New York Renovator

Mr. Mecomber and I installed laminate flooring in our living room last autumn. I’ve been waiting and watching the flooring, seeing how it will hold up to our activities (the living room is our “schoolroom” and therefore sees the most traffic all day). It has held up OK! However, installing it ourselves was a royal pain. I think with flooring, I may stick with the experts and get flooring installed. I’ll install my own electrical wiring, but flooring– especially carpeting– is a bit too much for me! The great thing about the Internet is that the sky is the limit now. I am finding all sorts of opportunities, information, and businesses online.

Should we go with flooring installation, I’m definitely checking out Empire Today. Ever hear of them? The company (started in 1959 in Chicago, Illinois) has a bit of a “cult” following– they have a very distinctive jingle and spokesman (The Empire Today Man), and one of their TV commercials was in the movie Wayne’s World. The famous Empire Today jingle (”800-588-2300, Em-pire!”) has been featured in a Pearl Jam concert, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Extreme Makeover! lol! Empire Today even has a whole YouTube following online. Here are some of their “retro” TV commercials I found.

LOL! I think I almost remember seeing old commercials like that, in the 70s… weird! There are even a slew of spoofs done with these commercials! Wikipedia says:

The Empire Man has been seen internationally in commercials and other media, has spawned a line of collectible bobblehead dolls, is featured each year in the annual McDonald’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and inspired the Chicago Cubs to declare an official “Empire Day” at Wrigley Field in 2007.

But I wouldn’t check them out because of their impressive cultural influence and the handsome be-moustached Empire Today Man, lol. There is no doubt these guys are best of the best when it comes to flooring and customer service. Customer service is hard to come by today, especially from those “big box” stores. We all know what I’m talking about!

And I’ve checked out Empire carpet prices– nice! What’s great is these guys offer at-home service, which means THEY bring their samples to YOU at home. Wow. Not even doctors make house calls anymore! And carpeting, hardwood flooring, and window treatments are installed the NEXT DAY. It’s hard for me to believe that there still exists such a company like this, but there is! Their dedication to quality flooring and quality customer service blows my mind. I haven’t seen a company so zealous about customer service in a long, long time. Their name “Empire” stands for Excellence, Mentoring, Professionalism, Immediacy, Respect, Enthusiasm. I’m extremely impressed!

Empire Today was the 2006 Torch Award Winner for Marketplace Ethics for the Chicago and Northern Illinois Better Business Bureau. In 2007, Empire Today was named the #1 Specialty Flooring Retailer in the U.S.

I have to admit– I may be frugal, but I’m no cheapskate. I WILL pay for excellent customer service and for a reliable company with a great track record. I never used to do that, but I’ve learned my lesson. It’s too risky and wastes money in the long run by going with the “flash in the pan” big box companies. They just don’t seem to care as much, and I usually wind up having to fix their careless errors and sloppy jobs. It saves me nothing.

I think Empire Today rocks! Had you ever heard of them before?

I read with great interest a blog post at This Ain’t New York about cleaning laminate floors. Melanie has laminate in her Dining Room (what a brave woman– mine would be all scratched up by now) and is asking for blogger reader help. I was amused by the variety of advice:

I mop with vinegar water, (small amount of vinegar, lots of hot water) and then I dry the floor with an old towel. I just throw the towel on the floor and then stand on it and “scooch” all over until the floors are dry.

Vinegar. Hmm. OK.

Method Cleaner from Target with the microfiber pad. Works like a charm and eco-friendly/non toxic.I have heard that vinegar strips the floors over time so I stopped using it.

Oh. Not vinegar. OK. Hmm.

My mom is in the vinegar water camp…and she has had her laminate floors (Pergo) for many years, with no problems.

Ah, a seasoned vinegar user. Well, I’m all for au natural. The advice just came rolling in by now:

The Orange Glo-type version of the Swiffer cleaner works great for us!

I use a product called AquaShine on my laminate floors.

I use the Swifter wet pads (not WetJet) for every day maintainance.

Nope. Too expensive for me. I don’t even buy Comet or Toilet Bowl cleaner. I’m a baking soda/pine sol/vinegar/bleach kinda gal (although not all at once, of course). And what’s this “everyday maintenance” thing?!

My jaw dropped when I saw this:

my bro & sis-in-law spent three hours on their hands and knees “erasing” their floors with that hand-sized cloth eraser stuff and buffed & buffed…… made the floor look brand-spankin’-new!

Wow, they must be childless. I was about to give up when I finally I found the answer!

We just used damp cloth, wet with water. Here’s the secret:

Wet and Dry.

My kinda cleaning recipe. Thanks, ladies.

Anyone have a regular old upright piano anymore these days? My grandmother used to have a very old Chase and Baker “player piano” (it used to be my great-grandmother’s in the hotel she once operated). A player piano is a regular upright piano that also has a mechanical feature– you load a roll of perforated paper into a sliding door, turn a switch, and pump the pedal. The keys move up and down just as if an invisible pianist was playing it! Oh, how I loved to hear “The Entertainer” on it! (My grandmother couldn’t play piano– no one in the family could– so hearing it was a real treat).

My husband and I want our children to learn to play musical instruments, and the two choices around here are the guitar and the piano. I don’t think our old house floors could withstand the weight of a full-blown piano, so we have a full-sized portable electric keyboard. It’s a very nice keyboard… but it’s not a piano, if you know what I mean. Perhaps if I jack up the joists (which I must do anyway), we can have one here. In the meantime, it’s lessons on our electric keyboard. By the way… always make sure your floors can handle a piano before you get one. A home inspector would be able to tell you.

I am having my children learn piano lessons & piano chords. However, sending four children off to a local instructor to take lessons is not within our budget. We’ve assigned them books here and there. We’ve subscribed to a handy email lesson subscription by The Pianoman! (And it’s free!). We watched his latest piano lesson video online, and sat there with our mouths open. I could listen to the guy for hours. He is good.

Eventually, we’re going to have to get more instruction. Again, sending four kids to an instructor would leave me no money for home remodeling! Therefore, we’re considering buying some of The Pianoman’s DVD lessons (much more affordable) that the children can all share and learn at whatever levels they are at. The videos there are truly outstanding. Soon, my kids will play “The Entertainer” for me, so who needs that heavy old upright player piano, anyway!

I’ve watched, from a distance of course, the rise of popularity for radiant floor heating. It’s a terrific invention, I think. I have lived all my life with central heating, and I’ve come to have some strong opinions about it!

Most of the homes I’ve lived in had forced air heating systems. I dislike them greatly. They create drafts and the house never seems warm. There is a ton of dust. And if you have an odor in one end of the house, within one minute of that furnace kicking on, it’s permeated the house. I dislike forced-air systems very much.

I’ve lived in a few places with radiator heating. All places were very old apartments with very old radiators. I didn’t care for the radiator system, either. If you were within five or six feet of the radiator, you’d be warm. But radiators didn’t radiate very much.

I’ve lived in a house with a wood furnace (far to much work) and electric baseboard heating (far too expensive and noisy).

I’ve watched with interest the introduction of radiant heating to this country. Radiant heating is not “new.” It’s been established in Europe for a long time.

In the 70’s here in this country, radiant heating was added to ranch houses with concrete slab foundations. It was not very well thought through when it was introduced in modern homes. Radiant tubing of copper pipes was placed in the subfloor, and a fresh coat of concrete poured over it all. Hot water from a boiler flowed through the pipes and warmed the floors. It was a lovely idea. But you cam’t stop physics. The exchange of hot and cool temperatures causwed the pipes to shift a little. Concrete doesn’t like shifting. Pipe seals broke, leaked into cracked concrete, and before you know it, it’s a disaster. Not only have you lost your heating system, but you’ve lost your floor.

So I’ve watched and waited. I’ve seen the introduction of PEX tubing to the idea. I like PEX tubing, but I have my doubts if it would really work here in Upstate New York. It gets cold, bone cold here for long periods of time. And I’m not too keen on anything being “set in stone” or, in this case, concrete.

But radiant heating is extremely appealing. Heating with water has got to be the best means of heating anything, and water is doubly efficient because the same water you use to heat your rooms can be the same water you use to wash your dishes or take your bath. Radiant heating heats the floors, which in turn heats objects. No drafts, no exchange of one kind of air for another. You can also install hardwood flooring– usually a chilly option for homes in the North– and still stay warm. As a matter of fact, hardwood floors are recommended with radiant heating, because the wood doesn’t insulate the heat from the room, as a carpet would. It’s very appealing indeed.

You can even install radiant heating with PEX and aluminum flashing to existing homes. Although, I wouldn’t in my house. Older homes have a plethora of problems and situations unique to newer homes. The way my sill sits on my foundation, for example, and how my home’s framework is built (balloon frame). There are a lot of drafts within the foundation and between the sill-plate and wall-framing that I cannot access. The wood is old, it has shrunk, my basement is very drafty. I also have a century’s worth of pipes, drains, and wires protruding every-which-way. I couldn’t even begin to imagine where I’ve have the space to install radiant heating to the floor. Unless I ripped everything out to the house’s barebones and started from scratch. But then again, why do that? Just build new. So I really think that to install radiant heating right, you’d have to build new, with proper preparation and installation.

It’s an interesting system and one I intend to monitor for a little while longer. If I ever build a new house, I think I would choose radiant heating above all else. So far, I think it’s the best system out there. But even that makes me sad. That’s the best we have? We’ve been to the moon, sent a robot to Mars, and we still have a heating system that’s only one step advanced from the stone age?

I’ve had the laminate floors installed for a few months now. I’d wondered when I installed them how they would perform in the Living Room. We still have not gotten an area rug, so we’ve been fully treading on laminate all this time. I’m sure the eager questioners are begging: How have they held up?

Well. OK. I’ll break things down into a list: Pro and Con.

PRO:

1. It still looks beautiful. There’s nothing like the look of wood floors.. except wood floors themselves.
2. I’ve had to mop it only twice.
3. I see no indentations from the heavy furniture’s legs. I have a desk that is probably 300 pounds. I put flat casters under each leg, and the flooring has endured the weight extremely well.

CON:

1. There are a lot of small scratches everywhere. It wasn’t as durable as I’d hoped. We did buy the less expensive stuff (cheaper), but I had hoped it wouldn’t show scratches so soon. Our first time vacuuming, a little piece of grit got caught on the vacuum wheel, and made a large scratch. So we only sweep in here now. But the scratches are a major “con.” I am disappointed.
2. The floor boards have warped a little. Some are raised at the corners. Now, my house is so old, and we have drafts everywhere, so there are some major temperature extremes here. But I am surprised at how much the boards have expanded. A lot.
3. The floor bounces. The instructions for the flooring said to make sure your floor is “reasonably level.” I know that this is an impossible goal for a house as old as mine. But for laminate to look really good, your floor has to be far more than “reasonably” level. The slightest bump, it seems, shows up eventually as the boards contract and expand with the seasons. When we first installed the flooring, we had some bumps (I had nailed the old pine flooring down to secure it), but the laminate didn’t “rock.” Now, when we step in certain areas, the laminate rocks and gives a little. This also is probably due to the expansion and contraction of the boards.
4. Laminate flooring, while warmer than plain hardwood flooring, is much colder than carpeting. The floor is cold. No wonder they install radiant heating underneath. Brr!

So am I pleased with the flooring after these months? So far, yes. The scratches are minor (so far) and even so, we can still cover the floor with an area rug to protect the higher traffic areas. The bounce of the floor is irritating, and the raised edges are very irritating. But the floor is easy to care for and still looks pretty good. With more use (the Living Room is our most-used room of the house), I suspect that the raised edges will begin to chip or wear. This concerns me.

If we could have afforded carpeting and installation, I would have preferred that. We installed laminate because the materials were on sale and we could do it ourselves. Eventually, we will have carpeting in here, and perhaps use these boards for another room (if they are still useable).

The laminate floor is installed. Of course, there are small spots and some touch-ups to do yet (install t-moulding, threshholds, etc). But the bulk of the floor is done! So, we moved in our furniture and unpacked our books. The room hasn’t been this clean in three months.

Those little blocks all around the room are laminate flooring spacers. Laminate floor is a “floating floor,” which means it sits– all interlocked together– on the subfloor but not attached to it. It is important to leave spaces all around the perimeter of the room. The laminate expands and contracts with changes in temperature and humidity. If it does not have sufficient space to do so, the laminate will buckle.

I love the look of laminate. Walking on laminate is a luxurious experience, too– it is cushiony, since it sits on a foam underlayment. It is amazing to clean, too.

However, laminate scratches easily. Already I have found a few scratches, even though we have been very, very careful with furniture moving. I will have to invest in a laminate repair kit. We do intend to lay an area rug down. I also have to sew curtains (we are using old miniblinds right now, yuk).

There is no baseboard or window trim yet. I have to redo door jambs on the two doors first, then I will install the trim, a little at a time.

So there are a lot of loose ends! But it is wonderful to have my Living Room back. It is wonderful to have an organized desk with my printer and my pencils back. My ethernet cabling works fine, too. What a relief! Since installing that was so easy, I may install it in other rooms as well (when we get to them).

I am exhausted! The weeks of intense activity have tuckered me out! So we are taking a break from work today, before I continue with moulding installation and more rewiring (we are still without electricity in the upstairs Bathroom, the Hallway, and the Laundry Room).