Hi ritevibe, It seems that many of your worries are to do with the ongoing maintenance and wear that will inevitably come from renting your property out. Timber would quite obviously look amazing in your space, though the damage and maintenance could be restrictive. Have you investigated timber look 'parquet' tiles? Being porcelain, you are not going to find anything more durable and long lasting. It is definitely worth a look at what's available in this material, I will attach some images for your reference and a link to give you a starting point. (http://www.houzz.com.au/projects/683682/par-ker-timber-parquet-porcelain-tiles) In such an environment, I think cost effectiveness would probably be better understood over the life of the floor, as vinyls and floorboards are going to require significant amounts of maintenance, are going to cop a bit of a beating and are not going to last as long as tile. If you want more info I am happy to help out, Best of luck!

Hello, Sorry in advance to bring up an old thread/subject, However looking for any additional advice/direction i can get on comment from midesign0401 below... mldesign0401 In Victoria a range hood is a requirement in new kitchens. No longer is it acceptable for a simple exhaust unit, rather it must now be ducted to external air. So your range hood must be flued either through your roof space or via a horizontal duct to an external wall. It must be installed and signed off, and your house insurance will require your sign off document if your house insurance is to cover damage due to fire, or you will find yourself in a predicament. The provision for installing a range hood above a gas cooktop is a minimum placement of 650mm above your cooktop, and 605 for an electric hob. Including induction. Hope this helps. Our new home got handed over to us by builder just before Christmas (21/12/2018), We are still waiting for under mount rangehood to be installed into our kitchen, The house was delivered with no rangehood as the hole they provided was to close to accommodate rangehood selection, After a couple of visits we have been told that cupboards are to be removed and replaced, Which we are still waiting for as the 'cabinetmaker is very busy', My inquiry is to see whether there is a building code reference/link I can forward on to them to hurry the process up, Also concerned that insurance would not cover our new house if there happened to be a fire Thanks in advance, We look forward o nay help, Regards, Ken and Nadia Buxton

I know of this veneer concrete flooring as an alternative to lished concrete, however as a veneer, it is a thin pour over a solid substrate. Unfortunately the very nature of a first floor is suspended, (although sufficiently supported) it will have flex and movement in it, which this opttion does not favor. The reason is due to cracking, and resurfacing the cracks are unsightly. As a designer, and working on my own renovation, I looked into this option and the technical implications for my build. It was not recommended although possible. I did however find one other alternative, called xlite, which are large scale tiles that replicate the look of stone, marble and concrete too. The tiles run in 3000 x 1500 sheets, so Grout lines are limited and hardly factors. In fact that the unique scale of tile, which is lightweight and has a fantastic thermal mass, great insulative quality is so different, makes this system a feature on it's own.

I have chosen Signature Carpets "Harlow- Creighton" 65 oz carpet with a pile length of 16mm.Half of the carpet was laid before x-mas and not finished. I took a sample of the laid carpet to the showroom to compare with the sample there and the colour was different. I have now taken the showroom sample home to compare what had been laid on the floor and found that the showroom sample had the same length of fibre, but had a mush plusher feel to it and felt very much dense.I am currently walking on the unfinished Creigton carpet and have footmarks everywhere I go, to the point of toe-marks(bare feet) still imprinted on the carpet the next day! I have now compared a sample of Harlow Creighton laid at my property and Luxcloud Florian(very much cheaper) and apart from the pile height there is no difference. Both of them are tracking very badly and look awful, especially compared to the denser showroom sample. I get the impression that there is either a problem with the wrong carpet delivered from the carpet importer or maybe the more expensive carpet ordered by me was substituted with the cheaper Luxcloud Florian. The third scenario is that there is no difference in density between the cheaper and more expensive carpet and only the height is different. However, this still does not explain why the sample from the showroom seems to be much denser and does not track very much. A sales rep from the carpet importer is coming on Monday. Is there anybody who had a similar experience and who could give me some advice? The importers sales rep is coming in a few days and I just want as much info as possible.