Wood Floors Budget?

[LovableGluttons]

My home is approximately 2500 square feet. Some carpet, come ceramic tile.

I'd like to replace all with wood floors, even in the kitchen and bath. I'll just invest in some beautiful rugs for the living room, bedrooms, and bathroom, but want to see mostly wood!

I was thinking of bio-engineered flooring I didn't necessarily want hardwood, but wanted somethign that REALLY looked and felt like it, but didn't scratch like real wood, but didn't look like fake wood. Bamboo?

Anyone do something like this? I think we'd install most of it ourselves, but hire someone to do the stairs.

This is a project for a well over a year from now. We have a pooloutdoor living area we're building next year.


I'm just looking for ideas, costs, etc. Where di you buy your wood flooring and how much did you spend per square foot?


I was thinking of something that looks like mahogany. Nothing extremely dark like walnut, but NOT something too light either.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Pigeon]

Bamboo scratches, as does engineered wood. Strand woven bamboo is more durable than conventional bamboo. Some woods will scratch more than others.

Personally, I absolutely would not do hardwood in a bathroom. Google durability wood floors and you'll get lots of articles. You can also check out Consumer Reports, Aug2008, Vol. 73 Issue 8, p24-26 on wood floors at your public library.

 

[DawnM]

We got solid hardwood at Home Depot (Oak) on sale for $2.99 and DH installed it himself. It is absolutely beautiful! It even came pre-finished with a 5 year warranty. I have to say, it has been in 2 years and still looks brand new. We take care of it though and vacuum it with a hardwood floor attachment, and shine it up at least once a month with hardwood floor cleaner.

We were determined NOT to get any press-board parts. I wanted 100% solid hardwood.

We could not have gotten any pergo products for much cheaper and I since we plan to sell in the next year or two, we wanted something that will sell well too.

Dawn

 

[Grandmax3]

I installed Pergo flooring in my dining room due to hardwood being very badly damaged. A side effect that I learned about after installing it, it is very slippery to walk on. With socks on, it became a ice rink if you were not careful.As you know kids are not careful and had many a fall. It was like walking on ice. the problem is that there is no texture to the wood. My Daughter got engineered wood and there is texture on the wood and being a ice rink is not a problem.

 

[Gigi22]

Agreed, a bathroom is no place for a hardwood floor. I've seen photos of hardwood flooring in kitchen, but I question that too--kitchen floors are too high-use for hardwood IMHO. A badly worn hardwood floor can be both expensive and very dusty to fix, and at least with older hardwood floors, they can only take refinishing twice during their entire lifetime of use. In my own home, I have a ceramic floor in the front hall and kitchen, hardwood elsewhere.

 

[DISdreamin']

Agreed, a bathroom is no place for a hardwood floor. I've seen photos of hardwood flooring in kitchen, but I question that too--kitchen floors are too high-use for hardwood IMHO. A badly worn hardwood floor can be both expensive and very dusty to fix, and at least with older hardwood floors, they can only take refinishing twice during their entire lifetime of use. In my own home, I have a ceramic floor in the front hall and kitchen, hardwood elsewhere.

We have hardwood in the kitchen, and the house is coming up on five years old. The floors there don't look any worse for wear than anywhere else in the house. We are careful, though, about cleaning up any spills immediately (water, tea, coffee, whatever...) rather than letting them sit.

If and when we are ready to sell, we will have the floors refinished prior to listing. We have two big dogs who have done far more damage to the floors than anything we could ever conceive of doing in the kitchen.

 

[TxRabbit]

I've had hard wood floors in the kitchen. In the house I grew up in and also in a previously owned home. No problem in the kitchen. It was actually a bit easier on the legs to stand on the wood over tile. Like anywhere, you have to clean up spills sooner than later.

HOWEVER, we have wood floors in our powder room in our current home. NEVER AGAIN would I have wood floors in a bathroom. NEVER. In the kitchen, wood isn't in direct contact with any water source. In the bathroom, the flooring and the toilet are in direct contact. It's a nightmare. I didn't do it. The previous owners did. It's nice from the stand point of continuity, especially with such a small room. But the toilet and the wood together have been a bad situation.

ALL wood scratches. It's the nature of the material. To lessen the effect of scratching, all you can do is get an unstained product. You notice the scratches because the stained area gets compromised. If the wood is unstained, then the scratches are less noticeable.

There is another wood product that will not show the wear and tear as badly. The real thing is called "hand planked." It is basically a purposefully distressed wood floor. The floor itself is not flat. The hand planking creating hills and valleys in the floor. The real thing is beyond costly, but there are some premade/prefinished products in both 100% wood and engineered wood.

In choosing between 100% and engineered wood, you need to consider your installation. We have engineered wood in this house because it is installed on a concrete slab. The moisture issues of a slab installation make it much more suited to engineered wood. Pressed wood is actually very strong. It isn't the same as "pressed board". It can be flatter and stronger. Some of the best beams and house supports are created from pressed wood. A serious draw back to engineered wood is that you can only refinish it one or two times. Hardwood can be refinished as many times as it can before it hits the installation nails.

 

[Melrosgirl]

We replaced our carpet recently in our family room with wood floors (Bruce oak floors...nothing fancy). For a 255 square foot room, it cost us $2800 installed.

 

[DISdreamin']

HOWEVER, we have wood floors in our powder room in our current home. NEVER AGAIN would I have wood floors in a bathroom. NEVER.

THAT.

When I was doing selections, the builder default was to do HW in the powder room downstairs. I opted for tile, and have never for a moment been sorry (well...other than the fact I selected an ugly tile ).

We were at our neighbors, and theirs was a spec home by the same builder - they have HW in the powder room downstairs. It looks awful right by the sink because they have small kids (youngest was born in the home and is now 3) and kids just aren't cognizant of dripping water on the HW. When it sits, it really ruins the finish and it looks terrible.

 

[bored]

We're putting in laminate floating floor in our entire home right now (old home were remodeling). I bought it at Sam's Club. It's called Living Laminate and is made by Pergo, has backing attached to it, and a lifetime warranty. Paid $1.69 sq foot for it and another $1.00 per square foot to have it installed. My parents have had the same floor for several years and love it.

We did tile in the bathrooms, with the hardwoods in the kitchen.