Handyman/Contractor Opinions Needed

[Carbo]

I'm redoing the floors in the house, in its entirety. Ripping up the existing old tile and carpet.
My question is what do I replace them with?
I'm either going with some type of tile, or Pergo wood floors, or a combination of the two.
For those of you who know these things, could you weigh in with the pros and cons of each material? You know, things like cost, ease of installation, wear and tear, maintenance and cleaning, etc.
Thank you.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Carbo

I'm doing EXACTLY the same thing for my house. Ripping up all the carpeting and Pergo i got down and i'm going w/ all Hardwood.

Found a great deal on 3/4" hardwood at Worldwide Flooring. $3.86 a sq foot. i'm doing 1100 sq feet. so you can do the math.

now i'm trying to get a contractor to come in and do the job. worldwide wanted $3500 for their contractor. i got a friend who says he can do it for $400 / day. worldwide is estimating a 2 day job.

good luck. oh btw, where do you live, i'm in new jersey.

 

[Carbo]

PG, you're pulling up the existing Pergo? Why? From what I've read it comes with a twenty five year warranty.
$3500 for a contractor? That's a rip, man. Shop around and you'll easily beat that price.
(BTW, I'm in Florida.)

 

[PlatinumGold]

carbo

pergo only guarantees it IF you have installed it PROPERLY.

my problems w/ my current pergo flooring is, water got in between the seems and the laminate is coming up. well, they call that improper installation so guarantee means sh!t.

be VERY careful about that.

i'd look into real hardwood flooring if i were you. i'm willing to bet you get a better price in FL then we do here in NJ. also, if you get flooring, be careful. the GLUE is EXPENSIVE SH!T. if they tell you you can't float it or staple it, then your going to have to glue it down, they estimated $1000.00 just for glue, so i said forget it, i'm going w/ nail down. but of course nail down is more labor. oh well.

best bet is to get good flooring you can staple down, staple is a lot quicker and less labor intensive than nail down. but it requires you do it on a floor w/ a wood sub floor. concrete won't work w/ staples.

good luck, hope this info helps.

 

[Carbo]

PG, thanks, it does help. The sub floor is concrete, by the way. And one of the things that caught my eye with the Pergo is they now are advertising some of their floors do not require any glue. I haven't looked into the details, though, so I can't say with any certainty what that's all about.

 

[PlatinumGold]

ya, if ur doing concrete, ur best bet is pergo. u can float it. which basically means that you just put the flooring down, u use their interlocking system and glue the boards to each other. nothing connecting holding it to the floor. it work well. that's what i did.

anyway, the key is when ur doing it make sure you make ur joints good. don't hammer (which is one of the mistakes i made. i didn't use hammer directly, i used a small piece of pergo in between, but it still hurt the laminate.) basically pergo is putting formica on ur floor. as long as it's installed properly it works well, but how often have you seen formica come up? i personally see it a lot. so that's what you have to be careful with, when ur doing pergo.

 

[BadNewsBears]

Wood,wood,and wood. Easiest. SO much healtheir for the occupants in the home as well. AFter you geta dust mop and dust mop the floors youll see what was in your carpet that you could never get out. Carpet just makes me cringe now. Pergo is good for doing ityouself without alot of instalation knoledge. I am the big munchies. I am/was agenral contractor. Ihavent done a home in about two years cept my own. But I do know that your health will increas, be it less colds or shorter sick times.

 

[Carbo]

Munchies, yeah, I'm well aware of all the dust, dirt and fibers that lurk in carpeting. That's certainly a factor in our decision to yank it out.
What are your feelings about tile, too?