anyone besides me trying to figure out how to afford new flooring? it has been the great hunt for prices and quality over the last week. i think i figured out what i am going to do but was wondering if anyone else has had flooring done (any type) recently or is planning it?

__________________
vote now!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/N...uba/index.html

YES! Since my wife and I moved into our house 5 years ago, we haven't done much with our upstairs (2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom) because we have enough space for everything on the 1st floor. Well we decided to re-do one of the bedrooms with paint, doors (all 3 rooms) trim, and carpet. We couldn't believe the prices of carpet compared to almost 2 years ago. The bedroom is smaller than our home theater room in our basement, which we carpeted less than 2 years ago. We also did the stairs leading down to the room back then. Now, the carpet was going to be significantly more for 1 smaller room than the whole job before.

Once we found this out, we decided to go crazy and do both bedrooms and possibly the stairs. I know the logic is a little backwards. But it works for us.

One thing that I should point out. We initially went to Home Depot to check out carpeting because we are also getting the doors from them. When comparing carpeting from Home Depot to a normal carpet store, the same exact carpet is NOT the same exact carpet. Home Depot price gauges (sp?) the manufacturer so much that they need to drop the quality of the product they sell to Home Depot. We are buying the carpet from a carpet store for a little more than Home Depot, but the carpet is noticably better. We brought a Home Depot sample to the carpet store to match them up. I know this is true for a lot of products that Home Depot sells. I still buy products there, I'm simply pointing this out.

__________________
BT

bt, the home depot story is probably very true, but... we wanted to do wood laminate thru the entire house. it's between 100 and 120 sq yds. we walked into lowe's and they totally ignored us for 15 minutes. not even a 'can we help you'? we walked out. walked into home depot. i picked out one of their cheapest laminates that was also on sale. walked out 15 minutes later with a quote for $10,000 give or take $50. walked into the most well known discount flooring store in our area. walked out 15 minutes later with a quote for $9800 give or take $50. of course, giving or taking $50 wasn't going to make a difference because my wallet wouldn't give or take that much money. not when $5000 was labor for one day's work. it was disgusting. i was hiring flooring people, not basketball pro's. $5000 for a day's work means that you don't have to work very often to earn a great living and have a house that holds a lot more square yards than mine.

so home to do research. we have all hardwood flooring under carpet. it has stains (carpet and floor both have it) after 4 dogs and 2 cats. it turns out that they recommend a polyurethane coating on refinished hardwood as the best protector. so, i started making calls. sanding and refinishing would not be much cheaper. finally i found www.mrsandless.com . i hope he is legit. his credentials are excellent. they are all over the country. we discussed the base price which will be $3400 and the maximum if they can't pull out the stains and have to redo some areas with new wood or do a different method which will be $7000. i figure it will fall somewhere in between but even at worst case it is $3000 cheaper.

i decided to go with them and last night we set up a time and date. i will keep you all informed. three weeks from today the work will be done.

anyone have any warnings or suggestions before i sign the contract (which doesn't get signed until the remove the carpet and can give me all the facts and if i don't like the price, they leave with the carpet and i had the yucky dirty carpet removed for free)?

__________________
vote now!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/N...uba/index.html

sherry - we had our floors done in a laminate and we had the same problems with pet stains. They could not guarantee that the stains would come out, so we went with the laminate. For 484 sq. ft. we paid $3400. This was for the laminate and installation plus baseboards.

looks like you would have paid nearly the same as us for the same size. one of our extras was carpet removal. that was about the only thing that i didn't consider a rip off. i did that myself 10 years ago. never would i ever attempt that again.

we did decide to go with mr sandless. he made no rash promises and has been totally clear with what to expect and the cost for each item.

amazing how many of us have pet stains. we think our furry friends are so wonderful but they aren't when it's 'potty' time. our dogs were a nightmare with it. we had one that thought our house was his personal toilet. the cats were great until the litter manufacturer changed the formula for the litter. the cats showed us our displeasure for months and months as we experimented with multiple brands and multiple boxes. can we count up to nine? that's how many boxes i wound up with for several months while we tested litter. ironically, after months and months of testing, we decided to open a leftover container of the 'new formula' that the cats had rejected. they love it. we are down to 4 litter boxes and no accidents (knock on wood). that still left us with 1200 sq ft of stained flooring and the thought in the back of our minds that it could happen again, lol.

__________________
vote now!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/N...uba/index.html

Pet stains! Our Buddy is a good boy, but he dribbles. We had a hard time keeping up with him. He tries to be good, but.... We finally resorted to a doggy diaper. It's made our lives alot easier.

Bobbie

today is the big flooring day. i have started a blog about it. wish me luck!

__________________
vote now!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/N...uba/index.html

Sherry...if you makes you feel better...my good friend and her brother own a Mrsandless here in NJ. They swear by it! If you knew my friend Amanda you'd know she would never be associated with something that didn't work or she didn't "back" 100%.

I got to look at it personally at a recent street fair here in my town that they had a booth. Good stuff!

Good Luck!!!

__________________
"These are a few of my favorite things"
...Elisa
defecting to St. Thomas 5/24-5/31/08, Lauderdale by the Sea 2/4-2/11/09; St. Croix Oct. '09!

thanks elizabeth...it does!

__________________
vote now!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/N...uba/index.html

Hi Sherry, I have been waiting for your floors to be done. It really sounds like they did a great job. Can I ask about how many square feet you had done? I need a couple of bedrooms redone. We have a Mrsandless near here. I would like to look into it after you have given them such a great review. Thanks
Nancy

hi nancy, my crackerbox is 32x40' and i did all but the little foyer and kitchen so figure over 1000 sq ft. after living with the change for 2 days i still am happy so that is a very good sign, lol.

__________________
vote now!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/N...uba/index.html

Thanks Sherry