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Flooring options

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richiev

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We need to get some flooring replaced, and as these things do the project is scope creeping... The area my tank is in is now part of the potential scope.

Options being discussed: luxury vinyl, engineered wood, hardwood.

Hardwood seems cool in theory, but expensive, and given the cost of any work in this area I'm struggling to see the benefit. Even if you could refinish it, it seems like it'd be almost the same price to replace with a different material. So even ignoring affordability, I'm not really considering it.

Engineered seems to be a reasonable step from that, but what I'm reading is water susceptibility is a problem. That seems like a big no-no next to an aquarium.

The vinyl seems to look a lot better then it used to, and certainly would be the cheapest. Also seems to be the bestest for water.

Question 1: any guidance on engineered wood by an aquarium? It's a bad idea right?

Question 2: any general guidance?

Finally, this is the first floor in an old house. I have a 500L tank on it. I have a crawl space, but it has very limited access. I'm wondering if when we rip the floor out, if I should take the opportunity to get some additional floor bracing added under the tank. I'm not really planning on a bigger tank, but the ground here moves a lot, that section of the house is nearly 80yrs old, and I think it might've sagged a bit from the tank.

Question 3: anyone know if adding bracing would be simplified if done when flooring will be getting replaced?

Happy for any advice on any of this. I've never done anything like this. The project started as replacing some messed up carpet on stairs, looking to swap in wood stairs instead. So also if anyone has advice on non carpet stairs I'd love to hear that too.
 
richiev said:
We need to get some flooring replaced, and as these things do the project is scope creeping... The area my tank is in is now part of the potential scope.

Options being discussed: luxury vinyl, engineered wood, hardwood.

Hardwood seems cool in theory, but expensive, and given the cost of any work in this area I'm struggling to see the benefit. Even if you could refinish it, it seems like it'd be almost the same price to replace with a different material. So even ignoring affordability, I'm not really considering it.

Engineered seems to be a reasonable step from that, but what I'm reading is water susceptibility is a problem. That seems like a big no-no next to an aquarium.

The vinyl seems to look a lot better then it used to, and certainly would be the cheapest. Also seems to be the bestest for water.

Question 1: any guidance on engineered wood by an aquarium? It's a bad idea right?

Question 2: any general guidance?

Finally, this is the first floor in an old house. I have a 500L tank on it. I have a crawl space, but it has very limited access. I'm wondering if when we rip the floor out, if I should take the opportunity to get some additional floor bracing added under the tank. I'm not really planning on a bigger tank, but the ground here moves a lot, that section of the house is nearly 80yrs old, and I think it might've sagged a bit from the tank.

Question 3: anyone know if adding bracing would be simplified if done when flooring will be getting replaced?

Happy for any advice on any of this. I've never done anything like this. The project started as replacing some messed up carpet on stairs, looking to swap in wood stairs instead. So also if anyone has advice on non carpet stairs I'd love to hear that too.
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It's alot easier replacing a section of the flooring when your already replacing the top level covering.

Typically to do that you have to pull up part of the top layer to get through it.

If you been to some houses with two types of flooring in one room that's probably what they did. They got scared off by the price of doing the entire floor to match so inly did the section in question and squared it off.


Under the top layer is typically plywood or osb of some sort and joists and supports directly under that. I figure add some more joists and possibly a few bricks or brackets to support them. May require a bit of jacking.
"Just be prepared for the potential of peeling up the floor and finding unexpected issues that can make it cost alot more than you intended. It could also be a very easy 2 hour job or anything in between"


It's very easy to do at this junction if your implying only the section under/ near the tank. Just add the cost for material, and labor. Something you can offset if you say remove top layer of existing flooring yourself. Make it clean, and if your bold enough remove the under layer section of plywood/ osb. This would only require them to do the instal. Make a neat pile rent a larger uhal and dump the stuff yourself.

This could allow you to Skip out on demo/ construction material disposal expenses traded for time and sweat. Those two are often up to half of the quoted project cost.

I have no recommendations on types of flooring. Considering whats best for saltwater restiance. I can say I've refinshed hardwood it before by renting a floor sander and sanding restaining and applying 1-3 coats glossy clear coat polyurethane type product. Over all it isn’t that hard to do as you would think given the cost professionals would charge. Especially if you have any minor diy skills.

If you don't wanna get your hands dirty and cost isn’t as important things just come down to paying someone to do it.

***However, on a more serious note: this is a golden opportunity to go with steel joists, picture it supporting a 2000 gallon future tank, that you can snorkle in. (My Evil enabler voice) :)

Good Luck.
 
In my past years I’ve put aquariums on all of the materials you’ve mentioned. Just talking about saltwater durability. Cuz that’s the real issue. Engineered and hardwood is the same. Both will deteriorate over time and need to be refinished. The hardwood can be cut more and deeper. Depending on the engineered thickness of the wood will be the determining factor.
The wood itself. IE: American Cherry, Walnut, etc. Will also determine durability. Softer woods don’t hold up long term as well. No matter what poly coat is put on top of it. Of course I’m talking 5-10 years or more.
The best would be highend vinyl. Now it doesn’t really look like wood. It is extremely durable. We use to have it in our stores. We dragged heavy loads across it, soaked it with chemicals over time, walked on it 12 plus hours a day. It still held up. But it’s not wood. Nor does it look or feel like wood.
 
I’m a fan of the new engineered hard wood or vinyl plank for your home many of them are waterproof. I have it in my apartment looks great and has held up very well to my aquarium messes & 3 dogs. I have also used Porcelain Tile looks great and very durable.

I think adding bracing during the renovation would be the most convenient and cost effective.

We just did an epoxy pour yesterday for the new store location. The installer has a 5 warranty we will see how it holds up. Here’s a quick peek. Registers etc. will be on sandbars & aquariums on the water.

Happy reefing

IMG_0458.jpeg
 
nlopedota said:
I’m a fan of the new engineered hard wood or vinyl plank for your home many of them are waterproof. I have it in my apartment looks great and has held up very well to my aquarium messes & 3 dogs. I have also used Porcelain Tile looks great and very durable.

I think adding bracing during the renovation would be the most convenient and cost effective.

We just did an epoxy pour yesterday for the new store location. The installer has a 5 warranty we will see how it holds up. Here’s a quick peek. Registers etc. will be on sandbars & aquariums on the water.

Happy reefing

View attachment 60992
Click to expand...
Wow. I wonder if I can convince my wife to have that in our family room…
 
nlopedota said:
I’m a fan of the new engineered hard wood or vinyl plank for your home many of them are waterproof. I have it in my apartment looks great and has held up very well to my aquarium messes & 3 dogs. I have also used Porcelain Tile looks great and very durable.

I think adding bracing during the renovation would be the most convenient and cost effective.

We just did an epoxy pour yesterday for the new store location. The installer has a 5 warranty we will see how it holds up. Here’s a quick peek. Registers etc. will be on sandbars & aquariums on the water.

Happy reefing

View attachment 60992
Click to expand...
That is just incredible wow.
 
Anyone else able to vouch for engineered hardwood and water? I imagine it would be fine for standing spills, but what about having a gallon of water overflow a sump and you can't really clean it up perfectly under the tank.

I mention that because it happened yesterday. My water level got too high due to an ATO issue, and then my skimmer was overflowing heavy enough that some went out of the sump. It's impossible to get all the water out of under the stand when having other responsibilities and such. Though maybe I'll end up having to get some more cleanup things and a bunch of leak sensor alarms.

Right now I don't really care because the floors are vinyl and junky. I'd have to care if we redo...
 
nlopedota said:
I’m a fan of the new engineered hard wood or vinyl plank for your home many of them are waterproof. I have it in my apartment looks great and has held up very well to my aquarium messes & 3 dogs. I have also used Porcelain Tile looks great and very durable.

I think adding bracing during the renovation would be the most convenient and cost effective.

We just did an epoxy pour yesterday for the new store location. The installer has a 5 warranty we will see how it holds up. Here’s a quick peek. Registers etc. will be on sandbars & aquariums on the water.

Happy reefing

View attachment 60992
Click to expand...
Super helpful info. Cool design. Thanks!
 
I went with LVP, as is gives the look of wood but lacks the warmth. We had radiant floor heating installed in the areas we'd be congregating in so wasn't worried.

Ive had a tank on all types of flooring:

Carpet- by far the worst choice. Your pad will never bounce back, it gets moldy, least forgiving with spills

Pergo- started to deteriorate with prolonged exposure to moisture...planks need replacement after a short while, even when marked water resistant and being diligent in mopping up.

Wood- warps quick and least forgiving..looks the best IMO tho

Tile- bullet proof..easiest to deal with spills, but least comfortable and cold as hell..they have some nice looking wood plank designs now tho..

Luxury vinyl plank- what I currently run. Very affordable and hard to damage. I spilled a 5 gallon bucket of white paint all over our floor during remodeling and took to cleaning/scrubbing well...can't even tell now. Radiant heating is nice as well...throw down the $1000..itll be worth it in the winter when your floor is 85F on the coldest days.

20240929_193619.jpg

With reinforcement of your subfloor, there are a few options. I told our contractor that I wanted the corner my tank would sit to be able to support twice the estimated weight of a tank.

The initial plan was for a 48" tank, but since there is a wall to the right, I didn't want to deal with a hard to access corner. I had additional 4 concrete post added to support 3 steel cross beams, sistered the existing joist, and replaced the wood subfloor with a 3/4 metal plate to prevent sagging.

Altogether, for labor and materials, it came out to around $6K. I'd take a picture of it, but I don't want to go in the crawlspace and hate spiders..
 
finalphaze987 said:
I went with LVP, as is gives the look of wood but lacks the warmth. We had radiant floor heating installed in the areas we'd be congregating in so wasn't worried.

Ive had a tank on all types of flooring:

Carpet- by far the worst choice. Your pad will never bounce back, it gets moldy, least forgiving with spills

Pergo- started to deteriorate with prolonged exposure to moisture...planks need replacement after a short while, even when marked water resistant and being diligent in mopping up.

Wood- warps quick and least forgiving..looks the best IMO tho

Tile- bullet proof..easiest to deal with spills, but least comfortable and cold as hell..they have some nice looking wood plank designs now tho..

Luxury vinyl plank- what I currently run. Very affordable and hard to damage. I spilled a 5 gallon bucket of white paint all over our floor during remodeling and took to cleaning/scrubbing well...can't even tell now. Radiant heating is nice as well...throw down the $1000..itll be worth it in the winter when your floor is 85F on the coldest days.

View attachment 61010
With reinforcement of your subfloor, there are a few options. I told our contractor that I wanted the corner my tank would sit to be able to support twice the estimated weight of a tank.

The initial plan was for a 48" tank, but since there is a wall to the right, I didn't want to deal with a hard to access corner. I had additional 4 concrete post added to support 3 steel cross beams, sistered the existing joist, and replaced the wood subfloor with a 3/4 metal plate to prevent sagging.

Altogether, for labor and materials, it came out to around $6K. I'd take a picture of it, but I don't want to go in the crawlspace and hate spiders..
Click to expand...
super useful. thanks! I think I'm team LVP now. I'm not sure if I'm inadvertently, biased-reading, and hearing what I want, however seems like most everyone's very pro-LVP. Definitely the bestest in terms of maintenance I can tell.

I didn't realize the reinforcing would be that expensive. Going to need to coordinate that one! Worst part is the knowledge it will almost certainly provide no increased resale value :).

How are you feeling about the tank on rollers?
 
LVP is the most stress free. In our last house we had engineered walnut. Absolutely loved the look and feel but it was a lot of stress with young kids, dogs, and the tank. I was hesitant to go with LVP in our current house but glad I did. Dragging things across the floor, spilling water while doing maintenance, dropping anything, all stress free and easy to clean up. Whenever in the future kids are gone and if we move, I definitely will do real wood again.

LVP comes in anything from cheap to expensive to choose carefully. My biggest pet peve about some cheaper LVP is if there's not enough print variation that you start to see repeating plank patterns when laid out.
 
richiev said:
super useful. thanks! I think I'm team LVP now. I'm not sure if I'm inadvertently, biased-reading, and hearing what I want, however seems like most everyone's very pro-LVP. Definitely the bestest in terms of maintenance I can tell.

I didn't realize the reinforcing would be that expensive. Going to need to coordinate that one! Worst part is the knowledge it will almost certainly provide no increased resale value :).

How are you feeling about the tank on rollers?
Click to expand...
I was definitely caught off guard when quoted the price...I initially thought it would be around 1K..boy was I wrong..but for peace of mind and working toward a long term build, worth it, co sidering my house was built in 1950..AFA recouping any cost should we decide to move, I'm chalking this one as a necessary loss to prevent water damage...luckily we were remodeling 3 bathrooms and a kitchen at the same time the work was done..it was the only way I could launder the cost past the wifey..lol

The casters on the stand are more for convenience during the build...once there's water in it I don't imagine me moving it at all..I do like how they give the stand more height. Cleaning inevitable spills will be much easier. + $120 I spent on it is worth not having to contort and cause me back pain while plumbing, wiring, etc.
 
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