LVT flooring over Tile on Radiant Floor?

Chris_51

Our realtor wants us to paint our kitchen cabinets white. Then use LVT flooring over the tile.

Would this mess up the radiant floor?

RascalOrnery

Fire the realtor. Your kitchen looks gorgeous.

Jamie Hall

RascalOrnery said:

Fire the realtor. Your kitchen looks gorgeous.

My reaction exactly.

On the technical question -- the LTV flooring won't "mess up" the radiant heat, although it will cut the output -- but if you try to get a lot of heat out of the radiant, it will mess up the flooring.

Chris_51

That will happen naturally. It is frustrating. I put a lot of effort into that kitchen. We dropped the floor between the stringers to leave room for the tubes. That let the new floor line up evenly with the existing hardwood in the next room.

I hate the idea of painting the cabinets, but that seems to be what people are buying.



Here is a video of the house. They also want us to paint every room white. I think that is so the painter can spray the walls an molding at the same time. I'm for sure not doing that

https://show.tours/v/Kdqpr5q

RascalOrnery said:

Fire the realtor. Your kitchen looks gorgeous.

Chris_51

I was concerned about the heat transfer. I have a mixing valve, so I can adjust it. We pulled the floor from the house loop that runs the radiators. It works perfectly. I'd be concerned about the plastic fake wood looking tiles melting.

Jamie Hall said:

RascalOrnery said:

Fire the realtor. Your kitchen looks gorgeous.

My reaction exactly.

On the technical question -- the LTV flooring won't "mess up" the radiant heat, although it will cut the output -- but if you try to get a lot of heat out of the radiant, it will mess up the flooring.

Jamie Hall

My thought -- but wht do I knw about real estate? -- is you are selling a home which you have put a lot of thought and effort into, and it shows. It's beautiful. You are not selling a ready fashion off the rack at Walmart. Stick with your beautiful house, and find someone who loves it as it is. If your price is fair, and you have time, you will.

Chris_51

Thanks. I've been working on details for a long time. I hate the idea of painting it. My wife gets so upset. Then when I posted this, it was a partial test of the Zeitgeist. I knew someone would say don't even paint it. I didn't think two people would say it in the first 5 minutes.

On the thought an effort, we updated a bunch of pumps to ECM last year. My goal was to save enough power to charge the EV. We do. With the other stuff I did, we are 1/3 the utilities of everyone else in similar house. Still a lot, but less. But ... our cabinets are not white I guess.

One realtor I trust in another state does confirm the white thing. I pointed of that we used the highest quality and put in a lot of extra effort. He says - that's like saying I have the very best cassette deck. Crushing really.

But ... I do have a guitar shop with a CNC machine, and a paint booth in the basement. The cabinet paint quote was $16,500. I literally could do that in a weekend. Then re-do the counters for 8k. Then hire out the backsplash. Then get more - maybe even 100k more. But maybe I get nothing more. So ...

I appreciate the thoughts. I hate this whole thing. I overpaid in 2000, spend a ton and will get less than I paid. It's just how much less.

BTW - here is a painted cab kitchen with similar bones as ours. It looks decent. Just different.

Jamie Hall said:

My thought -- but wht do I knw about real estate? -- is you are selling a home which you have put a lot of thought and effort into, and it shows. It's beautiful. You are not selling a ready fashion off the rack at Walmart. Stick with your beautiful house, and find someone who loves it as it is. If your price is fair, and you have time, you will.

hot_rod

It is not uncommon for Realtors to ask you to do some upgrades based on current customer trends. Maybe a % of buyers have taste for the nice kitchen you have? Maybe not?

The offers will reflect how potential buyers respond to your kitchen.

If you add flooring over the tile it may require a few degrees of temperature boost for that additional thin layer. I doubt the output will be noticeable on any but design conditions. I assume there is other heat in the rest of the rooms connected to the kitchen?

Chris_51

Thanks for the thoughts.

We have been listed since May. No offers. We lowered the price significantly twice. So the realtors are tossing out an array of often conflicting ideas. I only recently saw the reports of how few people are looking at big houses. In our area, one week had 5 showings in 5000+ SQ foot houses. Compared to 25 last year. So if nobody is buying, why remodel or repaint. On the other side, not one big house has sold with other than the ones that have white kitchens. It is a thing. I don't need to sell, so I'll just wait if we don;t get the price. I am tired of all the maintenance though. Especially since we spent a lot of time in Florida last winter.

On a side note, your ideas on the ECM pumps really cut the bills. I compared to other houses and did the math and made some adjustments for square footage. One was 350% more per square. One was 250% more per square. That isn't the sexy stuff though.

On the tile, LVT is petro based I think. I'm wondering if it would tend to melt if it was over a radiant floor. The stuff is hard to remove. The neighboring rooms do have traditional radiators. The heated floor transformed the kitchen from a poorly heated room to the best one in the house.

hot_rod said:

It is not uncommon for Realtors to ask you to do some upgrades based on current customer trends. Maybe a % of buyers have taste for the nice kitchen you have? Maybe not?

The offers will reflect how potential buyers respond to your kitchen.

If you add flooring over the tile it may require a few degrees of temperature boost for that additional thin layer. I doubt the output will be noticeable on any but design conditions. I assume there is other heat in the rest of the rooms connected to the kitchen?

jesmed1

This is a very relevant article, about how HGTV home renovation shows are turning American homes into bland cookie-cutter look-alikes:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/07/07/hgtv-makes-homes-boring-sad/

Most of the HGTV home reno projects have white kitchens and LTV flooring. That's what everyone sees, so that's what buyers think is "in."

hot_rod

We have bought and sold a number of properties over the years. It can take a few tries but we have always found a realtor that we trust and go with their suggestions.
I've know people that have moved their furniture out and "staged" their home with rental furniture to meet the markets expectations!

Typically perspective buyers will indicate what the deal breaker is and that is what realtors base suggestions on. Most knowledgable agents do a lot of market analysis also for properties specific to their area.

As you suggested, this all comes down to how motivated you are to sell.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

If you're unsure about the LVT flooring, trust your instincts. I don't like fake floors and the existing tile work is beautiful and has been done by a craftsman (you?).

If that were my house, I wouldn't change a thing; it's beautiful. I cook a lot and all that counter and cabinet space in the kitchen is very appealing. Sink-stove-fridge triangle distance is user friendly.

I bought my house in 2007 and it immediately dropped $200K. Now it's double what I paid for it. The market will come back, but it might take a few years.