More floorboard shopping

28/07/2012

It was a long day but it proved to be very productive. First visit of the day was to Sydney Flooring in Chipping North. A long story short, their prices we got verbally quoted all seemed RRP and labour installation was ridiculous. We found a laminate we liked which costed approx $45 sqm supplied and another $45 sqm for installation, so in total $90 installed. Ignoring the supply cost I think labour isn't in touch with the market rates, or either they just weren't interested in our business. We left there very disappointed. 

Our next visit was supposed to be Timberland Flooring in Alexandria but we decided to drop into Floorworld in Casula since it was only 10 mins away. We've been there before so this would be our second visit. We found the exact same laminate Quick Step Classic QSM035 Brown oiled oak that we saw at Sydney Flooring with one major different, is was quoted $50 sqm supply and installed! A strong candidate for the first floor. The Spoilt for Choice Promotional includes carpeting upstairs but we prefer not to have carpet due to dust and allergies, so it'll be our own expense unfortunately.

Sample image of QSM035 from the quick step website during the day

Same floorboards at night

QSM035 taken with iphone so colours are a bit off

We found another set of floorboards we liked, Quick Step Wood Palazzo Mocca Oak Matt PAL1348, it was new in the shop so there was no pricing available. We'll need to wait for them to contact the supplier to check the costs. Salesperson was only guessing but it probably might sell for $90 sqm supplied, it's very unlikely given it's real wood and 190mm wide!

PAL 1348 floorboard sample placed against the Ice Snow ceaser stone and Architech Bone tile. Floorboard looks a tinge yellow due to the lighting in the room. The other half likes darkish floorboards so the plan is this will be used on the ground floor. The other photo on the right is the same floorboard taken with Monarch Tones Liberty Pure Wool carpet. We'll have to wait next week for the pricing for the PAL1348.

Our next stop was then to Timberland Flooring in Alexandria, we saw a brand call Armstrong in single strip Oak Coffee, initially we were told that it would $170 sqm installed, but we misheard due to his accent, it's actually $135 sqm. Still way too expensive, so we'll be busy the next few weekends until we can settle the on the colour and price for downstairs.

 Oak coffee on the right and a random sample on the left.

A very busy day selecting tiles, carpet and floorboards!

23/07/2012
9am Onsite frame inspection

We took the day off work to perform our own frame inspection with our SS at 9am in the morning. While we were there, three guys had already started work on the gyprock. Talks about quick, they had almost completed all the bedroom ceiling installation by the time we left. The SS mentioned that gyrocking should be finished by the end of this week. Anyway spent about 40mins on site, asked a few questions and then headed off to our next appointment.

11:30 am Di Lorenzo

Since we were early, we browsed around some of the furniture shops and then dropped into our tiling appointment with Di Lorenzo. We had left this appointment far too late (should have been done before the roof was complete, arrgh!) and we're paying for it. The tiles we wanted Architech Sand was not in stock and it would take 8-10 weeks for them to arrive, and M is expected to start tiling in about 3-4 weeks! We spent the next 3 hours looking at other options and finally managed to settle on Architech Bone and Fossil. We're getting quotes to perform tiling to 2.1m in all the bathrooms and we'll see how much they cost and if there is enough stock!

These are the colour samples from the Di Lorenzo website.

Architech Sand out of stock! <omg insert very unhappy face here>

Architech Bone limited stock in polished and honed

Architech Fossil limited stock in polished only!

Architech Sand is used in the Liberty 40 Oakpark display home in Carnes Hill. Below are some photos of the tiles

Liberty 40 Oakpark: 600mm x 600mm Architech Sand floor and wall tiles on the bathroom

 Liberty 40 Oakpark: Architech Sand floor and wall tiles in the Ensuite

Liberty 40 Oakpark: MSN061 Dark Latte Metallic tiles for the hob.

Given the very limited stock left, we decided that the powder room and laundry would be tiled with Architech Fossil polished walls and floors, and the bathroom and ensuite would be tiled with Architech Bone polished for walls and honed for the floors. Honed is preferred on the floor as it's not as slippery. Personally we find it very difficult to choose colours, so we rely heavily on showrooms to give us direction/inspiration. I really hope the colours work out.

As expected we have an eye for expensive tiles, these 600 x 600mm porcelain tiles are $120 sqm supplied only! Installation I'm sure is extra (guestimate $37 sqm) as they are large tiles and don't get me started on the cost of coloured grouting. Geez an extra $14 sqm for someone to mix colouring into the grout! Anyway we'll see how much extra this will cost. But wait there's more, we also opted for the Bermuda Square Floor Waste for all the wet areas, $38 each, we need 9 so it's another $342. I guess this will be a piddly amount compared to our tile choice.

2:45 pm Lunch

15 minute lunch break to eat Maccas. BTW the Sydney Stack burger is worth trying, personally I think it's much better than the Grand Angus burger.

3pm Carpet Call Appointment

We spent the next two hours looking at the carpet and flooring options. Floorboard choices was very limited and this caused us the most concerned. She wants dark floor boards downstairs and the only real option was Merbau Panga Pange which doesn't match the Architech Fossil tiles we're considering for the laundry and powder room, so this is causing us grief.

Merbau Panga Pange floorboard with pure wool carpet. The floorboard seems just to dark for my liking.

Placing the Architech Fossil and Bone sample next to the Merbau Panga Pange just doesn't sit well with me. It's still feels too dark.

As part of the Spoilt for Choice Promotional we get timber look floating floors on the ground floor and Carpet Call Selection (Promotina Range only) on the first floor. Basically all this package includes is what you would buy for an investment property, not actually something you would buy to live in. So you get the idea, the basic stuff is pretty crap. Would you believe that to upgrade the first floor from carpet to floor boards is going to cost more that upgrading downstairs? Anyway we called it a day and hopefully they can work something out with an official quote. Most likely we won't go with their floor boards, but we may use them to upgrade the carpet in the sitting, study and rumpus room

5pm Headed home
Totally exhausted, what a long day. We'll need to spend the next few weeks sorting our floor board options with other suppliers. Mental note, we must not leave these types of appointments to the last minute!