We are nearing the time where we have to choose floors for our new home.

We are at a dead stand still. We can't decide if we want to go with tile, or hardwood, or laminate "hardwood".

Anyone have any special reasons why they chose one over the other?

We like the way they both look.

This will be for the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms, entryway, laundry room, and possibly hallway.

My DH says no hardwood/pergo in the bathrooms. Is that normal? I've seen wood in bathrooms before.

By Yjja123 on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 02:51 pm:

OK--We used to have 60% of the house tiled. We now have 90% of the house hardwood laminate flooring.
I Love-Love-Love the laminate hardwood! It is much easier to clean over the tile. It is not a skating rink (the old tile was slippery when wet).
We DO have hardwood laminate in the bathroom with no problem. You install it differently but it is fine (according to the manufacturer directions).

By Kateg on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 03:04 pm:

We have hardwood in the living room, hall, dining room, kitchen and utility. I love it. The bedrooms are carpet and the baths are tile. It is a perfect blend for us. I personally wouldn't own laminate, I've seen it in a lot of houses (due to my job) and I'm continually more impressed with the look and durability of the hardwood. IMO

Good luck.

By Marcia on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 03:18 pm:

WE have hardwood in the living room, diningroom, hall and 3 bedrooms, ceramics in the washrooms, laminate in the kitchen and downstairs, and pine flooring in our bedroom downstairs. I love the hardwood more than anything. It's so much easier to keep clean, and the wear and tear doesn't show up on it the same. The laminate looks like crap in some places.
We've had a couple of huge water spills. The first one was on the laminate in the kitchen, and we had to replace some of it. It was a nightmare, and it's never looked good since. We had another little flood on the hardwood. It warped at the seams, but when the floor underneath dried out, it took it's normal shape back. What a difference!!

By Heaventree on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 03:21 pm:

In our last house we had hardwood every where no carpet. In the kitchen and bathrooms we had tile (because DH insisted). I will never have tile again. If you spend a lot of time in the kitchen it's hard on your feet, legs and back, it's also cold on your feet and very unforgiving if you drop something.

I liked the hardwood but with pets it was hard to keep clean. I had to sweep or swifter almost every day due to the pet hair. I also found that my house was more dusty (versus carpet). The dust doesn't have a carpet to settle into so it sits on your furniture (just my experience).

In our new house we have mostly carpet, which I don't love but my floors look cleaner even with the dog. I only have to vacuum ocassionally whereas with the hardwood it was constant.

In the kitchen, foyer and hallway we have laminate flooring that looks like tile. While I don't love the pattern that the previous owns chose I love this type of flooring. It is way easier to clean than tile, no grout to scrub and dirty spots are just easier to clean. It is warm on my feet and much, much softer than tile. When we were looking at homes I noticed a real difference between laminate flooring in terms of quality. Also you could always tell when people had installed it themselves, you could feel pockets under the floor where it had not been leveled properly. Ours was professionally installed and feels quite solid.

Sorry that was probably way more than what you were looking for.

By Tink on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 03:48 pm:

I grew up with hardwood, our last three houses had carpet and now we have Pergo in our kitchen, dining room, family and living room, carpet in the bedrooms and hall and tile in the bathrooms and laundry room. I LOVE the Pergo. We have pets and I do have to sweep most days but I vacuumed everyday with carpeting so it's not that big of a deal to me. We've had a couple of big spills on the laminate and it's never had any trouble rebounding. Maybe that depends on the installation? I really hate the tile. It's so cold, hurts to stand on for long periods of time, and our's never looks as clean as I'd like. I don't like the idea of how dirty carpeting gets, even when it looks clean, and my dks (and dh) were constantly spilling things so I had to drag out the steam cleaner more often than I would have liked.

By Yjja123 on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 03:52 pm:

We have 2 large dogs and 4 cats with hardwood laminate. We vaccuum & swiffer every other day (on average). The floors look cleaner than our tile ever did. I swear I could scrub on my hands and knees the tile and hours later it looked dirty. No such problem with the hardwood laminate.
We installed ours and we do not have any leveling issues or pockets. You cannot tell that we installed it, versus a professional install. We are DIY people though. I do not think it was a hard project.

By Annie2 on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 03:56 pm:

We have carpeting in all bedrooms and living room. We have laminate hardwood in our foyer and sunroom, tile in kitchen and bathrooms. The only thing I would change is to replace the tile in kitchen with hardwood flooring.

By Kaye on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 03:56 pm:

Hard floors vs carpet too me is a no brainer. They may need dusted daily, but with carpet it just settles in, it is still there, you just don't see it. I kind of think of it as the "dirty sock that never gets washed". I want to rip out my carpet soon!

If you live in a really humid place (like houston..lol) hardwood just isn't a good choice, it can mold and warp. We are toying with a laminate wood, but honestly I have a hard time dealing with the way it sounds when you walk on it, it is too plasticy. I have looked into bamboo flooring, it does a better job with the humidity.

I like tile in a kitchen, you need floor mats. I also would consider doing large tiles (15 inch) so you have less grout. I also would consider butting them up to each other. You do have to pick something that has a texture to it so it isn't slippery.

By Breann on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 04:30 pm:

Thanks for all the responses!

One of my concerns with laminate is that it will "pop" when you walk on it. This is because my inlaws have laminate in their hallway, and when you step in certain spots, it pops. My DH says it's just because they installed it incorrectly.

Going with larger tiles so there is less grout is a good idea. Never would have thought of that. We were told that using larger tiles makes the room look larger. Looks like large is the way to go.

OK, thanks for sharing all your floors with me! If you think of anything else, please do post.

By Yjja123 on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 05:04 pm:

I am in Florida--no issues with humidity.
No popping sounds and we installed hardwood laminate over tile. We used a cushion padding. That virtually eliminates the clicking or popping noise.

By Debbie on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 08:30 pm:

We have tile and I love it. I guess I am the odd man out. I thought the hardwood floors in our old house were a pain, especially with all the snow and salt. I used to always make the dks take their shoes off. We have the large 20x20 tiles. Ours are not installed the standard way. The tiles don't have a straight edge(the edge is like a postage stamp - I hope that makes sense), and they are laid fairly close, so there is not a lot of grout. The also aren't the standard ceramic, they have a duller finish, with lots of variation, so they never look dirty. I also don't find it any harder to stand on. I just have a rug where I stand and do most of my cooking.

I also love slate. My brother has this in his new house. It is beautiful. I don't know how durable it is though.

By Mrsheidi on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 08:33 pm:

I just bought some Durastone on the American Carpet Wholesaler website and I love it! It's almost like ceramic tile but it's a bit softer and I purchased the 18" size so it's large and heavy like ceramic tile. I agree with larger type tiles. Durastone also won't scratch, etc. The website also helped with accessories like adhesives and it also came with the tools to apply the adhesive. I heard it's pretty easy to install.

I went to a local place, found what I wanted and got a "quote". I found the exact thing online for half the cost and it was sent within 1.5 weeks and my brother will install it for free. I think it's the way to go in the eating areas and kitchen. I would go real hardwood everywhere else though. (Real hardwood is so expensive though.)

By Breann on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 11:06 am:

Thanks girls! We've made countless trips to Lowes and Home Depot looking and touching and thinking. Who knew it would be such a tough decision. I just know that whatever we choose, we will have to live with for years to come, so we better make the right choice.
Debbie, we have seen that tile with the "non-straight" edge. It's really pretty.
If we do go with tile, we will get the type that is textured and has various shades of color. The one we like is called sand something. It's a tan/cream color. I don't think I would ever choose a solid white tile, for fear something would stain it.
Does tile grout stain easily? And, what if one of the tiles break? Can you replace it without too much of a headache?

By Colette on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 11:13 am:

I would check out a tile store before going with lowes or home depot. they have a better selection and if nothing else, you can get more ideas from them. Our tile in the bathroom is varying shades of a blue that kind of looks like the ocean when it's stormy or right before a thunderstorm hits - when the sky gets that weird blue color. We have grey grout and bought extra tiles just in case. The rest of my house is real hardwood that we refinished and I am very happy with it.

By Debbie on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 11:21 am:

I have never had a tile break, so I don't know about that. I don't think they break to easily. As far as the grout, if you seal it, it shouldn't be a problem. With the way our tile is laid, there isn't a lot of grout since it is laid so close together. Our grout is medium colored, that matches one of the colors in the tile. It doesn't seem to stain. I will see if I can take a picture and post it.

By Tink on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 11:22 am:

Our tile is 15x15, a variegated cream/tan color with tan grout. Our grout is badly stained after only 9 months and the tiles, even with a texture, are slippery and look dirty very easily. We did have one crack (it wasn't leveled properly before installation) and it was easily replaced.

By Kaye on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 12:48 pm:

Cori...we have had tile stain, but found several things that did clean it. Mostly bleach based stuff. But I had tile countertops, after I scrubbed and scrubbed them, I bought something called a grout sealer and sealed it. It made so much difference when cleaning it. I assume you can do that for floors too.

Tile can be slick, texture is supposed to help, but it doesn't always, the best best is to actually get them wet and try it out. Good tile centers usually let you take home a sample and you can mess with it. I have marble in my entry, boy is that slick!

By Yjja123 on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 12:54 pm:

The most important thing to know with tile is if the color runs all the way through. I had white tile that chipped BLACK! It looked like dirt spots but was actually chips. Better quality tiles have the same color throughout. Tile can crack but I think that is more the cause of the house settling or a bad tile job to begin with (not laying it flat).
Replacing a tile is not fun. You have to scrape out the grout around it and try to remove just one tile. It is hard not to damage surrounding tiles. I just removed 4 walls of tile and it was very hard getting some of the tiles to come off (and I was not worried about damaging them).

By Yjja123 on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 12:56 pm:

Oh yeah--stained grout. I have/had tiled countertops and I sealed them with grout sealer. I have had no stains what-so-ever. Sealer is definitely the key! It is very time consuming but well worth the effort.

By Tink on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 02:32 pm:

Unfortunately, our tile was supposedly sealed before we moved in but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. Now I can't get it clean enough to seal it properly. I haven't tried any hard-core cleaners on it yet. I guess I'll have to bring in the big guns. Our kitchen counters seem to have been sealed properly and they are almost a breeze to take care of.

By Debbie on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 02:36 pm:

Tink, I bet it wasn't sealed. You shouldn't have that much staining in 9 months. Ours wasn't either, and I made the builder go back in and seal it. We don't have any stains and we have been here 6 months.

By Breann on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 03:56 pm:

Ohhh, that is really interesting about the tile chipping and showing black. I'll be sure to make note of that.

Debbie, I would love to see a picture if you could get one. It's so hard to tell from one small tile sample at the store.

By Bea on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 06:05 pm:

We have wonderful old hardwood floors throughout our house. When it came time (about 9 years ago), to put a new floor in our kitchen, we installed Pergo Laminate. I've never regretted that decision. It looks wonderful and is easy on my legs and feet. Cleaning it is so easy. It's the best floor I've ever had. We have ceramic tile in our Florida room. We installed a triple sub floor to prevent any sagging and cracking. It looks beautiful, but is freezing in the winter, the thresholds continuously crack and it's hard to keep clean.

By Breann on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 07:25 pm:

That is good to know about the Pergo, Bea. I know that you are quite particular about your beautiful home.