What we install
LVP wins most of the time in Baltimore. It’s waterproof, it handles basement moisture, it doesn’t move when the rowhome settles, and the look has caught up to hardwood in the last five years. MSI is what we spec, Mojave Sand and the warmer tones hide dust and dog claws better than the gray planks everybody overdid in 2019.
Real hardwood and engineered hardwood are still the right call on the main floor of a renovated house where you want the resale. Tile goes in baths, mudrooms, and basement floors that need to handle water.
Pricing runs $4 to $14 per square foot installed, material included. The low end is basic LVP over a flat subfloor. The high end is real oak with stain match, or porcelain tile on a heated floor.
Baltimore rowhome reality
Old houses don’t have flat subfloors. Joists sag, the original pine has cupped, and the previous installer just laid the new floor over the dips. You get a floor that creaks and a tile job that cracks in 18 months.
We level the subfloor before we lay anything. Self-leveler in the bad spots, ply over the worse spots, moisture barrier in basements. It’s a day or two of extra work that’s the difference between a floor that lasts and one that doesn’t.
What we won’t do
We won’t lay tile straight over old vinyl. We won’t put hardwood in a basement. We won’t quote a per-square-foot number without seeing the subfloor first.