hardwood floors

[ez]

'm thinking about putting hardwood flooring in my greatroom. My house is hard to decorate because it is completely open and the greatroom drops down for the kitchen which is tiled and there is a railing separating the rooms. So in other words by 2 big steps you will be looking down on this flooring anytime you are upstairs. So dont want it to be too dark or overwhelming. There is a stone fireplace down there. Right now there is cream berber down there but it is shot. I already have so much tile want to try something different. Anyway would appreciate and comments advice on hardwood flooring thanks.

 

[DawnCt1]

I love my hardwood floors. We have them in every room, including the kitchen and three bathrooms, except in the den, family room and bedrooms we have carpeting, and in the bathroom off of the kitchen we have tile. We have them finished with a moisture cure polyurethane which wears very well. I like the contast between tile, carpeting and hardwood. We have natural finish, red oak.

 

[PatsMom]

My mom has oak floors and I absolutely love them. If it weren't for the construction budget, I'd have them in my house now! Her floors are over 50 years old. She's had them refinished once and they look awesome. She does use paste wax and a buffer on them once or twice a year. And area rugs on the real high traffic spots. They are not dark at all.

 

[MushyMushy]

If I had a lot of money and a big open room to do it in, I'd think about doing mosaics with a hardwood floor!

http://www.penningtonhardwoods.com/mosaics.htm

Beautiful.

Our floors are really old and in need of sanding and refinishing, but I love my hardwood floors. We're going to try to take up the carpeting in the living room in the hopes that the hardwood underneath is in good shape.

 

[Loverly]

I just put a floating "pretend" wood floor in my half bath-that is adjacent to the real wood floors in my foyer. You really can't tell-and it's a lot cheaper AND a "Do it yourself" project!

 

[Disney Doll]

I have it throughout my whole first floor and my house is lived in.

It holds up beautifully.

It has a water-based acrylic finish which cleans up well.

I love it.

 

[wonderlanne]

hi...i'm putting in medium-toned bamboo...nearly the whole house except primary walkways (main hallway on first floor), kitchen, baths, laundry room.

the bamboo is the same on the hardness scale as red oak, it is a quickly renewable resource (bamboo is a grass and grows rapidly), and it is really beautiful.

i can tell you about its hardiness as i have five kitties. it's fun for them to chase something and skid across the floor and there aren't any claw marks from that. it is also resistant to kitty throw-up (i leave for work, they throw up, it sits there all day, and when i get home more than twelve hours later and clean it up, there is no damage to the finish.)

i am using 6 mil. plastic waterproofing, on top of that is 1/4" cork (another renewable resource which will not off-gas like synthetics and won't crush like synthetics.)

 

[barkley]

i know someone who had a home like yours-her room looked like it was high end hardwoods with a huge area rug in the center. thing was-she only had hardwood installed around the perimeter of the room (think of like a picture frame) and the "rug" was traditionaly installed carpet. she did the steps into the room and the baseboards in hardwood (railing on the steps were stained to match).

cool thing was when she wanted to lighten or darken the look of the room she only had to buy a new chunk of carpet to change the whole look.

 

[MickeyMouseGal]

I had a light oak hardwood put in my patio room. The big deciding factor was durability as I have two large dogs and a few kitties. I love it because it is very easy to keep clean, just vacuum and an occasional damp mop.