laminate vs existing carpet

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by Toozy23

I currently have carpet and looking to possibly install laminate flooring. I am thinking of moving in the next 4-5 years and am wondering from a resale standpoint if one is better than the other? The homes in my neighborhood are selling between $150k-$200K, so I don't think that spending the money on hardwood flooring is a good idea. Given this information, do you think laminate would be a turn off to someone buying a house in this price point? Or should we just keep the carpet?

You don't want to over-improve your home for the area, but if you would enjoy the look and use of a non-carpet product for the next 4 years, it would be worth it.

Like a lot of things in life, the choices in home products have really not benefited the consumer as most people don't really even know what "wood" is anymore, and are confused about what's what when looking at homes.

"Wood", granite, stainless, hard tile - all use to be upgrade items indicating quality, found mostly in nicer more expensive homes. Then manufacturers and the building industry figured out how to create cheap substitute knockoffs that can be called the same names but the quality keeps going down as consumers unwisely keep rewarding whomever can sell the cheapest stuff. This is the same reason you can't buy a decent consumer weed-eater anymore. Most people want cheap, not quality. But I digress.

I suggest going onto AustinHomeSearch.com and searching for homes in your price-point in your area and look at the pictures and see what your future competition has for flooring. If you see 80% carpet in the living areas, stick with carpet. If you see 80% solid surface, consider upgrading.

If you're at all handy, a good "engineered wood" product (different than laminate) from Sams can be self installed relatively easy and will look great and save you a lot provided you don't mess it up. The base boards (particularly around doors) and transition areas are where most people leave behind the obvious signs of a do-it-yourself job. But I was checking out the snap-in engineered wood flooring in Sams the other day, and I agree with the other suggestion that you look into that if you decide against carpet.

Steve

[Beware_of_Dog]

You should go to Home Depot and have a look at all the fantastic choices in flooring and kitchen, bath, and wall decor. I just happened to last evening and was shocked at all the neat stuff, especially all the laminate and what I used to call linoleum. You can get stuff that looks like anything you want on your floors.

It is really cool. Some even look like mexican tile and marble. It not only looks so real, is so easy to keep clean. It even has texture to it that feels like the real thing. And some are sort of soft so as to cushion your walk which would probably help if you have a bad back.

I can't wait to move to San Diego and fix up an older home the way I want it. Plan on buying something cheap that needs redecorating so I can truly take my time and make it my dream home on the inside.

[10scoachrick]

I believe austin-steve and lemonlime hit the nail on the head. Might I add that some laminate is almost as easy to remove as carpet; when the time comes, switch to the desired material for resale. In the meantime, enjoy what YOU want. We replaced 4-year-old frieze(apparently high quality and much cleaner than I expected) with cork in our master bedroom. After two years with a Scottie, it shows no wear and we get compliments whenever someone new sees it. Mainly, we did it for the 'allergy' reasons lemon mentioned. We have tile elsewhere on the first floor except for the office. We'll likely replace the office frieze with cork but the piano presents a small problem.

I may have missed the amount of flooring you were considering. That might be a factor, as well. If it's a room or two, life's too short to live with flooring you hate! There are too many deals out there on good flooring to NOT like what you have under your feet.

[CarnivalGal]

I would just keep what you have and install new carpet right before you list your home. If the buyers don't like it, it is much easier to replace than the other options.

Laminate just screams "cheap" to me. And I hate, hate, HATE tile throughout homes. We would just turn around and walk out when we saw that. It seems very cold to me, and no matter how neutral it is, it will be dated eventually. Remember that white tile everyone installed in the 80's? Not so great anymore, and you can't get more neutral than white. And have you ever tried replacing tile? Extremely difficult, and expensive.

[eichlerfan]

I hate carpet, and when we do decide to buy another house one day here in Austin I will look at carpet as a negitive in any house we find. In our house back in CA we installed slate and we loved it. I know that can be expensive, but second choice would be ceramic tile, and if still too expensive I would go with as nice a laminate floor as you can find.

[lemonlime22]

Laminate has come a long way in the last 5-10 years! Bamboo is nice too. A trip to Lowe's & Home Depot will shock you--in a good way.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by eichlerfan

I hate carpet, and when we do decide to buy another house one day here in Austin I will look at carpet as a negitive in any house we find. In our house back in CA we installed slate and we loved it. I know that can be expensive, but second choice would be ceramic tile, and if still too expensive I would go with as nice a laminate floor as you can find.

But carpet is very easy to replace. If you were buying a resale with tile you didn't like, your slate or laminate or whatever will be a royal pain in the rear end to replace and cost a fortune.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by lemonlime22

Laminate has come a long way in the last 5-10 years! Bamboo is nice too. A trip to Lowe's & Home Depot will shock you--in a good way.

Bamboo looks great, but it is really soft. It scratches and dents pretty easily. Just an FYI. Our neighbors installed it and advised us against it. We ended up putting in hardwood.

[lemonlime22]

Originally Posted by mm57553

But carpet is very easy to replace. If you were buying a resale with tile you didn't like, your slate or laminate or whatever will be a royal pain in the rear end to replace and cost a fortune.

Slate would be difficult to remove since it's mortared to the slab. Laminate flooring "floats", and is not glued.

Removal is easy-peasy, and you wouldn't be inhaling all the bacteria, toxins, and dust that's housed in carpet & padding.