OT PonyDreamer - Floors

[SanFen]

Go for the hardwood floors in the living room, you can always put down a nice area rug or an Oriental carpet in the "socializing" areas. There is nothing like the warmth of wood.

I also have asthma, so my townhouse got hardwood floors throughout the day after closing! Area rugs are so easy to keep clean and you can always send them out if need be. Good luck with your decision making!

Sandy

[ponydreamer]

Hi Sandy...I just noticed this post.

Thanks for the advice. I'm still thinking on it, though. The good thing is that we're putting the flooring in the family room and office first. I plan to see how I like it, and hten make my decision. I almost went and order carpet last week, though. I would love new flooring in my dining and living rooms for Christmas. But I couldn't make up my mind, so I have now decided to wait until I see the family room floor.

We will have tile in the basement, and there will be no carpeting anywhere in my house! That will seem weird to me. I think the area rug idea is great, but for some reason, I have it in my mind that if I have wood floors, I don't want to cover them with area rugs. I'm driving mysefl crazy! LOL!!

My sister just did her house in wood, and she loves it. I just went to see her this week, and the floors are gorgeous.

Did you put laminate in your house, or reg. hard wood? My sister, MIL, SIL, BIL, and nephew all have laminate, and they love it.

[dornroeschen]

Jenny, I can recommend both wooden and laminated floors. In my kitchen and entry I have laminated flooring and in all other rooms - except bathroom and loo - I have wood parquet floors. However, I would recommend to take a really hard wood like oak or maple, the birch I have in the living room and bedroom are rather 'fragile' if you drop something - it marks and scratches fairly easily although the guy selling us the parquet told us that it doesn't matter so much on the wood but on the sealer. The sample he showed us didn't get a scratch when he used his key on it. The old oak parquet I have in my study and throw-room doesn't have any scratches yet.

I would never get wall-to-wall carpets again, I prefer the beauty of wood.

[SanFen]

I had hardwood floors put down before we moved in. Three coats of polyurethane. I only did that because we were not living there. In your situation, the pre-finished floors would work great. I know several people that have done that and they are gorgeous.

I do have a laminate floor in the entry way and kitchen - however, it is a tile pattern. I love that as well!!! One of my best friends put down a dark "wood" laminate floor and it looks great! Very easy to take care of.

Good luck with deciding!
Sandy

Oh - and as far as the area rugs go, my feeling is that they help define an "area" - whether it be seating, dining etc. I also love a nice runner down a hallway. It's a matter of personal preferance - there is no right or wrong. That's the best part! ;-)

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ November 12, 2005 03:21 PM: Message edited by: SanFen ]</font>

[rachie421]

I dont own a house but I have to say I LOVE hardwood floors! They are esp great if you have anyone in the house with allergies.

We have the laminate in our house because my parents were not sure what they wanted to do. We had put a huge addition on the rest of the house but because of the way our kitchen is situated, we couldnt really do much with it. So they are going to wait a few more years before they redo it entirely, but the floor definitely needed to be replaced soon. We had never had wood floors so my parents werent sure if they were going to like it so instead of paying a lot for hardwood floors that they might replace in less than 10 yrs, we got the cheaper laminate to see if we would like it and its great.

Although they will replace that stuff with real hardwood once they redo the kitchen, it works awesome right now and its very hard to dent up I think. My brother and I liked it so much actually that we had it put down in our own rooms. The laminate of course, since we are both in college and wont be living here for too much longer.

Well I kinda went on about that, sorry [img]confused.gif[/img] But either way, wood floors are a good decision!

[ponydreamer]

Well...you all are telling me what everyone else keeps telling me. I think I'll go ahead with the laminate. I'll figure out what I want for rugs once the floor is in, and I get used to it. I love to decorate.

The problem, though...is DH is going to install it all. So it will likely be spring before I get laminate in the dining and living rooms. He is a very good carpenter, but we have so many things to do, and he is only one person. He won't hire anyone to help, as he is usually disappointed. If I get carpet, I can get it installed before Christmas.

I'm going to wait, though, and have laminate. And who knows? Maybe I'll accidentally hire someone to come install it! LOL!!!!!

[dianasmama]

Ok, chiming in here, although I think I must've missed the original questions. When you refer to "laminate" do you mean "faux-wood" flooring?

I've heard some of those are very, very nice.

In our current house, we have pre-finished maple flooring in our foyer, kitchen, breakfast room and dh's office. By pre-finished, that just means that the stain and varnish are put on in a controlled-environment at the factory and then just installed in your home. They have held up extremely well, however, you still don't want anyone walking around in high heeled shoes.

In our new house, the entire first floor is hardwood white oak that will be installed and finished in the house. I'm really looking forward to it, just a dust mop to clean everything up. Then we'll leave our vacuum cleaner upstairs, all those rooms will be carpeted.

I agree with the idea of the area rugs as far as defining spaces. I'll probably want one for our dining room and the Grand Room, but will have to wait to determine furniture placement, size, and the biggest item: BUDGET!

Laurie

[dornroeschen]

In March my mum had her guestrooms (she runs a B&B) renovated and also put in laminated floors. They have a new system now called 'click' that way you don't get any clefts as with the previous systems if you didn't fit it tightly - it fits perfectly. My mum loves it in the guestrooms as you don't have any more stains from clumsy guests.

[ponydreamer]

Well...they're wood, but they have a laminate top? I don't know. I just know that I love the laminate floors I have seen in people's homes. My MIL's is gorgeous. And I Love the feel of it with bare feet. I'm a bit afraid of hard wood....my family is not careful at all. I think they would ruin it!

The laminate that we have is a knotty pine. The boards are wide. Miki...this laminate is the click system.

[dornroeschen]

The laminates we used also look like real wood. If you don't want to worry about 'damages' then the laminated floors are the best. Actually I have seen some that look more real then wood parquets.