I am interested in purchasing Harmony i.e. Quickstep from the warehouse store and installing it in my basement. This would be a first major project but I do consider myself mechanically inclined.
I have read pages and pages of information from this forum. I still have few questions.
a) I have put a level on the concrete floor and there are some spots which will need to be sanded down. So far, I have only found few of them and they are about 1/4 or less. If I put 4ft level cenetered on that spot, the level will up by less than 1/4 inch at one end. So the high spot should be half of that. If I need to grind it down, what do I use? Do I need to rent some tool or can I buy reasonably priced tool (less than $100) to do this? Google showed me a Bosch remanufactured concrete grinder with diamond cup wheel for about $350! Ouch, is there a cheaper alternative?
b) I have about 28x22 + 12x12 space in the basement. All of it is open area. The 28x22 area has the stairs. The longest continuous wall dimension is 22 but the longest span would be 22+12=34 i.e. going from one subarea into another. Can this span be handled by single individual or I really need another pair of hand during the installation?
c) I would like to put the laminate planks on the staircase but it gets quite expensive with the stair nosing. I have been also told that this material is too slippery and I would be better off carpeting the stairs. We have hardwood floors upstairs and also hardwood stairs upstairs and we have not found them to be slippery. In the terms of "slipperyness" is laminated lot more slippery than the hardwood planks?
d) Given that I have at least 760sq ft area, assuming 10-20% overage, I am looking at close to 900sq ft of material. With 17.18sqft/box, I am looking at LOTS of boxes! I don't have a pickup truck. How many trips should I be planning to do in my Honda Odyssey?
e) The contractor is finishing the basement sans flooring or painting. He will be installing the basemolding. Is it possible to do the laminated flooring after he is done installing the molding? He probably would not like to come back to complete the molding. Should I ask him not to nail the molding but cut and fit it?
f) I am trying to convince the better half that putting berber in the basement will cost us more and laminated would look lot better at cheaper price. She has not yet bought into it completely. She is also not convinced that I can actually do this job. She is inclined to outsource both flooring and painting. In all honesty, the last time I tried to do painting, I started with trying to "Klinz" the popcorn ceiling in the kitchen and that indeed was a disaster. We had to finally get the professional painter to complete out townhouse.
I will probably have more questions as I go along.
Thanks,
- VikasRead More
Hi all,
i am currently building a house, and i am trying to do things myself as much as possible. i just found this forum and registered today!
my question for today is, i wonder if anyone has Kempas wood for his/her floors. i found this Kempas natural plank at Lowe's (Bruce, 3/4" thick, solid wood.. this is not engineered hardwood) and its color is beautiful! so, i did some reseach today, and it appears that this species is quite unstable, thus prone to shrinking and swelling. i live in State College, PA, and it is sometimes quite dry, and sometimes quite humid. so, i am not sure if it is a good idea to have this type of floor in my house. :(
So, i was just wondering if anyone has experience with this type of wood, even better if it is from Lowe's. I would appreciate any kind of feedback!!!
PS. interestingly, this Bruce Kempas natural, 3/4" thick, hardwood is only found at Lowe's, and not anywhere else, not even at Bruce website (there is shown only Kempas engineered hardwood). So, I sent an email to Bruce and asked them about this floor. at first, they didn't seem to know about the existence of this Bruce Kempas natural plank. But later, they said that they have this Kempas solid hardwood at Lowe's.. which sounded somewhat fishy to me...Read More