carpet? hardwood? bamboo? paint?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Heartily do NOT recommend Lumber Liquidators, or any bamboo products. Much of the stuff coming out of China has lots of formaldahyde in it and off-gases for a long, long time. Head on over to the Gardenweb.com and the flooring forum. Lots of threads from lots of people dealing with the same questions…</p>

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<p>Floor guy #1 and a colleague arrived early last Saturday and installed beautiful 4 1/4 inch wide engineered maple planks from Home Depot [Vintage</a> Maple Natural 3/8 in. Thick x 4 1/4 in. Wide x Random Length Engineered Real Hardwood Flooring (20 sq.ft./case)-PF9364 at The Home Depot](<a href=“http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202034714/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053]Vintage”>http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202034714/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053) This is a floating floor that clicks/snaps together. It makes a bit more noise than I’d hoped, but it is so gorgeous that I think we will soon get used to it. The boxes contain a bit more than the 20 sq. ft. on the label because 21 boxes covered the 433 feet of floor with several full boards to spare, not to mention random bits that were trimmed off here and there and to lay the hallway that runs on a diagonal. Since the team bills by footage based on the number of boxes they use, the labor cost actually was lower than the estimate!</p>

<p>Stairs remain to be dealt with. The basement stairs will be de-squeaked so that Happykid can paint them. At minimum, the front stairs need to be de-squeaked and painted, but eventually I think that I will resurface them with Stairtek Retreads. The finished ones aren’t much more expensive than combining nail-down flooring with a stairnoses. Floor guy #1 thinks I should get the unfinished ones, and then finish them myself (where I ask you, the back yard? the microscopic backyard shed?). In either case, the left-overs from the upstairs floor could be used to cover up the pine risers that make up the current stair structure.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for all of your advice!</p>

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<p>Congratulations! Glad it worked out so well.</p>

<p>If happykid plans to paint the basement stairs, I suggest you make sure you buy patio paint. This is specifically made for walking on, and is better for traction / preventing slips than regular wall paint. It’s patio because they add non-slip ingredients, and it’s available in the same colors that wall paint is.</p>

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<p>Great idea hayden! I’ll pass that on to her. Right now she is set on mixing the paint herself so that she can do each step in a different color to essentially form a rainbow (more steps than the standard ROYGBV) and then paint a rainbow on the facing wall of the basement. There is fine talk about ordering the paint from Rosco [Rosco</a> International](<a href=“Rosco”>http://www.rosco.com/) because she trusts the mixability (if that is a word) of the colors.</p>

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<p>I remember paint clouds and the sun on the wall in my bedroom because after I painted the room blue, it seemed too dark to me. Everyone liked it so much, it was decades before they painted over it. A rainbow sounds lovely.</p>

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<p>What’s the house style? I think bamboo looks weird when it’s not paired with modern. Personally I’ve always had real oak and I like it. Carpet on stairs is quieter and probably less slipper. My favorite look for a stair runner is oriental carpet. Like this: <a href=“http://www.landryandarcari.com/galleries/Rug-Room-Settings/Handwoven-Rug-Stair-Runner.jpg[/url]”>http://www.landryandarcari.com/galleries/Rug-Room-Settings/Handwoven-Rug-Stair-Runner.jpg&lt;/a&gt; or this which has the brass bars holding it in: <a href=“http://www.landryandarcari.com/galleries/Rug-Room-Settings/Handwoven-Rug-Stair-Runner.jpg[/url]”>http://www.landryandarcari.com/galleries/Rug-Room-Settings/Handwoven-Rug-Stair-Runner.jpg&lt;/a&gt; I loathe wall to wall carpet. The only floor I’ve painted in the current house is the basement stairs. It’s painted with porch floor paint and has held up for 10 years. I also have it in my office where the floor is concrete, but shaped like tiles.</p>

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<p>We have original 45 yo hardwood on the main level and in the bedrooms (bedrooms are currently covered by WTW). Next project is to pull out the WTW in S1’s room, which is going to be my craft area with a sofa futon for when he visits. </p>

<p>Would love to pull out the WTW in the family room (cement underneath), as the dog makes her mark there and I can’t stand it any more! Am thinking about cushioned linoleum squares. We can upgrade when we sell. I want something that cleans easily. Biggest obstacle is that there are huge bookcases, TV cabinet and two sofas in that room and the room is not big enough to shove them all to one side.</p>