Bought my first place! (flooring content)

So I'm finally making the leap from renting to ownership, and I close on a 2bd/2ba condo this Fall. I already know the pitfalls of dealing with a condo association, but it's a logical next step for me to take and in this town it's way cheaper than renting. 

What I really need help on is flooring! Both the bedrooms and the walk in closet have some nasty carpet in them. It might clean up? But honestly I'm not too big a carpet fan anyway (yeah yeah, jokes about that whatever we're all twelve). 

Any suggestions for a low priced, easy do it yourself flooring option? I like the look of wood, and I hear rumor of good snap together faux-wood options. How would that price compare with maybe getting some non-shag carpet? It's 275 sq ft between the two bedrooms, what am I realistically looking at spending?

TL;DR What's a good looking, cheap floor?

I've had good luck with various sorts of laminate flooring.   Wood look, significantly cheaper price and ease of install and they seem to hold up much better with less maintenance in the long run.    Pergo is a good name brand version, but I've also installed some from Lumber Liquidators that was quite a bit cheaper and easier.

We need to replace all the carpet in our upstairs, and we'll be putting down laminate of some sort.

Floor & Decor is your friend if you have a location nearby.

We just put in a bunch of Sam's Club flooring in our house. It was $1.49 sq/ft and looks awesome. Don't forget that your door bottoms and door trim will all need to be cut back to fit the wood flooring. It had the underlayment attached which made it go down fast. Just don't let water stay on it very long.

Me and two buddies put down a ton of snap-together flooring in a single day. One person cuts, one person measures/passes, the last one pops them in place. Goes quick.

I'm a fan of a nice light-colored Berber carpet in bedrooms.  It tends to wear very well and has a warmer feel than fake hardwood.  Fake hardwood under a nice rug is fine, though.

If the existing carpet is fairly new and maybe just dirty, a professional cleaning might work wonders.  If it was cheap carpet to begin with and it's showing some wear, I wouldn't bother.  Tear it out!

We just did 4 rooms with a product called CaliBamboo.  They have a few different lines of product, and we really liked how it turned out.  We found them at a local "green" store, not the big box stores.

But one big conclusion- yes, there are easy to install, floating snap together flooring.  It's pretty amazing.

You get to buy some new tools if you DIY.  Chop/miter saw and a vibrating saw is what I got.

We use a lot of the wood look vinyl plank.  It holds up well, installs easy, in-expensive.  If you keep a few pieces around, if you do damage one, it is easier to replace than locking wood.  If you are doing a master bedroom, you can roll it right into the bathroom as well.  

Snap together faux wood feels hollow and sounds clicky when you walk on it.  

Congratulations. 

I’ve installed 5/16” hardwood flooring a few times with very good results.   It installs with an air stapler and doesn’t change floor height so doors and such don’t need trimming.

Congrats! The Mrs and I will hopefully be in the same boat as you by next spring. Lots of good options in the laminate world but I'd avoid vinyl unless you can get a feel for it before you install it/have it installed. The apartment we are in now had vinyl "wood" flooring and although it looks nice (wife calls it Instagram nice lol) it feels extremely cheap on bare feet. 

There is also the wood looking ceramic tiles but it does run cold. In FL that may not be a bad thing in the middle of the summer but in the winter time it can be a little cold on the feet getting right out of bed. Those are pretty durable and it's just laying ceramic tile and they run between $2-$4 per Sq. Ft. 

In reply to alfadriver :

I've installed Cali Bamboo floating floors in two bedrooms, my office and a half bath. I really like it and it has held up great so far. It wasn't exactly low cost, which seems to be one of the parameters Katie is looking for. If she can afford it, I'd recommend it.

Of course we are missing the obvious answer: RaceDeck.

See if JG can do a video of you doing the whole place in it, make it a marketing piece.

A bathroom is a wet environment and is no place for wood or fake wood products. 

The answer is luxury vinyl flooring. This is the vinyl planks that often looks like wood. Can also be gotten to look like stone or tile which is what I would choose. 

The closet could get a wood-look but don't put a wood look in the bathroom. 

In reply to John Welsh :

I did because we didn't like the tile that was in there and it only a half bath. Without a shower or tub it is not really a wet environment and I had enough left over flooring from other projects. I agree with you in general that wood floors and bathrooms don't go together, but I chose to do it in this case.

Katie is asking about 2 bedrooms and a walk in closet. For that I suggested wood. Not recommending wood for her bathroom that she is apparently not renovating.

In reply to slefain :

Tempting.... I could see if they'd send it for free ;) 

In reply to T.J. :

Oops. I misread as bath.  Wood look vinyl would be great in bedroom. 

Katie Suddard said:

In reply to slefain :

Tempting.... I could see if they'd send it for free ;) 

It sure wouldn't hurt to ask.  LOL.

We just put down “Lifeproof” vinyl plank flooring from HD. $3/square foot, but no need to purchase the underlayment. Really nice stuff, IMO. It has pretty rugged (and also cushy) rubber-core-type backing (none of the clicky-ness Woody mentioned.) We’ve already had some clutzy spills/drops. Shouting “LIFEPROOF!” immediately after seems to keep them from sustaining damage.

We’re also still really happy with the “Trafficmaster” brand that we bought from HD for $.79/square foot on clearance 10+ years ago. The quality isn’t AS nice as the Lifeproof but it was a helluva deal.

Congrats on the place!

And yes. Carpet is freaking gross.

This is the Lifeproof stuff in “Sterling Oak” finish

Couple of things to think about. Do you have pets? Any hardwood/laminate is going to be easier to clean up when they decide whatever is in their body needs to be out of their body. Alternatively, a hard floor is going to be a little louder/less muting than a carpet floor and isn't as comfy on your feet at night.

Laminate flooring looks like paneling on the floor. For 275 feet just do real wood planks. The price difference is almost nothing. 

Steve_Jones said:

Laminate flooring looks like paneling on the floor. For 275 feet just do real wood planks. The price difference is almost nothing. 

While I love real hardwood, I seriously doubt anyone is going to come out and professionally install, sand, finish and trim 300 square feet of it for anywhere near 2-3 times the cost of vinyl plank. 

I hope (for my sake) I’m not wrong.

To my eyes, the “pre-finished” hardwood stuff looks way more like the cheezy 70’s wall paneling you’re talking about than 2019 plank does, and is 10X the pain in the ass to install, but that’s just like...my opinion.

Depending on the age of the condo, there is a good chance there is wood flooring under the carpet.

Unless you are completely unable to measure, cut and install, a DIY using GOOD laminate (that grey vinyl in previous post looks like the good stuff) is the best bang-for-the-buck...easy to cut, fit, lay and most importantly, NO FINISHING required.

Tile is the bane of my existence...I literally charge tippy-top of the mountain rates when someone wants me to do a tile job...like $5 a square foot...and I'm always happy when I don't get the job...worse yet, when I do get it, I still wish I'd charged more. My tile saw has sat in the corner of my shop for the last year and I'm sooooo happy that I haven't had to dig it out yet this year.

poopshovel again said:

Steve_Jones said:

Laminate flooring looks like paneling on the floor. For 275 feet just do real wood planks. The price difference is almost nothing. 

While I love real hardwood, I seriously doubt anyone is going to come out and professionally install, sand, finish and trim 300 square feet of it for anywhere near 2-3 times the cost of vinyl plank. 

Almost all of the new hardwood flooring is kiln dried, stabilized, CNC cut, stained and hard finished, meant to be installed on a floating membrane (new subfloor and foam decoupler)...it's super easy to install and I charge competitive rates compared to refinishing old hardwood...$3 per square foot new hardwood install vs. $5-6 per square foot refinish old hardwood.

Crowned (middle of plank high) is easier to sand than cupped (middle of plank low) and my bid for crown refinishing is lower than my quote for cupped refinishing...less sandpaper, less wear and tear on the equipment and my body, faster material removal, less labor, etc.

In reply to Gingerbeardman :

Again, I LOVE real hardwood. We’ve got red oak in the majority of our “real house,” plank in the bedrooms. Wish we would’ve just done the red oak throughout as the plank doesn’t *feel* the same.

That said, I read “cheap, easy, DIY,” none of which screams “buy saw, rent nailer and sander, try not to berkeley it up on the first try” to me.

my $.02 YMMV

I put laminate flooring down in my dining room. My local Lumber Liquidators had an annual sale where they clear out their old inventory. The deal is, they put pallets of everything they want to get rid of out, and you have to buy the whole lot.  Expect about 10% damage from being moved around a lot, but if you find a color/pattern you like and there is more than you need, its a good deal. I bought their best quality material that included padding (so no underlayment needed) for .99 sq/ft instead of $4.99.  I bought about 20% more than I needed, and with damaged planks and a few mistakes, I had a few pieces left over for repairs...perfect.   

It's also first-come, first-served, so if you see an ad for the sale, show up EARLY and get in line at the door.  Lots of people start browsing through the pallets and pick one they want, but when they go to ask a salesperson to buy it, they find out that they have to get in line and their pick is long gone. Get in line early with the contractors and you'll get a salesperson and you can peruse the selection with them and grab what you want. 

Installation is pretty easy because it is all snap together with no nails, full-floating if you will. I HIGHLY recommend dropping $150 on one of these. It's a flooring saw from Home Depot and it makes installing flooring 1,000 easier than using a chop saw. You can cut to width and length, right there on the floor as you work. 

The floor looks great, is easy to care for, you just have to be careful of standing water. I had one of those meal-delivery packages melt and leak out and it swelled the edges of a few boards. Other than that, it has held up great to kids and dogs.