The Home Ownership Thread

[texas_jack]



Loop carpets, unless they really are commercial, don't wear well, are hard to clean and easy to damage. Would not recommend them.

We have it and the dogs are killing it.

 

[Ataturk]



We have it and the dogs are killing it.

Wait till you remove the furniture and it looks like a patchwork of two different kinds of carpet.

 

[jbarwick]

Getting trees trimmed hasn't been as much of a wallet strain as people lead onto it being. Even got a slow season discount.

Next up are a couple of dripping noises I need to track down. Both sound like they are coming from within HVAC vents so I will ask the HVAC guy this weekend.

 

[sonick]

We're planning to get

We have it and the dogs are killing it.

Good to know, as a dog is in the mix once we settle down.

So no loop/berber... Any other particular features we should be looking for if we want a more modern and less 'generic suburb mcmansion family room' look?

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

That would be a deal breaker for me, if they require carpet for noise reasons I imagine the place is rather noisy.

 

[joelscott7]

Does anyone have an ecobee thermostat? I am looking at getting either that or the nest.

 

[Find Finn]



That would be a deal breaker for me, if they require carpet for noise reasons I imagine the place is rather noisy.

Poor sound engineering, proper engineering or acoustic plasterboard should solve that problem.

You can't buy a new condo here with carpets, they all come with hardwood or/and tiles all over.

 

[Medwed]



Poor sound engineering, proper engineering or acoustic plasterboard should solve that problem.

You can't buy a new condo here with carpets, they all come with hardwood or/and tiles all over.

Noise is one 'reason' I have heard the other one is my fav. it's for the kids, carpet is safer...

P.S.You cannot buy a condo from 1960s in Northen Europe without hardwood floors.

 

[otc]

I know it is fairly expensive to put hardwood into my building (although it has already been done in most units I believe). They require many layers of noise insulation/cork/??? to keep the sound at bay...and this is a concrete building from the 70s or so.

Older wood framed buildings have potential for a lot of noise transmission...especially if they weren't built with much thought to separating sound between units (besides letting the carpet insulate and quite sounds).

 

[Medwed]

Home Depot sells soundproof board in very large sheets. It works for walls I am sure it would work for floors. When considering hardwood in US we are talking about floating floors with a few millimeters of wood weneer as top surface. That floor glues to gether and assembles like a dream. Do it yourself and enjoy the savings. Prices for installation are a rip off ,I have been quoted from 6 to 10 per sq foot for something a child can do. The only time consuming part is leveling floors (if croocked cement) and plinth finishing.
If you want real parquet floors, they are cheaper than floating floors, but more costly for installation. Plus they need to spend a few months in your house before you can install them, as their moisture content is always off.

 

[Gus]

We have carpet on the entire upstairs of our home. We rarely wear shoes upstairs and enjoy it underfoot. Our downstairs is all hardwood with antique Persian rugs. They are beautiful to look at but not at all as soft or cushioned as nice carpet.

 

[Ataturk]

I don't know how well sound insulation works when it has to be in solid contact with the floor. Usually to deaden sound you need some kind of air barrier or disconnect between materials, I believe.

I can certainly understand the argument against hardwood upstairs, especially in single-family construction there's nothing buffering the sound whatsoever. My house has engineered floor joists, which are especially bad because there's no solid vertical barrier anywhere inside the floor cavity. This more than anything is why they often set the master bedroom off to the side in two-story houses.

Also, some kinds of shoes are worse than others -- a hundred-pound woman in heels can sound like she's driving nails.

 

[sonick]

Many newer low-rise wood-frame condos/townhomes in the area do allow hardwood floors in upper levels, but I guess this building has had too many noise complaints that they decided to do away with it altogether (or they were never allowed in the first place, wasn't quite clear in the strata notes).

 

[Joffrey]

My apartment of just over a year has carpeting (bizzarely they newly renovated it by replacing parquet hardwood with **** carpet). I hate it. It'd be a non-starter for me to consider a house/condo that required the use of some form of wall to wall carpeting.

 

[RedLantern]

Displaced for the week while the floors are being refinished. Thankfully they could sand out almost all of the stains + paint etc. that had accumulated for 55 years - fairly certain the floors had not been previously refinished.Stopped by Monday night to grab a few things that we forgot and took a look around after the initial sanding - so excited! Looks great so far. Picked up a rather large (6ft long) interesting mid-century coffee table from craigslist today for $130. Need the veneer work on the edges replaced but I'm excited to have a unique piece that will fit our space. We have a really long living room so we are searching for a long couch to go along. Keeping our eyes peeled for a Pearsall style gondola couch.