Flooring Options?

[punkin]

We've been looking at replacing our flooring for three years. We currently have carpet and tile in the wet areas - kitchen, bathrooms and hallways. I'm so sick of tile and I loathe the carpet.

I would love to get engineered wood throughout However not a good idea for the wet areas. I haven't seen any lvp that I like. It all looks fake to me. And it's just as expensive as the engineered wood once you add additional cost for quality lvp and quality padding.

I was discussing with my next door neighbor who went with wood. She said her deciding factor was she had to live with it so she wanted something she would enjoy looking at for the next 10+ years.

I'm still at a lost.

Thanks everyone for your recommendations and suggestions.

I have wood in the rest of my house. The only carpeted area is the family room and the only reason I might even consider putting down another carpet is that it is warm. I think with pets, tile with an area rug might be my best bet... but that is cold and DH suggested putting in radiant heat under the tile. That's ridiculously expensive! And putting in tile will probably require extensive work on the concrete plus installing a subfloor... also expensive. I'm trying to get DH to focus and go to the flooring store with me.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I would love to get engineered wood throughout However not a good idea for the wet areas. I haven't seen any lvp that I like. It all looks fake to me. And it's just as expensive as the engineered wood once you add additional cost for quality lvp and quality padding.

We put hardwood in our kitchen and it has been fine. The bathroom we did vinyl that that looks like wood - I guess it's pretty clear that it is fake wood, but I still like it.

 

[Darcy03231]

@Darcy03231 recommendation of vinyl tiles is very good especially if you are going to install them yourself to save money. Be sure to examine the condition of the existing concrete slab for cracks or unevenness prior to buying any flooring because that could change the battle plan. Carpet and padding hide a lot of flaws. If you go to the vinyl planking route, be sure to buy the best quality vinyl you can afford. Cheap vinyl is cheap vinyl. Don't waste your money.

I'm in the northeast so we don't have a concrete slab. We just need to make sure the sub-floor is level. When we do the floors we plan to buy top of the line. We have cheap laminate now that was put in by the prior owner right before we bought the house. While I really don't care for it, it's still in decent shape so we're not going to spend the money to replace it until we need to. It's a large area (kitchen, dining room, sitting area) so it will be a big expense.

 

[mistysue]

We have a glued down bamboo in our kitchen and dining room from roughly 11years ago and put in vinyl plank in our living room last year.
The bamboo definitely has the problem of being too soft so it dents... It dents from everything. That said, about a week after it was put in our kitchen flooded. The wood expanded and then went right back down within a couple days and you couldn't even tell. That was amazing.

As for the vinyl plank- I am a big fan of it because we tend to spill water when we water our plants and if it gets ignored nothing happens. Also our slab has spots where it goes down a bit and we actually did not have to fill them before putting the planks down. The planks are not stiff, they're actually more forgiving than laminate flooring so smaller imperfections get covered. It will scratch if you try to push heavy furniture across it, But honestly that was an experiment we didn't really need to do to figure out. ours pretty convincingly looks like wood unless you get on your hands and knees and overthink it.

 

[punkin]

I finally got my husband out to the flooring store yesterday. He hated every single Lvt option they had. Now he's thinking tile, but that's so cold I say, so he says... let's just replace the carpet.

 

[PolyTigger]

Love warm soft carpet!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Oak. From trees.

 

[punkin]

Love warm soft carpet!

With dog pee?

 

[punkin]

Oak. From trees.

I'd live to but part of the room is below grade and I don't think hardwoods would work.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Our flooring in our loving room was bamboo, looked great and held up well. Actually the assistant to the installer asked he he could have it, I gave it and the 3 unopened boxes we kept and he volunteered to remove it and we didn't get charged for that so it was a win-win. If we could have matched it and found something for the kitchen/baths that was the same height I would have kept it.

What did you use to clean your Bamboo? What is safe to use on it?

 

[SteveH]

@dreamin_disney I'm not sure which variation but it was the Bona brand.

 

[kuhltiffany]

When we moved into our house the main floor had 5 different floors of various kinds and heights. Last year we ripped it all out and put in wood plank looking tiles. It’s heated, so nice and warm in the winter. So easy and clean, between a Roomba and a steam mop!

 

[punkin]

I finally got DH to focus and brought home 4 samples. Can I get some opinions? The stairs are natural wood...oak. ignore the yellow walls. They will be painted after the floor install.

 

[punkin]

I thought I would bump this up to show the finished product. I think it turned out ok.

 

[barkley]

so is it lvp? if so how is it holding up to dog's nails?

i love the lvp we put in a few months ago-despite going a dark color it makes the rooms look much larger.

 

[punkin]

so is it lvp? if so how is it holding up to dog's nails?

i love the lvp we put in a few months ago-despite going a dark color it makes the rooms look much larger.

It's lvp. Since we just had our installed, I have no idea how it will hold up. I think I'll put down a rug in the center of the room eventually to try to protect it a little bit. Maybe one of those ruggables.