Greetings to All - Anyone good at helping the unskilled?

A big hello to the Woodworking Forum Members,

I am a Fire Fighter who also runs a telecommunications company helping small to medium business with telephone and call handling and answering solutions.

The reason I am here is I am at the beginning of the process of renovations. Knocking down a wall here and there, putting up a wall to form a nursery (for a kid, not flowers), ripping up carpet and putting in a new kitchen.

I have some assistance with all the above from some mates that are carpenters and builders but there is one bone of contention with the renovations that is making life hard.

WHAT TYPE OF FLOOR TO PUT IN??????

We have carpets in the lounge room and lino in the kitchen & dining area. The walls we are knocking down will make these rooms all one big open plan room.

We had our hearts set on floating floorboards but we are getting conflicting information as to what goes first. The kitchen or the floor? Initial comments stated that the floorboards should be the very last thing. I can understand this in the sense that once all the work is done the floorboards can go in and wont be damaged by any ongoing work or renovations.

What then happens if in 5 or 10 years time you decide to completely re-do or move the kitchen to another area. Do you then try and find matching floorboards to fill in the area's where the kitchen cupboards used to be?

I looked at a flat pack kitchen aswell and they were of a different belief. The cabinet maker i spoke to said the floorboards should be down first for exactly the reason I put above. If you move it at a later date, all the floorboards are in place and it is alot easier than cutting it in.

Met with a kitchen guy this morning and he advised against the floating floorboards in the kitchen as he has seen alot of insurance jobs where the boards are water damaged from water exposure due to dishwashers and the like.

Whats your opinion?
Commercial Vynil, Floating Floorboards or Tiles?

The issue we have is with an open plan layout, there is no distinct barrier or border between the areas and I think that changing flooring material between the area's wont look good.

Any Ideas? Please!

I have installed the hard as buggery green tinted MDF type floating floor in our bedroom. It states on the packs something like not suited for wet areas or wet mopping. I tested a sample in a bucket of water to which the jiont edges did swell a little bit. The product has a 20 or 25 year guarantee.

I have a large open area - kitchen ('L' shape with island cupboard), dining and family - due to the traffic, environment, ease of cleaning etc we chose and laid large ceramic tiles. The wife is more than happy. Carpet rugs may come sometime in the future in the dining and family areas.

I installed the cupboards first then tiled and tiled up the cupboard kickboards as well. Should there ever be some futher need to renovate the cupboards then I have enough left over tiles to suffice.

Good luck

Thanks Rod. Great response and I appreciate your time. Any photo's of the kitchen that you care to share. Getting a little tired of searching Google images for kitchens.

Brett,

Trying to reduce pictures to fit on this forum gives me the tomtits so if you wish to PM me your email and I'll send some pictures.
Cheer
Rod

PM is on its way. Let me know if it doesnt arrive.

Welcome to the forum Brett. You will find you will get heaps more advice if you post your thread in one of the renovation forums. Just go to the main page and scroll down until you come to the one you want. Maybe one of the mods will move this thread for you. Good luck. :2tsup: