Our Blog

The Construction industry is plagued by low quality unreliable contractors. Once of the first things I learned as a general contractor was that the low-bid was not the low bid. This means that the low-bid contractor often has hidden costs such as not using quality materials or not using the proper technique that can result in high costs down the line.

Here are 10 things I have seen hardwood flooring contractors in Chicago do:

1. Not prepare the underlayment properly on floating floors. Construction in certain situations involves laying down plywood on top of a sound proof barrier. The plywood should be 4 by 8 boards that are 3/8th to 1/2 inch thick glued and screwed to create an overlapping pattern. This is labor intensive but it creates a large stable sheet into which hardwood can be nailed. The sheet acts as a system to dampen sound. Low cost contractors will substitute 3/4 inch plywood cut into 4 x 4 sheets. This is easier for them to transport and requires very little labor. The short coming is that the plywood pieces are not connected and therefore don't act as system to dampen sound and carry it laterally. The nail-in hardwood planks provide the connection between the boards and as the boards shift over time, the hardwood will be prone to opening between boards.

2. Not using a water proof barrier. There's always a reason a hardwood floor is replaced. One of them is water damage as result of moisture such as after flooding. If this is the case, then a waterproof barrier has to be installed beneath the hardwood to prevent water from coming up through a moist concrete floor. It can take months for concrete or a plywood subfloor to dry. A good installer will check the moisture content if there is any question. It helps to dehumidify prior to installation if that is required, then a plastic barrier that is either separated or integrated in the underlayment should be used.

3. Not using adequate sound insulation. Sound insulation is inexpensive compared to the cost of a hardwood floor and the difference between a quality sound insulation and low-cost variety is pennies. On the other hand, fixing a sound problem after the floor is laid is a huge undertaking. A good installer will always use a good sound proofing underlayment.

4. Not allowing the wood to acclimatize. The dimension of hardwood depends on it's water content and temperature. Hardwood should be placed within the room that it's going to be laid for several days before work begins. During this time the boards will expand or contract to a dimension that they will more likely retain over time in that room. By allowing this, the boards will likely have tighter joints. Low cost contractors often skip this important step.

5. Not putting on 3 coats of finish. For sanded and finished floors, 3 coats are essential. I've been told many times by sub-contractors that only 2 are needed but I've seen the difference and that third coat is essential for durability and appearance. A quality contractor will put on three coats.

6. Not accounting for expansion. Floating floors expand and contract seasonally. They need room to expand in all directions and there are limits to how large a floor can be in certain directions without putting an expansion joint. Understanding the specific qualities of floor products are crucial to avoiding buckling floors.

7. Damaging walls and not repairing them. If you live in a small condo building you might not notice damage downstairs and the contractors trolley slams into a wall. It's useful to discuss the path the contractor will take to bring his materials in and his waste out, then take photographs. A good contractor accounts for damage to premises in his contract. If he makes a mistake he should point it out to you, but if he doesn't (as his workers may not want to take the credit) when you point it out to him with photos, he should quickly volunteer to remedy the damage. Too often a complaint to a contractor sparks a battle. Many contractors will just say it wasn't them and it will be on the client to do the fix on their own.

8. Fly dumping. Contractors create too much waste to put in your own garbage cans. Unethical contractors will drive up and down alleys off-loading carpet and scrap wood into other people's garbage containers often overflowing them. A good contractor pays for his waste to be disposed of.

9. Not handling questions or correcting a punch list. I've heard contractors say they've never finished a punch list. I'm not sure how they're doing in this economy. A contractor should be available to take your calls and return them in a timely fashion. The better the contractor the more accessible he will be because he wants to make you happy and get your recommendation. Nothing is more destructive to a client-contractor relationship than not being responsive.

10. Adding charges. Some contractors think half-way through your job is a great time to discuss additional charges. After all, what can you do? A contractor with a reputation will rarely do this. He'll do everything possible to anticipate problems and prepare you for them in advance. If he has something unforeseen come up that is too large to be covered by a contingency line item, he'll explain it carefully and give you alternatives. A good contractor has a reputation to defend where a low-cost contractor depends on his low-cost bid to get him the next job.

The best solution is to research your contractor well. If he's well liked on services like Yelp and Angie's list, he's probably taken great care to keep his clients happy. Don't expect him to be the cheapest bid out there, but in the long run, he may well present the best value.

Mitchell Newman is the principal of Stratagem Construction and fully integrated construction and design service in Chicago. 100% customer satisfaction is his goal.

 

1. National registry – Starting May 20th 2011 all loan originators, regardless if they work for a federally chartered bank, community bank or with a mortgage broker have to be registered with the Federal Mortgage Loan Originator Registry. When you shop for a mortgage make sure the loan officer you talk to can present you with that registry ID.

2. Compensation – Starting April 1st 2011 all loan originators can no longer get compensated based on the interest rate they give you, i.e. they can’t buy up the rate to make more money on your deal. Please make sure you shop with at least three lenders to make sure you get a correct interest rate quote reflecting MARKET RATES for that specific day.

Orin Orkin is a regular contributor.  He works for Wells Fargo bank.  For more information contact Orin at orin.orkin@wellsfargo.com

One of our hottest new products is an Italian laminate flooring from Balterio.   The materials is extremely durable, easy to install, and great looking.   The wide boards provide a unique, clean look and the selection of grains and finishes are unique.  The surface has a flat finish and impressed grain which makes the product feel and look far more real than most laminates.

                These are two of our most popular selections for customers.

For more on all floor installations in chicago of hardwoods or laminate floors, please contact us.

Mitchell Newman is principal of Stratagem Construction, a fully integrated construction and design company.  

 

 

Definitions

A floating floor is essentially a number of hardwood boards bound together to form one continuous sheet. The sheet floats meaning it is not nailed down into the subfloor. Often a barrier separates it from the subfloor below. The barrier may be waterproof or have sound proofing qualities. There are three common methods of binding the boards together. They may be glued, clip-locked (the pieces are design to lock together without glue) or nailed into plywood boards. In the former two types, the boards have to be designed specifically to float. They are always prefinished and usually engineered with each engineered piece being 5 to 6 inches wide.

 

Click-lock laminate flooring.   These products are very quick to install.   The substrate is MDF.

There are exceptions however, one being with strand woven bamboo. The later type can use any type of hardwood floor pre-finished or not. The continuous sheet is formed by overlapping sheets of plywood that are glued and screwed together (when done right). The hardwood is shot into this continuous sheet to bind them. This method creates a floor that has excellent stability. The mass of the floor helps with sound insulation.

A nailed-in floor simply refers to hardwood which may or may not be prefinished that is nailed in to the subfloor. The hardwood pieces are tongue and groove and the nail is shot through the tongue.

Durability

Durability depends on a number of factors: the wood species, the finish, and the construction. Woods differ in hardness and resistance to denting. A high Jenka rating indicates strength. The wood will dent less in respond to something falling on it or a high heal shoe.
Janka Hardness Rating
(Highest to Lowest)

2350 - Brazilian Cherry
2200 - Santos Mahogany
1820 - Hickory
1450 - Hard Maple
1360 - White Oak
1320 - Ash
1300 - American Beech
1290 - Red Oak(Northern)
1260 - Yellow Birch
1010 - Black Walnut
950 - Black Cherry
870 - Southern Yellow Pine (long leaf)
690 - Southern Yellow Pine (short leaf)
380 - White Pine

Finishes can also differ in their ability to impede a scratch. Factory finishes tend to be harder than those put on in the field because they’re baked in and have up to 7 coats. Field finishes rarely are more than 3 coats.

The construction of the wood when it’s manufactured also makes a difference. Many floating floors have a thin layer of veneer backed by a substrate.

These engineered wood floors have variable-thickness veneers and a plywood substrates.   2 mil veneers may not survive more than one sanding (if that) where 4 mil veneers may survive up to 3 sandings.  These all have factory finishes with Alluminum Oxide which creates a very durable finish.

Substrates like MDF are less prone to dent then substrates such as pine. Strand-woven bamboo flooring takes bamboo strands and mixes them together in a stable substrate often baking them in the process. The result is a very dense floor with little of the softness of native bamboo.

     Strand woven corbonzied bamboo is very hard and full thickness.  It can be sanded multiple times.

Refinishing

Eventually, you may want to refinish your floor. In general, floors made of solid wood will refinish multiple times. We have refinished floors form the early 1900’s and they can look great. Engineered floors – mostly floating – will not hold together that long. Mostly they can be sanded and refinished up to 3 times, though I’m not certain many will make it more than once or twice. The thicker the veneer the more times the floor can be sanded. They however cost more.

Repairing

If you have a small scratch in your floor it’s best to consider it the “Patina of Use” than worrying about it. Most owners find scratches much more acceptable after the offending mover or contractor has paid some compensation to repair them. If a board has to be removed for some reason, a nail down floor is much easier to work with. It’s extremely difficult to remove a board out to the center of a floating floor where the boards are glued or click-locked together. But I imagine a method will soon be invented.

Cost

The costs are remarkably similar for a prefinished floating floor and a nail down floor for common varieties. However, for exotic woods, prefinished floating floors are often less expensive since they are applied veneers and use less of the exotic wood. Most floors will last 5 to 15 years which longer than most people stay in their homes. The cost then for redoing a floor is usually bourn by a future owner. If however you are planning to hand down your house to your children, it’s best to consider full-thickness boards. The cost of floating a floor on plywood usually adds 2 to 4 dollars a square foot.

Sound

Floating floors are much better than nail down floors for percussive sound. Many high rise buildings require them for good reason. In my experience, the best sound separation is achieved by nailing onto plywood which floats over a quarter inch of cork. I have such an installation in my own house and have never heard a complaint from my neighbors nor have I ever heard them other than when I slept on the floor because of my hurting back. Then I did hear them through the bedroom floor but only briefly.

Installation

Prefinished floors floating floors with clip-locks are significantly easier to install than nail dwon floors. They can be done with a saw and few other tools. Glue together floating floors are slightly more time consuming. All prefinished floors are easier to install than floors that require onsite finishing. Sanding a floor results in dust that takes weeks to fully settle. The coating and stains on a floor often require the owner to move in with relatives for multiple nights. It’s also easier to move furniture onto prefinished floors. While flooring installers are geniuses at moving furniture around and can pack whole houses into linen closets, it’s much easier to move furniture across the room than across the house to an area that won’t be worked on. Sometimes there just isn’t anywhere to put furniture making it necessary to move the furniture out or do the residence in sections.

Appearance

Hardwood looks great anyway you lay it. Some connoisseurs insist that nail down site-finished flooring has tighter joints but this is not necessarily true. Nailed-down site-finished flooring can dry over time and open between joints. Prefinished engineered flooring may or may not open over time. Much depends on how well the joints were put together and how constant the temperature and humidity is kept. Wood expands and contracts seasonally because of these variations which may expose joints. (It’s also important that the floating floor not extend all the way to the wall but rather have its edge come up short by 3/8th to ½ inch to allow the floor to expand. The edge is covered by quarter round so the gap is not seen. If this critical space is over-looked the flooring can buckle on a yearly basis.)
For more on hardwood floors or for installations in the Chicago area, please send us your questions or call.

Mitchell Newman, the author, is the principal of Stratagem Construction.

While a lot of pundits think that mortgage rates are determined by the 10 year note, they’re not. Mortgage rates are determined by Mortgage Backed Securities, which these days are sold mainly by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These are bonds sold at different yields and act just like any other bonds, while prices go up rates go down and vice versa.

So what does affect the prices of mortgage bonds causing rates to rise or fall?

1. Inflation – Inflation is bad for mortgage rates. Rising inflation erodes the return bond investors like to get for their long-term holding, hence require higher rates.

2. Federal Reserve – The Fed does not determine mortgage rates. The only tool the Fed has is short-term/overnight rates. Since the Fed’s mandate is to fight inflation they will usually raise short-term rates. Market perception, and so does investors’, will translate that as higher inflation hence causing rates to go up.

3. Lock vs. Float - Interest can not be locked until there’s a property address attached to the loan. Until the rate is locked it fluctuates with the market and can change on a daily basis, sometimes more than once a day. When locking rate please make sure you know the length of time the rate is locked for (30, 45, 60 day) as once rate lock expires you can lose that rate and/or pay additional monies to extend it.

Orin Orkin is works for Wells Fargo and is a regular contributor on home mortgages.  For more information contact him at Oren.Orkin@wellsfargo.com

1. What is 203K – It is a renovation loan programs sponsored by HUD and insured by FHA. While all lenders require property to be in move in condition; working bathrooms, no mold, all piping present most sellers won’t allow the buyer to fix these deficiencies before closing. 203K renovation loan allows a buyer to close on a purchase of a new home in need of repairs BEFORE having the repairs done to the home.
2. Streamline 203K – When the cost of renovation is less than $35,000 the buyer can apply for streamline 203K loan. The main feature of this loan is that a HUD consultant will not be required to review the plans and specs proposed by the contractor. That saves time and money!
3. Contractor validation is required – unless the buyer works with a nationally recognized home improvement source (Home Depot, Lowe’s) a contractor validation is required. The validation process checks the contractor references, credit history, business credit, etc. Once the contractor is validated, he’s approved with us for a full year.
4. Documents needed for 203K – Other than the usual credit documents (credit report, paychecks, W-2, bank statements, etc.) a work write-up will be needed too. That should include: narrative scope of work to be done, architectural plans, permits, specifications, draw requests, contingency reserves, and number of inspections needed.
5. Duration of renovation – Once the buyers closes on the home they have 30 days to start work and must finish it within 6 months.

Oren Orkin is a mortgage broker for Wells Fargo and a regular contributor.   For more information on 203K's or other mortgage needs, he can be reached at Oren.Orkin@wellsfargo.com

One of the great challenges of adding to someone else’s wood work is matching their stain. Often the previous woodwork has aged and changed color. In addition it might have been stained, dyed, or glazed.
So how do you figure this out?

First, here are some basics:

1. A stain changes the color of a wood by darkening it and adding color to it. Usually, the color has features of another natural wood. A dye tints wood — it might yellow it or redden it — but it only adds a shade. This is useful in trying to adjust a stain color. A glaze goes on after the finish. This can give it other qualities since it doesn't cover with the same uniformity of a stain. It can fill wells and corners more.

2. Wood changes color over time. Not all woods change colors the same amount. Cherry changes huge amounts as do walnuts — the more direct sunlight the faster. The impact of this is that your cherry from last year won't match a piece that was kept in a closet or a new door made by the exact same manufacturer. Over time however, the newer piece will approach and perhaps completely catch up with the older piece.

3. Woods of the same variety can have vastly different looks. This is because no two trees are the same yet alone trees grown in different climates or different conditions like a sloping hill vs. moist flat land. The wood within the same tree has different colors. The core of the tree is darker than the outer rings. This is why there are many varieties of veneers which account for these different locations wood is taken from within the tree. For high-end projects, veneers have to be ordered to line up in the same way they were in the original.

4. The type of wood finish effects how a wood will color over time. This is important because if a new piece of wood work is added to existing woodwork and the finish is different it may begin to look different over time rather than more similar.

To determine whether stain or dye has been used, take apart a piece of the wood work and look at it from an edge where a finish surface meets an unfinished surface. Here you'll be able to see evidence of staining and dying because the finish, stain and dye run all over the edge but they run over differently. In other words, if there was staining you'll see stain without finish on it and you'll see finish without stain underneath it.
It also helps to look at wood that has been kept in the dark. If there's no evidence of staining yet this wood looks decidedly different than the finished wood, you can count on the fact that sunlight has made the difference. More clues can be gathered by looking at how the finish was applied. Brush application is typical of painters and painters typically finish with varnish vs. polyurethane or other higher quality finishes.

Once the examination is done, it's best to create samples for the customer. Sometimes the aging can be matched very closely through a combination of dyes and stains. This then can be protected by a UV blocking finish. Still, there are no guarantees that the UV protection in the finish will last forever or that the other wood won't continue to age differently than your well matched new section.

The only saving grace is that wood has a great amount of variability and over time it makes the problem disappear even if you can see it when you look for it.

Last January, our condominium project Lake Park Gateway II got written up in the Chicago Tribune. They were impressed by the "display niches in the living room, bathrooms and spa showers, built-in book cases adjoining the fireplace, pocket closet doors, and a tray ceiling in the master bedroom."