What Kind Of Flooring Do You Recommend? [Archive]

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Wildflower

2-10-13, 4:08am

My house has a combination of carpet, laminate, and tile flooring. I would like to replace all with real wood floors, except for the tile in the bathrooms. This is going to be pretty pricey though, so I want to be sure I make the right decision.

I have 3 small dogs that are daily wear and tear. And very young grandkids and their large dog that visit often. All of the dogs drip water all over my kitchen floor constantly when they drink. It is laminate and water hasn't damaged it yet in the 10 years we've had it. I worry about real wood though, water stains and scratches from the dogs. It makes me wonder if it is worth it to spend that much money to constantly worry about what the dogs are doing to the floor, much less the grandkid's messes.... ;)

So those of you that have real wood floors, please tell me how well they have held up over time. I realize they can be refinished in the future if necessary, but isn't something that I really want to need to do anytime soon.... I realize tile would hold up best to water, kids, and dogs, but not something here in the Midwest that anyone wants as their main floor. It just isn't done like it is in the warmer Southern states. For instance, tile is wonderful in a Florida house...

I like the warmth of carpet and the easy process of just vacuuming it, thinking a real wood floor through out the whole house will require much more upkeep, which I'm not sure about either. I remember back in the 60's everyone could hardly wait to cover their real wood floors with carpet, now it's the other way around. So I'm wondering if carpet will come back into vogue again eventually... I remember my Mother and the neighbor ladies just dying to get their carpets put in back in the day! >8)

Any advice or shared personal experience with your own real wood floor would be much appreciated, especially if you have pets! :)

catherine

2-10-13, 9:02am

You're right about carpet covering wood floors in the past! We had avocado shag carpet throughout the entire house when we moved in, and we kept it for several years. Then we wanted to get rid of it, and lo and behold there were beautiful oak floors underneath. The house was built in 1974, and so the builders put in the hardwood, and then covered them with the shag. You sure don't see THAT anymore.

We do have pets. I found that the wood did NOT hold up all that well. It does scratch and water can damage the finish over time. However, I'm thinking that maybe pre-finished hardwoods are more impervious these days? Someone else would have to weigh in on that.

We did refinish them in the living room about 4 years ago. They were GORGEOUS. It took work, but no more than a full week from removing stuff from the room, renting the equipment, doing the work and then putting three coats of polyurethane on top.

Unfortunately, the next Christmas, the kids got us a puppy. (Not really unfortunately, but unfortunate for the floors.) While we were in the housebreaking stage, the dog peed several times in one place in the living room that we didn't always see because we don't really use that room much. As a result I have a spot about 2' x 1' where the wood has browned and the finish has bubbled up at the seams. I am so mad about that, but from what I understand you can spot finish by sanding the spot and just refinishing it (we didn't stain the floor, so matching stain is not an issue), so I'm going to try that at some point. Otherwise, they've help up great.

Short answer: wood floors are more finicky than other types of laminates or tiles, but the quality and durability may vary.

BTW, when we decided to replace our vinyl tiles in the hall/family room, I chose a high end Pergo. I know it's not the real deal, but I was looking for the durability. For maintenance purposes: I love it. And I think they really look good--not like cheap photos of wood grain. This is the type that has the "hand sawn" look. But there's nothing like real wood, so I hope you find what you're looking for!

dado potato

2-10-13, 9:55am

Pergo laminates have certain advantages. The floor is impervious to barf and urine (from pets! LOL). Maintenance is simply a matter of dusting and damp mopping.

On the downside, pets slipping on Pergo can contribute to hip damage. (Trimming nails and the fur between their toes may help. Also you may be able to find pergo with some texture to it.) The surface is "cold and hard". (Can soften that effect with an area rug.)

iris lily

2-10-13, 9:55am

I don't know what I'd recommend, but I do know that I hate hate hate carpet.

I'd do classic oak floors by choice. We have parquet squares that get a beating from constant dog pee. Our floor will never look good, but oak would hold up a little better. Oak--with a satin, low sheen finish. I know that my neighbor as unhappy that her new oak floor immediately showed scratches from her 6 large dogs. But I thought her floors looked fine, they are not ever going to look shiney and new in a situation like that.

We have ceramic tiles in the kitchens and bathrooms, and it's held up pretty well. In fact we just visited a tile store yesterday to custom order tiles to repair a few spots. Of course we can no longer get the 8" pieces that were made 20 years ago, but we are getting large pieces to color coordinate.

cdttmm

2-10-13, 10:08am

In the main part of our house, we have oak hardwood floors, 3 very active dogs, and 2 cats. Our floors are scratched from constant use and doggy mayhem, but they really only look like they need refinishing in the most high traffic of spots -- this is after almost 11 years of abuse. We'll probably wait another 4 or 5 years before we actually do any refinishing, though. We have pre-finished oak floors in the other part of our house -- what used to be our home office. That part of the house saw heavy use for 7 years, which is why we went with pre-finished when we put it in. We got the super bomb-proof finish, essentially the most durable stuff you can buy. It's held up very well with the exception of the two spots where we watered the plants and the water seeped out all over the floor and sat for a week while we were away. Doh! But even though those spots have some staining and the finish is bubbled up to some extent, it's not the end of the world. We have extra flooring on hand so that when we finally get motivated we'll replace the parts that got damaged. We have tile in our bathrooms, laundry room, and kitchen. Love the durability of tile, but wouldn't want tile put in throughout our New England home -- too cold in the winter! We do have carpeting in our MIL apartment and it is horrible. But I'm cheap so I'm not replacing it until it is beyond functional. :D

SteveinMN

2-10-13, 10:26am

I've done a lot of research on flooring over the years. My recommendation may surprise you: vinyl. There is a category (waaaaaaay beyond 99-cent peel-n-stick tiles in looks, ability, and, sadly, price) called Luxury Vinyl. It's available in sheet, tile, and plank form. And it looks amazing. You'd never know it was not the material it looks like -- wood, stone, concrete.... I know vinyl has a rep for being a cheap floor, but the good stuff doesn't rip or dent, maintains its looks with almost no maintenance, and can soak in standing water without issue. That's important around dogs and toddlers. And it's not hard to find a LV floor with a 20-year warranty against ... well, pretty much anything short of nuclear war.

Brands to consider include Metroflor (http://www.metroflorusa.com/res/home.html), Karndean (http://www.karndean.com/en/floors.aspx?link=ghfi), Amtico (http://www.mannington.com/commercial/LuxuryVinylTile.aspx), and even bigger manufacturers like Congoleum (http://congoleum.chameleonpower.com/Visualizer.aspx?Specifier=Congoleum\Images\RS96059&sel=103713) have it, too. I know vinyl has a rep for not being a "green" floor, but, really, cradle-to-grave, I don't know as it's any worse than the finishes that need to be applied to some stones to seal them against household wear, or mining/shipping/cutting/polishing/transporting marble from halfway across the world, or cutting down new-wood forests to make wood floors. And vinyl can be recycled, though it's not as easy as recycling wood or stone. But if you can buy a floor which will last for the next 20-25 years...

Try to find a store that specializes either in just flooring or does business in what's called "commercial flooring". They can show you enough patterns and colors to make you dizzy.

Another option is true linoleum. Linoleum gets props for being made largely from renewable resources (sawdust, linseed oil, etc.; it is, in fact, non-toxic) and for its durability. However, it's not cheap, either, comes in a limited number of patterns compared to almost any other flooring on earth, requires maintenace (sealing once or twice a year) and sheet linoleum is not a DIY project because seaming sheets of lino together requires skill. There are linoleum planks and tiles out there; you'd want to make sure they were up to the water challenges you anticipate your floor having to endure.

Rosemary

2-10-13, 11:51am

re: pre-finished wood floors - I don't have direct experience but have heard comments from several friends that they would not go this route again due to the ridges around the edges of the boards that trap all kinds of particles, dust, dirt, and also the finish not being as durable as finished-in-place wood.

we have laminate in most of our living areas and are happy with it. It's not perfect, and it won't last 100 years. But it is easy to clean and resists almost any damage aside from a couple of dings in the kitchen where I've dropped knives. (And then I was just happy that the floor took the ding instead of my foot!) We have ceramic tile in the bathrooms.

ToomuchStuff

2-10-13, 12:00pm

I would be interested to see if anyone has grass flooring. If you don't know what I am talking about, it is bamboo. I have heard that it holds up some ways better then hardwood.

iris lily

2-10-13, 3:27pm

SteveinMN

2-10-13, 4:00pm

I fantasize about high quality vinyl. The one thing is that I don't want it to look like stone or whatever, I want it to be patterned as ceramic or vinyl. When we put ceramic tile in our kitchen/breakfastroom/bathroom, we priced good quality vinyl and it was more expensive than our ceramic floor with DH installing it.
The pattern is the running "discussion" DW and I have. I don't want a cold-looking material (stone or ceramic) on the floor. I'd go for wood, but only if we do the entire floor with it. I think it would look dumb to have a "wood" floor in the kitchen and carpet in most of the rest of the house, but it doesn't make any financial or ecological sense to remove the good carpet we now have and spend even more putting in a new covering. So I want vinyl that doesn't look like wood/stone/ceramic. It narrows the field quite a lot.

IL, you bring up a good comparison point in pricing. Typically LV will cost almost what the real material would cost; it just comes with benefits. One of them is that subfloors for ceramic and stone have to be very rigid or the tiles will crack from the flex and unevenness. It's good that that was not an issue for you guys.

bae

2-10-13, 4:05pm

I would be interested to see if anyone has grass flooring. If you don't know what I am talking about, it is bamboo. I have heard that it holds up some ways better then hardwood.

I have been strongly considering this for an upcoming reflooring of my house. Our local community performing arts center installed bamboo flooring years ago, it gets an incredible amount of traffic and abuse, and it still looks very nice.

Wildflower

2-11-13, 8:46pm

I have been strongly considering this for an upcoming reflooring of my house. Our local community performing arts center installed bamboo flooring years ago, it gets an incredible amount of traffic and abuse, and it still looks very nice.

I have a neighbor that has new bamboo floors and she hates them, is even thinking of replacing them. She says they are unpleasantly loud when you walk on them, and she doesn't like the "feel" of them....not sure what she means by that. ;) The floor store guy already told us to forget about getting bamboo because they don't hold up to dogs very well.

Tussiemussies

2-11-13, 9:00pm

Hi Wildflower, one thing we do is to keep our dog's water bowl in a boot tray the lip on it helps to keep food and water in the tray. My dog eats gingerly so it might not work with your situation.

We had done some research on the best type of flooring to use in a basement and the answer is vinyl. It is amazing how great vinyl can look these days, really looks like laminate flooring and it was easy to put down, for now we experimented. I picked out the fake wood one that I liked and we put it down in the pantry room. So far we love it...:)

pinkytoe

2-12-13, 10:26am

We have experienced all types of flooring except for laminate. Currently, we have ceramic tile in the kitchen, bathrooms and mud room for practicality's sake. I will never have carpet again. They all have their drawbacks so I would go with those that have proven to be timeless like wood.

Sparrow

2-12-13, 10:57am

We have wood flooring in our living room. With area and runner rugs, we have managed to keep our 3 dogs from damaging it. They are not allowed on it if they are wet. However, they leave dusty footprints all over it. It's beautiful when it is all clean and shiny but looks dingy otherwise. It's like trying to keep a huge piece of furniture dusted. I'd rather have pretty slate or stained concrete instead. Tile would be fine as well; we having that in our kitchen and dining room. Since we live in a warm climate (Texas) the "coolness" of stone floors is nice.

JaneV2.0

2-12-13, 1:13pm

I love the look of stained concrete and I've browsed linoleum in interesting contemporary patterns. I haven't looked much at high-end vinyl--something to think about, along with bamboo and hardwoods. Like Iris Lily, I've come to hate carpeting with a passion.

citrine

2-12-13, 1:50pm

We have hardwood from the 50"s, ceramic tile, and Pergo....love them all, but they are a lot of work. We have two cats who run around like the Matrix, hairballs, and a lot of traffic....no problems at all so far.

Gardenarian

2-12-13, 3:29pm

I have wood floors and two dogs. The floors do get worn but I am not that fussy - I would rather have worn wood floors than new vinyl. I consider the wear-and-tear to be a patina - like your favorite pair of jeans. Water has not been a problem. (Dog pee, on the other had, eats through polyurethane.)

Every couple of years I use the Bona floor polish (http://www.mybonahome.com/products/hardwood-floor-polish-high-gloss.html) - only takes a couple of hours, and the floors look almost new.

I have had fewer problems with wood than anything else, including vinyl. If I were putting in new floors I would look into salvaged or reclaimed wood flooring.

Wildflower

2-16-13, 4:26am

Thanks everyone! You all have been very helpful. I appreciate it! :)