OT~ Hard wood floors or carpet???

[arizonacolbys]

We currently have pergo flooring in our kitchen & living room downstairs & the 3 bedrooms & hallway upstairs are all carpeted. The carpeting is awful & needs replaced & we are planning on replacing it this summer.

With 2 big labs & a baby on the way, I'd love to just pergo the rest of it - it holds up VERY well with the dogs. Does anyone think a house with no carpeting would deter a buyer when we go to sell the house in a couple years?

 

[disykat]

What about noise? I reluctantly just replaced our carpet. We have a barky dog, musical instruments, etc. All that noise with high ceilings I just didn't think I could take it!

 

[hoosiergirl7]

We have ceramic tile in the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms. Hardwood floors in the entry and dining room and I love them. We've thought about extending the hardwood into the family room but we'll move by the end of the year so it's not worth it. We have carpet in the bedrooms and I like it but I hate vacuuming it. When our kids are teenagers I have no doubt we'll go to all tile and hardwood but our son runs like crazy and falls all the time so I just can't see hardwoods throughout right now.

 

[goldenears]

We have hardwood floors and a 2 Year old and we LOVE them!!! Our daughter sits down on them and plays - no problems. I have lots of allergies and think hardwood is so much better for me and hopefully for my kids too.

 

[tlbwriter]

What about noise? I reluctantly just replaced our carpet. We have a barky dog, musical instruments, etc. All that noise with high ceilings I just didn't think I could take it!

Yes, it is noisier. Especially with a dog's claws... click click click click!

 

[RMulieri]

I have hardwood in my hall , kitchen and dining room and most of the first floor.My family room is carpet.I like how the hardwood looks...but it is a pain in the rump to clean ( especially the kitchen) and after standing on it awhile my back and feet hurt.get plenty of compliments on my house, but if I had to do it over again, I would probably stick with carpeting everywhere except the kitchen.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We had hardwood in our old house. I loved it in the spring, summer and fall. The floors got chilly in the winter but I just threw down some throw rugs and it was fine.

My current house has carpet. Ick - too much of a pain to clean with the kids, cat and dog. They track red clay dirt in and it gets into the carpet.
I'm always having to hire steam cleaners before out of town company arrives so we have clean carpets for them.

I'm hoping to replace the carpet with hardwood in a year or two. All of the first floor will have to be replaced including the dining room and kitchen.

We put in wood laminate in the kitchen and dining room ourselves. The dust from the installation was everywhere. Dining room is still fine but the kitchen stuff is taking a beating. I dropped another plate yesterday and it broke off a chip from the floor - the plate survived just fine though.

 

[karajeboo]

OK, maybe it's just me, but I swore never again to hardwoods! Our last house was brand new and had hardwoods in all the living areas, kitchen, etc. Loved the daily maintenance, but I'm a neat freak and actually "cleaing" them was way too time consuming for me. First I'd sweep, then dust to get all the little particles, then clean, then shine every couple of months. It was a 3 hr process!!!! I finally hired a cleaning lady just to do my hardwoods. Now that we've moved to Florida, we're ripping up all the carpet (in a brand new house!) and laying down tile!!!!!!! Way easier to clean than hardwoods, IMHO.

Also, the hardwoods were way too hard on the feet (I remember the first day standing in the kitchen unpacking boxes - I was soooo sore!). But I do agree that hardwoods look the nicest if you take the time. All my friends thought I was crazy to complain so much about them, and seeing all the positive comments on here, maybe it is just me?

 

[DebRMN]

What about noise? I reluctantly just replaced our carpet. We have a barky dog, musical instruments, etc. All that noise with high ceilings I just didn't think I could take it!

AHHHHHHHHH My dh & i talk almost daily about which rooms to add carpet into. We have an 8,000sq ft house with not one room carpeted. Yes area rugs, but our house is so open (there are almost no walls to hang ANYTHING on) it is so flippin loud in here we want to move.

On the other hand it is great, easy clean up, but is a lot more daily maintenance......becasue you can see the dust accumulate very quicky (scary if you think that all of that dust in your carpet).
I have one of those commercial brooms (like school janitors use) it works great for quick sweep ups of dust.

It definitely looks nice too. If your house is not an 'open' floorplan, I say go for it

 

[heartbeeps]

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!!

had w-2-w; ripped it out & put h/w in 2 winters ago.

Pluses:
Much healthier (I have allergies & asthma w/ h/w);
much easier to keep clean;
looks great!
cooler in the summer
easier to clean up after the dog if he's sick and has an accident

Minuses:
gotta be a little more diligent in not dragging things across the floor or dropping things that would nick it up
colder in the winter
hard on your feet

I got a light red oak color - the color is darkening a tad (I love it even more now than I did when it was first put down)

I now only have carpeting in my living room; counting the days till I can afford hardwood in there too. However, I will DEFINITELY put a large area rug in that room to make it warmer.

Added - we have a small home & we can hear an "echo" down the hall to the bedroom when we talk at times; we can also hear the dog's nails "click click" across the floor from a couple rooms away (but he's a small dog). I would NEVER put carpet in my bedroom b'c of my allergies/asthma. My allergist said that's the FIRST ROOM to install hardwood! The carpet HAD TO GO... and I'm breathing much better b'c of it!

 

[momof296&02]

We have radiant heat under our floors in the kitchen, basement & 4 bathrooms. It is awesome! We have wood floors (no radiant) in the den, dining room, living room and bedrooms. I have throw rugs in these rooms. I say go for radiant where applicable the floors are so nice & cozy- I wish I had it everywhere.

 

[HerdOHuds]

Okay.

This topic has come up among a group of moms of multiples, and I am talking twins, triplets, quads, quints and sextuplets.

Most go for the hardwood, but advise agains prefinished hardwoods, as they are more prone to scratches and dings.

Noise is an issue that should not be discounted. We have hardwood (prefinished-AAAAAH!) floors in our entry and dining room and those toys dropping and banging and if you add a dog clicking and then the requisite screams and bickering (the kids are 3) it gets LOUD!!!

I would love to know what you have chosen. Now that our kids are 3, we still occasionally dream of replacing the carpet in the living room because the messes are continual, no matter how diligent and on top of things we get.

 

[hammie59]

I agree with all who have posted before me that say YES to hardwood. We have them through out the entire downstairs. Upstairs is all carpet which is newer and is already riddled with stains (we put in cream and have 2 kids, we must have been smoking something). Our house, including the hardwood is 67 years old and the floors look GREAT. Just invest in a swiffer.

 

[ILoveDisney&Cruising]

we also have a lab that is in the house but be careful because they can scratch up your floors.

I agree! We LOVE the hardwood in our foyer/kitchen ... but the dog has scratched it terribly. We have a labradoodle - love him to death - but we get his nails trimmed every 10 days or so and they grow like weeds.

 

[Marshay]

We are planning to redo our dining room which currently has carpet and it is connected to the living room (same carpet) and kitchen (ugly laminate).

If we switch to hardwood floor, do we put an area rug underneath the dining table but leave the surrounding area (sideboard, china hutch) bare? If we don't get a rug, how does the floor stand up to all the food, chairs scratching over the floor to get in and out, etc?

If we do get a rug, then what's the difference between this rug and carpet? Aren't you still vacuuming and dealing with hair/food, etc in the carpet? Can area rugs be steamcleaned? (I'm picturing one of those large oriental rugs but maybe that is not an area rug?)

Finally, the dining room is directly underneath DD's bedroom so I assume our evening dinners with guests would be noisier for her if we switch to just hardwood?

Thanks for the help! I'm a newbie when it comes to flooring choices and really appreciate all your help.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We love our hardwood floors. We have tile in the baths and one large bonus room with carpet and the rest is hard wood. It is noiser but that is my only drawback. I was shocked after moving in our current home at all the dust and lint that HAD to be in my old carpet. I do need to go over it with the swifter every day BUT my swifter wet jet will handle any spill or acident in seconds and NO stain. DGB LOVES that all his trucks and cars FLY across Nona's floor and though i worried about falls on it when he was learning to walk that has not been a problem at all, though he did run smack into the wall, maybe I should carpet those! .

good luck deciding.