Hardwood!! If anything happens, which it will, just have the floor sanded and refinished every 5-10 years (although, my parents have only done this once in the past 20 years). I have only had the floors refinighed once in our house (4 years ago when we moved in).
GasX
Lifer
- Feb 8, 2001
- 29,033
- 6
- 81
Originally posted by: TheSlamma
Originally posted by: Mwilding
Originally posted by: TheSlamma
"We wanted hardwood but are concerned with durability since we have a 3 year old boy and a 75lb dog who will both be testing the durability of any flooring we install"
3 coats of urathane will take care of that
Not!
I have old hardwood floors (back from when the word "hard" meant something). No amount of urethane can stop dog claws from scratching the wood, especially when there are two dogs!
I have Red Oaks with 2 coats and mine are fine, my Golden is only 85lbs though.
My floors are taking a beating from my 2 dogs charging around, but for a few hundred dollars, I can get them refinished and good as new, so I would take HWF any day - even if they do get scratched up...
Except with laminate, while it's hard scratch, if it does scratch, you really don't have many options.
I've had hardwood floors for 15 years, just note a few things.
Laminate looks TACKY.
It can get really cold in your house (carpet retains heat)
It will be loud, theres nothing to dampen the noise.
- Jul 3, 2003
- 74,598
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I'm in SoCal, it doesn't get very cold here. We are installing this flooring over a concrete slab. Noise won't be an issue.
I agree with the laminate looks tacky, that's why I wanted hardwood, but this stuff looks just like real wood. The surface is distressed to look just like wood. It really is almost impossible to tell the difference by looking at it.
From what I've read, the bargain laminate flooring doesn't hold up nearly as well as the name brand stuff.
Hardwood is a nice way to go if you can afford it though.
Hardwood is a nice way to go if you can afford it though.
From someone who doesn't have a three year old, but has one hell of an energetic 75 pound dog ... go for the laminate. Even stretching in the morning when he wakes up causes grooves in our hardwood finish. When we moved in we redid all the floors, and two months later got our little bundle of energy. We don't care overly much, but I think cost-wise, and durability wise you'll be better suited to laminate.
When laminate scratches do you see the particle board underneath through the scratch? I have neither and am considering hardwood vs. laminate for a new home (or just tile instead)
- Jul 3, 2003
- 74,598
- 997
- 126
- Jul 3, 2003
- 74,598
- 997
- 126
Laminate is much much harder to scratch than hardwood and it is almost impossible to dent. We have a kind of bridge/hallway with railings on both sides (on the second floor) that overlooks the living room on one side and the dining room on the other. I have visions of my son dropping a toy over the edge onto the floor below. When he gets a new toy with wheels he gets a kick out of pushing them down the stairs. There is carpet there now but this will be one of the areas we are redoing. These are the kinds of things I'm concerned about.
- Jul 3, 2003
- 74,598
- 997
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That's what we have in our kitchen. This was right after the tile was installed. You can see where the carpet starts, that's our family room and that will be replaced with the new flooring we decide on.
- Jul 3, 2003
- 74,598
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Originally posted by: Ornery
- Just out of curiosity, what was the point of the poll anyway?
Just curious what other people think, what their experience has been.
Why?
I've had both and there's no comparing the two. Real hardwoods look better, last just as well, and are a better value as an upgrade for your home.
sixone
Lifer
- May 3, 2004
- 25,030
- 5
- 61
I have both, and agree 100%.
If you are dead set on getting laminate: do NOT skimp on the padding underneath. When we did our first laminate floor, we took what the @#$% at our local lumberyard had on hand, not knowing that it was crap. The sound of that floor has annoyed me since day 1; it sounds thin and cheap. I can hear my cats claws clicking across it from three rooms away.
On the up side, I guess it makes a good burglar alarm. :disgust:
I never really knew that bamboo was an option for flooring. The pictures of bamboo flooring that were posted were gorgeous. I think if I were making a choice about flooring right now, I'd definitely look further into bamboo.
Otherwise, I'd go with real hardwood. I grew up with hardwood floors (in a house with around 7 people (plus a dog and cats at times) wandering around the first floor at any given time) and it held up to that. In the 20 years that I lived at home, we had our floor refinished twice, but the only places that really neede them were the very high traffic areas. And as long as you're relatively careful with hardwood, and have a durable finish on it, noticable scratches are hard to come by. (In a house with 5 or more kids, our floor would have looked terrible if every time a truck was thrown it dented the floors. . . and it doesn't look bad, so our hardwood, at least, was very durable.)
Wood flooring (or bamboo) > Laminate and carpet
Tile is good, too.
Otherwise, I'd go with real hardwood. I grew up with hardwood floors (in a house with around 7 people (plus a dog and cats at times) wandering around the first floor at any given time) and it held up to that. In the 20 years that I lived at home, we had our floor refinished twice, but the only places that really neede them were the very high traffic areas. And as long as you're relatively careful with hardwood, and have a durable finish on it, noticable scratches are hard to come by. (In a house with 5 or more kids, our floor would have looked terrible if every time a truck was thrown it dented the floors. . . and it doesn't look bad, so our hardwood, at least, was very durable.)
Wood flooring (or bamboo) > Laminate and carpet
Tile is good, too.
3/4" Red Oak Hardwood Floors is what we replaced our laminate with.
Generally: 3/4" Hardwood handles better than laminate:
1. Seasonal fluctuation in temperature (expansion/shrinkage).
2. Water exposure (spilled water, overflow sink/drain/toilet etc).
3. Scratches less easy compared to pre-finished laminates.
4. Sound isolation. Thicker/more solid wood provides better damping.
5. Refinishing. Little or no 'refinish' potential with laminates.
If you have to replace any laminate pieces for whatever reason; and you local supplier is out of the grade/brand that you had put in you're SOL. Whatever you do to replace those pieces or sections is going to look bad. You can more easily replace and match finish true hardwood flooring. In the least, re-finishing (which isn't as big a deal as some here say) does a great job of blending the new/old planks.
Finish is important. The type of finish can determine the type of look your floor has (natural wood, satin gloss, poly warm, and others). However, what most people overlook is that there are also different types of actual finishes. There's Polyeurethane (sp) and a couple different kinds of water based finishes. A commercial venue uses a water based finish called "Street Shoe" and it's one of the most resilient durable finishes you can apply. It's also the most expensive. Poly's on the other hand are inexpensive; but they don't wear as well. Some of the finishes are also prone to fading in areas of consistent sunlight whereas some types of finish are actually guarranteed not to fade.
I'm out of time at the moment, but google "street shoe" and hardwood floor finishes. There's good info to know about finishing, especially if spending that kind of dough to put in hardwood floors.
The pics on the following page are don't do justice to the floor we had put in and we no longer own the house so I can't get updated pics. But, our floor has a "Street Shoe" finish and it is highly resistent to scratching; much moreso than the laminates we had and many of the floors that we sampled.
Floor in our previous home
A Googled Link on Coatings (Street Shoe)
Generally: 3/4" Hardwood handles better than laminate:
1. Seasonal fluctuation in temperature (expansion/shrinkage).
2. Water exposure (spilled water, overflow sink/drain/toilet etc).
3. Scratches less easy compared to pre-finished laminates.
4. Sound isolation. Thicker/more solid wood provides better damping.
5. Refinishing. Little or no 'refinish' potential with laminates.
If you have to replace any laminate pieces for whatever reason; and you local supplier is out of the grade/brand that you had put in you're SOL. Whatever you do to replace those pieces or sections is going to look bad. You can more easily replace and match finish true hardwood flooring. In the least, re-finishing (which isn't as big a deal as some here say) does a great job of blending the new/old planks.
Finish is important. The type of finish can determine the type of look your floor has (natural wood, satin gloss, poly warm, and others). However, what most people overlook is that there are also different types of actual finishes. There's Polyeurethane (sp) and a couple different kinds of water based finishes. A commercial venue uses a water based finish called "Street Shoe" and it's one of the most resilient durable finishes you can apply. It's also the most expensive. Poly's on the other hand are inexpensive; but they don't wear as well. Some of the finishes are also prone to fading in areas of consistent sunlight whereas some types of finish are actually guarranteed not to fade.
I'm out of time at the moment, but google "street shoe" and hardwood floor finishes. There's good info to know about finishing, especially if spending that kind of dough to put in hardwood floors.
The pics on the following page are don't do justice to the floor we had put in and we no longer own the house so I can't get updated pics. But, our floor has a "Street Shoe" finish and it is highly resistent to scratching; much moreso than the laminates we had and many of the floors that we sampled.
Floor in our previous home
A Googled Link on Coatings (Street Shoe)
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