Today we had the guy that put the laminate in. Tammi had him stop by to give us his two cents worth. The carpeted areas are an easy fix, which we knew. The other; however, is a little more involved. Again he said it’s tough to determine the cause, but he thinks it’s as simple as rubbing plywood. The best/easiest/fastest way would be to cut around the sink/dishwasher cabinet unit, pull out the stove, island, fridge, and little counter between fridge and stove and pull up all the flooring. Then he can see and fix the problem then lay new laminate (which is better looking and more like actual hardwood compared to ours). Total materials cost he estimates is $2500; we’ll get a quote later today sometime. Going at it through the ceiling downstairs is possible, though he doesn’t think it’ll be as effective or long lasting because if it’s a rubbing on the top side gluing and screwing it in place is harder to do. He also thinks the cost of materials would be greater.
So it’s a price issue. Will sinking $3000 into the floor be worth it? A fellow realtor Tammi brought along thought the new looking floor might be a selling point/increase the value because people are really into hardwood floors, real or not. (Apparently laminate has come a long way from ours and now the new stuff really does look like hardwood without the bother.) Time is not an issue. At most it’ll take 2 days from start to finish (not including moving furniture).
Thoughts? Comments?
and now we have a showing this afternoon.
Two days start to finish sounds a little unrealistic – unless he drinks 5 cups of espresso before breakfast!
I think he’d bring in a whole team and not just himself. We still haven’t heard all the details or final price yet. The showing lasted all of 15 minutes. They were in and out. I’m not sure if that’s good or not.
Trust me, some people sink that much into their houses just to get them looking semi-okay. I totally think it is worth it (I thought it might be close to $10,000 so just $3000 is nothing really). Evan and I had to sink in a 1000 or so just to tidy up a couple of things. Here you will be getting a new floor that will look great with NO squeaks. I totally think you should do it!
Dave says that once you get the floor started [taking apart and putting in a new one] it doesn’t take that long according to Elmer. He redid the flooring in Peggy’s Dad’s condo in Abbotsford. Keep us posted.
I think after we get the quote we’ll leave the info on the counter saying if you’re interested we’ll take this much off the sale price. If that doesn’t work then we will probably fix it.