Hardwood Flooring

[venom_inc]

Just bought a house and decided to replace the carpet with hardwood flooring. I wanted real wood but after seeing how nice laminate was, I am torn.

Has anyone had both and have a preference? What brand do you recommend? Pros and cons of both. Thanks.

 

[jf4boogie]

Family? Dogs? Slab or Crawl Space? What areas?

 

[venom_inc]

Family? Dogs? Slab or Crawl Space? What areas?

Dinning room and living room. I will probably own a dog within a few years but only a cat right now. Everything is above a full basement. I have a 6 month old.

 

[jf4boogie]

Hardwood all the way.

 

[RDJ]

I used Brazillian Tigerwood on my floors. and love it. go real or don't bother. I did 4 rooms and a hallway, cost me 11 grand total.

and pay to have it done. that shit is a pain in the ass

 

[SpectorV]

Depends on your needs and the overall house. If its a cheaper/smaller house then future owners may not want to pay up for the upgrade. Hardwood does help value while laminate ive heard really does not increase home value at all.

If its a slap you can float it or glue it, if wood floor you can nail it. Mine is glued down, so far I like it. Its real hardwood in my case~

 

[03cobra#694]

We did Engineered Bamboo. Been down for about 6 months and has held up well so far, and we have 2 dogs, but this isn't a high traffic area. This is the dining room, and will be doing the living and family room next. Note that the new 6'' baseboards or the transition strips aren't installed in this picture.

 

[venom_inc]

From what I have priced out, wood and laminate are roughly the same price.

This will be a high traffic area. I just keep hearing how well laminate can take a beating. With my daughter starting to play with toys, I was a little concerned about scratching the wood. Is there much of a difference in durability?

 

[03cobra#694]

When doing my research before buying, I found that Bamboo is one of the harder woods with a Janka wood hardness rating/resistance to denting of 3000. I believe the hardest is 4500, and the oaks and maple are around 1400.

 

[canibus]

Wood is great because you can sand it and drain it 10 years from now and it'll look brand new. Laminate on the other hand doesn't have that advantage

 

[PDubs]

We have three dogs (totaling almost 200 lbs) and have used multiple laminates as a result of living in different houses. No issues with scratching. The bigger the dog the higher the risk of scratching in real wood. Our biggest one is 100 lbs so laminate was the only choice for us. With the printing capabilities they have now, you can hardly tell a difference with some of them.

 

[wht93gted]

We have a boxer, about 3 years now, with Pergo laminate. There's 0 evidence of a dog even living in our house, let alone the crazyness that is a boxer.

The pergo is all through out kitchen and hallways, probably the highest traffic area of our house, and it certainly takes a beating and looks brand new. The owners before us, also had a boxer, which was about 2 years old. All-in-all our floors are 7 years old, without a single scratch or appearance of age.

I love it, and am replacing another section of the house with Pergo.


EDIT: Pergo also has a factory outlet site where it's pretty cheap, even their higher end stuff. I was at a local showroom looking at the California Gold slate, and it was $2.49 sq/ft. On this site; $1.59 sqft
http://www.pergoonline.com

 

[Sonic605hp]

Real wood ftw.

 

[65x2]

I have two dogs. One in the hundred pound range. I have Pergo in my living room and hallway. While I have wood in my bedrooms. While the bedrooms are low traffic you can still see the nail marks or bone drops. But the Pergo holds up just fine under all the abuse.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[xtremeskime21]

I have hardwood, and was thinking laminate. The big factor that sold me on hardwood is I don't like how laminate is so clicky when you walk on it. Just doesn't sound right. I also think there is a distinct difference look-wise.

 

[N2DAMYSTIC]

I was just faced with a similiar decision for our Family room and went with option 3 which is missing above, Vynil Wood Plank.

Real Wood is the best IMO but it really depends on where you put it. I would not put it in a room that will get abuse. In your case I would go with the Real Wood. Only way I would not choose wood in your case is if your wife walks around in high heels all the time.

As for Pergo, I have it in my other house for 10 years now and it has held up Great. It has been a rental property for the past three years and certainly takes some abuse. Only issue was where I had to replace a damaged plank. I had to pull moldings and rip up half the floor to get to it. It is an extremely hard product so it is a bit noisy.

For my Family room in my current home I went with Vynil Plank. It takes a ton of abuse with two young kids. The Vynil Plank looked just as good as the Pergo and offered better texture and sound qualities then the Pergo choices had. I ended up going with it because the product is much easier to lay down, peel and stick. Also, if I ever need to replace a piece I can just pull it up and stick down another one. I was allot cheaper, .99 cents a SQ FT

 

[tistan]

Since you have a subfloor to nail to, I would do a real 3/4 inch wood and have it finished by the installer in the color stain you want. If a pre-finished engineered floor gets messed up it can't be refinished to match. Any repair will always stand out. I have installed engineered wood floors on part of a house and came back a year later and laid more with the exact same brand and the finish didn't match.

 

[WHITESVTCOBRA]

I'm a real fan of the new vinyl strips, I will be looking at replacing mine here in the near future as well. Not sure what type of mutant dogs the previous owner had but there are deep gouges in our hardwood in the dining and main hallway area. Don't have dogs yet but plan on getting a dane in the future.

 

[ctubbs]

I own a flooring installation company. If anyone has any questions just pm me. I install every flooring product available. I have 5" hand scraped Asian Walnut engineered hardwood in my own house. It's been down 2 years, still looks new. Each product has its advantages and disadvantages.

 

[mcdover]

I just went thru the same thing. I ended up going with hardwood. No price difference and it just looks better. I also suggest checking out Lumber Liquidators. I've got vinyl at one of my offices. It's good for a commercial application or maybe a basement, but no way I would put that stuff in my living area.