Finished Floors!

By Kate Riley August 18, 2014

This afternoon I’m finally back at my desk in California, it feels great to be home and catch up with friends and family. I took a ton of pictures over the weekend before we left Vegas so I wanted to kick off this week’s progress report on the renovation with the beautiful floors that are finally finished at the Nevada house. It took a few days longer than expected but our installer and his assistant did an amazing job and purposefully took their time with each and every plank, we are so so thrilled with these new floors.

You never quite know how it will all look when complete when you make a choice to cover a single floor in a home with one material, but we’re really pleased with this Daltile™ Forest Park Sugar Maple porcelain tile, we love the look of this product and colorway against the smooth white painted walls.

daltile living room floors

The downstairs in this home has an open floor plan so using the same porcelain plank wood tiles throughout gives the house great flow and ties all the rooms together. (At the time these photo were taken were still working on swapping out the old yellowed electrical outlets, hence the weirdness with the switches.) But anyway, back to the floors, like I mentioned in the demo and installation post, they are 9 x 36" planks installed in a random pattern to replicate the look of real wood.

The house is situated on a small court and all the neighbors have wandered over to introduce themselves and take a peek at the transformation and all said "Wow, wood" at first glance and we replied "No, it’s tile!" and then everyone bends down to touch and feel because it’s hard to believe when you first look at it in a space.

datile floors entry hall copy

Get up close to it and yes you can tell that there is grout in between the 1/8" seams but from a few feet away it is a beautiful wood lookalike. Very cool to the touch too which is important in the desert! The new higher baseboards also modernize this 1989 home and make it feel more contemporary. 

We love that the same flooring wanders into the bathroom below (and kitchen and also the family room which leads to the pool) so there are no water damage issues to worry about.

daltile in hall bathroom

Of course with tile it’s a harder surface so you have to be careful about dropping anything extremely heavy. As we neared the end of the install we decided to purchase a few extra boxes from a local dealer for peace of mind, also for when we remodel the kitchen in a few months and need to patch the flooring there. The floors clean up fast with a wet mop although I could use some suggestions on a modern product for easily cleaning tile, what would you suggest?

Here’s a peek at a few more flooring before and afters!

Downstairs Guest Room:

guest room before demo

 

guest room after

 

Breakfast Nook:

breakfast nook before

 

breakfast nook new tile

 

Sunroom/Office:

dining room sunroom before

 

dining room sunroom floors

 

Family Room:

family room before demo

 

family room daltile floors

 

Living Room:

living room before demo

 

daltile living room floors

 

Sending a big big thank you to Daltile™ who approached us many months ago to partner on this home improvement project. Their team was a delight to work with and we couldn’t be happier with the product. The Forest Park series is available in six different colors (we chose Sugar Maple), but you can also find eight more styles of wood plank flooring by Daltile™ on their website.

clip_image018

Soon I’ll share the remaining upgrades we made around the house and some thoughts on future improvements for when we return next month.

*Disclosure: Forest Park Sugar Maple tile product for this project provided by Daltile™. (We paid for the demolition and installation.) All opinions are my own!

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64 comments

  1. Oh my gosh that tile is gorgeous! I am getting more and more sold on the tile that looks like wood. My parents did the tile that looks like marble and it’s great.
    And I love how open all the rooms look now- great job!

  2. Great transformation! To keep tile clean in between wet mopping, try the Bona dry duster (the big fluffy white thing). To wet mop, I love the “Twist and Shout.” The microfibers easily get into any groutlines, and twister part dries the mop easily and quickly. We use ours to clean and then go over the tile again with fresh water only. The drying (spinning) function leaves the mop very dry (you can adjust this by spinning more or less) and, as a result, the floor dries very quickly. I bought mine from Amazon:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009RXQSHA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    I also got a few extra mop heads and the extension handle.

  3. It looks beautiful! What a transformation Kate! Such a fun project for you and you all are moving along quickly. Fun to follow along on your progress. Welcome back home!

  4. Just beautiful!! The living room doesn’t even look like the same room. And the baseboards make such a difference, too. I can’t wait to see what is to come.

  5. Kate , what a transformation !!! I have a question though , I know they do textured walls in az and Nevada.. The walls in the after pictures look so smooth did you skim coat them ? Any tutorials would be great !!!

  6. You have done a amazing job transforming this house! The tile is stunning and I’m not a tile lover, at all!

    Now, if you are looking for a quick, easy and fantastic way to keep all that new tile sparkling clean (or any hard floor surfaces for that matter), check out this steam mop. It gets remarkably high consumer ratings compared to most other steam mops on the market. It has changed my life. Mopping *used* to be my most dreaded chore–the absolute worst of the worst–and I would procrastinate until I just couldn’t put it off any longer. But now when it’s time to mop, I practically sing and dance the whole time I’m using it! Seriously, it’s that AWESOME!

    http://www.amazon.com/BISSELL-Powerfresh-Steam-White-1940/dp/B0091YYUAM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393908490&sr=8-2&keywords=bissell+powerfresh

  7. The floors are gorgeous! Re cleaning tile (which is about 80 percent in my house), I use a good microfiber mop (not Swiffer) with 3 parts water/1 part rubbing alcohol in a squirt bottle, which I hang on my pink tool belt I wear when cleaning so all supplies are handy as I move from from room to room. It does a great job, and doesn’t cost very much.

  8. The house is looking amazing! So open and beautiful with the unified flooring. My mom has faux wood tiles and said that everything streaked until she tried the twist and shout mentioned by Hilu. I haven’t tried it yet, but love my steam mop – I use vinegar and water only in mine and find it cleans my 18 x 18 tiles beautifully.
    http://www.amazon.com/Hoover-TwinTank-Steam-Mop-WH20200/dp/B004Q7CK56/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408415558&sr=8-1&keywords=hoover+steam+mop

  9. First of all, I love it.

    Second, how did you see past that horrible 80s decor???? :) Looking good so far!

  10. Love those floors. I currently live in Vegas and have a lot of tile in my house (and dust- it’s the desert). I have a Hoover floormate and love it. It has a reservoir for clean water and a separate reservoir for dirty water and the cleaning solution smells great. I was wondering if you plan on moving here, use it as a vacation home or flip it? Can’t wait to see more fabulous pictures.

    • Hi Erin, the house was purchased as a family retreat/second home and we hope to invest in a few other properties out there over the years. We really enjoy the area so it’s nice to have a home base and not stay in a hotel or impose on other family members. We have a lot of family close by, another reason we wanted to establish a footprint there. We have budgeted to hold on to this house for at least one year.

  11. Another vote for the Bissel Steam Mop from Amazon! I bought mine last year and use it weekly – SUCH a life (and back) saver. Bonus is the house smells delicious after every use. :)

  12. Your tile is lovely! Love the unification of all the floors.
    The best cleaner….Bona for tile!
    I have tile in the bathrooms…I use Bona for tile there and Bona on our wood floors. Nothing better and nothing easier!
    Nancy

  13. What a truly fantastic change – you have dragged that 80’s space kicking and screaming well into the 21st century. It’s clean and such an inviting canvas for today’s lifestyle. Congrats!

  14. Hi Kate! Everything is looking beautiful!
    So when are you going back to Vegas?
    I love the floors, they are beautiful. 3 years ago we bought our house and replaced all the flooring with dark wood veneer. They look beautiful but they are so high maintance! You can see every single foot print. They never last clean. These look like they’ll be easier to maintain. Do You have an idea of how much these costs per sq ft?
    Thank you!

  15. We’re using something similar in our master bathroom and I absolutely love it. Your rooms turned out beautifully!

  16. Looks SO beautiful! Are you at all nervous a tile or more will break? Isn’t a whole floor of porcelain tile cold under the feet? Is this option more cost effective than wood?

    • Hello Maryh, the choice is not more cost effective than wood at a $5.50 per square foot price point since you can find wood and even vinyl plank for less, however this is a really beautiful product and we wanted something high quality that would be beautiful for 20 years which is why we worked with Daltile. We’re not so nervous about it breaking, it’s installed on a slab foundation but they could crack if something extremely heavy was dropped on them I imagine. The tile that was in the house previously for 25 years was not chipped so we’re hopeful we won’t have issues but bought extra pieces in an abundance of caution. It’s cool under your feet in summer, and will be colder in winter but we will scatter area rugs around to help with that.

  17. The floors look fantastic! I like ti us a steam mop (Shark) on my tile floors. No mop or buckets and they truly feel clean.

  18. You NEED a Roomba! They don’t mop, of course, but iRobot does make a Scuba! My Roomba, named Fluffy by my daughter, is my best friend. I have hardwoods throughout, and he keeps them looking great. I mop occasionally with a Rubbermaid spray mop, but he does the bulk of the work for me. Costco has the best price, by the way. They make them with more bells and whistles, but they’re not necessary.

    I’m a huge wood fan, but that tile–wow! It’s perfect in the desert, and especially with drippy feet from the pool.

  19. Amazing job! We are finishing our basement next year and I’ve had my eye on those faux wood tiles for a while.

    You have fantastic light with all those windows, but I noticed you removed some of the light fixtures with their electrical boxes in the ceiling (breakfast nook and sunroom/office?). Are you planning on adding new ceiling light fixtures or leaving it?

    • Kathy we’re replacing the light fixtures – several hadn’t arrived yet. We’re keeping fans in the bedrooms but not in the dining area – the AC works well and they are 8 ft ceilings in the family room and breakfast nook so no fans there.

  20. You are going to love those! Great look, practical and “centsational”. There is a product called neutralizing cleaner that is the best product. Your tile store will have it. It is the safest product for all porcelain and stone.

  21. I think the choice of grout color can make or break the wood look. Can you please tell me what color you chose for the grout? If you don’t know the name and brand, could you please tell us: Did you pick a mid-tone in the tile, or the darkest color in the tile, the lightest color in the tile? Thanks!
    It looks wonderful!

  22. Kate, stunning transformation. Very illustrative for me. I live in Arizona in a 1985-built house (yours actually looks like the 1994-built house my late husband and I had before with all the big windows and tall ceilings and white carpet/white tile). Mine here in Sun City West has the big dark-framed windows an arch and a vaulted ceiling in the LR/DR area with only 8′ ceilings in the bedroom and an overhang all the way around the house. Looks sorta Spanish bungalow and I love it. All that’s only to say I’m planning to ditch the carpet/tile/carpet/tile in the very open floorplan that makes it look like a #10 envelope with too much postage and cute sticky stamps. Most people in the area, if they update, don’t do anything inspirational or sophisticated and, and even on HOUZZ which might show 647,892+ rooms with tile floors, they all look bigger than my entire house and very modern or very cold or very museum-like. It’s so great to see tile done well in a home in my part of the country where it’s the most appropriate choice, and the wood-look is extra icing on the cake. Couple of questions: Did Daltile discuss lippage with you. I know it’s an issue with the 12×24 tiles that I’ve been looking at and my flooring man mentioned that was a problem with the 9×36 planks as well. Apparently it’s the nature of the tile to have uneven edges as it becomes larger and one has to really work at it to ensure you don’t end up with lifted edges. Secondly, did you seal the grout?

    Again, the pix are so inspirational – not only to see wood-look tile done well but also to study the directional changes throughout the house which would apply to the 12×24 porcelain tile I’m considering. Looking very forward to seeing the end project.

    • Hi Sandy, yes we did discuss the proper installation with both Daltile and the installers. After reading much online I was convinced 1/16″ was the way to go, I wanted to see little to no grout. However with these long porcelain planks, getting them to align perfectly requires a minimum of 1/8″ (recommended by both manufacturer and installer) and I was frustrated with that at first but now understand why. The longer the plank/larger the tile the trickier it is to get the edges to be perfectly level against their neighbors especially in a random wood plank look installation. Our installer was paid by the job not the hour but insisted it had to be done right so it took him six full days. We were really happy that he took such pride in workmanship instead of rushing the job.

  23. Isn’t it odd that in decades past, a hodgepodge of flooring would be placed in one home on the same level? This looks AbFab! It’s perfect for a home in the desert..Adding what appears to be the warmth of wood with the much needed coolness of tile! Will keep this product in mind to share with friends!

  24. Can I ask what you did with the stairs? My husband and I live in a 3 story townhome and would like to replace the floors throughout. We love the look of the porcelain tile, but worry how we’ll handle the stairs. Will they be slippery if they get wet? Can you install a runner on tile? Any insight you can provide is so helpful!

    Thanks!

    • Hi Jennifer, we carpeted the stairs temporarily, I’ll write about that in a subsequent post. We have plans to replace the carpet with wood treads stained to complement the tile floors. Yes you can tile them but as I was discussing with my neighbor, they are slippery and can be more dangerous as a result, especially with pets and kids.

  25. The floors are the perfect floors for the house in Vegas! Well done! I would strongly recommmend using a steam mop. I add a little vinegar to the water. This is the one I have and it’s awesome. Some leave too much water, some don’t get hot enough and others don’t have big enough water reservoirs. The Oreck has none of these issues. It also has attachments to steam other items than floors.
    http://www.amazon.com/Oreck-Steam100LRH-Steam-It/dp/B006U4A7SU/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1408465642&sr=8-9&keywords=steam+mop

  26. I LOVE THIS! Such a great look and feel for a hot weather home. I already told my husband our next home will have this tile throughout the main living area….so beautiful and sturdy. We have three dogs and multiple teens flocking through the house and would love this installation. Thanks for the post.

  27. The floors look gorgeous!
    I am looking to unite my open plan ground floor with one material like you did here. I am having the hardest time deciding on the color. Your flooring looks very light in very bright light…from the reflection? And pretty dark in the corners/shadows. The sheen really makes a big difference in how the color reads.
    Would you consider this tile color this a mid tone? Thanks!

    • Hello Cathryn, color is the hardest choice of all! We almost went with the darker Timberland but decided it was too dark, although I think it would be lovely for those who prefer deeper toned floors. This color is definitely mid tone brown, and sometimes photographs almost honey but it’s NOT. More milk chocolate in its underlying color, I didn’t want any reddish or yellow tones. A very nice mid tone brown with subtle color differences in the “grain” of the wood look. Like with any floors it appears darker in windowless rooms and lighter in bright rooms.

  28. I love the tile “wood” look when you have pets or kids. It would be great if flooring manufacturers developed wood and tile to match in width and color! That way you can use wood if you prefer and tile in wet areas. Oh well…

    I use Bona for tile on my after I steam mop the goobers. I love it! I also use the hardwood floor cleaner and polish on my wood floors. It is really a nice product that keeps the floor looking like it was just installed. I have pets and a child that can all make a mess just standing still.

  29. Wow, what a difference! Looks fabolous! What paint color did you use on the walls and trim?

  30. Oh, I cannot wait to see what you decide to do with that architectural window! We have five of them in different shapes throughout our house and I cannot figure out what to do with them! Two are in our bedroom and it gets very bright in there very quickly.

  31. We have the darker version of your floors. We’ve had them for about 2 years and I am still in love with them!! They are so easy to clean! We also have a pool, and when the kids come in and out, I never even blink an eye…unlike our friends who are always yelling at the kids when they come in from the pool because of the damage water causes hardwoods. It is the best upgrade we have ever done to our house. We installed 1600 square feet of it…our entire downstairs area and I couldn’t be happier!

  32. I love my Sargeant Steam. No chemicals I’m catching up on my blog reading after being away most of the week to The Shakespeare Festival in a Cedar City, Utah. If you ever get the chance, check it out. You won’t be disappointed. This year we saw, Measure for Measure, Sense and Sensibility, Twelfth Night, Henry IV Part One ( part Two will be next year), Into the Woods, and The Comedy of Errors (set in a western theme). Free seminars on explanation of the plays before you see them, props, discussions the following morning about the play, etc. Lunch with 3 of the actors for questions and dicussion. All in all a wonderful week.
    I am loving all that you’ve done so far.

  33. I LOVE this flooring! I’ve been struggling to figure out what to do in my kitchen. I love the look of hardwood, and indeed, under my linoleum there is hardwood. I have been thinking about having the linoleum ripped up then having the hardwood sanded and refinished but that is a messy job. I didn’t want ceramic tiles. This seems to be a happy medium!

  34. I know this is an old thread but I am just getting ready to install my entire bottom level with the MapleSugar and am wondering what color grout you used. I see someone in the above comments asked but was never addressed. I want that seamless look of wood you achieved. It’s absolutely beautiful and am hoping for the same outcome.

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