Hardwood Floors

Anyone installed wood floors yet? I just ripped out the carpet. Awaiting approval for the underlayment padding.

Hey Sid,
You wanted a different flooring too? I just gut out my carpet and the whole time I was doing it, I was wondering why Keola Lai didn't offer the choice of not installing carpet. It's such a waste of carpet I'm removing. Now, I'm looking for a place to recycle it.

Has anyone vacuumed their carpet yet? My goodness, what a nightmare. My boyfriend vacuumed four times and each time, my bagless vacuum was full of white powdery dust & these unidentifiable particles. The carpet felt so much softer afterward. Not sure if it was my imagination, but the condo actually smelled better too. The chemical like smell or "new smell" was less obvious. I'm glad the carpet was vacuumed even though it was being removed. I could only have imagined how dusty removing the carpet would have been otherwise.

Hardwood floor is what I want. I'm deciding between laminate versus engineer wood. There's so many choices out there and such a range of prices. I'm pretty excited and looking forward to finally putting them in. It's so much cleaner to maintain & I really love the look of wood overall.

I've heard from neighbors that had done it, their condos look so much larger and spacious. Can't wait!

I am also interested in wood floors. With everything going on with the darned punch list, new floors might be a good upgrade to my unit. What kind of approval to I need? Thanks.

The underlayment (padding) beneath the floors has to meet building requirements of IIC 50 or above. Just submit a sample of the underlayment with the manufacturer's specs to the manager's office. I know they were backlogged earlier (or someone was away on vacation?), so some residents got approval quickly while others had to wait. I know several residents who just went ahead and changed the floors without waiting for approval. Risky if your neighbor below starts complaining.

A rep from American Carpet One recommended Silent Blue (IIC 72) and reportedly this is the only underlayment allowed by Moana Pacific. Here is the link:

http://www.silentbluepad.com/

Click on the 'Specifications' link to get the specs.

I'm doing research on the padding too & found there for $0.69 a square foot at American Carpet One. They sell them in a roll of a 100 square feet. Also checked the flooring place across from Costco Gas in Iwilei? They have it there & will be happy to give you a sample with spec sheet so you can give it to the management office for approval.

I am still waiting on my approval, btw.

The place across from Costco is 'Builders Home Supply'. Surprisingly, when I visited Maru Flooring to look at their BR-111 line of engineeered hardwood, the sales agent also mentioned "the place across from Costco". So I checked them out and... quite impressed with their Wisteria Lane collection of engineered hardwood. They have all kinds of Hawaiian exotics in case you want something other than traditional maple, oak, cherry, etc. The planks I looked at were 3 1/2" in various lengths. You'll probably have to get the Silent Blue padding from American Carpet One since they carry another brand of underlayment (which is a little thinner).

Oops! Correction on my earlier post about 'Silent Blue' being the only underlayment being used at Moana Pacific. Maybe that was true when the building first opened, but I believe other brands are now allowed as long as they meet the IIC Rating.

Thanks for the tip, Element. Just got my underlayment at American Carpet One. The sales staff is really cool, I'll suggest calling them to make sure they have it in stock before making the drive. I was told by my friend to check out the underlayment at Home Depot. It's a 3-in-1...but I didn't like it. It doesn't say anything about the sound barrier, and it's basically a red plastic film with white sterofoam balls glued on. I called up Maru Flooring - they're the designated distributor for Moana Pacific. But their underlayment is only 1mm thick. For me, that seems too thin.

Luckily, American Carpet One has it & I'm so happy with it. It's definitely thicker at 3mm, plus that's the Silent Blue I got A & B approved.

Quick suggestion, bring a truck...I picked up 12 rolls and boy did it take up all my SUV cargo space! Luckily, they're super light so hauling it up to the condo was not a problem. Can't say the same about the wood flooring...geez...those were a back breaker!

Someone told me I should use special taping to hold the seams of the underlayment together. Any ideas, folks?

A floor installer told me even though a moisture barrier is needed only for below grade applications, the A/C in each unit actually causes moisture to pass through porous concrete and possibly condense on the floor of the unit directly above. So a moisture barrier is always a good idea. Many underlayments actually have a mositure barrier built in to reduce install time. As for the tape, I've seen some installers just use masking tape. But I'm not too sure how well this stands up against moisture and mildew, so probably best to go with the seam tape recommended by the underlayment or type of floor.

In fact, wood floor includes hardwood flooring, engineered flooring, bamboo flooring and laminate flooring. Hardwood flooring, engineered flooring and bamboo flooring don't need pad or underlay in some way.