Lauren Salles Gumpert
When we purchased our home, we thought it only needed cosmetic updates — maybe a fresh coat of paint and updated appliances.
So, we felt pretty good about tackling our first project as homeowners: replacing the floors in our main downstairs living space.
We consulted specialists at a home-improvement chain, got measurements and estimates, and chose our luxury vinyl-plank flooring.
Between supplies and labor, we were quoted just under $6,000 to replace all the flooring on our first floor, which included our living room, dining area, kitchen, coat closet, and half bath.
However, once demolition began, we realized this project was going to cost more time and money than we expected.
First, subcontractors removed the carpet in our living room and the old hardwoods in our kitchen. The carpet pulled up pretty easily, revealing wet subflooring near both sets of French doors that opened to our backyard.
They said we'd need to rent a dehumidifier to remove the moisture from these floors before the new ones could be installed.
My husband rushed out to find one, which we left on for a few days while we (along with our dog) tiptoed around exposed nails and staples on our bare plywood subfloor. Thankfully we didn't have kids at the time.
From there, we learned our French doors were leaking badly and needed to be replaced — and so did a different section of damaged subflooring that could not be salvaged.
Pressed for time, we hired some nice but inexperienced contractors to make the repairs for about $4,000. (We paid for this mistake a year later when our doors needed to be fixed again.)
After weeks of waiting and wearing socks around the house to avoid splinters, we were able to resume our project.
Not long after, one of the subcontractors cracked our drywall while using a crowbar to loosen the planks in our kitchen, which had been nailed to our baseboards.
We felt like we just couldn't catch a break.
Lauren Salles Gumpert
This project wasn't done once our vinyl-plank flooring was put down.
Because the vinyl was thinner and lower than our old floors, our toilet and drop-through outlet didn't sit flush to the ground anymore.
We had to pay a plumber to install a new flange — a crucial piece that fits over the drainage pipe, prevents leaks, and anchors the toilet to the floor. We're still living with an elevated outlet in the middle of the floor, which creates a tripping hazard for our kids.
Also, the vinyl flooring keeps our downstairs much cooler than our carpeted upstairs, where our bedrooms are.
This is fine in the summer, but it contributes to a big temperature discrepancy in the winter. I have to leave our house's thermostat on the lower side so that the heat doesn't overwhelm us upstairs, but this means our downstairs gets really cold.
This "cosmetic" update that's now cost us well over $12,000 has scared us away from wanting to do other home renovations, like updating our bathrooms and landscaping our yard.
In fact, I don't think most home-renovation projects are worth the hassle unless they're functionally necessary. They're rarely as easy as promised, and it's always possible you'll uncover costly issues or cause more problems in the process.
A lot of the time, I wish we'd left our floors alone. And if I'm being honest, my young kids would've preferred the soft carpet to the harder vinyl floors, which I now cover with rugs, anyway.
