Monday, June 25, 2012

Rite Rug (Flooring) Meeting and What I Learned

We had our Rite Rug (flooring) meeting yesterday. For those of you that don't know we originally signed a contract for the Verona, only to find out two weeks after signing that the Verona could not fit on our lot. Big whoops! We had already had one meeting with Rite Rug, when we picked out all of our flooring and tile choices for the Verona.

So, when we had to change to the Naples floor plan, we already knew all of the flooring and tile options that we would want. We actually built all of those options into our new contract. It didn't save us any money to pay upfront, but it made the Rite Rug appointment less painful and shocking. 

Here is what I learned about carpet...
  • The included level A carpet that Ryan Homes comes with is basically apartment grade. You have 4 color choices.
  • Level B carpet is still pretty low grade, but at least it has the stain resistor, and a 10 year warranty. You have 8 or more color choices. Don't expect it to feel plush. Level B carpet will cost you around $2,000 to upgrade for your entire house.
  • Level C, D, etc. carpet will cost you  much more.
  • The included padding is 5.0lb. This is low-quality padding.
  • You can upgrade to 6lb, 8lb, or 10lb padding (although I was told that they are getting rid of the 6lb in the near future).
  • The 10lb padding has a protective barrier on the back of it, so liquid cannot seep into the subfloor. Good in case you have pets that have accidents.
  • The 10lb padding will cost more than the Level B carpet. Yikes!
  • I priced carpet out at Lowes and Home Depot, and it can get awfully expensive even with free installation (although they never install your stairs for free). An apartment carpet is around $0.89 / sqft (no padding). An equivalent level B carpet is around $1.99 to $2.49/ sqft (with padding). A nice plush carpet is around $3.49/ sqft (with padding). When you do the math, this adds up really quickly, so even though the carpet is expensive.... so is replacing it!
Here is what I learned about hardwood...
  • Level A has 5 color choices, all oak, solid wood. I priced this exact wood out (brand, width, everything) at Lowes, and it was about $3.95/ sq foot. For what Ryan is charging, you are actually getting a fair price.
  • Ryan only installs engineered wood on a slab (normally you can put anything on a crawl or basement). This means no handscraped or distressed hardwood flooring choices if you have a crawl or basement, because all of the options are engineered (floating floors).
  • Level B, C, etc. are more expensive. The upgrades have wider planks, different color choices, or different types of wood. 
Here is what I learned about bathroom tile...
  • Level A for the bathroom is either white 4 x 4 or cream 4 x 4 tiles (wall and surround)
  • Level B for the bathroom is the same white 4 x 4 or cream 4 x 4 tiles  with a white or cream accent (wall) and 4 color choices ( I think white, cream, darker cream, or tan) (floor)
  • Level C for the bathroom gives you about 10 choices which include 12x12 floor tiles and 9x12 wall tiles in all different pretty colors. You also get to choose an accent tile for the wall (glass, stone, metal, etc).
  • Level D is like C but with extra choices.
  • The prices of each really depend on which bathroom you choose and how big your bathroom is.

Our selections...

  • Manchester 2 1/4" Saddle Oak Hardwood (Level A): foyer, extended foyer, dining, kitchen and dinette, and powder room.
  • Maple Fairfield Spice Square Cabinets (Included)
  • Brazilian Brown Granite Formica Countertops (Included)
  • Colinsville 103 Nature's Mist (Level B): family room, living room/study, zone 2 (upstairs)
  • 10lb padding: family room, living room/study
  • 5lb padding (Included): zone 2 (upstairs)
    ________________________________________________
  • Brixton Bone Tile with Listello SA51 Random (4 rows) accent (Level C): master bath
  • Maple Fairfield Spice Square Cabinets (Included)
________________________________________________

  • Stratford Place SO 94 Dorian Grey Tile (Level C): bathroom 1
  • Maple Fairfield Spice Square Cabinets (Included)
________________________________________________
  •  Initiator 66205 Resilient: laundry room

11 comments:

  1. We also chose the Saddle floors. We went with the wider plank.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh the wider planks were really nice! They give a house a really open feel.

      Delete
    2. My husband chose the wider planks because he said there would be less cracks to clean, ha ha!

      Delete
  2. This is a great post! Lots of detailed information! We went with level C, wider plank in espresso on the entire main level and 10 lb padding, level E carpet for the second level. I wanted a pattern carpet for the basement but it is not part of RH options. So I am having them put the standard carpet and padding, lightly tacked, so I can pull it up and replace after closing with the carpet my heart desires.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RH has CTI for our area and it was very short on choices, or maybe she just didn't show me much. In the 2 levels of carpet shown there were 3 color choices...light, medium and darker. Same for the 12x12 tiles.
    I kept to the level 1 wood floor in gun stock, figure how much will show with throw and area rugs.
    Nice choices your place will look great!!!
    D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I can't believe level 2 only had 3 colors. What did level 1 have?

      Delete
  4. Great details -- esp on the price comparisons. We had also investigated engineered wood floors (we really liked the hand-scraped wide planks). We discovered they were just as expensive as a level 3 (or C) hardwood floor because the flooring company needs to install a different subfloor for it to float on. We ended up just going with a level 3 hardwood.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We LOVED the dark maple handscraped wide planks. We didn't even care what level they were, we wanted them! Then, we found out they wouldn't install them on a crawl since they only sold engineered. We even considered having them install resilient everywhere, and just ripping it out after we moved in. Eventually, we decided that installing new hardwood was probably too big of a task to tackle with new baby at home. I guess they saved us some money :)

      Delete
  5. Only thing I really don't like about this whole process is unless you wanted to pay thousands more your color choices are terrible.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing blog that understand the value. Im glad to have found this post as its such an interesting one! I am always on the lookout for quality posts and articles so i suppose im lucky to have found this! I hope you will be adding more in the future...
    marble floor tile

    ReplyDelete
  7. For instance, a brighter projector is going to be needed for particularly bright rooms or spaces. bestlaserlevelers.com offers some in-depth insights on About Us | Best Laser Levelers.

    ReplyDelete