[Augustus McCrae's Mom]

I want to get new flooring in the living room and dining room. The living room is high traffic; the dining room, not so much, but I want them to match.

My husband and I are trying to decide between laminate and hardwood. He thinks wood will be better because we'll be able to refinish it once it gets worn down. I'm undecided.

For those of you that have laminate or hardwood, please give me some advice, let me know what your experience has been.

Thanks!

 

[NuttinButGoldens]

Carpet. It's cheaper, and wood always worried me with big dog stability.

 

[Scarletts_Daddy]

I love the look of the more exotic wood floors. The home I built last year had tile and carpet. I loved the tile. However it did have faults it was brutally cold to my feet. Sadly my clumsy ass also dropped some dishes *crash* I'm 90% sure that wouldnt have happened on wood.

 

[esSJay]

The hardwood that you buy these days is pretty well made and are good for high traffic areas. My old neighbours laid the pre-finished hardwood down about 10 years ago on their entire main floor and it has held up really well. There are no scratches, fading, etc. They have a dog but it is a little maltese/shih tzu. It looks fantastic too! (the floors, not the dog)

Our house is mostly original hardwood from the 1960's, aside from the kitchen which is ceramic (hate it, too hard and cold on my feet and knees/back), our entrance way and basement are laminate, and our family room is bamboo (don't get it - it's too soft and scratches easily!). I'm not a fan of the way our laminate floors looks (it looks like laminate!), but it is tough as heck! I see the new laminates they have at Home Depot/Lowe's, etc these days and they look really good and much more like real hardwood.

Overall, my opinion is that both types will serve its purpose without being worn out, so just go with what you like and what you can afford.

We plan to redo the floors in our house next year sometime and it will definitely be one of the two - if we can find a nice looking laminate that is cheaper than hardwood, I will be ordering it!

 

[Noey]

my mom has hardwood with a treatment on it for dog reason. If they spill water and or lots of paw traffic it hold up better and that top layer of marks can be buffed out and cleaned. The wood is not damaged.

I'm looking as well. I'm thinking a laminate/floating floor based on cost with a coating. Wood is too much for us and Bamboo is s new material, not sure how it does with water, acciedents, and oet feet. Have you looked at Lumber Liquidators? they offer 3 free samples.

 

[Swanolck]

I have laminate in my kitchen that is quite old and I strongly dislike it. I have newer laminate in my office and it's ok, definitely not my first choice.

I have real hard wood in my dining area (high traffic area) and it is by far my favorite floor. We went with the number 2 oak so it has many more knots and a lot of variation in coloring. Plus we went with the little plugs for a country look. It has held up nice and I say any scratches in it add character. Here is the only pic I can find of it, on the right is the older laminte (by the chair) and the dark wood on the top left is Bruce pre-finished WAX floor (which I will be sanding down and polying some day).

 

[NuttinButGoldens]

This all reminds me of a funny thing that happened to me once.

I went to Carpet-One to discuss new Carpet, but was also going to consider hardwood floors.

She showed me Pergo. Said it was scratch proof. I said really? She handed me a sample and said "Try to scratch it".

I took my car key out of my pocket, and commenced to put a HUGE scratch in the sample.

I looked at her and she said "Um, that's not quite what I meant" LOL

I went with Carpet

The hardwood that you buy these days is pretty well made and are good for high traffic areas. My old neighbours laid the pre-finished hardwood down about 10 years ago on their entire main floor and it has held up really well. There are no scratches, fading, etc. They have a dog but it is a little maltese/shih tzu. It looks fantastic too! (the floors, not the dog)

Our house is mostly original hardwood from the 1960's, aside from the kitchen which is ceramic (hate it, too hard and cold on my feet and knees/back), our entrance way and basement are laminate, and our family room is bamboo (don't get it - it's too soft and scratches easily!). I'm not a fan of the way our laminate floors looks (it looks like laminate!), but it is tough as heck! I see the new laminates they have at Home Depot/Lowe's, etc these days and they look really good and much more like real hardwood.

Overall, my opinion is that both types will serve its purpose without being worn out, so just go with what you like and what you can afford.

We plan to redo the floors in our house next year sometime and it will definitely be one of the two - if we can find a nice looking laminate that is cheaper than hardwood, I will be ordering it!

 

[AmberSunrise]

I love the look and feel of wood. I just needed to replace 50 year old flooring (a previous refinishing job had badly damaged the original) and did not even look at laminate. I am talking a complete replacement for a 26 x 52 foot main floor other than bathrooms and kitchens which have tiling. I may be old-school but a few of my brothers:

Installed and promptly REMOVED the laminated flooring; they hated it that much. It looked wrong and was really bad on the feet. It was so cold and hard they could not stand it. This was in 2 different houses.

Another brother still has laminate and it is holding up 'wel'l but after 10 years it looks like laminate, not wood. He also keeps his heat up very high in the winter and they have carpeting in the living areas.

 

[LuckyPup]

My dad always said that if you are thinking hardwood or laminate it should be where it is location wise in your house. He always said upstairs you should do hardwood and in the basement you should do laminate. Something about settling or something? I really do not know why!

 

[BeauShel]

We put Bruce hardwood down in the family room and I love it. It is the glue down kind. No big scratches from all the dogs. The only scratches that happened from it is because I went to move the coffee table and the little tab underneath to keep it from scratching came off and when I move it it put a scratch mark on the floor. Got one of those pens for flooring and it helped to cover it where it isnt really noticable. We have laminate in the bedroom from when Beau started having seizures and ruined the carpet and I hate it with a passion. It holds up well but I dont like the feel of it and looks like fake. I hate the click and lock too. It can be frustrating. The glue is so much easier.

 

[Traz]

We layed our own laminate in our kitchen , dining room & down a hall to the bedrooms. I love it. Much cheaper than carpet when you DIY. I do have carpet in my living room & family room because I like the warmer comfort. The laminate has been down probably 5 years & looks as good as the day we laid it. All but a few months of that we have had a golden & no scratches. It is so much easier for cleanup with all the dog hair.

 

[Mssjnnfer]

I have wood floors ALL through the house... except the bathroom and a little patch by the door.

I like the look of them... but I also hate them. (The wood) lol... If I don't sweep for a day not only is the dog hair super noticeable but so is the DUST. Maybe because we have a really dark color of wood... But yeah.

Other than that, wood is pretty. LOL. I didn't help at all, I'm sorry.

 

[Bailey & Charlies Mom]

We have hardwood through the whole house except for the kitchen and the entry ways and I love it! They are durable easy to clean and don't hold any smells. I have braided rugs down and dog beds in most rooms so the girls never have to lay on the hard floor if they don't want to.

 

[Penny & Maggie's Mom]

We have the original hardwood ( 1950's) and LOVE it. It's worn great ( we ripped up carpet to get to it when we bought the house 29 years ago ) and has great character. We do have carpet in the family room and guest room. Wood in living/dining room, halls and other bedrooms.

 

[Dallas Gold]

We've done carpet, ceramic tile, wood (glue down type) and travertine tile. The carpet was disgusting after a few years, the ceramic tile was ugly and the installers didn't set the tile properly, the wood got scratched and due to a moisture issue in the foundation it delaminated and warped. Our dogs' tags and nails did a huge number to the wood. It was Anderson Cherry wood. The sales people said it would hold up to the dogs--they lied. The travertine, while expensive, is wonderful! WE LOVE IT!! The dogs really enjoy it during the hot Texas summers. It's easy to maintain and the color matches our dogs' fur. We can forgo a few days of vacuuming until we see the fur tumbleweeds collecting on it.

 

[Faith's mommy]

we've used Alloc laminate flooring in several rooms and love it. it's held up really well, no issues with scratches or whatever.

the only thing, as stated above, boy does it show dirt and hair quickly. you have to sweep every day to keep on top of it. and, even then, i swear i have swept up and then turned around to find another hair tumbleweed blowing through the room.

 

[slip_kid]

I have wood floors ALL through the house... except the bathroom and a little patch by the door.

I like the look of them... but I also hate them. (The wood) lol... If I don't sweep for a day not only is the dog hair super noticeable but so is the DUST. Maybe because we have a really dark color of wood... But yeah.

Other than that, wood is pretty. LOL. I didn't help at all, I'm sorry.

get an irobot roomba...

 

[Ambesi]

I've had both and have to say I love the hardwood in our new house much more than the laminate that we had in our old house. That being said, we bought pretty cheap laminate in our old house because it's what we could afford.

They do make laminate now that has a thicker layer (1/4"?) of actual hardwood on top and we were told that it can be refinished up to three times (I proably wouldn't refinish more than twice though).

 

[GoldenJoyx'stwo]

I have a huge laminate floor in our kitchen. It was installed at least 5 years ago. I was only down a few months when we had a problem with a water leak. We then got a second laminate floor because the tiles beneath are asbestos. We were told the laminate would encapsulate it. I dislike the laminate floor. I love my wood floors.

 

[lgnutah]

If you need convincing that wood will hold up, here's my experience. We bought a 1960 era house in 1979 which had been "renovated" in the 70's style gold, brown and orange carpet and linoleum. As we could afford it, we started removing all that and lo and behold, underneath it all was either oak hardwood flooring, or heart pine flooring (even the kitchen and dining had been oak, but unfortunately someone had glued down an asbestos backed linoleum so we couldn't salvage it).
Anyway, in some parts of the house the 50 year old oak floors (that were covered by carpeting for probably 30 of those years) have never been refinished and still look GREAT!!! The heart pine floors just recently were refinished, and they now are gorgeous. The guy who did the work said no imitation wood floor is ever going to stay good looking as long as a real wood floor.