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When you purchase a new home there may be a number of things you want to renovate. Among the top of the list these days, is adding a beautiful hardwood floor. This look offers beauty, value, and extra life. But there are several things to consider when installing hardwood.  Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to try to get rid of the tile… but this isn’t always plausbile or possible, so here is the best way to lay hard wood over tile.

Remove Any Obstacles

Remove any obstacles such as baseboards so you can slide the hardwood underneath, and replace the base boards at the appropriate hidth. Much of the hardwood floorboards, such as clickwood or engineered are approximately 3/8? high, and with an extra 1/8? for the pad underneath, you’ll want to allow for about a 1/”2 gap between the bottom of the base boards and the top floor, prior to laying your hardwood surface.

Level the Surface (Remove The Tile if Possible)

Get ready for some back breaking grueling work. Before you begin this project, make sure you’ve got plenty of patience in store, otherwise you’ll end up walking out half way through or doing the project wrong.
To lay hardwood down, you will want your surface to be as smooth as possible. If you have any drops that are close to a 1/8? drop in the surface of your floor, it may cuase damage to your hardwood, or at the least it will creak and crack as you walk over the finished hardwood surface. Consider this – if the plan is 3 inches wide and there is an uneven surface underneath, it will teeter-totter depending on which side of the board you step on. That teeter-totter motion cause motion which will create sounds and wear your hardwood down quickly.

Divots left by the sledge hammer in tile which lies on concrete.

To level the surface the best idea is to get rid of the tile, depending on how easy that is. If the tile is installed on concrete, this may be more difficult. If it was laid in an area such as the upstairs over floorboards, this may prove easier. The reason being, you’re going to have to break the tile with a sledge hammer, and the surface underneath will need to be able to bend with the force of the sledge hammer so the tile can crack. Otherwise, you may just end up putting small divots into the tile and not actually break anything, as show with the picture on the right. The desired effect is to have long breaks up and down the tile which can be pried up. Place a spare towel over the tile as you hit it with the sledge hammer to avoid any flying tile shards

Here are some great tips to make your home valuable with less work.

When you purchase a new home there may be a number of things you want to renovate. Among the top of the list these days, is adding a beautiful hardwood floor. This look offers beauty, value, and extra life. But there are several things to consider when installing hardwood.  Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to try to get rid of the tile… but this isn’t always plausbile or possible, so here is the best way to lay hard wood over tile.

Remove Any Obstacles

Remove any obstacles such as baseboards so you can slide the hardwood underneath, and replace the base boards at the appropriate hidth. Much of the hardwood floorboards, such as clickwood or engineered are approximately 3/8? high, and with an extra 1/8? for the pad underneath, you’ll want to allow for about a 1/”2 gap between the bottom of the base boards and the top floor, prior to laying your hardwood surface.

Level the Surface (Remove The Tile if Possible)

Get ready for some back breaking grueling work. Before you begin this project, make sure you’ve got plenty of patience in store, otherwise you’ll end up walking out half way through or doing the project wrong.
To lay hardwood down, you will want your surface to be as smooth as possible. If you have any drops that are close to a 1/8? drop in the surface of your floor, it may cuase damage to your hardwood, or at the least it will creak and crack as you walk over the finished hardwood surface. Consider this – if the plan is 3 inches wide and there is an uneven surface underneath, it will teeter-totter depending on which side of the board you step on. That teeter-totter motion cause motion which will create sounds and wear your hardwood down quickly.

Divots left by the sledge hammer in tile which lies on concrete.

To level the surface the best idea is to get rid of the tile, depending on how easy that is. If the tile is installed on concrete, this may be more difficult. If it was laid in an area such as the upstairs over floorboards, this may prove easier. The reason being, you’re going to have to break the tile with a sledge hammer, and the surface underneath will need to be able to bend with the force of the sledge hammer so the tile can crack. Otherwise, you may just end up putting small divots into the tile and not actually break anything, as show with the picture on the right. The desired effect is to have long breaks up and down the tile which can be pried up. Place a spare towel over the tile as you hit it with the sledge hammer to avoid any flying tile shards

Here are some great tips to make your home valuable with less work.

When you purchase a new home there may be a number of things you want to renovate. Among the top of the list these days, is adding a beautiful hardwood floor. This look offers beauty, value, and extra life. But there are several things to consider when installing hardwood.  Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to try to get rid of the tile… but this isn’t always plausbile or possible, so here is the best way to lay hard wood over tile.

Remove Any Obstacles

Remove any obstacles such as baseboards so you can slide the hardwood underneath, and replace the base boards at the appropriate hidth. Much of the hardwood floorboards, such as clickwood or engineered are approximately 3/8? high, and with an extra 1/8? for the pad underneath, you’ll want to allow for about a 1/”2 gap between the bottom of the base boards and the top floor, prior to laying your hardwood surface.

Level the Surface (Remove The Tile if Possible)

Get ready for some back breaking grueling work. Before you begin this project, make sure you’ve got plenty of patience in store, otherwise you’ll end up walking out half way through or doing the project wrong.
To lay hardwood down, you will want your surface to be as smooth as possible. If you have any drops that are close to a 1/8? drop in the surface of your floor, it may cuase damage to your hardwood, or at the least it will creak and crack as you walk over the finished hardwood surface. Consider this – if the plan is 3 inches wide and there is an uneven surface underneath, it will teeter-totter depending on which side of the board you step on. That teeter-totter motion cause motion which will create sounds and wear your hardwood down quickly.

Divots left by the sledge hammer in tile which lies on concrete.

To level the surface the best idea is to get rid of the tile, depending on how easy that is. If the tile is installed on concrete, this may be more difficult. If it was laid in an area such as the upstairs over floorboards, this may prove easier. The reason being, you’re going to have to break the tile with a sledge hammer, and the surface underneath will need to be able to bend with the force of the sledge hammer so the tile can crack. Otherwise, you may just end up putting small divots into the tile and not actually break anything, as show with the picture on the right. The desired effect is to have long breaks up and down the tile which can be pried up. Place a spare towel over the tile as you hit it with the sledge hammer to avoid any flying tile shards

Here are some great tips to make your home valuable with less work.

When you purchase a new home there may be a number of things you want to renovate. Among the top of the list these days, is adding a beautiful hardwood floor. This look offers beauty, value, and extra life. But there are several things to consider when installing hardwood.  Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to try to get rid of the tile… but this isn’t always plausbile or possible, so here is the best way to lay hard wood over tile.

Remove Any Obstacles

Remove any obstacles such as baseboards so you can slide the hardwood underneath, and replace the base boards at the appropriate hidth. Much of the hardwood floorboards, such as clickwood or engineered are approximately 3/8? high, and with an extra 1/8? for the pad underneath, you’ll want to allow for about a 1/”2 gap between the bottom of the base boards and the top floor, prior to laying your hardwood surface.

Level the Surface (Remove The Tile if Possible)

Get ready for some back breaking grueling work. Before you begin this project, make sure you’ve got plenty of patience in store, otherwise you’ll end up walking out half way through or doing the project wrong.
To lay hardwood down, you will want your surface to be as smooth as possible. If you have any drops that are close to a 1/8? drop in the surface of your floor, it may cuase damage to your hardwood, or at the least it will creak and crack as you walk over the finished hardwood surface. Consider this – if the plan is 3 inches wide and there is an uneven surface underneath, it will teeter-totter depending on which side of the board you step on. That teeter-totter motion cause motion which will create sounds and wear your hardwood down quickly.

Divots left by the sledge hammer in tile which lies on concrete.

To level the surface the best idea is to get rid of the tile, depending on how easy that is. If the tile is installed on concrete, this may be more difficult. If it was laid in an area such as the upstairs over floorboards, this may prove easier. The reason being, you’re going to have to break the tile with a sledge hammer, and the surface underneath will need to be able to bend with the force of the sledge hammer so the tile can crack. Otherwise, you may just end up putting small divots into the tile and not actually break anything, as show with the picture on the right. The desired effect is to have long breaks up and down the tile which can be pried up. Place a spare towel over the tile as you hit it with the sledge hammer to avoid any flying tile shards

Here are some great tips to make your home valuable with less work.

When shopping for homeowners insurance, take it in three steps. These three steps will streamline your shopping experience and find you the best possible deal quickly (it’s not necessarily Geico). Let me first say, once you get a quote, share it with the other guys. That may seem mean to the person who worked up the first quote, but it saves the other guys time in asking “what kind of coverage do you want…?” Just tell them to match what is worked up in “Quote A”, and if they can beat it, then they can, if they can’t, then too bad for them. This is insurance, and they’re aware they can’t always win.

Step 1) Decide on what kind of coverage you will need

. If you are in a homeowners association, you will need to know what kind of insurance is already offered. In a condo it isn’t uncommon for you to cover the interior only, or the association may just cover everything for you. When you get quotes, check to see how much it will be if you combine your auto policy. Typically you will get a discount for your auto for having your home on the policy, and you will get a discount for home if you have your auto on the policy. So when you shop for rates (in step 3), get quotes for combining all three. In my experience, it ended up costing less to add the condo then what we were paying for the vehicles without a condo on the policy. Add a condo, save money, who knew!

Step 2) Get this information together

• VIN (Vehicle Identification Numbers) for every vehicle on the policy
• DL# (Drivers Licence Numbers) for every person who will be on the policy

This will help them determine previous claims or tickets that may affect your premium

Address of your new home

SS# (Social Security Numbers) for every person who will be on the policy

I don’t know why this is necessary, maybe I’m a little to trusting, but they asked for it

The rest of what you read below will take you through what we learned in Logan about Homeowners insurance when shopping for a policy that would cover $25,000 personal property, and $10,000 internally. When we started this, we were paying about $800 annually for insurance on two vehicles.

Step 3) Shop For Rates

This is my experience with the following agencies: Farm Bureau, Cache Valley Insurance, Logan Insurance, Geico, and American Family Insurance.

What Our Mortgage Broker Suggested – Logan Insurance Company

Because the process of finding just one more thing for our condo appeared that it was going to be a pain, I just asked the mortgage broker who we should go for our home owners insurance, and she suggested Dave Morrill with the Logan Insurance Agency. Because she deals with this all the time, I figured her advice would be excellent, and it was. Dave found us a great rate which would actually cost us less than what we were paying before with our car insurance, and at the same time we were adding a condo to the policy! Dave was very professional and excellent to work with. His quote came in at about

Geico

Our auto policy was with Geico, and believe it or not, they have actually been incredible for us to work with! When I got in an auto accident a few years back, I earned $1,200 from it (even though my vehicle isn’t totally fixed). When I added Jessica to the policy the total cost actually went down on our insurance.

But when it came time for us to add a condo to the policy, they were going to add an extra $300 a month. No dice.

Cache Valley Insurance

I like these guys, I’ve worked with them before. They were going to work up a policy, and may have called my phone (which died), but I asked for an e-mail. In the end, I never heard from them, and that’s their loss. I hope if you try to call them, you will hear from them.

Josh Barnett Insurance Agency – America Family Insurance

I also called Josh and had them work up a quote. Josh was really fun to talk to, but in the end he was less than Geico, but still higher than Dave Morrill at the Logan Insurance Company. I was actually enticed by him at first, but then we realized that the quote was for semi-annual auto insurance.

Farm Bureau Insurance – The Winner

One thing that is a little bit annoying about Farm Bureau is that they have this $65 annual membership fee. This will get you better deals on hotels and such, but I don’t want discounts on things that I won’t use, I just want insurance. They were also the slowest to get back to me, I was about to just go with Logan Insurance, but gave them a reminder e-mail saying “Hey, I want this now!” They then immediately got on the ball, and gave by far the best quote.

But in the end, their quote came in at $700 and we bumped up some of the auto coverage with them. So even with the added annual membership they were by far the best deal when combining an auto policy with a homeowners insurance policy! In fact, I’m still saving about a $100 a year compared to what a paid for before through Geico with car insurance only.

So, congratulations Farm Bureau, you are saving me money and adding more coverage! I am a very satisfied customer! I hope you enjoyed this review of Farm Bureau Insurance, American Family Insurance, Logan Insurance, Cache Valley Insurance, and Geico for homeowner insurance rates in Logan!