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I put in real hardwood floors, mahogany and oak in a windowpane pattern. Very beautiful and very expensive. Also required a lot of care! If I had it to do over again, I would do something less slippery and less prone to being marked by dog feet!
Lemme tell you: A dog walking client of mine bought a VERY expensive condo for close to $1 Million.
He put GORGEOUS wood down. Very high end.
He has a St Bernard.
HE DESPISES his floors. He MISSES his old laminate in his previous house.
Meanwhile, he turned me on to the best floor cleaner.
Pine Sol BLUE ONLY.
Dilute as directed.
NO SMUDGES and it WILL remove the dog drool easily.
Works on wood or laminate.
Won't help the floor being slippery and especially for dogs, obviously. Probably need a certain tile with bumps or big grout lines for that. Some of my clients have the one that is wood grain tile. NOT supposed to look like wood it's just a style.
I personally? Put down laminate in my rental apartment next door after he told me that. I LOVED IT.
And after I moved it became the most sought after unit in the high rise. NOBODY was turning up their noses at it being laminate LOL.
In my current condo I have all tile but no dogs anymore. I will ONLY have tile but that's my preference.
My LR/DR has a weird 18" Italian tile that's similar to parquet. No big grout lines. Mid-to-Deep orange-brown. It's what SOLD me on the place!
Now we live in FLORIDA so it's logical.
My mother had a house in historic Bucks County PA where Washington Crossed the Delaware. So EVERYONE has wood and planks to boot LOL.
And ducks. LOTS of ducks.
When I sold her house I had to take ALOT Off the price for them to refinish the floors which had faded around the area carpets.
Laminate has a perfectly legitimate place in the market. We bought a house a few years ago and have had to put a significant amount of money into it. The carpets were disgusting and we wanted that wood look as well as lower allergy issues from the carpet. So instead of shelling out $12grand on wood flooring weve spend 4grand. Some people cant afford the Cadillac......
did not hurt our resale value whatsoever. whatever money spent on the floors was more than made up for as the house sold for over our asking price with positive feedback. For every person who doesn't care for laminate, there's a person who has no issue with it and all it takes is one buyer, as they say.... I have wood floors (both engineered and solid and quite frankly, except for a few distinctions by a trained eye one can't really tell the difference. higher quality laminates use better photos and have texture.
In addition, unless you are a Cadillac shopper with a Cadillac budget and paying Cadillac prices, then people (flippers included) do not have to put in solid wood floors. Refinishing can be expensive, especially if the flooring isn't particularly thick. Old hardwood floors look pretty tired looking and restoring them to the nice finish that people have come to expect can cost quite a bit of coin. Not worth it if the house is only going to sell for $300k or less. Finally, it's all about the total presentation. People are very visual. If you can only afford "X" then why not go for something that looks great but fits within your budget? Home remodeling is very expensive and can add up quickly.
The downstairs of our old house had 4 types of flooring when we bought it: one color/width of real wood in the kitchen/family room/stairs, another color/width of real wood in the living/dining rooms, brick in the laundry room, and tile in the 1/2 bath. The wood was damaged and worn because it had never been cleaned properly. If it had all been one uniform type/size of wood, we would have just refinished it. When we remodeled, we put ceramic tile throughout the downstairs, carpet upstairs, and refinished the wood on the staircase. The tile flooring had the effect of making the downstairs look bigger because it was one uniform flooring in every room. It kept our house cooler in the summer, but not too cold in the winter (we're in So Cal). We used area rugs in each room. If I had to do again here in a So Cal house, I would choose tile. If I was in a colder climate, I would probably choose wood.
People put in the flooring they can afford. There are expensive options that are gorgeous, but may not make sense for the house. Upgraded fantastic surfaces & flooring may not be a good investment if you're not going to get your money back when you sell. People seem to forget the concept of being overimproved for the neighborhood. I see that a lot here in the So Cal neighborhoods where we're house hunting.
did not hurt our resale value whatsoever. whatever money spent on the floors was more than made up for as the house sold for over our asking price with positive feedback. For every person who doesn't care for laminate, there's a person who has no issue with it and all it takes is one buyer, as they say.... I have wood floors (both engineered and solid and quite frankly, except for a few distinctions by a trained eye one can't really tell the difference. higher quality laminates use better photos and have texture.
In addition, unless you are a Cadillac shopper with a Cadillac budget and paying Cadillac prices, then people (flippers included) do not have to put in solid wood floors. Refinishing can be expensive, especially if the flooring isn't particularly thick. Old hardwood floors look pretty tired looking and restoring them to the nice finish that people have come to expect can cost quite a bit of coin. Not worth it if the house is only going to sell for $300k or less. Finally, it's all about the total presentation. People are very visual. If you can only afford "X" then why not go for something that looks great but fits within your budget? Home remodeling is very expensive and can add up quickly.
Interesting information, and although I haven't been to Home Depot yet to actually look at wood flooring I was thinking to myself that if they can level a floor for either laminate or engineered flooring to work then why couldn't the same sub flooring work for real hard wood.
I guess now though its a moot point because after seeing all the flooring choices I'm leaning towards the engineered flooring just because it looks nice enough and its mid price range. The most difficult choice I have regarding the floor is the stain color which as I said I am leaning towards a dark Walnut color. The ceilings through out house in all rooms (including living areas, kitchen, bedrooms and master bath) are all 12 foot high. I figure with a dark floor that the walls and other spaces will then be highlighted with all the light we have in the place due to large windows all over the house.
Just venting about flooring, in my quest for a new home.
When looking at older homes to buy, I see repeatedly that, when "renovated" or "updated," over and over again the flipper or renovator has chosen laminate or wood-look vinyl flooring. That is so frustrating! One of the reasons I'd buy an older home (1930s-1950s) is for the high quality of build and the WOOD FLOORS. Why oh why would a renovator tear out existing floors & replace them with something so inappropriate as laminate or vinyl? Those floors are not quality and won't last. I know it was probably the cost....and that's the problem.
The home I just sold is a 1950s home. I replaced flooring in the den. The choice was always either ceramic tile or real wood! Nothing artificial or modern would have been appropriate.
It's just frustrating, as I look at home after home...and it seems the majority of older renovated and newer built homes have laminate. Laminate gets dull over the years, and will be ruined if there's water in the home. It also doesn't look very nice or have the depth of grain to it that real wood has. Yet the homes are priced as if they had real wood or tile flooring. To me, the cost of the home should be reduced to account for having to replace the flooring to the real thing.
There is also a health concern with laminate. Engineered wood is better, but even that is lower quality. I'm thinking that if someone can't afford to renovate with the real thing, maybe they bit off more than they could chew. And that probably other updates are not quality, either (the kind you can't see).
I'm not speaking of an elderly person who updates the flooring in his/her home. I'm speaking of the pros. It's so frustrating!
It's probably because the original flooring is trashed beyond repair, or the remodel is so major that the floor can't be patched easily. Most flippers want things done quick and cheap. Engineered floors are cheap and quick. And most people buying love them, and prefer them now. I used to see homes listing hardwood floors and walking into Pergo, but now I see laminate listed.
But I'm with you -- I want 2 inch oak strip flooring....won't take anything but.
As a buyer, I can't stand laminate flooring. I think it looks cheap. I compare it to the listing that says, "renovated kitchen", only to find particle board cabinets, laminate countertops, and vinyl sheet flooring.
As a seller who put solid hardwoods in my home, I think I should have gone with cheap laminate because I'm never going to recoup the cost. Buyers don't appreciate or recognize the difference. I've gotten feedback of people wanting carpet.
It really depends on location and market. I think many neighborhoods (especially cookie cutter) that are reasonably priced may get better returns from high grade laminate flooring vs hardwood floors. I think my neighborhood is a great example of that. Tract homes in the suburbs priced reasonably for most middle and upper-middle class buyers. I've seen home over renovated for the typical buyer in this area.
For our home we decided high grade laminate (downstairs) due to cost, maintenance. In our kitchen we decided to do a decent upgrade, nothing too cheap or too crazy. We did 12x24 italian porcelain floors and instead of gutting the kitchen I just painted the walls, stained my oak cabinets espresso, installed pulls, replaced tile countertops with mid level granite and glass tile backplash. Spent about $12k only because our kitchen is pretty large with a giant island. A gut with custom cabinets, pro grade appliances, higher end stone, high end fixtures would have been 3-4x of what I spent for our kitchen and would have been overkill and less return for the location. Then again if I lived in the most desirable neighborhoods in my city I would be willing to go hardwood floors, have my custom dream kitchen and really invest in quality all around. We want to replace the carpet upstair and we are debating to continue the laminate or just replace with nice carpet/padding for the comfort. I think the master bath is the one location we may possibly go more custom, but still nothing too much for the location.
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