Wood vs. Laminate Flooring?

sjford0419

sjford0419

New member
One of the first things I want to do this year is to get rid of the carpet in my ENTIRE house! My son has huge allergies and getting rid of the carpet was recommended. Not to mention that my carpet looks awful!

So now I have a problem...wood? or Laminate? I have three active little boys, so that is one factor.

Another thing, should I extend into the kitchen? or do most people just leave the tile in the kitchen??

Thanks for all of your expert advice!!

Sam
 
Wow! That's one of my goals too. I'm going with Pergo wood flooring in my living room and bedrooms and ceramic tiling in the bathroom, dining room and kitchen.
 
I was thinking of keeping the tile for the kitchen...just because my entire downstairs is like one big room and the kitchen is separated by a partition...

I hear a lot of positive things about laminate - but what are the CONS? One thing I saw on the internet was an echo when you step on it? But doesn't wood have that too???
 
my parents have laminate... it is gorgeous seriously.. the kitchen dining and living room are all the laminate.. they had icky vinyl in the kitchen before lOl so that had to go.. I've seen no cons with my parents flooring LOL.. echo?????? that is just bizarre. They hve two big doggies (no more kiddies there.. lest you count my bum brother lol but he's 23). It's really really awesome.. and totally the way to go imo- price wise, cleaning wise, installation wise, and wear/tear wise. :] GL!
 
We just ripped up our carpet to put in walnut colored flooring.
The ONLY pro that I can see we're going to have is having to dust mop everyday with this lab and 4 cats. LOL
As long as you have the padding underneath there should be no reason to hear echos or squeaks.
 
I have wood laminate...looks like wood floor but it can handle a little more activity on it. (kids yanno) Laminate is A LOT cheaper than real wood floor as well so that might be a consideration.
 
Do you have a lumber liquidators near you? They have TERRIFIC flooring prices. That's where hubby got all of ours.
 
We have laminate as well, we would have got real wood if we didn't have small kids (and it wasn't way more $$$$), but we are fairly happy with the laminate. my only complaint about it is that ours shows a lot of dirt/dust etc, especially when the light coming in the window shines on it...... and when I clean it I have to make sure I dry it right away or it leaves water spots.....
 
I love our laminate flooring. I have allergies and it has helped so much. It's easy to clean and keep up. I haven't seen any drawbacks with it.
We bought the underpad seperate and bought the best for sound proofing and water barrier, you can get a lot of laminate with pad already on it. I clean it weekly with a little vinegar and water, it leaves it nice and shiny. I vac it all the time which helps with the dog hair. :)
It took my husband 2 days to do our living room and hallway but we were pulling up the carpet at the sametime. I don't have any scratches and my dogs run on it all the time. Ours came with a 10yr warranty.
I've had it, I think 4yrs give or take a year. I want to do our bedrooms next.
 
i have real wood...love it.

but if i was paying to replace floors i would totally get laminate. omgah is it gorgeous now and soooo affordable!!
 
We're getting new flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms too. I was looking into the laminates. Do people put laminate flooring in the bathroom? I was hesitant about the bathroom because I've heard that moisture is not good for laminates. But what about spills in the kitchen? Can someone who has laminate kitchen/bathroom tell me how moisture and spill-proof laminate flooring is?
 
We have both laminate and wood floors in our house. All of our carpet is gone as of a month ago, and we love it!

I must say I'm a nervous wreck when the boys play on the hardwood. Luckily, it's in the dining room and living room, so they aren't in there that often. I do not recommend hardwood with children or dogs. My sister,s new hardwood floors have been destroyed by her kids and dog. (I don't really see it that way but she does and is NOT happy.)

The laminate floors we put down in the bedrooms a month ago is totally awesome. The laminate has a beveled edge so it looks more like real wood and it is a wider plank which I really like. The other floors we did @ 8 years ago and they still look brand new. Laminate is totally the way to go!

I did have a friend who put laminate in her kitchen and it flooded and ruined the floor. We have tile in our kitchen and bathrooms. Our laminate runs up to the kitchen and is separated from the tile with a transition piece. It looks totally normal if you ask me.
 
Okay, I am going to go against the flow of traffic here. Please don't run me over.
I had an old house for 10 years. It was 138 years old and we refinished the original hardwood floors. You can't do that with laminate. Then we bought a newer house that had Pergo in the kitchen. I HATED IT!!! Yes it is easy to clean. But I was constantly cleaning it. If there was a spot the whole floor looked disgusting. There was a chip by the doorway, so it is not indestructable. I had hardwood in my original kitchen and you could spot clean it without having to wash the whole floor. And my grandmother had pergo that buckled because of a leak in the dishwasher. The whole floor needed to be replaced because the moisture got underneath. I prefer hardwood.
 
We've had real wood in our kitchen for 15 years. LOVE it. It is warm, not cold like tile. And if you drop something breakable, there is a possibility it won't break. With tile, it breaks into a million pieces.

But we do need to replace the rest of the flooring in our house - such a daunting (and expensive!) task though...we'd have to move out I think.
 
I'm leaning towards the laminate...just because I have three rowdy boys that LOVE to push cars around on the floor! I will probably do tile in the kitchen simply because I'm worried about water damage!
 
My parents have laminate too and I've never heard an echo. My dad says it's super easy to install - he's a contractor.
 
We did laminate about 4 years ago in our kitchen, breakfast room & family room. I do like that it is cheaper & easier to install than wood or tile. It is also more durable than our wood floors, which is important for the kids. HOWEVER, I would strongly suggest you not put it in wet areas. We had a small leak in our dishwasher (less than a quart of water) and the entire floor in the kitchen buckled. The damage was about 8' diameter, and we ended up tiling the kitchen and breakfast room.

Enjoy! I would love to get rid of ALL the carpet in my house some day.
 
I have laminate in the bedroom, living room and office, and tiles in the kitchen, bathroom and entry/hallway, and I love it that way. Laminate and humidity don't go well together, unless you choose a special (and very very expensive) laminate floor, the same they use on boats, with special joints between each piece... expensive, I told you!

If you take a good quality of laminate floor, it will last for a long time even with a hard use (kids, dogs). My mom bought a cheap one and you can see all the scratches from her dog. BTW, she installed it herself, to show you how easy it is.

Laminate is definitely a good option: cheaper, easier to install (you now have those floors where you clip each piece to the previous one, no nails needed), easier to clean / maintain afterwards (no mopping unless it's really dirty, but be careful to not use too much water or wipe dry after mopping), lots of differents styles/colors/woods to match your taste... I love it!

DBF and FIL installed a laminate floor in our soon-to-be living room, you can see pix on my blog here.
 
We put in laminate also - the wide planks - LOVE THEM!! But I agree with the above...they are not indestructable. If they get wet and it's not cleaned up, they will buckle. I've got two places where mine got wet - ugh!! I also have one little place in one of our Tmolds that got chipped and I don't know how. Possibly from moving furniture around or something. But, we have two very active kids and 3 dogs and there are no scratches and the floor (where it isn't buckled) still looks new (had it installed about 3 years ago).
 
We went with real wood and I wanted laminate. Real wood can be refinished laminate can't. However laminate is much more durable but it is not indestructible. Which is why my very picky hubby chose the wood. He didn't want to be stuck with any damage that the laminate had forever.We kept the kitchen with the lino, it is one that looks so much like tile that people don't know it's laminate until we tell them most times. I would have preferred to go with wood straight thru but it is very open so it breaks it up a bit I guess. Hubster wouldn't let me have real tile or real wood in the kitchen because I drop too much and he said I would have destroyed it!

LOL! I know why live in a house if you can't live in it huh? That's what I always say!
 
I prefer wood over laminate because if you get a scratch or ding in wood, it adds character. If you get one in laminate, it just looks like it got scratched or dinged. We are planning on tearing out our carpet and putting wood in... someday.

In the meantime, we found this new VINYL flooring at Home Depot. It's waterproof, and so easy to put in. It doesn't stick to the floor, only to each other. I put it in my kitchen until we could afford the wood for the entire first floor (my kitchen had carpet, something had to give. LOL). So if you are looking for an alternate solution for your kitchen or bathrooms, this stuff is CHEAP and so easy to clean.

Here are really bad pictures of the 2 rooms in question. :)

kitchenafter6913808hg9.jpg


(the toilet has since been put back where it belonged :p)
img99736946584ic6.jpg
 
Penny -

The laminate you have with the bevels..is it hard to sweep? Our kitchen tile has 'texture' and it's the biggest PITA to keep swept up because everything catches in the texturing. Is your laminate the same way!?

FWIW, my Dad put in laminate at his old house and it did echo. But I think that was because they didn't use enough of the padding. And it was about 8 years ago that they did it.
 
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We have real hardwood in our entire downstairs except for ceramic in the kitchen and baths. I LOVE my wood floors but with a 3 yo boy who is constantly dropping toys, running cars, riding his big wheel round and round, I can see where laminate would be a smarter option. Basically we've come to terms with the fact that until the kids are older our floors will have nicks and scratches. My parents have laminate and they love it and if something happened where we needed new flooring it's probably what we'd go with as well just for the durability at this point. Plus the cost is much better for laminate.
 
So glad for this post- we've been looking around for the oast 2 weeks at laminate and hardwood. I want hardwood- I love the ridges in handscraped and recliamed wood- but we're leaning toward a realistic looking laminate. We have 2 kids and 2 big dogs so scratches are not only a possibility but an imminent threat! :)

I think the underlayment is what stops the echo- the flooring places we've gone too have a few on display with a golf ball so you can hear the difference. I want one that looks like wood- wide planks, beveled edges, not the shiny kind, and dark color- any suggestions are appreciated!
 
We went with bamboo flooring. It has some scratches now after almost 2 years but that just adds to the character. It was very reasonably priced & easy to install. We have it in the living room. It is super easy to clean just sweep or floor vac. I run a Swiffer wet rag over it once a week & spot clean as necessary

We have natural slate in the kitchen, complete with the texture and unevenness of slate, litter dips & ridges. It can be a bit of PITA to clean. You have to get down on your hands & knees and scrub the tiles, then wipe them clean. It's beautiful but annoying
 
we have engineered wood flooringin our living room. i guess its sort of between real wood and laminate? its made of wood, just compressed and man made i guess. we got it on sale at Menards last year for i think, $1.99 a square foot. we have the waterproof padding underneath and i ADORE it. i do have to sweep/mop just about everyday but its worth it. spills are easier to clean. now, for my bedroom when we start to remodel it i have my eye on the real thing; dark chocolate colored wood. but its $3.99 a square foot. Yikes! however, our room isn't huge so we may be able to get it, don't know yet.

but i do completley give wood/laminate/engineered flooring two thumbs up!
 
I have laminate in my kitchen, but since we have only lived here a few months, I can't tell you for sure any cons or anything. It does look really pretty. I plan to extend it into our nothing room. My friend has it on her stairs though and I would not recommend that, she says she's always slipping on it. Well, unless you get a nice runner. We thought of putting it in the bathroom, but from what I have heard you need to use real wood there, but I think it might be more work than its worth and will just replace the marble.
 
I didn't read through, so sorry if this has already been said.

Wood is GORGEOUS but very expensive and much more difficult to keep up with. However, it will increase the value of your home significantly.

Laminate looks very nice as well and with small children is most likely your best bet. Near impossible to destroy and much less expensive... and they have some really pretty finishes to choose from now. It IS quite noisy so make sure not to skimp on the padding underneath if you choose this route. Another CON for laminate is, if you DO manage to damage a portion of it, the whole room has to be redone... there's not way to just replace the damaged portion as with wood.

As for the kitchen, I think both options are nice. Extending the wood/laminate into the kitchen will make the whole area seem bigger, but ceramic tile always looks very nice as well.

Good luck choosing!
 
We have laminate flooring in our kitchen and dining area. I'm not really a fan of tile so I'd vote for putting wood all the way into that area. It's looks really nice that way.

I'm curious, for those of you who are wanting to have ALL wood flooring in your house, have you ever tried to keep that much wood clean? When we lived in Korea our entire apartment had laminate wood flooring and it was a huge pain and pretty much impossible to keep it clean - and that was with not wearing any shoes in the house. I have pretty bad allergies too but I much prefer having at least some carpet. Maybe you all just like to sweep and mop more than I do. :D
 
I have laminate floors and 4 cats. People don't believe when I say there's 0 scratch on the floor. Easy to clean and very resistant :)

Oh and in the kitchen I have tiles.
 
I'd love to remove the carpeting in the family and living rooms and replace with wood/laminate/bamboo. But DH is opposed to non-carpeted floors :thumbdown:. He thinks it will feel too cold.
 
There are so many good and bad things about both! One thing I can say...we are a military family - so we probably won't live in our house forever.

I hate the idea of having to replace ALL of the flooring with laminate if something happens..I didn't know about that! That is a :thumbdown: for me! We have spills on our floors all day with three kids running around! (which is why my carpet looks so horrid!) Not to mention my son loves riding his tricycle on the floor!

Decisions, decisions...my dad has hardwood and I love it! BUT he also has some water spots from leaving a bucket of water on it. I'm going in to look at some samples this week and hope to have a decision by Friday so that they can start installing this weekend.
 
Nettio said:
I'm curious, for those of you who are wanting to have ALL wood flooring in your house, have you ever tried to keep that much wood clean?
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Most places in Europe do not have carpeting, so it's hard surfaces throught the entire house. The house we lived in was laminate throughout except the kitchen & bathrooms where it was tile. The apt we're in now is all hard wood with tiles in the kitchen & bath. YES, it's a pain to keep clean. I have to sweep every day and we live on the 2nd floor so we don't track in a lot. We have a dog, but he's a Chihuahua and doesn't shed much at all. It's just dust that accumulates and crumbs from the youngus. We have rugs in each room which helps a lot.
 
sjford0419 said:
I hate the idea of having to replace ALL of the flooring with laminate if something happens..I didn't know about that! That is a :thumbdown: for me! We have spills on our floors all day with three kids running around! (which is why my carpet looks so horrid!) Not to mention my son loves riding his tricycle on the floor!
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Spills are not a problem if you wipe them off quickly. It's keeping the humidity on the floor for a long time that is dangerous.

After asking DBF (who's a wood crafter... don't know if it's the right word in english: he makes furnitures, install floors, etc. as a job), he told me that you don't have to replace all the flooring if something happens... unless the whole room gets flooded. If it's just on one spot, you should be able to take that part off, let it dry and put some new floor back in. It's especially true with the new laminate floors with which you clip the pieces together: you can unclip the damaged parts quite easily since they are not nailed in. That's why he always buy a few extra packs when he install floor for his clients: they will have the exact same stuff for replacement if needed!
 
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I don't have wood, but my entire downstairs is tile with the exception of my dining room and living room. I use the Hoover Floormate to keep my tile clean. I love it!!!

lovehooverweb.jpg
 
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