Newer construction, and the stairs that come with it
San Elijo Hills and most of newer San Marcos went up from the late nineties on. Two and three stories, built into the hillside, on slab, open plans.
That makes them stair-heavy, and taking carpet off a staircase and putting hardwood down is one of the jobs we get asked for most in this city. It's also the slowest work in flooring. Every tread gets measured and traced on its own, because builder framing is rarely square.
New treads also change the height of the steps, and you notice it most at the very top and very bottom. California code limits how much step heights can vary in one flight, so we work that out before anything gets cut.
Builder-grade floors reaching end of life
Houses from the 2000s boom are all hitting the same point now. The original carpet and the builder tile are wearing out together.
So the usual job is pulling both out and running one hard floor across the whole main level. Getting tile off a slab it was glued straight onto is heavy demolition. It makes real dust and real dump fees, and that belongs on the estimate as its own line, not as a surprise later.
Lake San Marcos is its own case
Around Lake San Marcos the housing is older, mostly single-story homes and condos from the seventies and eighties.
Condos come with HOA sound rules for any hard floor going over somebody else living downstairs. We check those before ordering material.
San Marcos flooring questions
Why do so many San Marcos homes need stair work?
Because of how they were built. San Elijo Hills and Discovery Hills are hillside developments of largely two- and three-story homes, so a staircase — often more than one — comes with the house. Twenty years on, the builder-grade carpet on those stairs is the first thing to wear out, and converting it to hardwood is the most requested job in this city. It is also the slowest work in flooring: every tread is a custom piece, and a flight is quoted per step, not per square foot.
Is builder-grade flooring worth replacing?
By now, usually. Much of San Marcos went up between the late 1990s and the 2010s with builder-grade carpet and thin engineered plank that was specified to a price, and that material is reaching the end of its life across the whole city at roughly the same time. The subfloors underneath are typically sound, which keeps the prep bill down and makes these among the more predictable jobs we quote.
Can you match new flooring to what is already down?
Often, and it is worth checking before assuming a whole-house replacement. Where a builder floor is still current we can sometimes source the same product, and where it is discontinued we can usually find a close enough match to run into an adjoining room with a deliberate transition rather than a bad blend. If nothing matches honestly, we will tell you that rather than laying something that reads as a mistake.