OT~ Hard wood floors or carpet???

[nwolak]

We are in the process of moving into a new house that needs a lot of work! One decision we need to make is to finish the hardwood floors or put carpet in. I've always had carpet, but I like the way the hardwood looks. We have twin 2 year old boys. Can anyone give any firsthand advice? How is it playing/sitting on the hardwood floor compared to carpet? Will the house be colder without carpet? I think hardwood would be easier to maintain, especially with a golden retriever!

Thanks so much for your thoughts!!

 

[tlbwriter]

We are in the process of moving into a new house that needs a lot of work! One decision we need to make is to finish the hardwood floors or put carpet in. I've always had carpet, but I like the way the hardwood looks. We have twin 2 year old boys. Can anyone give any firsthand advice? How is it playing/sitting on the hardwood floor compared to carpet? Will the house be colder without carpet? I think hardwood would be easier to maintain, especially with a golden retriever!

Thanks so much for your thoughts!!

Yes, hardwood will be more cool than carpet, and it's not as comfy to play/sit on (though rugs will help a lot). I've had both, and in my next house, I think I'd like carpet in the bedrooms/playroom, and hardwood in the rest of the house.

 

[flipflop]

Hardwood is much easier to keep clean, especially with a Golden. It also will not hold onto dander, allergens, etc the way carpet will. We have hardwood throughout our home - bedrooms and all. We did get area rugs for the bedrooms and great room so that the kids would have something comfy to sit and play on and we all could have something warm under our feet in the morning.

 

[grumpyvet]

We had the same experience when we bought our wreck of our house. The 1970's carpets were past gross. Pulled them up, and hardwood beneath.

I have far too many pets.. With hardwood, the vomit/accident/poops that occassionally occur with pets...no big deal!!! DD drops the gallon of milk...a mess, not a catastrophe!!!

Because of the no carpets..my DD has over the years, ridden her tricycle, jumped rope, driven remote control vehicles, played slip and slide ice skate, you name it on the floors.

That said, without carpet, the dust bunnies really seem to collect, I sweep constantly to keep up with the gritty dirt that collects, so seems a lot more daily maintainance. But at least, I can see my dirt....after seeing how mcuh grit/hair/stuff accumulates daily...kind of grosses me out how much junk is in carpet that we don't know about!!

I do live in Southern CA...so a cold morning for me is, 50 degrees, so for us, not an issue!!

 

[Manda]

We have hardwood in our living room, kitchen, and hall and carpet in the bedrooms. I wish we could have hardwood in the bedrooms as well, but it's a condo and we're required to have carpet in the bedrooms. My DS prefers it because it makes for a much better surface to building race tracks, train tracks, puzzles, Lego creations, etc. that get wobbly on the carpet in his bedroom. I like it because it just always looks so nice and I feel like I can get it a lot clearner. Like another poster mention, carpet can keep so much yuck trapped in it. And I live in a wintry wonderland (Chicagoland) and the floor never feels cold. My tile in the bathroom feels cool to the touch, but the hardwood just feels room temperature, I guess. I don't really notice it at all.

 

[JackJack08]

Hardwood....hardwood...hardwood. NEVER again will I lay carpet. You can always throw rugs over it, when the rug is gross, buy a new one for a couple hundred bucks...not thousands to replace the whole carpet. With pets...carpet is too stinky!

 

[myprincessgirlisa]

HARDWOOD all the way!!

 

[nwolak]

Thanks so much for your input! That should help with the decision!

 

[_queenie_]

We had the same experience when we bought our wreck of our house. The 1970's carpets were past gross. Pulled them up, and hardwood beneath.

Ditto, we pulled up this disgusting yellow and pink shag carpet that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years when we layed our hardwood, what a disaster!

We moved into our house nine years ago (we're planning to build a house, I'm so sick of "pre-built" houses ), and chose hardwood for the halls, living rooms, and one bedroom, tile for the kitchen and bathrooms (had to even pull shag carpet off of the surrounding area to the gross sunk-in-tub and floors to put in the tile), and carpet for the rest of the bedrooms because it's what our budget allowed at the time. We're now trying to replace the carpet with hardwood, we had it in all rooms at our old house and I badly miss it! In the long run, your almost saving money by just getting hardwood as you never have to replace it (and switch to hardwood ).

 

[DawnM]

Hardwood.

We have hardwood and carpet right now. We are ripping out this carpet and starting to replace it all with hardwood.

Dawn

 

[gibsontrio]

hardwood is SO much more sanitary than carpet. I would go with hardwood and just lay area rugs

 

[all4fun]

Our house is fairly small and a "great room" concept. A couple of years ago, we pulled the carpet out of the living/dining/kitchen area and the halls and laid wood laminate floors ourselves (much easier do-it-yourself project than hardwood, and cheaper). If you already have wood floors that just need refinishing, then if it were me, I'd refinish them in a heartbeat rather than lay new carpet! I love our "wood" floors. They do show dirt a lot more, but they are also a lot easier to clean. We have an area rug in the living room and the runners in the hallways. DS has never had any issues with it.

 

[chessie2008]

We love hardwood floors. We have wood on the whole first floor. I don't find that it keeps the house any cooler. We do have area rugs in both the family and living room.

 

[dmccarty]

Hardwood, tile, cork, bamboo, anything but carpet.

Our house has finished concrete floors.

The concrete color is pretty close to the color of the dirt outside the house. Not as messy looking with the dogs and the kids.

In our old house the carpet was new when the house was bought. I cleaned the carpet once with a wet vacuum. I used gallons of vineger, Natures Miracle, and hot water. After hours and hours and hours the liquid was still dark and icky.

No more carpet.

We have a sick dog who has trouble controlling herself. If she poos its just not a big deal. Pick it up and spray with a disinfectant. Done.

Carpet is not as soft was people think. Yes it better than concrete but not by much. The softness depends on the pad under the carpet. Our kids hit their heads harder on the carpet then they have the concrete.

The only problem with hardwood is that if it get wet it can have problems. If it is solid hardwood it will take a lot of water. The laminates are a different story and a little water can cause the wood to swell.

 

[tzolkin]

you said "finish the hardwood". does the house already have hardwood floors that need to be sanded and refinished? if that's the case it's relatively simple to do and would save you thousands over installing carpeting. others have stated the other benefits as well.

we have no carpet in our house. we just have a rug in the family room (we've replaced it 3 times in the past 5 years) and in the bedrooms. we have winter for 6 months out of the year and it's still pretty comfortable. i always wear slippers in the house though. bare feet would be a little chilly.

 

[Thats_for_Shore]

I agree with everyone else. I love my hardwood floors.

Easy to clean if there's a spill or accident. Much more sanitary. And very pretty.

The only thing is, pets can be harmful to hardwood. If your dogs are like mine, they'll barrel through the house after they've been outside, and their paws can scratch the wood.

It's not terribly noticable, but after spending that much money *I* notice it. It helps to have a rug on the inside of every door. It'll help the dogs gain traction instead of slipping around on the floor, plus it helps to collect the dirt from shoes.

 

[kileybeth]

I grew up in a house with all hardwood. I purchased a house with all hardwood. I moved to a new construction house and had all hardwood installed on main level and carpet upstairs in bedrooms. Biggest mistake ever. We are six years in and although we upgraded to top of the line padding, medium grade carpet it is all in need of replacement (over 2000sq ft. ). I love the flexabilty of changing out /updating area rugs. so much easier than installing wall to wall. six kiddos later I have never felt like my house is cold and we keep heat down low and live in N.East.

 

[staci]

HARDWOOD. Without a doubt. Cheaper in the long run too. Even if you have to do some work to get them looking good, they will last MUCH longer than carpet. Our old house had original hardwood and it was so maintenance free- just swept and swiffered once a day. It looked as good the day we moved out as the day we moved in (3 years). When we moved here 2.5 years ago, this house had BRAND new carpet. OMG it looks terrible now. With two kids there are so many little stains and there are paths worn in the hallways.


The only place I would carpet would be the bedrooms. The rest of the house I would hardwood.

 

[tinkerjess]

all of our floors our hardwood floors and i love them carpet just seems dirty to me have you ever looked at all that gunk when they steam clean we keep socks on our feet in the winter. my daughter did have a hard time learning to crawl bc of the wooden floors. we also have a lab that is in the house but be careful because they can scratch up your floors. our vet puts these black caps on his claws so he can walk without scratching the floors. the vet told us that is hard for dogs to walk on wooden floors. but i would never trade my wooden floors for carpet!!

 

[Mom2JPL]

We have a husky (can you say HAIRY ) and love our hardwood floors! I use the vacuum cleaner on ours a few times a week and they look as good today as they did when we installed them 5 years ago. My kids are 4, 3 and 1 and have had no problem with the floors - they love sliding around in their socks! You're lucky...when we pulled up the carpet when we moved in the hardwood underneath was ruined by the red glue they used to glue the carpet down. So, we installed new hardwood on top - my dad and dh did it - it was pretty simple.

Enjoy your floors!