Comments on: Hardwood Floors

By: Jeremy Bell

Jeremy Bell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:14:37 +0000

You’re totally right about the different materials… I completely forgot that we did the same thing in our foyer & bathroom. We went with a filled/honed travertino stone instead of the hardwood in that area. Beyond the aesthetics, we also didn’t want to expose the wood to the water and salt that’ll be tracked in during the winter. The previous house had hardwood in front of the door and it took one hell of a beating each year. I have a feeling this stone will standup a little better than the wood did.

By: Jeremy Bell

Jeremy Bell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:11:06 +0000

Indeed, there as step down into the living room… but I don’t believe anyone’s tripped on it yet! I honestly can’t think of why we did that, other than aesthetics. Our architects wanted that room to feel large and inviting (as did we), so they added the step down to get a higher ceiling. We couldn’t add another step as the basement height was already 8’ there and we couldn’t lower the floor any further. There’s a technical term for it (angle of repose I think?)—essentially, you can only go so far below the neighboring foundation… and given how close the houses are, we couldn’t go any deeper. This limitation actually caused a number of problems… for instance, we needed to added an additional step going into the house because we couldn’t lower the foundation enough. Similarly, we had to push the house towards the back of the lot to accommodate the maximum allowable pitch for the driveway. Ideally we would have simply lowered everything a foot or two and everything would have been perfect… but we weren’t allowed to.

Bah, anyway… getting everything to work is kinda’ complicated.

By: Jeremy Bell

Jeremy Bell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:49:22 +0000

What can I say… things have been crazy busy!

By: Jeremy Bell

Jeremy Bell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:45:20 +0000

@Dave – From what I understand there isn’t necessarily more waste. I agree that there are leftover pieces that aren’t suitable for flooring, but I don’t believe those pieces are simply disposed of. So long as it’s all used, it’s really not wasted. As for the increased costs, the higher price is driven by the added labour (having to cut and pieces into quarters before cutting them into boards).

By: All Tiled Up | 360 Winnett Ave

All Tiled Up | 360 Winnett Ave — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:30:45 +0000

[...] main floor is primarily hardwood, but the foyer and powder room floor is a beautiful 16×24 filled/honed Travertino. We had [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:09:59 +0000

Hi there,

Long time follower, first time commenter. My parents are also building a house and have used quarter sawn wood as well. However, the reason why it is more expensive than regular oak is that there IS waste. It actually wastes a lot more wood as instead of cutting the round tree into a rectangular box shape and then slicing it (thereby producing planks of an even width), when you cut the tree into quarters – the way they do it makes triangular pieces, you only get a few planks that are the same width. The rest is not as perfectly suitable for the job.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:30:00 +0000

Hmmm I guess you don’t really respond or read comments on here anymore, or do you?

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:15:23 +0000

I notice there is a one step down from your hall into the room in the picture above. Why is that? I find that single steps are more likely to result in someone tripping than having 2 or more steps, as it is harder to notice.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:13:54 +0000

Oh ok. My reason was very different. Even though my house is very contemporary I wanted to have wood because most of the time you end up standing in the kitchen and wood is much easier on your feet.

As for having the same style and material on the entire first floor, I used both limestone (entrance, powder room and sunken living room) and wood (kitchen, dining, front room and halls) in order to break the monotony and cold look that can easily occur in contemporary homes.

By: Jeremy Bell

Jeremy Bell — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:56:50 +0000

Hey Scott – regarding your flooring question… the answer is simple. Aesthetics. We wanted the same style and material throughout the entire first floor!