Replacing flooring

[BScott881]

I'm thinking about replacing the carpeting in my house with either hardwood or something like Pergo. I really would prefer new carpet, but I'm afraid the two dogs I have would just ruin it like they have what I have now. Anyone have any suggestions as to what to get that would look nice and be easy to clean. I've heard Pergo is good but it seems kinda expensive. Suggestions are welcome.

 

[geno]

What are the dogs doing to ruin the current carpet?

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

I installed some Armstrong laminate in my kitchen (300spft) last year. It was pretty easy, but time consuming. About 10 hours once I got the floor prepped (had to replace some subflooring). You will want a table or mitre saw, and install the glueless kind. I would recommend testing it out in a small area like a dining room.

 

[LAUST]

Pergo is cheaper then a GOOD hardwood floor

 

[allisolm]

We put engineered wood flooring in the living and dining rooms. Comes prefinished. Easy to put down (hard on the knees). Ours has a 25 yr wear through warranty. Here pic along with one of the three staircases we took out the carpet on and put oak treads and risers in to match the flooring.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: LAUST
Pergo is cheaper then a GOOD hardwood floor

Plus hardwoods (I have 600sq ft of Red Oak in my house, nothing special just typical hardwood) but it has to be resurfaced and new urithane put on it every few years too and it's abit expensive.. you can do it yourself but most home jobs I have ever seen look wavey and total home grown job.

Why does hardwood need to be resurfaced every few years?

 

[Linflas]

I did our family room with Bruce 3/4 inch finished hardwood and we are very happy with the results. As allisolm said it is hard on the knees but well worth it.
We also looked at Pergo but decided to go with the real deal instead.

 

[badmouse]

We did the floors several years ago and went with oak instead of pergo. Very happy with the oak. It looks good even if it's scratched up or whatever. The cost was about the same with the wood as with the laminate, I forget why but there was something about the underlayment with the laminate that made it more than normal.

One warning we had with pergo/laminates is that you shouldn't put them near water (kitchen, bath) because the water will damage it.

 

[compudog]

We have the Armstrong laminate down in our kitchen and it is great! Very easy to clean. Ours was the glue type as the glueless variety wasn't available. It's in about 5 years and still looks great, very durable. You can use the stuff in kitchens and baths, but there are some special precautions you must take first. Pergo and Armstrong are great products IMO and worth the effort. We also have a dog and the dog likes the floor, though prefers to still sleep on the bed!

 

[KarenMarie]

Originally posted by: allisolm
We put engineered wood flooring in the living and dining rooms. Comes prefinished. Easy to put down (hard on the knees). Ours has a 25 yr wear through warranty. Here pic along with one of the three staircases we took out the carpet on and put oak treads and risers in to match the flooring.

nice house!

You have good taste!

🙂

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: LAUST
Pergo is cheaper then a GOOD hardwood floor

Plus hardwoods (I have 600sq ft of Red Oak in my house, nothing special just typical hardwood) but it has to be resurfaced and new urithane put on it every few years too and it's abit expensive.. you can do it yourself but most home jobs I have ever seen look wavey and total home grown job.

Why does hardwood need to be resurfaced every few years?

The urithane coating wears off

 

Pergo is good but BEWARE -- if it gets wet it's ruined. My new apartment got flooded a couple of weeks ago, we have semi-laminated floors (like Pergo)...

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/bbzzdd/floor-1.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/bbzzdd/floor-2.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/bbzzdd/floor-3.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/bbzzdd/floor-4.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/bbzzdd/floor-5.jpg

Those are actually the good shots before the real damage set in. Pergo has a spongy material underneath that soaks up the water. As it the water expands in the material, the boards buckle and pop up. Right now 1/3 of the boards have popped up exposing the floor underneath. The whole floor needs to be replaced.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: allisolm
We put engineered wood flooring in the living and dining rooms. Comes prefinished. Easy to put down (hard on the knees). Ours has a 25 yr wear through warranty. Here pic along with one of the three staircases we took out the carpet on and put oak treads and risers in to match the flooring.

Looks great! Those stairs are beautiful!

 

[Cat13]

I have Pergo throughout my house and a Golden Retriever. She has not done any damage to the floor. Plus I have 2 kids, so the floor takes a beating. I use the Hoover floormate to clean it and it looks good as new.

 

[RU482]

I prefer asbestos tiles

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: redly1
I prefer asbestos tiles

Back in February I was cutting out my kitchen floor that had those under the Linoleum 😉 That was right after I was stripping the led paint off the walls.. W00t gotta love all the old stuff we used.

 

[richardycc]

Originally posted by: allisolm
We put engineered wood flooring in the living and dining rooms. Comes prefinished. Easy to put down (hard on the knees). Ours has a 25 yr wear through warranty. Here pic along with one of the three staircases we took out the carpet on and put oak treads and risers in to match the flooring.

that looks really nice! :beer:

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: LAUST
Pergo is cheaper then a GOOD hardwood floor

Plus hardwoods (I have 600sq ft of Red Oak in my house, nothing special just typical hardwood) but it has to be resurfaced and new urithane put on it every few years too and it's abit expensive.. you can do it yourself but most home jobs I have ever seen look wavey and total home grown job.

i did the entire first floor of my old house (since sold), about 1200 sq ft in prefinished Hard wood. in my opinion, the pergo doesn't look near as good as a good hardwood floor. the prefinished stuff looks VERY good when finished. i think it cost me a total of $4500 or so to do the entire first floor of my house.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Originally posted by: LAUST

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: LAUST
Pergo is cheaper then a GOOD hardwood floor

Plus hardwoods (I have 600sq ft of Red Oak in my house, nothing special just typical hardwood) but it has to be resurfaced and new urithane put on it every few years too and it's abit expensive.. you can do it yourself but most home jobs I have ever seen look wavey and total home grown job.

Why does hardwood need to be resurfaced every few years?

The urithane coating wears off

The urethane doesn't wear off but if you have to mop it alot the gloss will fade. My parents living room's gloss wore out after about 2 years but they had 3 dogs coming in and out tracking mud all the time. The rest off the house still looks great almost 6 years later. If you use the satin finish instead of gloss I don't think it would be as big of a problem. They just did a light sanding in the living room and put down another couple coats and it looks good again.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: LAUST

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: LAUST
Pergo is cheaper then a GOOD hardwood floor

Plus hardwoods (I have 600sq ft of Red Oak in my house, nothing special just typical hardwood) but it has to be resurfaced and new urithane put on it every few years too and it's abit expensive.. you can do it yourself but most home jobs I have ever seen look wavey and total home grown job.

Why does hardwood need to be resurfaced every few years?

The urithane coating wears off

While the polyurethane can wear off a bit over time, it should not be required to apply new poly any more frequently than every 7-8 years. We had our hardwoods refinished 7 years ago and the poly looks as good as when it was applied. We found a good pro to do our refinishing and he only works with oil-based polyurethanes. Never - and I repeat *never* use water-based poly for flooring. It just will not hold up good at all. Floor refinishers will insist on using it because it means they can put a couple of coats down in a few hours (because of the fast drying time) and then call the job done.

Also, when refinishing the polyurethane, one doesn't need to sand the hardwoods all the way down. The person I know who does this, just uses a big steel wool pad on a commercial buffer to prep the surface before applying a fresh coat of poly.