Hardwood versus carpet (2014, home, dangerous)

[guest12]

Originally Posted by emm74

Less noticeable dust isn't the same thing as less dust.

sure it is Just kidding....before someone takes me seriously.....

[C_Lan]

Age, beer, dyslexia...don't know, but I continue to scan the tread title as Hollywood versus carpet.

[Supernc42]

Originally Posted by m378

Looking for opinions. We have some old carpet in our living room that we need to get rid of. The original plan was to take it out and put in hardwood to match the dining room, hall, etc. We're now realizing that we actually like the carpet better than the wood floors in our last house. The couches and chairs don't slide around, it doesn't hurt as much when the kids take headers, less noticeable dust, and in my opinion easier to keep clean.

We plan on being in the house for a long time, but we've also said that about our last two houses. I'm worried about putting more carpet in because especially in this area it seems to be unacceptable especially on the first floor. I don't want to spend money to decrease our resale.

Thoughts?

This is a really good thread.

I built my house 20 years ago with REAL hardwoods downstairs with area rugs that I shopped: "Do not have backings that break down to sand". You can get good reminents from local carpet companies, they cut and heat tape the edges. The real hard wood flooring is called 2 1/4" selects and is about 3/4" thick. Upstairs was carpet.

So recently I landed in a wheelchair and the carpets up stairs are hell to roll on. So we invested a lot of time into investigating Engineered wood. I think it would be tough to install real wood after the fact.

The Engineered wood product are like Pergo from Home Depot/Lowes. We found the BEST product to be Quick Step from 50 floor. Pergo from Home depot was 4k vs. Quick step at <7k. Best product for the best price. (Yes, I had to work the sales rep over!)

Good luck. (my sinuses cleared up in a week after 20 years with carpet up stairs).

[OldDocKat]

Real hardwood floors are expensive, and carpet is better insulation.

[RedZin]

Originally Posted by C_Lan

Age, beer, dyslexia...don't know, but I continue to scan the tread title as Hollywood versus carpet.

Who says that those three don't make things fun?

[Banjo71]

Originally Posted by m378

Yeah...we have kids.

LOL, I do too. I arrange the furniture the way I want. When the girls are grown and have their own homes, they can decide how their living room looks.

[m378]

Originally Posted by Banjo71

LOL, I do too. I arrange the furniture the way I want. When the girls are grown and have their own homes, they can decide how their living room looks.

Don't worry, it's the way we want. Thanks for looking out though.

[hackwriter]

My house was a flip, and it appears that the flipper chose to take out a soaker tub and put in a larger shower and a good-sized linen closet into the master bath. By me, this was genius. I have never known anyone who used a soaker tub on a regular basis, and with no basement and no garage, storage is at a premium!

[haggardhouseelf]

I used to be team hardwood. Or even higher quality laminate.

But now, having a home with that. I've jumped on over to team carpet.

I prefer the quiet, warmth, and peaceful atmosphere that carpet provides.

Without carpet, the home is more loud, harder to walk on (as you get older, you'll feel it in your feet, ankles, knees, back), slippery at times, and the dust is everywhere. I am constantly cleaning the floors. With carpet we vacuum once or twice a week and then have them professionally cleaned once a year (we have pets and kids).

Also, we tried to solve the loud/hard/cold issue by putting down area rugs. So now we deal with potential stains/dirt trapped in the area rugs AND we have all the dust and dirt that flies around on the hardwood area of the floors. Also we have had people and kids trip over the edge of the rugs, which isn't very fun.

I really miss the wall to wall carpet.

[iamweasel]

Originally Posted by m378

Looking for opinions. We have some old carpet in our living room that we need to get rid of. The original plan was to take it out and put in hardwood to match the dining room, hall, etc. We're now realizing that we actually like the carpet better than the wood floors in our last house. The couches and chairs don't slide around, it doesn't hurt as much when the kids take headers, less noticeable dust, and in my opinion easier to keep clean.

We plan on being in the house for a long time, but we've also said that about our last two houses. I'm worried about putting more carpet in because especially in this area it seems to be unacceptable especially on the first floor. I don't want to spend money to decrease our resale.

Thoughts?

So if you go hardwood here are a couple suggestions to fix some concerns you mentioned:

1) Couches/Chairs sliding around: Buy duragrip pads like these:

http://www.amazon.com/DURA-GRIP%C2%A.../dp/B0055U5MZI

When we moved into our new house a couple years ago we wanted hardwood in our family room/kitchen as we had carpet in our family room in our prior two homes. Stumbled upon these pads somewhere and they work great. People can flop down into the couch and it won't move. The furniture is very stable on these and I've had them for a year and a half now and haven't moved them, adjusted them, replaced them, etc. Great product so far.

2) Dust: Buy a Roomba. Seriously. These things are fantastic. I'm cheap, too, and never thought I'd spend $350 on something like this but it works really good. It goes on tile, hardwood, carpet, etc and even goes under the sofas to get the dust under there! It also picks up all the dog hair from our furry little friend. We run it once a week downstairs and that is plenty - you can set the timer to run it while you're at work and you come home to a clean house.