For those of you who have hardwood floors, how is it? I am putting a new kitchen floor down soon, and I really like this honey oak hardwood. The sales guy told me he prefers laminate, as he is a clutz and drops utensils and it dents. I really, really, like this hardwood, but want a durable, long lasting floor. We have dogs too, but I try and keep their nails trimmed.
What are your opinions? Which is easier to keep clean? Cost isn’t an issue, my kitchen is small enough that both options are affordable.
I have fir floors throughout my 75 year old house, and I love them. Fir is much softer than oak, and I have no trouble denting…although I have to say that I don’t mind my floors looking a bit distressed/used rather than immaculate, so even if I did nick/dent the floor, I wouldn’t throw a hissy fit about it. YMMV. I’m a little skeptical about your salesman’s claim that oak dents easily, as oak is pretty hard.
I would never in a million years put down laminate floors in my house, but that’s probably my own prejudice. Laminate floors are, IMO, disproportionately expensive to their quality. The actual thickness of real wood in a laminate floor is microscopic, and although everyone raves about their durability, if you do happen to chip, scuff or crack it, the floor is ruined. It cannot be repaired, and unlike a real hardwood floor, your chip/crack will expose the nasty composite material beneath it, so it’s extremely obvious. Damage done to a hardwood floor can be simply sanded out and touched up, since it’s wood all the way through.
Contractor with opinions on both sides: One customer had one of the early Pergo® HPL floors installed in their barn/converted to dwelling which housed adults, a herd of teenagers, some huge dogs and a possel of cats. The installation was 10+years old when I saw it and looked great.
Hardwood wears with dignity and is forgiving as previously observed. It does not take a trained eye to discern HPL from true wood.
Numerous other factors to consider are:
What is the supporting substrate? Cementitious slab or sheet vinyl over OSB?
Some interesting species of wood have entered the flooring market, such as bamboo.
Are you doing this job yourself, with a friend, or hiring an installation?
Since it is a kitchen, what type of counters do you have, what appliances slide under them, and how high are the adjustable feet?
In case the last question makes no sense: I was called to check out a garbage compactor and fould it located beneath an L-shaped granite counter that had two sinks and a cooking surface recessed within. A mud set tile floor which didn’t run under the cabinets and appliances had been installed, such that I had no prayer of getting that appliance out for servicing, short of counter removal.
That brings up the final consideration: most hardwood is ¾" thickness, so if transitions to adjoining flooring planes, interference with hinged doors and so forth are an issue, the typically thinner HPL may be a better choice.
My brother-in-law put laminate floors in his bar. Beware excessive humidity! Before the air conditioning system was installed, the floor was as warped as a Frank Zappa box set.
I put Pergo in my kitchen in 1994. Got a dog at the same time (his puppy pictures show him licking my face as I am installing the base moulding) That puppy is now 100lbs. and owns some very long nails.
The Pergo still looks great. A damp mop and it looks brand new.
And yes Pergo can be repaired, but it is not a DIY project.
Had hardwood in the house where we raised 5 kids & assorted pets. It took a beating, needed cleaning, refinishing often. Did look lovely when clean, newly varnished.
Have softwood in our weekend place. It’s aged nicely but needs a lot of maintenence.
Had Pergo installed in early spring throughout first floor of my condo, including bathroom, kitchen and laundry room. We have a new puppy, an elderly dog, lots of visiting pets; I’m a spiller and a gardener who tracks in dirt. The floor is so easy to care for and so impervious to just about everything that I really can’t imagine having anything else.
I’m not sure what is under, it is over a basement, and the floor is currently (Gasp!) carpet. I know the first step should be checking out the underneath…
I saw some cool stuff I really liked it was teak. I really liked that look, too.
My boyfriend and I will probably do it. He’s pretty handy. We’ll probably have a friend of his, the guy who put the ceramic tile down in our upstairs bath, come over to help too.
This is a big factor - we have a refrigerator that has absolutely NO clearance from the cabinets above it. The thickness of our new floor must be equal or less than the current carpet/pad/whatever is underneath.
If this is a consideration, things are not looking too good for the hardwood option. A hardwood floor is 3/4 inch and may require a subfloor as well. (3/4 inch subfloor is a minimum for hardwood, and 1 1/4 inch is recommended.)
Still, you may be able to modify the cabinets to buy some extra height.
We have had hardwood floors–never in the kitchen–in our homes during the past 13 years. Hardwood is great, but it may need too much maintenance and worry in a kitchen.
If I went with a laminate I would choose a Wilsonart product. That brand is supposed to be more water resistant. I would also not go with a wood look–somehow to me kitchens tend to expose the fake esthetic of laminates a little too harshly. But that’s just my opinion. You can get laminates in all sorts of tile and stone look alike designs.
We are investigating re-doing our kitchen floor as well. We are leaning towards original linoleum.
I used the acronym HPL meaning high pressure laminate to refer to HPL flooring in a generic sense. Pergo® was one of the first, having been marketed by the now defunct Color Tile chain. Other laminate manufacturers and traditional (hardwood) flooring companies have jumped on the bandwagon to secure their piece of the flooring pie. Strip hardwoods, faux marble and tile patterns abound.
Since you say it is over a basement, I’m presuming a wood framed ordinary construction, which means tear out the carpeting and underlayment (padding), remove staple bits, and start over.
Go to your local big box store, and also check out flooring wholesalers in your area. You’ll be able to determine the finished thickness plus 1/16" for the floating interlayer. IIRC, Bruce® does have some veneeer hardwoods that are thinner than the real McCoy but may suit your aesthetic desires.
What if I have a cement floor that is below grade? Would you put hardwood or laminate? I would love to ditch the carpet and put in some sort of ‘wood’ flooring but being below grade, I’ve read, is some sort of factor but I don’t know what. I would have to put down a moisture barrier I know but anything else I should know?
We had a duishwasher problem that slowly leaked water under our floors for a long time. I’d hate to think that they would do to an actual wood floor. Some folks do advise that hardwood applications are better for other parts of the house, not in kitchens or bathrooms. However, that’s not a hard-and-fast rule and there are clearly many people who have had successful hardwood installations in these rooms. So take that bit of advice with a grain of salt.
Laminate has gotten better in the past few years, and there are many more choices than there used to be. I never thought I’d find a laminate that I liked (I personally hate the “planky” look of original Pergo) but boy was I surprised. We found a very subtle honey maple made by Formica. It doesn’t look that terribly different from our Bruce engineered hardwood floor.
When we had our floor installed our fridge was too high to fit where it used to. However, the cabinet above it had a little lower “lip” to it which we could plane down. Problem solved.
We have wood laminate flooring in a hallway adjacent to some HPL flooring (Armstrong brand) in our kitchen and we’re happy with both. Both are 3/16" thick (plus the underlayment for the HPL floor).
For us, the synthetic-laminate stuff is the way to go in a kitchen since it gets so much use. It wears great and cleans up nicely. We installed it ourselves and have had no problem with warping in the 3-4 years we’ve had it.
(And Jadis, the top layer on our wood laminate floor is 1/16" of an inch thick. Not real thick, but not microscopic either. If needed, it could be sanded down some and refinished at least once I would think. It is looking good enough after 10 years that that hasn’t been necessary though.)
We just did a complete remodel of our kitchen this spring, and probably the thing that we like the best is the Hardwood floor we had installed. We spoke with several contractors and kitchen designers before we started and they all agreed that the newer hardwoods that you can get now hold up just fine in a kitchen application. IMHO the variations in the real wood just give it a look that is so much better than the synthetic.
As someone mentioned earlier… yes, you can bet Bruce laminates in a thinner plank. We used this in the front entry a couple years ago because door clearance was an issue. It looks great as well, so that may be an option for you.
Sorry for the delay in response, I was out of town working. My first test would be: ASTM-D 4263 Standard Test Method for Indicating Moisture in Concrete by the Plastic Sheet Method.
This test is conducted by taping down a sheet of glass or minimum 6 mil polyethylene, approximately 18" x 18", to the concrete surface for a period of not less than 24 hours. After removal of the sheet check for the presence of moisture. Perform one test per every 500SF of floor.
The problem with this is that it is a qualitative test, e.g. it indicates the presence or absence of moisture, at that point on the floor, during the test period and cannot guarantee long term survival of any flooring product or mastic not engineered for moisture exposure.
If your basement has never been damp for as long as you’ve lived there, and you’ve lived there a long time, and you do the above test, and it comes up good, and you peel up the old carpet, and it doesn’t come up skunky smelling with no evidence of mold on the underside, then it may be advisable. Consult the flooring manufacturer data regarding below grade installations, and if they do authorize with a vapor barrier, follow instructions to the letter.
If you’ve read all of my disclaimers, and don’t hate me, thanks.
Good luck, and write back if you’ve further questions.
