Hardwood Floors (granite, refinishing, install, bathrooms)

[Wile E. Coyote]

Originally Posted by lair8

I prefer carpet. More comfortable to sit on. Also better acoustics: less echo and reflection.

You must not have pets. I loved carpet before I had pets and asthma.

[Riley.]

I would never go back to traditional wall to wall carpet with the possible exception of a bedroom. Maybe. In this area, people want hardwood floors.

We yanked all the carpet out of this house and installed Lumber Liquidator Brazilian Cherry floors and I STILL love it. Let's be clear, though. You do have to clean these floors, obviously, although it's certainly not as cumbersome as carpet cleaning.

Only issue I've had, which I've describe before, is that this particular flooring darkens up....and I had area rugs over the living room area and underneath the wood is about 10 shades lighter. Not pretty but we'll try to remedy that this coming spring/summer and take the area rug off.

[Seguinite]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

A friend just told me that no one wants a hardwood floor any more. Hardwood floors make a house look old-fashioned,

So. Hardwood floors? Yea or nay?

Thank HGTV and the house flippers for this.

Time and place for differerent types of flooring.

[K'ledgeBldr]

Originally Posted by lair8

More comfortable to sit on.

Funny; I hear “chairs” and “sofas” are!!!

[MGS4EVER]

I have an older home and I've always loved the look of original small plank/slat hardwood floors. I am going to put hardwood in my bedroom. One of the owners tore out the carpeting and just polished the cement. It looks really good, but I'd like to have hardwood. I haven't even checked prices or to see if I can get what I want. I'm sure it's going to be expensive. And I want the light color wood since I have tongue and groove wood ceilings and wood beams.

[WRM20]

Our house has the original red oak hardwood floors installed when the house was built in the early 1950s. They are great. We had them refinished in 1995 and had them screened in 2004. They can be fully refinished at least once more. If I were to replace them, I would look for the hardwoods that are coated at the factory with a baked on finish that should last a lot longer than regular urethane. The kitchen and bathroom are tiled, everything else is hardwood. I wouldn't consider anything else.

[E-Twist]

There is not much that looks better than real hardwood that has been well maintained.

Laminate and LVP have a certain practicality, great for kids, pets, and rentals, but they look cheap compared to the real deal. I wonder how long this trend will last.

I think it is more important to have what you like than what is trendy.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Hardwood floors? Yea or nay?

Yea. A thousand times easier to take care of than carpet. And better looking, IMO.

We did have Pergo in our then-teenaged son's bedroom, years ago. Also easy to clean, but a different look. He could drop a skateboard on it--and did--without the floor showing any damage.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by WRM20

Our house has the original red oak hardwood floors installed when the house was built in the early 1950s. They are great. We had them refinished in 1995 and had them screened in 2004. They can be fully refinished at least once more. If I were to replace them, I would look for the hardwoods that are coated at the factory with a baked on finish that should last a lot longer than regular urethane. The kitchen and bathroom are tiled, everything else is hardwood. I wouldn't consider anything else.

Same here. It was on my list of "must haves" when we were house shopping three years ago. They are the narrow plank red oak, had them refinished before moving in, no stain, loved the light color and went with a low gloss finish. It's the best floor one can have, IMO. There is ceramic in the kitchen and baths and terrazzo in a small den. Doesn't get any better, IMO.

[Wile E. Coyote]

I bought a new house and lived with carpet for 13 years. I had it professionally cleaned after the first few years 2-4 times per year (they were beige). It was part of the process I went through every time I had friends or family in from out of town, etc. The day I got diagnosed with Asthma I drove straight to lumber liquidators and ordered my hardwoods and started calling around to find an installer. I was a total PITA to get them installed; but, in the last 8 or so years I would have spent a lot of money either replacing the old carpeting with more carpeting and on carpet cleaning. So, what I spent for the hardwoods is literally paying off more and more as time goes by. And, they are beautiful and easy to maintain. They will also add value to the house.