Wood or tile?

[mommyto3]

We are trying to decide what type of flooring to put through our house. It will be for the kitchen(we are putting tile in the kitchen), living room, formal dining, formal living room, and the entry area.

We had planned to do wood (except in the kitchen), but now I'm not sure if that's the right decision. Here are our pros and cons for both......

Wood

Pros: I love the way it looks, easy to take care of.

Cons: I have three kids, scratches easily, thinking of putting a pool in the back yard and I would have to worry about kids coming in and being wet on the wood floor.

Tile

Pros: More durable than wood, would help to keep the house cooler (we live in Houston), there is tile that looks like wood, if we get the pool we won't have to worry about the kids getting the floor wet.

Cons: I have heard that tile is very hard on your feet, I'm worried about the echo and noise factor (Tiled homes seem more "loud" to me, very museum like).

Please give me some advice! Which do you have and what are the pros and cons for you. Thanks!!!!!!!

 

[rbuzzotta]

Tile can also be very slippery!!! Especially with kids coming running in the house with wet feet...........BABOOOOOOOOOM!!!

We just built our home. We have hardwood, marble and tile. Our playroom has a berber carpet.

I am so happy with our decision for hardwood. They look much nicer than carpet and are much easier to maintain. I make sure my kids take their shoes off in the house, especially tracking all the sand and salt in this winter.

I regret not doing hardwood in the kitchen. I have marble with a marble foyer........it is hard to keep up and looking shiny. But, I do love the look. I have tile in all bathrooms and that is a great decision over vinyl.

Good luck...............

 

[Beauty]

I vote for wood...although we have brick in our kitchen.

 

[yasuern]

I like wood but like you said - kids- water - etc - Tile I agree with rbuzzotta very slippery when wet - How about a laminate floor that looks like wood - ie pergo and the like - also many hard wood manufacturers offer a 15yr guarantee like Bruce Flooring - it comes out of the box prefinished and sealed. If its a small area in ? - perhaps while the kids are young you can put down vinyl and when they are older redo the floor with tile or wood.

 

[RUDisney]

FWIW, I love hardwood floors and I hate tile because of the grout to keep clean.

Hardwood is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It is easy to clean and with 2 adults, 2 children and 2 dogs in our house, our floors are not scratched. Yes, sometimes, and occasional scratch is found, but for the most part, a little filler and it's fixed. Our house is 2/3 hardwood, and the kids are begging for it in their bedrooms when their (brand new) carpets wear out. I tell them that we'll probably do that when they go to college. lol

Unless the wood is soaking with water, you shouldn't have any problems. Our kitchen is wood and the dogs' water dish sits on it and occasionally spills, to no harm. Remember, you can always get a cotton area rug for the summer to keep by the doorway to absorb their mishaps and still clean easily in the washer.

Wood IS less rough on your legs than tile. I spend alot of time standing in my kitchen, and aside from my grout hatred, this would be another turnoff for tile.

Remember, whether you choose tile or wood, you'll probably strategically place a few area rugs. We found a berber remnant in Lowes for under our kitchen table for only $40. When it gets too dirty and can no longer be cleaned, it's going in the trash.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I have had the same dilema with our new log home. I decided on slate for the back entry, kitchen, laundry, powder room and sunroom, but am leaning toward wood everywhere else. I too have been skeptical about wood because of all our dogs, but I think too much tile or stone will give everything a hard look.

 

[Steve H.]

In our new house, we decided on putting hardwood in our kitchen, hallway, dining room and 1/2 bath downstairs. The rest of the downstairs will be carpet (except for the mud room, that'll be tile).

 

[msdznyduck]

We used that tile that comes in strips and looks like wood........really. We have had people almost get down on their hands and knees to check it out when we told them it wasn't wood. I was also leary of putting wood in the kitchen, because of water spills, and the upkeep so went with the tile, and have not been sorry at all. Just a damp mop and you're done
msdznyduck

 

[ByTheSea]

We just put in new wood laminate in the bathroom, and are planning to refinish hardwood floors that were covered with carpeting for 20 years or so. Someone recommended using "Spar Varnish" - which is what is used for varnishing wood boats (had to get it from a Marine supply store.) We used it in the bathroom and did about 4 coats, but I have heard (read on a home improvement site I read) people doing even more coats for heavy traffic area or if you have pet's.

Our bathroom floor looks great, but it's only been a month or so. We do plan to Spar Varnish the floors we re-finish and will probaby do more coats as we also have a dog (but she doesn't spend much time in the bathroom so we thought 4 coats would suffice.)

 

[mamajoan]

At this very moment there are 3 men installing Pergo in my living, family and dining rooms.. also the kitchen and hallway.

so.. I shall let you know how it turns out..

btw..this am I was disappointed to find out that the installers would have to place 2 t-strip moldings in the center of the doorways btwn rooms due to the expansion and shrinkage of our concrete.. I am bummed.. anybody else have this problem??

 

[Lynn CC]

I have tile in the bathrooms and kitchen, but I have hardwood stained floors everywhere else.

I also have a pool, and the kids are constantly running in dripping wet at both ends of the house....but if you put some really absorbant scatter rugs down and let them wrap a towel around themselves it shouldn't be a problem. DS and his friends have been running in for 14 years now and the chlorine hasn't hurt them one bit. As far as scratching, I've had them re-done once in 20 years and they look great. We will probably do them again in another 5-10 years.

Wood is very easy to clean, I like it better than the tile rooms...harder to clean and they chip and crack if something is dropped on them. We recently tiled the kitchen, and now the 2 bathrooms need it.

Good Luck with your decision!

 

[luvindisneyworld]

Hardwood except for your entryway and kitchen and tile them.

 

[dianeschlicht]

At this very moment there are 3 men installing Pergo in my living, family and dining rooms.. also the kitchen and hallway.

I have not heard of anyone who really likes their Pergo. It certainly doesn't really look like wood, and the folks I know who have it have trouble with seeing the mop marks. I thought it looked like formica when I saw it in the store.

 

[believe]

I hate cleaning tile. We had it at our first home in the bathrooms (walls, floors) and I did not like it.

I would go for the wood. There are different degrees of durability you can get. My sister has a inground pool and hasn't had any issues with kids coming onto her hardwood floor.

 

[ByTheSea]

Originally posted by dianeschlicht
I have not heard of anyone who really likes their Pergo. It certainly doesn't really look like wood, and the folks I know who have it have trouble with seeing the mop marks. I thought it looked like formica when I saw it in the store.

I love our Pergo we put in the bathroom. We did SPAR varnish to extra waterproof it. Just use a swiffer on it and it looks great.

It doesn't have the same look at hardwood.. but I like it where we used it.

I don't have a good picture of the floor but you can see it a bit in this one

 

[dianeschlicht]

I like it better than the tile rooms...harder to clean and they chip and crack if something is dropped on them.

If you use quarry tile, porcelain, or stone, the chipping and cracking is not a problem. That is mostly a problem with ceramic tile.

 

[RUDisney]

Porcelain tile is very slippery when it gets wet. We have it in our foyer. It looks awesome and has granite diamonds in it... and best of all, the stone is butted up against one another, so NO GROUT! Did I mention that I hate grout?!?

When it is raining or there is snow outside, you can really take a header on this tile. We are constantly reminding people to be careful on it.

Our porcelain looks like marble and his high gloss. I love the look and it's non-permeable and low maintenance. I'd put it there again, but it's just another consideration.

 

[smiley]

We have hardwood throughout most of our house, including our kitchen. The great thing about hardwood versus tile in the kitchen is that when you drop something seemingly breakable it usually doesn't break. Tile is not as forgiving and almost all glass objects break on tile. Hardwood is also very easy to clean. As far as the kids coming in while wet, what about placing some type of area rug near the entrance? Good luck.

 

[aahmom1]

Originally posted by dianeschlicht
I have not heard of anyone who really likes their Pergo. It certainly doesn't really look like wood, and the folks I know who have it have trouble with seeing the mop marks. I thought it looked like formica when I saw it in the store.

That was rude. Did you leave your manners in bed this morning when you got up?

 

[RUDisney]

How is that rude, Diane was just stating her opinion, as we all have opinions based on wood vs. tile in this thread. If everyone who has Pergo and knows Diane doesn't like it for the reason that she stated, this is a valid point. She didn't attack anyone personally with her remarks, and quite honestly, IMO, Pergo looks like hardwooded linoleum. We looked at it as an option for our kitchen a long time ago. I personally didn't like it. Alot of it is sold, though, so they must have done something right. I don't like tile, but I hopefully didn't come across as attacking anyone or as being rude because of my opionion on this.

Rock on, Diane.