Wood Look Porcelain Tile Vs Real Wood

[globe9]

I'm not a huge fan of the wood floors in our kitchen. Even just putting dishes in the dishwasher after rinsing in sink causes small drips on the floor. Plus the French doors to the patio and backyard are right off the kitchen. The dog definitely tracks in dirt after a rain and tile makes much more sense.

[grilledcheeseftw]

We had engineered hardwood on the floor in our last house and currently have solid hardwood everywhere but the bathroom. Don't want to jinx myself saying we've never had a leak issue, but we just have a rug in front of the sinks and drips are not a big deal. I agree with a previous poster re: the aesthetics of one type of flooring.

We don't have pets, though. Just tiny humans. The thought of animal claws on this floor would stress me out.

[elan]

Originally Posted by globe9

We're in the unfortunate circumstances of having to replace every type of flooring in our 50's pier and beam ranch due to water damage.

The previous floors were 90% original oak in a honey brown color.

We're trying to decide between real wood and porcelain wood look tile right now. I tend to lean towards the tile as it's much easier to maintain and water resistant. We do have a dog, but no children.

My wife thinks these wood look tile floors won't help resale when the time comes to sell (which we don't plan on doing anytime soon). She says real hardwood is a selling point. I agree that it is, but how much will wood look tile hurt? The stuff we're looking at is very realistic looking and not cheap, although it is cheaper than real wood.

Bamboo is also another consideration, but a salesman told me bamboo is not water resistant as I was lead to believe.

Another salesman tried talking us into luxury vinyl flooring.

We're very overwhelmed and not sure what direction to go in.

Our house is not a big, luxury home, but a modest 1700 sq ft single story ranch in Richardson.

Any opinions, advice etc is appreciated

I'd go with real wood. Our old house had the original oak floors everywhere except for the kitchen and bathrooms. Warm and soft to the touch in the winter, cool in the summer. Not to mention, they looked absolutely beautiful. Our new house has an expensive wood look tile flooring in every room but two. It looks okay, but I H A T E it. When going barefoot, it feels abnormal. Regardless of my shoes, my feet ache after standing on it after a while. So, I bought extra cushioned flip flops to wear around. I know it's fake, everyone else knows it fake, so I don't see the point. I've actually already salvaged some old oak flooring, it's stacked in my garage. Hope to purchase more soon, just need to contact someone about installing on a slab.

[RedTexanTea]

Originally Posted by globe9

Thanks for the replies. We've decided on real 3/4" hardwood in living, dining, hallway, and bedrooms. Kitchen is currently also hardwood now, but we think we're going to go with a porcelain tile in there. Never did care for real wood floors in the kitchen as it wasn't very practical.

I would say go with that you are comfortable with and/or like the look of in the kitchen. I have never had an issue with wood flooring in the kitchen. However I also really like tile in a kitchen as well. A lot of people are doing wood floors in newer houses with open floor plans for the continuous flooring look and also no real good place to end one flooring and start another.

Great decision on the wood floors, I don't think you will regret it!

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

My son has wood-look tile in the downstairs of his house. 3 kids and a dog can't damage it. As far as I am concerned, it looks nice but is not wood. I would put down travertine, closely set, very thin grout lines.

[Pinkett]

I am sorry but is wood vs tiles is even a question? Tile is tile and is nothing like real wood. Wood looking tiles is still tiles. Everyone knows that. I have all wood flooring and tile in bathroom (of course) and I hate stepping in my bathroom in cold winter days. Not just that but tile is hard to walk on.

[Capitalprophets]

Originally Posted by globe9

We're in the unfortunate circumstances of having to replace every type of flooring in our 50's pier and beam ranch due to water damage.

The previous floors were 90% original oak in a honey brown color.

We're trying to decide between real wood and porcelain wood look tile right now. I tend to lean towards the tile as it's much easier to maintain and water resistant. We do have a dog, but no children.

My wife thinks these wood look tile floors won't help resale when the time comes to sell (which we don't plan on doing anytime soon). She says real hardwood is a selling point. I agree that it is, but how much will wood look tile hurt? The stuff we're looking at is very realistic looking and not cheap, although it is cheaper than real wood.

Bamboo is also another consideration, but a salesman told me bamboo is not water resistant as I was lead to believe.

Another salesman tried talking us into luxury vinyl flooring.

We're very overwhelmed and not sure what direction to go in.

Our house is not a big, luxury home, but a modest 1700 sq ft single story ranch in Richardson.

Any opinions, advice etc is appreciated

Do you have any kids, pets? If not, go with the wood unless you're renovate to sell. We went with the wood tile in our living room and kitchen because we didn't want to separate the flooring on 2 areas. We also build a new construction are planning to be here for a while. Porcelain wood tile looks really nice, durable and easy to maintain.

[Katana49]

We have wood flooring throughout our downstairs, in the kitchen as well. It's not a problem to have water spilled on it, you just have to clean it up in a reasonable amount of time.


We had a gasket leak on our downstairs toilet tank in the hall bathroom. The water level kept dropping out of the tank, so the tank automatically tried to refill itself... for hours. All that water flooded the bathroom (tile floor) the hallway, (wood floor) guest bedroom and two closets (carpet) and made it's way into our family room (wood). When we woke up around 7am, the water must have already been flowing for at least 2-3 hours by my guess. I shut off the water and rushed out to the garage and got our wet/dry vac and vacuumed up all the water on the wood floors. Called a remediation company to come out, they ripped off the baseboards, punched holes in all the affected drywall, and put 26 fans all over the area to dry things out within a few hours.



The insurance adjuster said we had a 50/50 chance as to whether the glue under the floors would dissolve and the floors would buckle, but that the faster you get things dry, the better.


Even with all that water, we did not have to replace our floors. Wood floors can take spills and such with no issues at all, they're not as fragile as some people make them out to be.