Carpet or hardwoord floors? (Tampa: 2015, house, tenant)

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by Pragmaticus

This.

If you are not going to stay long in the house, I wouldn't put a lot of money in it. Putting a cheapo laminate would only put off some buyers depending on the price point of your house. Don't over improve for the type of house you have either, you won't get back what you put in. If you are going to stay in your home for a long time or your house demands pretty good penny, then put quality stuff.

We plan to stay put for a long time and changed already half of the house with real hard wood a couple of years back and on the process of completing the other half. I just wanted to make sure that we break it apart into steps and still made sense to go with route of expensive real hardwood. Once we step on it, day to day, I wouldn't change for any other.

I second trying to find an independent shop-way cheaper. In fact, I bought all the material myself and just negotiated the labor with an independent contractor.

Best of luck!

My Mom did that for carpet we did buy it and got a person for the install.

[R.Gilmore]

This is my personal opinion. I've purchased a home at the $130K price point and another at the $330k+ price point.

When I purchased the $130K, I wasn't concerned about the flooring because I knew I would be replacing it with what I wanted anyways. The house had old Berber carpet (yuck!) and tile in the bathrooms and cheap laminate in the kitchen and foyer.

When we purchased the $330K house, we were very concerned about the flooring. The house we ultimately went with had expensive laminate wood in the living areas/hallways/office, carpet in the bedrooms, tile in the bathrooms and laundry room.

So it really depends on the price point of your home. I think many buyers between the ages of 25-45 are going to want hardwood/laminate that doesn't look cheap in the living areas and carpet in the bedrooms. (I quote that age range because that is my circle of influence/friends).

[EngGirl]

Wood or laminate is hard and expensive to repair. We had a leak inside and hard wood got destroyed, and the color we had was no longer available, so we did the best we could by matching. It was not fun. The same issue with tiles - removing old time cast a lot and by a lot I really mean it. It's also VERY DIRTY task, dust will be all over your house. That's why when we were shopping for a house I didn't care much for floors. I preferred homes with old carpet vs. tiles. Carpet is easy and relatively cheap to replace. Laminate usually shows scratches and these are hard to get rid of. My personal opinion against hard wood was when we were looking for a house - it's color. It's just not my cup of tea to deal with dark wood floors, and if ceiling are not high it really makes any room smaller and darker. I really didn't want to overpay for that. Carpet was the easiest to get rid of and replace with whatever new buyers like.


Tip for people looking for a house - make sure you check floor you are looking at is the first layer. I saw at least couple houses with tile over the tile. Looks like prev. owners didn't want to deal with original tile removal, so they lay new tiles on top and it's not a good idea. I was told it's pretty common short cut for house flippers.

[Tampaite]

5/10/16 - Update:

After getting really high quotes from couple of brand companies(Empire today etc), we decided to purchase our own materials and then hire a local installer.

Decided to go with Laminate than Carpet. Also, decided to limit laminate to living and family rooms and carpet to remain in bedrooms.

We purchased 12mm laminate flooring(the highest available) from Lumber Liquidators and then found a local installer on craigslist to remove and dispose carpet, move furniture as needed and install the flooring.

Price quoted by Empire for 850 sq ft laminate flooring was $4800 and we paid half that after everything was accounted.

[Zambon]

As someone who has rental units and occasionally flips houses, I believe that no one should choose wall to wall carpet. They just aren't very healthy, and the older they get the worse they get. They also start to smell musty even if the resident doesn't have animals. I see why landlords who do not want to invest much in their property choose carpet because they can be easily ripped out and changed after tenants leave, but for your personal house, I do not see the draw. Put in a good floor and get an oriental rug that you can easily take out to clean. If you are choosing between hardwood and carpet, go with hardwood. I prefer all tile floors in my houses.

[Zambon]

Originally Posted by EngGirl

Wood or laminate is hard and expensive to repair. We had a leak inside and hard wood got destroyed, and the color we had was no longer available, so we did the best we could by matching. It was not fun. The same issue with tiles - removing old time cast a lot and by a lot I really mean it. It's also VERY DIRTY task, dust will be all over your house. That's why when we were shopping for a house I didn't care much for floors. I preferred homes with old carpet vs. tiles. Carpet is easy and relatively cheap to replace. Laminate usually shows scratches and these are hard to get rid of. My personal opinion against hard wood was when we were looking for a house - it's color. It's just not my cup of tea to deal with dark wood floors, and if ceiling are not high it really makes any room smaller and darker. I really didn't want to overpay for that. Carpet was the easiest to get rid of and replace with whatever new buyers like.


Tip for people looking for a house - make sure you check floor you are looking at is the first layer. I saw at least couple houses with tile over the tile. Looks like prev. owners didn't want to deal with original tile removal, so they lay new tiles on top and it's not a good idea. I was told it's pretty common short cut for house flippers.

While I couldn't disagree more about carpet vs hardwood floors, you raise a good point about checking the floor for layers. I have seen people put laminate or carpet over beautiful old terrazzo floors that just needed polishing.

[CindyRoos]

Originally Posted by ms murrr

As someone who is currently looking at houses to buy, I can tell you carpet is a major turnoff (for me). Wood floors - even tile or laminate - can be cleaned very well, so I don't need to imagine what the previous owners dropped in there that'll never get fully out. Plus they look nicer. In my opinion.

Tl;dr: carpet's gross.

I agree...........carpet is gross and it's a pain to keep clean!

[EngGirl]

Originally Posted by CindyRoos

I agree...........carpet is gross and it's a pain to keep clean!

dirty grout in tiles bothers me way more than carpet but I must admit I never had carpet that was used by someone before me

[bentlebee]

Harwood flooring tend to increase the value of the house but in the end it is the preference of the buyer that will value the flooring as an increase or not. If the buyer doesn't like the color or design of the hard wood floors than it will not add anything.

Back in the days the small planks were in fashion, not it is a different width.

[Zambon]

Originally Posted by Sunscape

Carpet is less costly, hardwood doesn't handle very good with the humidity here.

As someone who rents houses, I disagree with this statement. Carpet deteriorates due to humidity, while hardwood really does not.