Wood Flooring

jelj13:
Primer has a very good resource for that type of wood flooring.
He can give you the contact info, if your contractor doesn't already have it.

Eastside Floors, Park and 124th.

we used lumber liquidators in 2008......loved it, used the same material in 2013.....hated it (scratches and blemishes on the surfaces. ....go figure

(brazillian redwood btw)

Jelji13,

A client had the same experience with lumber Liquidators. Love it the 1st time, 2nd time not so much. He would never use it again.

I like Eastside floors for white oak that has to be stained but I am finding less expensive places the them.

For prefinished I like these manufacturers

Mirage
Junkers
LV
Carlisle

East Side floors and Lumber Liquidators have been repeatedly recommended to me. I had a very bad experience with East Side that was very serious and would never use them. I'm wary of any place that calls themselves a "liquidator". Any place else?

Jelj13

Google the manufactures that I stated above and they will give you local distributors.

pid floors.

What are your thoughts on unfinished compared with prefinished solid hardwood floors?

On a related note, is it ok to lay a new hardwood floor on top of a parquet floor that is in good condition?

I spoke to a few contractors on going over parquet. About half said its "ok", one said no way. Another
was "so-so" about it. If you want to do it, your Parquet needs to be rock solid. Also check bottom door heights to see if you can accommodate extra layers + make sure you use some really good sound deadening underlayment. don't be cheap with that. I would go with 10mm.

PID sells Mirage. Will check them out.

When it comes to floors, it's always good to do "the extra step" whatever it is.
Whether it's removing an old floor, putting down a solid base, soundproofing, etc.
Especially if your staying 5 years plus.
Any floor work basically requires you to remove everything including yourself until the work is finished.
You want it to be something you not to worry about well into your next home, meaning never.

One of the major annoying turnoffs to the 100 to 200 apartments I looked at over 3 years were crooked and creaky floors.

turthskr10: We bought our place because the floors were a mess and the kitchen needed a gut renovation. All this was reflected in the sales price. We had to replace the bedroom floor and did the extra steps. Now we want to do the same with the kitchen.

Any good contractor will have the resources/ contacts, that Primer has recommended, above on this discussion thread.
as "truthskr" has advised:
The best way to go about a flooring reno, is to " remove it and yourself", during the "extra step(s)".
Because, flooring installation requires extra several steps in that process.

AP,

I happen to like select solid white oak flooring that you can stain and poly. Some of the more expensive engineered floors are nice but also expensive.

I do agree with Truthskr10. It is always better to take the extra step BUT if there are real budget concerns than I would go over existing flooring if it is in very good condition

Primer:
Of course, I agree;
however, it is always best for the owner to have an alternate place to stay, other than in their apartment unit; while the flooring work is in progress.

Moretruth,

100% agree and not just flooring.

Primer05:

I 100% agree and not just flooring.
You are the best resource for all of my renovations. Nobody is more reliable and trustworthy than Primerenovations.
and, that's the truth!

MORETRUTH: My contractor will take care of everything with the flooring. He threw out the names of some DIY places just for me to see what I like. I misunderstood him, thinking he wanted me to order the floor myself.

Due to my former career, I like to research all the "specs" on anything I select during a renovation. Certain things I've bought on my own since I can get my own discounted deals comparable to his.

I also worked with him on the design of the kitchen, did my own CAD diagrams, and worked with him on "tweaking" the design based on 3D "walk through's". I used to do those sort of things in a previous career.

truth, or muretruth -thankfully you're gone

Went to PID. They had the exact match to my dining room flooring, so the kitchen will look like an extension. The match came in both solid and engineered wood. Contractor will take care of everything now. He goes directly to distributors in Brooklyn.

@AP123 - no you want to remove the parquet to lay on the subfloor (or even better put in a new subfloor), btw the parquet comes up in 10-20 mins.......its a piece of cake.

I went to PID and they recommended gluing down an engineered floor over the top of the existing parquet floor. He said that removing the existing flooring would be more likely to release dangerous particles in the air and have additional complications.

Do we need to be worried about that if we wanted to removed the flooring?