[latin_racer]

I have about 80% carpet on my house and it's frustrating the amount of work to keep it clean specially with dogs running around. My brother in law said he will come over and do the install or help me with it so i'll save some money on labor. My co-worker suggested to go with engineered hardwood floor instead of laminate. I'm looking for any advice and what stores can have a good deal here in town instead of lowes and home depot. Any advice is appreciated.

[ddrhazy]

Probably laminate is better since the plastic coating will provide a some extra time before any urine pools soak through to the under layment.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by latin_racer

I have about 80% carpet on my house and it's frustrating the amount of work to keep it clean specially with dogs running around. My brother in law said he will come over and do the install or help me with it so i'll save some money on labor. My co-worker suggested to go with engineered hardwood floor instead of laminate. I'm looking for any advice and what stores can have a good deal here in town instead of lowes and home depot. Any advice is appreciated.

Laminate -- once it scratches, you're hosed. There's no way to fix the scratches. It cannot be sanded down and refinished.

Engineered -- you can sand it down and refinish couple times. After that, it's also toast.

Luxury Vinyl -- new kind of floor. Hard to tell from wood and very durable. If it scratches, it's toast. But some of them you can loosen the glue with a heat gun or even a hair dryer and replace individual damaged pieces.

Hardwood -- Can be sanded multiple times and refinished. Needs a great deal of time to dry down to desert conditions. Most installers have no idea how to work with real wood in the Mojave.

Bamboo -- Comes in regular (look it it and it scratches) and strand-woven (considerably tougher). Usually glued down. Can be refinished multiple times.

I would go with porcelain tile downstairs. That's basically dog-proof. There are additives for grout that make the grout non-porous. So cleaning grout isn't the chore it once was. There is also epoxy grout, which does not stain, but it's expensive. Porcelain has the easiest maintenance and best durability.


No matter which way you go, go to Floor & Decor in Henderson, near Costco first.

[latin_racer]

thanks for the advice, I'll stop by the store not too far from my work. I talk to my wife about porcelain and she want's to stick with the wood floor. Her concern is that the surface is too hard for her and also for our infant.

[jet757f]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Laminate -- once it scratches, you're hosed. There's no way to fix the scratches. It cannot be sanded down and refinished.

Engineered -- you can sand it down and refinish couple times. After that, it's also toast.

Luxury Vinyl -- new kind of floor. Hard to tell from wood and very durable. If it scratches, it's toast. But some of them you can loosen the glue with a heat gun or even a hair dryer and replace individual damaged pieces.

Hardwood -- Can be sanded multiple times and refinished. Needs a great deal of time to dry down to desert conditions. Most installers have no idea how to work with real wood in the Mojave.

Bamboo -- Comes in regular (look it it and it scratches) and strand-woven (considerably tougher). Usually glued down. Can be refinished multiple times.

I would go with porcelain tile downstairs. That's basically dog-proof. There are additives for grout that make the grout non-porous. So cleaning grout isn't the chore it once was. There is also epoxy grout, which does not stain, but it's expensive. Porcelain has the easiest maintenance and best durability.


No matter which way you go, go to Floor & Decor in Henderson, near Costco first.

I agree. We have all tile downstairs except for the family room which is laminate wood.
We have already scratched the laminate just by moving furniture around. Also if you have crushed granite or rock in your yard and happen to track some inside this will scratch the laminate.

[Onlyliveonce]

I just had 3000 SF of Engineered wood installed. It will tolerate the varying humidity or lack of humidity conditions.
I used hand scraped birch downstairs, as it will hide imperfections in high traffic areas.
I used my favorite wood upstairs, walnut. This is a soft wood, but gets much less foot traffic.
I would not get caught up in hardness of the wood as engineered wood will dent pretty much the same in all species of wood. The darker woods WO hand scraping will show wear much more than lighter woods that are hand scraped.

If you like wood get engineered wood, it will hold up but will show wear over the years.
Porcelain will last and wear much better than wood, but I didn't like the look or feel of it.

Bottom line is: get what you like

[WestieJeff]

I have laminate (floating, click together) installed in most of my living areas. I am surprised how resilient it is, I don't have pets, but in 7 years I have few scratches. I have on dent from when I dropped an iron on it, but it's really not noticeable.

When I first had the laminate installed, immediately I noticed a "hollow" sound that I didn't like, but over time I got used to it and it no longer bothers me. I notice floor and decor has a new pad which supposedly helps with the hollow sound, but I am skeptical. Glue down floor will eliminate the hollow sound, but glue down has its own challenges, you really need a flat flat floor for a proper glue down install (otherwise you'll have unadhered gaps between the slab and the wood flooring).

My sister had engineered glue down installed and the contractor had to put down self leveling concrete to level out the floor before the wood floor was put down. They did an excellent job on her floor, but it was pricey, around $4/sf materials and an additional $5/sf install. No hollow sound on her floor though.

When I looked in the past, all the engineered wood I saw required a glue down install. I didn't see any floating/click type engineered flooring.

[ScoopLV]

I have one other piece of advice. You live on the extreme east side of town, so you can do this easily -- go to where the development ends and look at the color of the dirt. If your floors are similar in color/shade, the pervasive Las Vegas dust will not be as evident. You can't really tell if our stone floor needs cleaning, even if it does.

People with very light floors and people with very dark floors will need to constantly clean their floor because the dust is so visible. Dark floors are the worst for that. I have no idea why people go with essentially black flooring in this area. It only looks clean just after it's been cleaned. 20 minutes later, dust settles and it looks like it needs to be vacuumed again.

[momofvegasgirls]

There's also the option of installing tile that looks like wood, and installed to look like it as well. As for being too hard for the kid, I've raised two of them on tile (6 yrs and 8 yrs now) and nary a knocked noggin on either one, and they are the most rough-housing girls I've ever come across! That might be a good compromise ;-)

[tadtam]

LISTEN TO SCOOP!!!
I did and just had over 900 sq.ft. of porcelain tile put in.
Went to Floor & Decor, talked with Shaq. He hooked me up with Wayne Prouty from FKF Corp., the same day(Tuesday)..
Wayne visited my house on Wednesday and gave me quote on labor to do it. I said, "DO IT". His crew (Juan+) came in on Thursday-- Pulled carpeting out and finished laying tile Friday. Boy, were they good! Saturday "carpet guys" came in; butted and re-stretched carpet from bedrooms up to new tile.

WOW what a great experience. Would hire them again in a heartbeat.