much sound deadening).

Don't do it!!! Just say no to in-wall speakers. Only a few models are worth a damn. I guess if you have no choice do it but get a nice pair of bi-polars for your side surrounds! Why do everything else right then skimp on the sides?

 

For Countertops we used Silestone. It is a quartz material. Has a look similar to granite, wont stain like granite, doesn't scratch and holds up to heat really well.

We loved the look and performance but it wasn't cheap.

Here is an example (not mine)

 

Well here's the deal, I don't want to. But I have a wall of windows and conc. foundation half wall to the left and open space (no wall) to the right. I could mount some to the ceiling, but I just don't think they would look right. To me, in-ceiling provides an acceptable compromise. Believe me, if I could I would run from the in-walls.

 

Just my experience. I've had natural marble, Formica, and Silestone counter tops. Of the three I liked the Silestone the best. The worst part of it was it hid food and spills very well, so extra care had to be taken when cleaning it that you actually cleaned everything up.The Silestone was a bit expensive, but it was the hardest surface we could find, and it did not absorb anything, unlike the natural materials that must be sealed.

Floors, I've had marble, ceramic tile, linoleum, rugs, and engineered wood. My best bud had wood laminate (basically highly pressed cardboard with a hardened cover over a picture of wood). Of these I liked the rugs and wood. The picture on the wood laminate wore out quickly. I don't know how much he spent for the flooring, but it was used in an area that saw a lot of sand. The sand on their shoes basically sanded the picture off the cardboard. The ceramic tile was nice, but I like to lay down on the floor and found the tile uncomfortable.

 

I looked at both laminate and engineered wood. I have 3 little kids and a chocolate lab. I did not have the choice of solid wood due to concrete foundation.

I went with engineered for the following reasons:

1. Laminate is a picture of wood, engineered is real.
2. Laminate has big (wide) pieces so there are no edges between each "board". Engineered are separate boards of varying length.
3. Laminate floats and engineered is glued down = solid feel and sound.

I went with Brazilian Walnut, which is one of the hardest woods know on the Janka rating (3680 psi).
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/har...r/hardness.htm
It has the same type of finish as a laminate (Aluminum Oxide) and has a 25 year warranty.

The floors have been down for about 18 months and are holding up great. A few nicks here and there where something hard was dropped. To refinish it all you have to do is have someone come out and they use a steel wool type pad to take out minor scratches and then they refinish it.

I installed it myself (900 sf) and it took me a total of 3 full days. I helped a neighbor install laminate and it was a pain mainly because it is difficult to cut in around door openings, moldings, etc. This is due to the fact that you have to angle the tongue on one piece to fit into the groove on the other already on the floor. With the engineered wood it is a traditional tongue and groove so they just slide together.

Here is what I bought:
http://www.fastfloors.com/catalog/pr...&REF=CZT171722

Here is what it looks like:

 

You know if you hadn't spent all that money on counter tops and flooring, you coulda bought some furniture.