Hardwood Floors vs. Carpet

[tink20]

My carpet in my Living room is about 10 years old and very worn. I want to redo the floor. I was thinking of hardwood floors.(or should I just get new carpet?) I have never lived anywhere with hardwood floors. If you have hardwood, give me the pros and cons. TIA!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Pro's....

Spills, dog pee, mud, etc is wiped up in a jiffy. Always looks good. I can wear shoes in the house without worrying about staining the hardwood. That is our major plus for us.

Con's....

You do see every speck of dust or dog hair. It can be scratched. Water is not good for it but I have to say we are going on 1yrish and it is holding up pretty well.

My carpet on the other hand looks like crap. Granted it is the builders grade stuff however we are not carpet people and need to have all hardwood flooring in major areas of living because we ruin it.

 

[Rora]

I love my hardwood floors!! They're so much easier to clean and I think they're healthier than carpet.

The only thing I worry about it them getting scratched or water damage.

 

[MAKmom]

I just put Brazilian Cherry on my whole first floor. I disagree you see every speck of dust etc. Maybe it is my lighting but I used to vacuum everyday with carpet & I only dust mop 1x a week in the LR. The kitchen I sweep more often but I always did.

The only thing is they do scratch but you really do not notice it....after the shock of the initial scratch.

I had Pergo for years & it does not scratch at all & looked great for 10 years. I have the DuPont laminate in our basement & love it also.

I would never do carpet again I think it is gross. It is bad to keep using carpet cleaners on them. I plan on replacing the bedrooms as soon as we can get the money together.

 

[Heidict]

Love my HW floors!!!

Pros-
-All messes are really easy to clean up from food to liquids to play-doh.
-hold up better then carpet
-you can use a dust mop for daily and/or a quick clean instead of having to drag out a vaccum.
-I think they just look prettier.
-Much better for allergy suffers and in high humidity areas.

Cons-
-They can scratch



Some mentioned water damager, how ever carpet can sustain water damage also. As a matter of fact, my DD decided to flush a ball down the toilet. Of course, the inevitable flood came and I had water in the hallway and heading towards the bedrooms. Thankfully, with a mop the mess was cleaned up quickly and painlessly. I can't even begin to image the drama in trying to clean up and then dry a soaking wet carpet.

 

[ZuZugal]

We have been in our home 6 years now.

We had hardwood installed everywhere except the bedrooms (carpet) and kitchen (tile).

Our carpet now needs to be replaced. It is just worn out and looks like crap, even when professionally cleaned.

Our hardwood on the other hand looks AWESOME!! I would rather have to fix a scratch or two than replace entire rooms of carpet.

I just cleaned the hardwood recently with vinegar and water. It looks great!!

We had a medium-color wood and it does not show every little thing. I think the very light/very dark woods tend to show more.

 

[beattyfamily]

Hardwood all the way for all the reasons already mentioned!

My biggest reason though is my allergies and the value it adds to the house!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Hardwood all the way for all the reasons already mentioned!

My biggest reason though is my allergies and the value it adds to the house!

Oh yea, should have mentioned those. Very important for us as well.

 

[Piglets Mommy]

We just replaced our trashed carpet with hardwood about a month ago, and love it! We even did it ourselves..it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It is so great for our allergies, and so much easier to mop than dragging out the vaccum every day.

 

[DWGal210]

I'm also for hardwood - it is SO easy to keep clean. Right now I have carpet in my condo and dislike it (it came with the unit and I haven't changed it yet - but why on God's Green Earth would someone put in white carpet?! I digress.)

For those of you who have done hardwood floors, what did you spend, if you don't mind me asking? And for those of you that went with the cheaper options, do your floors still look nice?

I'm very interested to hear - this is tentatively on my spring projects and wanted to know what other people thought, too.

Thanks for posting the topic, OP!

 

[tink20]

So far, so good! Looks like hardwood might be the right choice.

 

[minnie56]

LOVE it! Did the entire main floor and just bought for the stairs too..
Once up there, I am sure the bedrooms will be next!

 

[ChrizJen]

Even though the general consensus has already been reached, I thought I would chime in again with another vote for hardwood. I heard somewhere that the hardwood "boom" is about over and that carpet is coming back into fashion with many designers, but I think I'll forego fashion. I'm so sick of carpet. We replaced some of our carpet last year with hardwood, and I cannot wait to replace the rest!! I absolutely HATE the upkeep with carpet! I have several cats, and the carpet shows it! I have to vacuum every day just to keep up.

 

[TanyaLovesPooh]

I prefer hardwoods.

The only other con not mentioned...they are cold to walk on in the winter.

 

[RadioNate]

I hate my carpet. I so regret not putting laminate in the master when we did the rest of the downstairs.

We picked laminate over hardwood while the kids are little. Ours was an insurance settlement from tropical storm Fay and the laminate was about the same cost as carpet. If we are here in another 5 years and plan on staying we'll replace the laminate with actually hardwood.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Our new house has hardwood floors in every room except the kitchen and bathrooms (tile). I've only lived with carpet, and I REALLY think these are better.

Pros -

Easy to clean. I use Windex (ammonia free) to do everyday cleaning. I spray it right onto the floor and damp mop it with a microfiber mop. For deep cleanings, I use a bucket of water with Simple Green and use the same damp mop process.

They look GREAT!!!


Cons -

They scratch.

You see every fleck of everything. (Although, with carpet, I saw every fleck of everything, too... only it was more of a pain to drag out the vacuum. I am VERY particular and a perfectionist, so...)

They can be cold... wear socks, buy slippers!

 

[moet7]

you can fall easy if you are wearing socks!
learned this first hand yesterday as I was running to grap the phone and went around a corner and down I went!

 

[AKL_Megs]

you can fall easy if you are wearing socks!
learned this first hand yesterday as I was running to grap the phone and went around a corner and down I went!

YES!!! My mom was actually BAREFOOT, and she slipped, fell and hurt her hand really bad.

 

[kellyg403]

I am with everyone else...love hardwoods. With kids, animals and dh it is SOOO much easier to wipe a mess away!

We want to do the stairs and the bedrooms next and I can't wait. However, we have decided to wait until we can get a few more kids out on thier own!

I also agree...it is a little cooler in the rooms with the hardwoods but in the winter I love to turn on the fireplace..it makes the floors actually warm!

Kelly

 

[golfgal]

you can fall easy if you are wearing socks!
learned this first hand yesterday as I was running to grap the phone and went around a corner and down I went!

This could be a pro too--we had a large, Victorian house when I was growing up and had a good running space from the living room through the dining room and into the kitchen--it made for great sliding space, kind of like a slip and slide without the water .

We had oak hardwood in our old house. When we bought the house there was hardwood in some rooms but not the living room and dining room. We added that, matched it up PERFECTLY with the existing stuff and finished it all. You could not tell where the old and new met.

People have complained about scratches--we had ours installed and finished on site. There are 3 coats of poly on the floors. The wood will NOT scratch but you can scratch the poly--but if done right it takes a LOT to scratch. You can buff out those scratches if you want.

Honestly, having lived with both I can't come up with a con for hardwood floors.