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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
flooring question/opinions come in :)
What are your thoughts on stained concrete floors? Good idea/bad idea? If you happen to have them can you tell me some pros and cons of them as well?
We currently have vinyl/linoleum floors in our kitchen, utility and bathroom and carpet in our dining room and I hate all of it. I would really like to lay tile, but that's a bit more expensive than my budget can afford right now and probably for a while (I'm being picky). I'm curious if stained concrete would be a good option. I will add that we would definitely DIY to keep costs down.
Re: flooring question/opinions come in :)
We have stained concrete floors. They do look really nice, and they're nice and cool all year round... but here are a few things I've noticed about them.
The wax sealant gets marked up pretty easily. Chairs, vacuums, shoes - all can leave marks on the surface. Not terribly obvious, but enough that I notice it. I think you're supposed to get the floors rewaxed once or twice a year - we've been in our house for a year and haven't had them rewaxed yet, so we really need to do that soon.
The other thing I've noticed is that any standing water, from spills, mopping, etc., can affect the way the stain looks. For example, we had a bottle of water that got knocked over and we didn't notice til the next day - and it left a very obvious lightened blotch in that area. Fortunately it's pretty easily fixed by reapplying wax to the area, so just make sure you keep some on hand for spot treatments.
I do like them but IMO it should go with your decor and architecture. Have you looked into buying the tile from Home Depot or Lows (they have tiles as low $0.68) and hire someone from craigslist to do it for you? We went this route and did wood floors and tiles and saved a lot of money.
If you hire someone, talk to Kim777 before hiring a stranger of CL (sketchy IMO). Her DH may be available for hire.
There are a lot of poeple out of construction jobs who are looking for jobs. We asked for reference and actual jobs to go see.
This is kind of my thoughts on it. If it were to turn out horrible we can always put something over it.
Thanks everyone for your input! It is definitely helpful advice and gives me plenty more research to do
I have actually looked and priced tile all over the place and I'm honestly just being really picky. A lot of the less expensive tile looks nice, its just not exactly what I (or DH) have in mind. Since we are planning on being in our home for quite a while I really would like to eventually save for a bit and splurge on the tile we really want rather than a cheaper fix that looks better, but still not what we want, kwim?
I do like the look of stained concrete, but there are a few very important things to consider. First, usually stained concrete is done on a fresh slab that is completely protected from the time it is poured until the construction is done, so the glue from the linoleum and other chemicals that may have come in contact with the slab in the past will most likely will mottle the stain. Sometimes terribly. I've seen it not take at all in some parts. In order to try to completely strip your floors of all glue and such and get it ready for the staining process, you will most likely be quickly approaching or surpassing what tile would cost. My 2 cents.
My DH also does contracting work (not to steal from Kim's DH or anything), so if you are interested, feel free to page me or something.
If I were in your shoes and planned to be in the house for a long time, I would start saving now to get what I really want in flooring. IMO, there's not much advantage of spending $ now on stained concrete when it's not what you really want.