Flooring

[leebee]

The wall-to-wall carpeting in our bedroom is a nightmare. It's a light green with a slight blue tint, and it has a bunch of grey stains (maybe the size of a quarter) in quite a few places, along with a couple of larger phantom spots (came this way when we bought the house, so not really sure what the spots originally were... ick!). We always said we'd replace it, but we've lived here almost 13 years and haven't touched it yet. This summer might be the time! We were considering buying carpet when there was a "free installation" deal going on, but DH just started talking about replacing the rug with hardwood or laminate. It's the only room in the house that doesn't have wooden floors (except the bathrooms). I am really not a fan of wooden floors, but if we are spending the money, it would probably increase the value of the house. Is it difficult to put down flooring on your own? This room has radiant heat- does that make a difference? I watched a video but it's not clear to me as to how much of a pain in the butt it is to do this- experiences?

 

[manning]

There's porcelain and ceramic floors. They can be made to look like wood floors....expensive.

 

[Hook326]

We just put solid hardwood flooring down in our living room, dining room & sitting room at our current house. We really dislike carpet. In our old house, we put engineered hardwood down in our kitchen. The engineered hardwood was snap & lock type while the solid hardwood was nailed in on the side (we bought the nailer but I'm sure you could rent). We've also laid the wood laminate in our old house. We will never do the engineered again, dented & scratched too easily. The solid hardwood was more expensive & time consuming to lay but really worth it. We bought from lumber liquidators & between them, the directions in the box & some videos, it wasn't a complicated job just time consuming.

 

[Hook326]

Also, we had radiant heat in our old house too. Never bothered the solid hardwood floors that had been there since it was built in 1945

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The wall-to-wall carpeting in our bedroom is a nightmare. It's a light green with a slight blue tint, and it has a bunch of grey stains (maybe the size of a quarter) in quite a few places, along with a couple of larger phantom spots (came this way when we bought the house, so not really sure what the spots originally were... ick!). We always said we'd replace it, but we've lived here almost 13 years and haven't touched it yet. This summer might be the time! We were considering buying carpet when there was a "free installation" deal going on, but DH just started talking about replacing the rug with hardwood or laminate. It's the only room in the house that doesn't have wooden floors (except the bathrooms). I am really not a fan of wooden floors, but if we are spending the money, it would probably increase the value of the house. Is it difficult to put down flooring on your own? This room has radiant heat- does that make a difference? I watched a video but it's not clear to me as to how much of a pain in the butt it is to do this- experiences?

Do your homework. Find out what is right for your subfloor, humidity, etc before buying a single plank. If something isn't right for the conditions don't install it no matter what I or anyone else here tell you is the best or the prettiest or what have you. If it is the wrong type of flooring for your conditions installing it could end up going badly. It's not incredibly difficult. But it's not nearly as easy as the videos make it look either. And some are harder to install than others. It's time consuming. Make sure you buy enough for the job and all transition pieces too. If you've never used the equipment required before, get some scrap and practice on it before attempting it with your flooring product.