Bought my first place! (flooring content)

In reply to pinchvalve :

Dangit. Wish I’d known about the floor cutting saw. We just finished up this last weekend. Used a $100 hf chop saw, skill saw, and jigsaw. 

Rigid “oscillating tool” with half moon and rectangular blades was the jam for cutting jambs.

I never realized how difficult it was to make flooring not sound dirty.

Having said that I'm a fan of carpeting in bedrooms, I've had hardwood and concrete actually and carpet is.....much better. It's warmer, cozier, and not as echo-y . How bad is the carpet now? Is it 70s shag and terrible?

That's....the best I could and still there's a few chuckles in there

In reply to Katie Suddard :

You should also check the condo rules.  If you're on an upper floor you may be required to have carpet in some areas.   I lived in a condo for a while that required carpet in most areas to limit noise in the lower units; but they also had rules about the brands of bird feeders allowed on balconies so they might have been stricter than normal.  YMMV

Katie - I always lean toward the lighter varieties of laminate flooring because they throw more light into the room and make the room(s) seem bigger. Get your flooring from someplace that has a good, readily available stock (no closeouts) in case you want to duplicate it later. Always buy a box or two more than you need (you can always return the unopened boxes) because repair/replacement. Always measure twice before cutting.  I did a living room last year in a locking laminate floor from Home Depot (a rustic pine look) and it was really surprising how well it turned out. I didn't use a saw, just a good utility knife , a lot of sharp blades, and a straightedge. Crank up the music, have fun and get after it. You can do this and you'll do fine.  Good luck!

Recently purchased a new house and used some cheaper laminate flooring(Feather step from bestlaminate). Once we got the process started it went pretty smooth, still need to replace the moldings. My father in law did most of the hard work but it seemed pretty easy. Only took 3 hours start to finish. Definitely a major upgrade over the ugly green carpet and wallpaper. 

I did wood look tile in my house in California.

(listing photos for the house)

Caught it on a close out for $1.80 a sqft and it was $3 a sqft to have it professionally installed for ~1200 sqft.

I have solid wood floors now and I hate them compared to the tile. The reason is that the tile was nearly indestructible. 80lb dog chased by a toddler ran over it, I dragged a 33 gallon compressor all around the house to do the trim, a toddler slapped it with a stolen 16oz framing hammer, said toddler also liked to play with her water table in the middle of the floor.... all the usual stuff that happens to floors. Having to be more careful with hardwood drives me insane.

Carpet in the bedroom though. Just for the sound deadening factor.

In reply to Andy Neuman :

I LIKE that stuff! Does it look as good in person as it does in pictures?

Thankfully I don't have any wallpaper to take out, just some ugly green accent walls to paint. 

Katie Suddard said:

In reply to Andy Neuman :

just some ugly green accent walls to paint. 

Paint first 

The guys who installed my flooring cut it with this: https://www.amazon.com/Roberts-10-91-Multi-Floor-Cutter-9-Inch/dp/B07DX88TZM

Insanely quick and easy, way better than the little table saw me and my friends used years ago.

Some region's Habitat ReStores have tile that looks like wood. I'd check out a local one and see what they have. 

We are redoing some rooms in our house. My wife found an app from lumber liquidators that lets you take a picture of your room and them change the flooring to anything they have to see what it will look like. It is amazing and really lets you try out some different looks before you buy anything.

In reply to Katie Suddard :

It looks just as good in person. Don’t know how well the stuff will wear over time yet.