We are thinking of installing some type of flooring throughout our living room, dining room, and bedrooms. Our house is built on a concrete slab, so as I understand it, our choices are engineered hardwood (made like plywood), laminate, and bamboo (also engineered). We will be installing about 1000 sq feet of flooring.
Any advice or experiences to relate? Anything we should think about or avoid? Any thing you would like to recommend? I seem to recall that some people here hate laminate, but I can’t remember why.
Some factors to consider:
We might not keep this house more than another 5 years or so. It is a “starter” house–nice enough, but “builder grade” if you know what that means. I worry that hardwood’s expense won’t be worth it in terms of resale. Prospective buyers are likely to be first-time buyers or someone looking for a single-story home as a downsize.
We don’t have children, but do have 4 cats. Spilling and cats puking are more of problem than rough wear.
I see no reason to hate laminate. It looks good, as long as you don’t cheap out on it. And dare I say, it looks better than a lot of hardwood. Personally, I’m about to actually cover UP some severely damaged hardwood, rather than refinish. Reason being is that the hardwood desperately needs refinishing, and even then, there’s still other damage that can’t be fixed by refinishing. Also, my hardwood is quite squeaky. I’m going to try my best to screw down the hardwood where it’s squeaking, then cover it with laminate. That should decrease the squeakiness to an acceptable level.
We have laminate in our current place, which we’ve had for a little over four years now, almost 4 1/2. Still looks good as new. We’re a shoes-off household, of course, and we have no children or pets.
As has been noted, laminate is beautiful and long-lasting if you’re willing to spend some dough. I have no problem with mine; everybody envies it, nobody slips on it, and it does not scratch.
It’s DuPont.
Check the warranty. There are laminates designed fro commercial use with 10+ year warrranties, but you’ll have to go to a flooring distributor, not Home Despot.
I’ve got laminate, came with the house. Incredibly easy to maintain, mostly just needs weekly vacuuming and wet swiffering. And cat vomit just wipes right up, no problem.
It’s not unattractive but it doesn’t have the richness of wood and I’ll probably replace it with real wood eventually. (I like how wood wears) But for a builder grade starter house, I think it’d be perfect.
You might want to look at the flooring forum at gardenweb.com. Personally, I hate laminate, and by the time you spend enough on it that it’s really good laminate, you could have gotten very nice hardwoods.
I haven’t found that to be true in my shopping so far. It looks to me like good laminates are about equal in price to low quality hardwoods. Maybe I am looking in the wrong places, so if you have any suggestions, I would welcome them.
Those of you who don’t like laminate, would you mind telling me why? Is there something I should know?
I found bamboo today for about $2 a square foot, which seemed like a good deal. It is supposed to be 5-6 years old and they claim durability. I am especially interested in hearing from those of you who have bamboo.
We were going to do the whole house in bamboo. I finished the living-room, and we are now thinking of other options (probably cork). Why? The Bamboo is beautiful, but it’s too smooth - our dog slips while walking on it, and she’s scratching it (which because it’s so smooth, is pretty obvious). So, it’s probably fine for people without big dogs (out little dog has no problems with it, and he hasn’t been able to scratch it.
Sorry for the hijack, but - if your concrete floors are in good shape, you might check out staining them. We did ours - stain and finish - for sixteen cents a square foot. We did all the labor, though.
How about manufactured hardwood? It’s way more durable then regular hardwood, like laminate is, but it actually looks like real hardwood. It’s thick, too.
If you have pets or young kids and you go with hardwood, do NOT go with a dark stain. Our last house had dark hardwood. We have a 5 year old Husky, and every time she’d get excited, she’d skitter her claws on the floor. After a year the floors needed to be refinished.
Because they look like fake wood. I see them and my mind automatically says “fake wood” and that just isn’t something that screams luxury to me. Some of them are not quite as fake looking, and those are more expensive, about the same price as mid-grade hardwoods.
We ripped out the carpeting and had laminate put in the entire house (other than tile on stairs and in bathrooms) four years ago, and it still looks new and you can’t do anything to scratch it or harm it. HOWEVER, me - Mr. Static Electricity - has problems a few times per year when very dry (sort of every day in Las Vegas) and I get major jolts whenever I touch metal, no matter if I am barefoot, leather shoes, rubber shoes, you name it.
Our neighbors saw our floors and the man of their house decided only real hardwood floors would do for them. Now his wife wants to kill him. They have two kids (another on the way), two dogs and a heavy sofa. Their real hardwood floor looks like crap and they have had to re-do the floor almost every year. It shows every scratch and dent and nick. They moved the sofa and she told me it had dents like somebody had banged a sledge hammer in it.
Regarding bamboo - I am told it is quite nice, but very sensitive to sunlight - meaning if you have a section that is open to sunlight for long periods of time, it will discolor. Anybody know if that is true?
Curious to hear bamboo feedback as well. I just spent a 3 day weekend in a big bamboo area of China (Moganshan in Zhejiang Province). We ate tons of great bamboo shoots, saw the ubiquitous “bamboo truck” (not made of bamboo, but hauling about as much 30 foot long bamboo pieces as humanly possible on a vehicle that belches about as much black smoke as humanly possible), and dug up some of our own bamboo to bring home.
If you decide to go with laminate, choose a natural wood tone. A friend of mine, who prides herself on her girly girlishness, picked a laminate with a subtle pink hue. Problem is, at 1500 square feet, that hue is not so subtle. Pinky wood floors are shag carpet hideous.
Godforbid, don’t plant it! Go ahead and Google this info, but bamboo apparently takes over entire yards and it is almost impossible to stop once it had taken root!
When we first move to Las Vegas, my plan was to plant bamboo in the backyard…then I did a bit of research…they were suggesting building cement walls underground to stop wide spread growth!
I should have done some more research. We stupidly planted Yucca in the backyard, and are still digging up the tuber roots that will not stop growing - six years after we yanked them out! If bamboo is half the fun, nobody needs that headache.
The idea of the cats sliding around on slick bamboo just makes me want it more. Free entertainment. We have one big girl (a 14 pounder) but I don’t think she can do much damage. We keep their claws clipped anyway.
I definitely want a light finish. My house is pretty cottagey–blue walls and white woodwork, light-colored furniture.
NintyWt, your floor looks gorgeous, but I don’t think it would work with the look of my house. I am so impressed with that picture, though.
Another option which I’d forgotten: floating hardwood. Junckers uses a clip system which offers a nail and adhesive free full thickness hardwood floating floor. Here is their warranty and maintenance guide-good quality flooring distributors will carry or can get Junckers.
Free entertainment. We have one big girl (a 14 pounder) but I don’t think she can do much damage. We keep their claws clipped anyway.