Tile to Hardwood remodel questions

[alabamatacomaguy]

We are in the process of buying a new home. We are getting rid of tile floor on concrete to make hardwood or the pre-stained wood floor products like Home Depot or Lowe’s sell.
Any advice or warnings from anyone with experience?

Demo advice?
Finding a good floor guy/company advice? What questions to ask,expect?
What to use for barrier lawyer between concrete and wood?
Experiences with different types of flooring?

I have the lvp coretek vinyl in our current home but thinking we’d be happier with something different.


I’ve talked around town at stores to give myself a crash course on it. We ve budgeted what I feel is a large amount to flooring and would like the final product to be great.
I feel like I’m having a hard time narrowing down the right thing to do

 

[snobdds]

I would put down down a vapor/moisture barrier with a product like red guard.

A good floor has a flat and even base. If yours is not, fix it now. You can either go self levelling or ply wood base.

You get what you pay for with flooring. Plastic will always feel plasticity...wood will always feel woody. Click clack flooring does not like water, edges will curl. It also seems to have a limited life span before it gets dull.

Wood is nice and the best but it's expensive. An oak floor can last generations.

I put a bonded wood product in a rental, a thin layer of hard wood backed by some chip board. Its the next generation beyond the click clack stuff of the last 10 years. So far so good, but we'll see. Renters always put a good test on a product.

 

[MrMikeyG]

You can save some cash doing the demo yourself if you have the time and willingness. A Bosch or Hilti rotor hammer will be your friend in this case. Pop into a rental place and get a feel for the weight of the different options since it’s a tool you will spend some hours with.
Will this property have a pool? Oak is a nice long lasting floor, but it doesn’t like water. Consider leaving a bit of tile at entry areas?
I’ve been involved in a couple of floating floor on slab installs, and the material will dictate the level of moisture barrier required.
As the above person stated though, prep will be very important. Many of the newer vinyl, composite, mystery material click together products can only handle 1/8” deviation in 6 feet. A floating install will “slap” when walked on if the prep is not well done.
There are some adhesive products out there that can be troweled on and act as moisture/vapor barrier and glue all in one. We did that stuff and solid bamboo in a Yoga studio a few years ago.
You’re somewhat spoiled for choice in flooring here days. Take into account how you “live,” and get a few bids.

 

[alabamatacomaguy]

It does have a pool and is in super humid Florida. From talking to local places I’ll definitely need to keep moisture in mind and learn more about the best types of wood, wood layers in pre stained types and moisture barriers. Not sure which way we will go.

We close on feb 14th and plan on meeting contractors the next week to get quotes. My wife is 31 weeks pregnant and work is so crazy I barely get more than one day off a week. I will do what I can but time is not my friend if I don’t want two mortgages very long.

Some background
It’s more of a traditional “historic looking” home and style we want a historic looking wood that will age well. We were in Savannah ga for her bday vacation last year and enjoy the old timy looking historic homes and antiquing on off days. Part of the reason we got a better deal on the home is the tile on the 1st floor didn’t age well and the person selling needed to move on.


I’ll post up what contractors say when I know. It’s a big decision we won’t get to do twice so trying to research as much as I can.

 

[MrMikeyG]

I have very little experience with your part of the US. Are there any native species that are or were in common usage that can handle the humidity better? Cypress comes to mind but I have no idea on cost/availability. I'm reasonably sure anything could be made to work if you guys adjust your hvac system to help out, but that is another expensive path.
It sounds like life in general isn't giving you much slack right now; Good luck and keep us posted. Sorry I'm not more helpful.

 

[haryv]

We are in the process of buying a new home. We are getting rid of tile floor on concrete to make hardwood or the pre-stained wood floor products like Home Depot or Lowe’s sell.
Any advice or warnings from anyone with experience?

Demo advice?
Finding a good floor guy/company advice? What questions to ask,expect?
What to use for barrier lawyer between concrete and wood?
Experiences with different types of flooring?

I have the lvp coretek vinyl in our current home but thinking we’d be happier with something different.


I’ve talked around town at stores to give myself a crash course on it. We ve budgeted what I feel is a large amount to flooring and would like the final product to be great.
I feel like I’m having a hard time narrowing down the right thing to do

Go to biggerpockets.com. There's quite a few people there that actually do remodels