What type of floor for home on slab?

[siouxi31]

There was a post asking what type of floors people had in their homes and it asked what they like or disliked about their floors. Being in the market for new flooring, I read all of the responses and really enjoyed the input.
The homes in my neighborhood are on slabs (no basement). My neighbor put in some Pergo and I asked them if their home seemed colder because of it. The floors of our homes get very cold since they're on a slab. The neighbor said it wasn't but I can't help but feel that they don't want to admit that they made a mistake after all that work of putting in the floor (they did the installation themselves).
The thing is that I really like the idea of a Pergo-type flooring but I don't want to find out that after installation, my home is more cold.
So, for any of you who have a home on a slab, what type of floor do you have, and do you love it or regret it?

 

[golfgal]

I could see where Pergo wouldn't be much colder then other types of flooring since you put a foam pad under the flooring that would insulate it some. My BIL has Pergo and although they have a basement, their floor isn't any colder then our regular wood flooring or even carpet (and I always have cold feet). I would think that tile would be worse then a Pergo. Can you go over to their house and walk on their floors to check for yourself?

 

[siouxi31]

I think that's what I'll have to do. I'll go over to visit and then get into my bare feet on the coldest day That will give me my answer. Ceramic has to be out of the question. It would probably get ice on it in my house.

 

[Disneycrazymom]

We have Pergo at the lake and we are on a slab there. I absolutly LOVE it. No problems with coming in from the lake or pool and being wet cause the floor just wipes up. It is also easy to clean at the end of the weekend. 2 things you would notice are that it is much louder in the house, things tend to echo. And it is a bit cooler than carpet would be. Be sure to get the best pad you can and one that is made for slab floors.

Let me add that at home we also have hard wood flooring and have a basement and it is also cooler than a carpet would be. After having the hard wood and the pergo no way would I go back to carpet. I think it is way cleaner, holds up to life better and in my opinion really pretty.

Kinda funny but when I got the floring my Mom came in and said she remembers my grandmother being so excited to cover "these old hard wood floors" with this nice soft carpet!

 

[mickeyfan2]

There was a post asking what type of floors people had in their homes and it asked what they like or disliked about their floors. Being in the market for new flooring, I read all of the responses and really enjoyed the input.
The homes in my neighborhood are on slabs (no basement). My neighbor put in some Pergo and I asked them if their home seemed colder because of it. The floors of our homes get very cold since they're on a slab. The neighbor said it wasn't but I can't help but feel that they don't want to admit that they made a mistake after all that work of putting in the floor (they did the installation themselves).
The thing is that I really like the idea of a Pergo-type flooring but I don't want to find out that after installation, my home is more cold.
So, for any of you who have a home on a slab, what type of floor do you have, and do you love it or regret it?

If I was you I you put in underfloor heat and tile or the 5 ply hardwood that can go over underfloor heat. We live in a warmer area than Chicago and love the underfloor heat in our Kitchen, hallways and bathrooms that are tiled. Also concrete is a very stable base for tile. We have a full basement, so the rest of the house has hardwood, but not underfloor heat.

 

[thinkerbell]

We have tile in bathrooms and laundry room. It is cold but we still love it because it looks nice. We have rugs in front of the sinks where we would be standing for any length of time. We have carpet in the great room and bedrooms. We have hardwoods in the kitchen,foyer and dining room. They are a little cooler than the carpet but really, not much. The only thing about hardwood is it eventually loosens because they can never get the cement perfectly level. It isn't enough to stick up or anything but you can hear it when you walk. We have had several people to look at it and they said that that is just one of the things about having hardwoods on cement. It really isn't noticeable to anyone else at all but it did bother us at first because we thought that the installer didn't put it in correctly.
We don't go barefoot in the winter. We always have on socks or bedroom shoes.

 

[msdznyduck]

We also have our family room downstairs on a slab with tile. (not ceramic ) It is nice in the summer, since it is cooler down there, but we have a problem with humidity.......if we don't have the dehumidifier on down there, it gets slippery . In the winter....really cold. We would like to put carpeting down there, but the sliding glass doors to the deck are there, and in the summer it is a main throughfare of the house.........everything gets tracked in there. Easy to just sweep up, but would have to be vaccuumed constantly. Along with the dog, who has 'accidents' sometimes, now that he is getting older (and stubborn!) I don't want to have to replace the carpet in a few years. Maybe when he is gone we will think about carpet.....until then, I don't go down there much in the winter.
I'm not sure about wood floors, I would be afraid they'd be all scratched in a few years.......not something I would want to replace soon either

 

[Jpgirl]

Definitely put in underfloor heat. We live in TX so it doesn't matter but when we lived in Ohio we had a room that was on a slab and we had carpet and it was NEVER warm in there. The wood floors would be a little warmer than tile, but if you put an underfloor heat in, it wouldn't matter what was on top-it would be toasty

 

[siouxi31]

I would love to do some sort of heating under the floor but isn't it expensive? Also, would it take up alot of room? One of the reasons I don't want to go with real hardwood is because of the subfloor that would have to be laid first. Subfloor + floor makes the floor rise that much more. Since I'm not doing the laundry room, bedroom, bathroom that are also on the first floor, raising the level of the rest of the home leaves that awkward thick and high threshold between rooms. So would the underfloor heating also raise the floor?

 

[mickeyfan2]

The underfloor heat would only be about an inch high. As far as cost, you need to get quotes. The coast varies by the different type of underfloor heat and area you live in.

 

[momsgoofy]

I think that's what I'll have to do. I'll go over to visit and then get into my bare feet on the coldest day That will give me my answer. Ceramic has to be out of the question. It would probably get ice on it in my house.

We have a slab foundation...and ceramic in the kitchen, dining room, both bathrooms, and the hallway between our front door and the kitchen. We didn't chose it, the builder did before we bought the house and I wasn't thrilled with it, but loved the layout. The weather around here varies...hot humid summers...temps in the 90s and above. Our winters can get really cold...last weekend we had temps in the teens for highs. The tile does get colder than the carpeting, which is in the living room and bedrooms, but the tile is fine. The one advantage is during the summer with the slab foundation and tile floors, it is much cooler. We do have a heat pump and tend to keep our temps around 68 or 70 degrees in the winter and a bit lower in the summer...but the tile hasn't been a big problem for us.

 

[clh2]

I lived in an apt. in the chicago area, which was on a slab. NEVER AGAIN. It had carpeting in the LR and BD, and a vinyl tile in the Kith and Bath. My feet froze that entire winter.

I would spend the extra $$ and get the heated floors.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

We live on a slab (it's the only type of house available, we just don't DO basements in the South ) and we have carpet in most of the house, but the kitchen and one of the bathrooms have hideous laminate flooring. The master bath has ceramic tile that DH installed himself. We are hoping soon to either get new carpeting (because cream was a really, really HORRIBLE choice let me tell ya! ) or hardwood. Personally, I'd like hardwood because I hate to vacuum, although I don't mind sweeping/mopping.

TOV