Wodden floors on new home

[Beaching]

If you have an appliance in a kitchen leak and it backs up to a wall with wood on the other side, it is no different than wood in the kitchen.
If it happens while you are on vacation, it is not going to matter if you have tile in the kitchen and wood in the adjoining rooms, that wood is still going to be damaged even though it was not in the kitchen. Water does not stay confined to the room in which the leak occured.

I have wood in my kitchen and love it! Wood is easier on your knees than tile. New house has wood as well in the kitchen.

[isabella_bee]

My three previous houses had wood floors in the kitchen and I loved it.

What about an engineered floating hand scraped hardwood floor - would the builder do that for less? We had that at our last house and even were able to refinish it when we went to sell at a really reasonable price.

[GRNDHOG]

Originally Posted by mikestrong

Other then smaller builders that may still allow it, I dont know any of the larger builders will do it anymore at all. Lennar for sure wont now as one of my best friends works their.

Originally Posted by unknown00

Was in same exact position as you with every new house I bought, always decided to just suck it up and go with overpriced builder

And no, not a single builder today will sell a house with flooring.

OK, so you guys made me curious.

I reached out to some of my colleagues who still work at Lennar. They confirmed it still does get done.

Point is, yes, it's possible. It all depends on the market/person you talk to/etc. Even at the national builder level.

[shrapr]

Originally Posted by cowboyqb

Hello:

We are in the process of building a new home ground up. The builder's quote for nail-down handscraped hard wood floors is almost double than any other reputable contractor. It is known that the builder won't let me hire an external contractor to do the job during the build process.

If I go with the external contractor, I have to have them remove the carpet, break tile in kitchen, re-level and then install the wood floors. So my conundrum is, do I go with the expensive option with the builder to save the hassle and any possible damage to sheetrock/paint or go with the contractor and save me some $$. Has anyone gone through this before? Any ideas, suggestions from yuor experience are high appreciated.

TIA!

Hello, congratulations on your new home. Sorry, just saw the thread and would like to share my 2 cents.

Last year we built with Darling homes and we decided to tackle the upgrades after the build. The only upgrade at the design center was the spiral corners in the kitchen cabinets. Rest went with the standard and this neighborhood, the normal upgrades were $40-$60K we heard.

The following were the upgrades we did after closing and since I had contractors picked and lined up, it took us a month and a half for the upgrades.

1. We wanted nailed down hickory floors as we were tired of the oak floors everywhere and have a 100 lb four legged baby, so got carpets all over and the standard tiles in the entry and all the bath, kitchens, etc. Later replaced the carpets with the nailed down downstairs and upstairs, except the kitchen, baths and the media room. For the stairs spindle, the ones we wanted were $1200 upgrade, later the hardwood installer charged $20 a piece.

2. Kitchen - Ripped out the tiles and replaced with the ones we picked, replaced the granite in kitchen, raised the island wall in the front as the countertop, for the wall got the same stones as the fireplace, which the builder left with a row of the standard tile.

3. Fireplace stone, custom wood mantle, raised hearth with stone

4. Masterbath, two kids bath, total rip out of the standard tile and retiled, the bath walls were pathetic, just sheetrock and no hardiback. Replaced all the shower plumbing with nicer ones. Kids baths got frameless showers over the tub. Replaced the master bath granite.

5. Built a custom mud bench, utility room sink with drawers and the left over granite from the kitchen and bath.

It was lot of work and in hindsight, if we have to do it, I will still do it. This year, the county appraised the house for $97K over our HUD closing amount and we were able to bring it down to the closing cost. I know, just this year and next year who knows where the market will be.

[mikestrong]

Originally Posted by GRNDHOG

OK, so you guys made me curious.

I reached out to some of my colleagues who still work at Lennar. They confirmed it still does get done.

Point is, yes, it's possible. It all depends on the market/person you talk to/etc. Even at the national builder level.

Well, I asked my friend at Lennar that works in Plano. He said no way would they even consider it.
I work at a national builder, and we wont do it either. Have friends at 4 other large builders in DFW. talked to them and they dont do it. Just FYI. May still happen ,but I dont see it.

[HockeyDadof2]

Unless you aren't obtaining a mortgage I can't imagine closing on a house without flooring installed, at least not a Fannie/ Freddie marketable loan. A house with out flooring isn't complete and without some sort of creative solution you can't close on an incomplete house.

Having said that I have seen carpet installed throughout the first floor of a house including the kitchen and baths knowing it was was going to be removed and hand scrapped hardwoods and travertine installed after closing prior to the owners moving in.

[cowboyqb]

Originally Posted by GRNDHOG

It's still worth the OP asking. It happens at other builders aside from Lennar too.

Thanks a lot for all your responses and insights. I asked the builder already and they said they could not do with out these installs (basic carpet + tile), nor could they just install carpet in kitchen, as it would not pass their inspection. Long story short, they will do what the basic is that they have to do, to get me the house in approved condition and its upto me after that.

Also, I can't do tile in kitchen and woodend floor elsewhere due to the flow of the house. It is really an open floor plan, meaning it is hard to de-marcate where the kitchen ends and dining starts or flows into family. We liked the house for this reason.

To keep my cost low and to get it done with the builder, I am contemplating engineered wood instead of nail-down handscrapped. Any ides on which is better and why? In our current house we have nail downs and we really like it. Is it just aesthetics or any other value?

Other that pure preferrential factor, what else determines if I have to go nail downs vs engineered?

Again, there are very smart people here and thanks a lot everyone for adding their precious inputs here!!

[jdallas]

With the concrete slab, they will have to screw in a plywood subflooring before installing nail down flooring so you end up losing about 3/4" in addition to the plank thickness. This can be an issue at transition points and with baseboards.
I would skip the hand scraped look though. It's a trend that will date your home quickly.
If you don't plan on staying in the home more than 5 years, I'd go with a good quality engineered floor. Odds are, the next owners will rip it out and put in something else so wear layer thickness isn't much of an issue and, frankly, most home buyers can't tell the difference anyway.

[LeagleEagleDFW]

Can you not just do builder-grade carpet and tile and then have a Peeks or similar company put in whatever you want? I don't know the numbers, but that may work out better for you.