yep. Ok start the lashing, whats wrong with it. just kidding
Eric
“Who could not conquer with such troops as these?”
I’m sorry (not really) if such a simple question came off as confrontational but it wasn’t mean as such.
All I was requesting was clarification and perhaps some additional information. My only experience with pergo flooring has been tearing it up during rehabs. I’ve never had it installed because it’s looked down upon in my retail market as being “fake” hardwood thus undesireable. I’ve never thought of putting it in rentals for this reason but if you’ve had positive experienced related to costs, aesthetics and durability, that’s what I was curious about.
I was just playing, questions asked in this forum are many times like the crouching tiger waiting to pounce on the prey. In all instances this prey doesnt care, he just laughs, or if in the wrong mood fights back a little ( not military style though)lol. Laminate does work great in rentals though.
Understood.
I’d have concerns about the laminate starting to peel up after being scratched and/or wet for a period of time. This is what I see most often when it’s in the houses I rehab. Have you noticed anything like this beginning to happen?
Danny,
I’ve had laminate in rentals and it is rapidly destroyed by tenants, just like everything else. The only difference is that carpet is much cheaper. Let’s face it, there is no flooring that tenants can’t rapidly destroy. The only question is how much do you want to spend to replace it. Tenants scratch it all up moving in and out and destroy it when they allow various water sources to leak.
It might be OK for upscale rentals (although I doubt it), but it definitely is not good for low to moderate income rentals. In upscale rentals, I’d probably just put in the real thing.
Mike
I’m thinking that either dirt (with hay overtop if your feeling generous), concrete, or diamond plate stainless steel are the only suitable, long term flooring for low income tenants. Anything else and it should be anticipated you’ll be replacing it in the near future.
I’ve seen some stained concrete floors that looked like wood, maybe even better. Beautiful.
They can even make the concrete look like tiles, just by staining grout lines in. I was skeptical when I first heard about it, but after seeing some homes with it, it’s probably some of the nicest flooring I’ve seen, anywhere. Shines like wet wooden flooring. Any color imagineable. Smae with designs.
May not work well for the colder states, but my be something worth looking into.
I agree. Acid stained concrete can be phenomenal looking. Anyone who thinks concrete floors in a residential building is strange, do a google image search for “acid stained concrete” or something similar. The textures, colors, and designs are only limited by your imagination. But again, it goes back to radiant floor heating being a necessity. The combination gives you the absolute best floor for any application in my opinion.
Nice, huh? People think I’m crazy when I tell them I live in a converted warehouse. They just don’t know all the possibilities! If you could feasibly put them in a rental property, the only way a disgruntled tenant could mess them up is if they rented a jack hammer.
Nice yes…but here’s the big million $ question- Cost? Could this be done in a middle income rental? Could it be more cost effective than cheap carpet over the long term?
Not in wood constructed buildings. Steel constructed buildings (medium to high rises), yes. If your property is one story, built on a slab foundation, yes again. It can cost less than carpet per square foot and you only need to do it once. My garage floor has a map of the world. That was not cheap but also very intricate. Of course, you’d want radiant floor heating ($4- $7/ sq. ft.) inside which would eliminate needing any heat pump, central AC/ furnance, etc. but you’d also need another layer of concrete. It’s not often feasible for a residential renovation but would be much more in new construction. Especially using something like geothermal- radiant floor heating in the concrete.
Does the radiant heat have a lifespan? Does it need replacing? Is it electrically heated or is it some sort of hotwater system?
Some are electric, some are hot water. Mine is hot water. It’s just a bunch of tubes that go back and forth along the floor with hot water running through them. The tubes will (hopefully) never go bad. I have a geothermal heat pump which circulates water through the floor then underground to extract the heat and deposit it through the floors through some fancy HVAC unit.
I guess something similar to condenser lines in a heat pump could work equally well but I’m not sure about using that much freon.
Bill Gates apparently has a heated driveway so he never has to (pay someone to) shovel the snow.
That’s not so uncommon, I know someone that looked into a system like that for his driveway. He had a long driveway and the cost was $15k. Big downside was that it needed to be replaced every few years, that’s why I was asking about the replacement time. Kind of a similar setup to what some roofs have, just a big eletrical element.
So the person you know was looking into an electrical system. I had no idea you had to replace the whole thing every few years. Water systems seem to be more common, although outdoors, I suppose a water system would soon turn to an ice system. 15k for a heated driveway is a little steep when you can pay a neighborhood kid $20, or even more fun, buy a 4-wheeler with a plow.
Not $20 for this one, it was long (couple hundred feet) and steep. This guy built his house in the worst place ever. I will take a pic next time I go by it. Its a nice house with a nice view but the driveway SUCKS!
Danny,
How about an all reinforced concrete building - floor, walls, and ceiling? Then, when the tenants move out, you could just hose the whole thing down. Many low-income tenants would feel right at home with all concrete, especially if you put bars on the windows and installed a stainless steel toilet. Home Sweet Home!
Mike
Yeah that jail-like feeling would certainly be a SELLING point for the crack dealers. And you could work something out with the authorities to lock them down if they screw up and the state can pay you to house them. “Mike’s Slumlord and Jail Services Inc (C)”
I think your on to something Mike! Just as long as you include a drain in the center of each room for when they throw their feces on the wall.
With private prisons, the governing agency pays you per inmate per day. It’s somewhere around $50/ day for each inmate depending on the security, mental health, etc. Another good RE investment. Mike, you’d make a great warden.