what flooring would you recommend?

[jcab256]

Question for all of you regarding what I should do for flooring in a house I am rehabbing for a rental, and targetting the middle to upper middle class of renter.

There is a hallway that connects three bedrooms, the living room and kitchen, and I am having trouble trying to decide what type of flooring to put here, as I want to install something resiliant to wear and water, but will transition nicely (looks) to hardwood, carpet, and tile.

Bedrooms will likely be carpet.
Kitchen and bathroom will be tile
living room has hardwood that will be refinished.

My first thought is that I would use tile for the hallway - the same tile as the kitchen and bathroom.
Pros
- will tie everything together, and I think it will look nice
- will hold up to getting wet by the front door (from snow on boots etc)
Cons
- it will be heavy on the existing structure (it would probably be fine)
- it is cold and hard to walk on

Then I thought of laminate
Pros
- quick and easy install
- cheaper than tile
Cons
- may not hold up to getting wet by the front door (snowy boots)

There is carpet, but I don`t think I want carpet by the front door, or in a high traffic area.

Then there is vinyl flooring, which would be good for the water and traffic, but doesn`t look as nice as tile or laminate (my opinion anyway)

I`ve made a diagram of the floor plan showing the floor plan. the hallway where the flooring that I can decide on what to use is marked with an `x`.


`````| ---------------------------
`````|````````| bath|```````|
`````|````````|room |``bed``|
`````| bedroom |` ___|`room``|
`````|``````````x``````````|
`````|-------``---`xfff">```|---------
`````|````````|`x```|`bed````|
`````|`closet``|`x`````room```|
front`| -------------`x```|````````|
door`` x x x x x x x x``|````````|
`````| ----```---|`x```|-``-------
`````|`living```|`x```|closet```|
`````|`room```|coloro-->`x```|-----------
`````|````````|`x```|
`````|
`````|````````|`````Kitchen
`````| ------------|-------------------


Anyone have any ideas?

 

[fumbrunner]

QUOTE (jcab256 @ Jan 21 2010, 10:25 AM) Question for all of you regarding what I should do for flooring in a house I am rehabbing for a rental, and targetting the middle to upper middle class of renter.

There is a hallway that connects three bedrooms, the living room and kitchen, and I am having trouble trying to decide what type of flooring to put here, as I want to install something resiliant to wear and water, but will transition nicely (looks) to hardwood, carpet, and tile.

Bedrooms will likely be carpet.
Kitchen and bathroom will be tile
living room has hardwood that will be refinished.

My first thought is that I would use tile for the hallway - the same tile as the kitchen and bathroom.
Pros
- will tie everything together, and I think it will look nice
- will hold up to getting wet by the front door (from snow on boots etc)
Cons
- it will be heavy on the existing structure (it would probably be fine)
- it is cold and hard to walk on

Then I thought of laminate
Pros
- quick and easy install
- cheaper than tile
Cons
- may not hold up to getting wet by the front door (snowy boots)

There is carpet, but I don`t think I want carpet by the front door, or in a high traffic area.

Then there is vinyl flooring, which would be good for the water and traffic, but doesn`t look as nice as tile or laminate (my opinion anyway)

I`ve made a diagram of the floor plan showing the floor plan. the hallway where the flooring that I can decide on what to use is marked with an `x`.


`````| ---------------------------
`````|````````| bath|```````|
`````|````````|room |``bed``|
`````| bedroom |` ___|`room``|
`````|``````````x``````````|
`````|-------``-lorc-->--`x```|---------`````|````````|`x```|`bed````|
`````|`closet``|`x`````room```|
front`| -------------`x```|````````|
door`` x x x x x x x x``|````````|
`````| ----```---|`x```|-``-------
`````|`living```|`x```|closet```|
`````|`room```|`an>x```|-----------
`````|````````|`x```|
`````|
`````|````````|`````Kitchen
`````| ------------|-------------------


Anyone have any ideas?

What about carpet from the point marked in red to the bedrooms and tile in the remaining area?

 

[larysa002]

QUOTE (fumbrunner @ Jan 21 2010, 11:00 AM) What about carpet from the point marked in red to the bedrooms and tile in the remaining area?

That`s what I would do as well. Definately a few rows of tile up to where the boots are left, then whatever you like (can also be a matching laminate tile if it`s a rooming house, for the family I would go with carpet). And definately a good waterproofing underlayment for the carpet or laminate. Would look for bargain prices on materials, of course.

 

[jcab256]

QUOTE (fumbrunner @ Jan 21 2010, 11:00 AM) What about carpet from the point marked in red to the bedrooms and tile in the remaining area?

Really? you guys don`t think it would look odd having a transition from tile to carpet would look odd in teh middle of a hallway?

 

[larysa002]

QUOTE (jcab256 @ Jan 21 2010, 02:34 PM) Really? you guys don`t think it would look odd having a transition from tile to carpet would look odd in teh middle of a hallway?
It should be functional. We had a fancy tile all hallway long, from the front door to the kitchen up to the backyard patio door. Everybody hated it. Took us a month to get rid of it. We put new stone-like tile at the front door, kitchen and near the patio door. The rest of the floor was done dark hardwood, matching the rest of the wood. Everybody liked how it was done. But that was an expensive house in highend neighbourhood. For the rental, carpet or laminate is good enough.

 

[cmattric]

If closets are small I would do carpet(except the one with loundry machines). Extra carpet from bedrooms can be used for closets.
Bedrooms will obviously carpet. If you are looking for a cheaper option to tile, lino(vinyl) is your better option. Still if you think it`s cold, then only use at the entrance untill the end of closet. Hallway can be laminate that way it`ll tie up with your hardwood. You can have vinyl installed on your kitchen as well.
So my formula will be:
Kitchen+Entrance: Vinyl(you can do the same combination with tile)
Hallway: Laminate
Bedrooms: Carpet , if cheap:Berber, if moderate: Shag(not recommended for rentals), if luxury&durabilitylush with healthy choice underpad

Try to match laminate color and pattern with your refinished hardwood.
Try to match vinyl (or tile) color. Pattern must include the same color, not entirely same color.

That`s my opinion.

 

[jcab256]

Thanks for the idea`s everyone!

I`ll let you know what I end up doing in a few weeks.

 

[Karma]

QUOTE (jcab256 @ Jan 21 2010, 11:25 AM) Question for all of you regarding what I should do for flooring in a house I am rehabbing for a rental, and targetting the middle to upper middle class of renter.

There is a hallway that connects three bedrooms, the living room and kitchen, and I am having trouble trying to decide what type of flooring to put here, as I want to install something resiliant to wear and water, but will transition nicely (looks) to hardwood, carpet, and tile.

Bedrooms will likely be carpet.
Kitchen and bathroom will be tile
living room has hardwood that will be refinished.

My first thought is that I would use tile for the hallway - the same tile as the kitchen and bathroom.
Pros
- will tie everything together, and I think it will look nice
- will hold up to getting wet by the front door (from snow on boots etc)
Cons
- it will be heavy on the existing structure (it would probably be fine)
- it is cold and hard to walk on

Then I thought of laminate
Pros
- quick and easy install
- cheaper than tile
Cons
- may not hold up to getting wet by the front door (snowy boots)

There is carpet, but I don`t think I want carpet by the front door, or in a high traffic area.

Then there is vinyl flooring, which would be good for the water and traffic, but doesn`t look as nice as tile or laminate (my opinion anyway)

I`ve made a diagram of the floor plan showing the floor plan. the hallway where the flooring that I can decide on what to use is marked with an `x`.


`````| ---------------------------
`````|````````| bath|```````|
`````|````````|room |``bed``|
`````| bedroom |` ___|`room``|
`````|``````````x``````````|
`````|-------coloro-->``---`x```|---------
`````|````````|`x```|`bed````|
`````|`closet``|`x`````room```|
front`| -------------`x```|````````|
door`` x x x x x x x x``|````````|
`````| ----```---|`x```|-``-------
`````|`living```|`x```|closet```|
`````|`--colorc-->room```|`x```|-----------
`````|````````|`x```|
`````|
`````|````````|`````Kitchen
`````| ------------|-------------------


Anyone have any ideas?

You may want to look into a product called Adura (sp.?) which I have seen installed in a couple of places. It is a hard composite tile that glues down and then grouts. I`m a tile guy and you can`t tell it`s not tile except that it is warmer and a easier underfoot than tile. It is very durable and although expensive (approx. $5-6/ft2) it goes down fairly easily and quickly as opposed to tile. With a product like this you could do all of the entry, hall, kitchen and bath areas in it and it could be down in 2-3 days- nice turnaround! Anyways, something to look into.

S.G.