Flooring with Outside Contractor

Chairman

New member
Hello TI'ers,

I just wanted to take a quick poll on which flooring contractors in the Irvine area you guys would recommend to use once you close escrow on a new home.

I have an appointment scheduled with Venetian Flooring and based on all the positive feedback I have not tried asking anyone else for a quote just yet.

Has anyone had Venetian Flooring install wood floors recently? Just wanted to see if their craftsmanship has held up.

What kind of quotes and how much sq/ft did your projects have?

Also does anyone know of stores in OC they would recommend buying wood flooring from? I want to shop a quote I got from State College Distributors around and see what competitive pricing I can get.

Thanks to all those here who are always so helpful.
 
This thread has some member experiences:
http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php/topic,3048.0.html

For wood, Venetian has 5 star reviews on Yelp but they are a bit different as it's in-home appointments since they don't really have a "retail store" (but do have a design studio).

Tompkins Flooring (in Irvine) has been suggested by a few here.

We used LA Carpet several times but I'm not sure their pricing/selection is the best.

For carpet, we've used New York Carpet and Tile off of State College, no one has been able to beat their carpet prices.

Another recommendation was Simple Floors in Orange for wood flooring.
 
We are currently going through the same process.  We want to have tiles in kitchen, great room and bath rooms but wood in other areas.  We have gotten quotes from Tompkins, Venetian and Simple Floors.  Here is my impression for each one of them:

Tompkins: They do wood, tile and carpet and have good selection.  Some time they seem too busy and I had difficulties getting call backs from them. 

Venetian: Wood only.  We talked to Eric who came to model home and measured it.  Brought his truck with samples of wood.  Very straight forward in terms of pricing and what is included.  Gave us a quote for about $10.7 per sq ft installed for California Classics Laguna Beach Maple wood. We wanted to look at more samples and have an appointment for their design center later this week

Simple Floors:  Diego (owner) is very helpful. Most of their woods are unbranded and I had difficulty finding them on the web. Wood prices are a bit cheaper than other places but hard to do a comparison given lack of info about heir woods. They give you a detailed quote including pricing for all the components included (e.g. installation charges, cost of glue, quarter rounds etc).  Even though, they don't have tiles, they wanted to do our tiles as well. I can not find any reviews about their tile installation and am a bit reluctant.

They all seem fairly competitive in pricing and have very good reviews. 
 
Something to keep in mind, is anything at the Design Center, Venetian said they can get and will give you a price on.  That is pretty much how I picked out my wood since the Design Center has large samples of the wood floors.  The manufacture and make are on the back of the samples.

Not buying an IP house?  No problem.  Just tell them you have an appointment next week and you'd like to look through the flooring before your appointment and that you don't need any assistance from a design associate. 
 
I found a maple engineered wood I really liked at State College Distributors for what seems to be a steal of a price. $4.29/sq ft on sale from maybe $5-6/sq ft regular price. Wood is a new production piece so they have it on sale until Thanksgiving to see if it sells well or not.

This place is a big warehouse with lots of selection from tile, laminate, and wood.

Address: 1620 S. State College Blvd.
Anaheim, CA 92806

I asked Venetian if they had similar styles of wood so I will see what samples he has. My appointment is later this week.
 
just curious.. maybe a stupid question , but if you have outside contractor replace the flooring after getting your new home, you don't void any of the other warranties attached to the home ..right ?  I mean like walls, plumbing electrical etc ..  If these things breaks down the road, the builder might says it was caused by the contractor when they replaced the floors ???
 
I went with tiling through the design center so all bathroom and laundry rooms should be under warranty still.

Doing the wood flooring in the great room, dining room, kitchen, stairs, and upstairs hallway and loft should not void anything as it doesn't touch anything plumbing related. Under the kitchen sink I will watch the workers very closely to make sure nothing is breached.

 
We bought our current home 15 years ago and I don't remember what we had to sign regarding closing with no flooring but I do remember we didn't have a long time to get it installed as far as the lender was concerned. We did get a credit for no flooring but we had to have quite a lot withheld at escrow which would have we would have had to forfit if we didn't get it installed by their deadline and we weren't allowed to use the money that was withheld.

We barely got it in on time but that is because we had the the master counters, tub tile and shower as well as the family room, kitchen and entry replaced with marble (which takes a while to install) after we had the kitchen counter redone in granite.

How much of a credit are they allowing these days?
 
GH said:
just curious.. maybe a stupid question , but if you have outside contractor replace the flooring after getting your new home, you don't void any of the other warranties attached to the home ..right ?  I mean like walls, plumbing electrical etc ..  If these things breaks down the road, the builder might says it was caused by the contractor when they replaced the floors ???

Depends on the location...went with the builder on the bathroom floors because of plumbing.  There is nothing to void on the rest of the house.
 
bones said:
Chairman said:
I went with tiling through the design center so all bathroom and laundry rooms should be under warranty still.

Doing the wood flooring in the great room, dining room, kitchen, stairs, and upstairs hallway and loft should not void anything as it doesn't touch anything plumbing related. Under the kitchen sink I will watch the workers very closely to make sure nothing is breached.

What (if anything) does the builder make you sign if you opt out of their flooring re: warranties?

Hi Bones,

Was not asked to sign anything so far.
 
bones said:
Chairman said:
I went with tiling through the design center so all bathroom and laundry rooms should be under warranty still.

Doing the wood flooring in the great room, dining room, kitchen, stairs, and upstairs hallway and loft should not void anything as it doesn't touch anything plumbing related. Under the kitchen sink I will watch the workers very closely to make sure nothing is breached.

What (if anything) does the builder make you sign if you opt out of their flooring re: warranties?
I think because most new homes require basic flooring to close, there is no need for an option to sign out.

If you are sure you are going to do flooring after closing, just get carpet EVERYWHERE (even where they would usually put tiles like the foyer) because it's easier to change out. Although -- I would get upgraded tile in all the bathrooms because the square footage is so small and the upgrade cost is minimal compared to demo and refloor.
 
GH said:
just curious.. maybe a stupid question , but if you have outside contractor replace the flooring after getting your new home, you don't void any of the other warranties attached to the home ..right ?  I mean like walls, plumbing electrical etc ..  If these things breaks down the road, the builder might says it was caused by the contractor when they replaced the floors ???

TIC is pretty lenient on warranty.  I had a couple of cracked tiles on the shower curb and called TIC to come and fix it.  They said it was because the baseboard my contractor replaced while putting in the tile flooring butted up too tightly against the shower curb and caused the tiles to crack when the house started to settle.  They still fixed it under warranty, no charge.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
bones said:
Chairman said:
I went with tiling through the design center so all bathroom and laundry rooms should be under warranty still.

Doing the wood flooring in the great room, dining room, kitchen, stairs, and upstairs hallway and loft should not void anything as it doesn't touch anything plumbing related. Under the kitchen sink I will watch the workers very closely to make sure nothing is breached.

What (if anything) does the builder make you sign if you opt out of their flooring re: warranties?
I think because most new homes require basic flooring to close, there is no need for an option to sign out.

If you are sure you are going to do flooring after closing, just get carpet EVERYWHERE (even where they would usually put tiles like the foyer) because it's easier to change out. Although -- I would get upgraded tile in all the bathrooms because the square footage is so small and the upgrade cost is minimal compared to demo and refloor.

That is a great idea. Are they required to put tile in the kitchen and entryway? The standard tile is so ugly. And it is supposed to mimic travertine!
 
irvinehomeowner said:
bones said:
Chairman said:
I went with tiling through the design center so all bathroom and laundry rooms should be under warranty still.

Doing the wood flooring in the great room, dining room, kitchen, stairs, and upstairs hallway and loft should not void anything as it doesn't touch anything plumbing related. Under the kitchen sink I will watch the workers very closely to make sure nothing is breached.

What (if anything) does the builder make you sign if you opt out of their flooring re: warranties?
I think because most new homes require basic flooring to close, there is no need for an option to sign out.

If you are sure you are going to do flooring after closing, just get carpet EVERYWHERE (even where they would usually put tiles like the foyer) because it's easier to change out. Although -- I would get upgraded tile in all the bathrooms because the square footage is so small and the upgrade cost is minimal compared to demo and refloor.

I tried to get them to carpet the kitchen instead of the vinyl floors but they wouldn't do it.  The design lady gave me a dirty look, and said, "Why would you do that?  That's unsanitary."
 
Chairman said:
irvinehomeowner said:
bones said:
Chairman said:
I went with tiling through the design center so all bathroom and laundry rooms should be under warranty still.

Doing the wood flooring in the great room, dining room, kitchen, stairs, and upstairs hallway and loft should not void anything as it doesn't touch anything plumbing related. Under the kitchen sink I will watch the workers very closely to make sure nothing is breached.

What (if anything) does the builder make you sign if you opt out of their flooring re: warranties?
I think because most new homes require basic flooring to close, there is no need for an option to sign out.

If you are sure you are going to do flooring after closing, just get carpet EVERYWHERE (even where they would usually put tiles like the foyer) because it's easier to change out. Although -- I would get upgraded tile in all the bathrooms because the square footage is so small and the upgrade cost is minimal compared to demo and refloor.

That is a great idea. Are they required to put tile in the kitchen and entryway? The standard tile is so ugly. And it is supposed to mimic travertine!

Just go with what the standard is...the outside contractor is going to rip it up anyways.
 
I just learned that it is better to place the wood over the existing vinyl in the kitchen as the vinyl acts as another layer of moisture barrier. No need to rip out the vinyl in the kitchen.
 
Chairman said:
I just learned that it is better to place the wood over the existing vinyl in the kitchen as the vinyl acts as another layer of moisture barrier. No need to rip out the vinyl in the kitchen.

+1  Every contractor told me the same thing.  It's so thin it won't change the height of the flooring.
 
What are people's thoughts on the brand Du Chateau? It is considered a premium brand from what I have been told. Is it worth the extra markup? What is a good price for it $/sq ft wise? Thanks.
 
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