LESLIE: David in Arizona is on the line looking to lay some flooring. How can we help with your project?
DAVID: Oh, hi. I recently moved from New York to Arizona and we purchased a home. And there’s such a difference between New York and Arizona.
TOM: Yeah, you can say that.
LESLIE: That is true.
DAVID: We’re looking to do some floors in the bedrooms with a wood look – hardwood or bamboo or whatever but there’s very few people out here that have the same answer to the question. So, we were wondering what would be the best application for the floors here. They’re all cement underneath
TOM: You know, if it’s a first floor, you can put solid, prefinished hardwood on top of that. That’s OK to do.
DAVID: Mm-hmm.
TOM: The other thing you could do is you could use engineered hardwood. So if you want a hardwood look, those are two ways that you could achieve it even if you have a slab-on-grade floor right now.
DAVID: And they would be a glue-down or a nail-down or underlayment?
TOM: No. Actually, it depends. They have locking boards, so they can be a floating floor. Especially the engineered, I know, comes as a floating floor.
DAVID: OK.
TOM: And I believe the solid does, as well. So, it all kind of snaps together and you lay it on top of the floor. It just sort of sits there and hangs there. And then you leave maybe a ¼-inch or so, where it runs up against the baseboard, and then you trim that with some shoe molding and that’s pretty much it; you’re good to go. You can use conventional saddles and transition pieces at the doorways.
DAVID: Now, the ¼-inch is for expansion or movement, a little bit like (inaudible at 0:09:40)?
TOM: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you don’t want to put it too tight against the exterior wall, so you leave a little space there. And you could do the same thing with a laminate floor or one of these new EVP floors, too – the engineered vinyl plank – which is pretty brilliant stuff. Just gorgeous-looking product.
LESLIE: Yeah, it looks great, too.
TOM: Yeah.
DAVID: Now, is there any problems with water on these kind of floors? We’d have to worry about moisture, either from below or above?
TOM: Not when it’s a first floor like that and especially in Arizona.
DAVID: OK. Yeah.
TOM: If you were back in New York, you couldn’t put that – you couldn’t put solid materials in a basement. But if you’re out West like that, I don’t see any issue with that, no.
DAVID: Right. OK. It’s been a change. It really has. It’s beautiful out here but what a change.
TOM: I bet.
DAVID: All the things I’ve learned in New York no longer apply for some of this stuff.
LESLIE: It’s so different. And you’ve got to look everywhere for scorpions. That’s one of the things, every time I’m there for business. Freaks me out.
DAVID: I found a little watering hole that’s got a cougar that – or a mountain lion that visits often. I’m looking forward to running into him.
TOM: Well, there you go.
LESLIE: Well, you’re certainly not finding that in New York.
TOM: OK? Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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