i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

i'm still having trouble deciding...
dh and i have hardwood throughout our upstairs LR, DR, hallway and foyer area.
now we are trying to decide what to do in our downstairs (small hallway and den). we currently have carpet but it's old and gross and time to re-do. i originally wanted carpeting, but with 2 dogs, i think flooring would hold up better with smells and dirt.
we got an estimate to have hardwood installed... it would be close to $3,000... because it's a concrete slab underneath the carpeting so they would have to install plywood into the concrete first, then install the flooring. can be done though.
then we started talking about laminate... dh and his dad could install it themselves... and it would cost us anywhere from about $500-800 depending what brand we go with.
so... what should we do?
i definitely like the look of hardwood better, but the price difference is biiig... it's the difference between buying new couches and entertainment center for the room as well, or not.
also, my dad said something to think about with hardwood... apparantly we have pipes that run underneath the house (water or heat or something, i forget what he said)... god forbid it bursts and they have to dig up the entire floor... do we want to replace $3,000 of flooring or $800? true that the chances are slim, but something to think about i suppose.
we're torn, what would you do?

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Honestly I would do what is financially better for you right now.....You can get some really nice looking laminate flooring......if you are not planning on selling anytime soon I would do it and get the furniture you want!

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

the only thing i see as a prob with laminate is how will it blend with the other real wood on the same level of the house? my bro had laminate in his kitchen and reg hardwood in his apt and when they redid the kitchen they ended up going ceramic tile b/c it was not worth the $$ to get the real hardwood and the laminate didn't blend well...

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Posted by MrsKelly

Posted by Jackie24

Honestly I would do what is financially better for you right now.....You can get some really nice looking laminate flooring......if you are not planning on selling anytime soon I would do it and get the furniture you want!

i never plan on selling
it's my grandparents house; we just bought it in january. i intend on dying here

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Would you have to raise the floor anyway to match the heigth of the hardwood floor.

Do you want to spend $800 now? Will you consider doing hardwood floor later?

If so, why spend $500-800 now to replace later and spend more $$$ to do it right?

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

I don't know if you have a split - but that's what I have. We just bought it and there is hardwoods throughout except the slab "lower level" -- currently we have two different gross carpets and laminate flooring in the foyer. We installed commercial flooring in the laundry room - that actually looks really nice.

Our laminate is crappy - and it has a lot of scratches that picks up the dirt. I wouldn't install hardwoods but what we are planning on doing is ripping everything up and putting down tile - would you consider that?

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Being that it's downstairs and separate from the upstairs with the real hardwood, I think you could do a nice looking laminate downstairs and go with the new entertainment center and couches you want.

It's a den - so I think you could get away with a nice laminate. I couldn't live with the risk that $$$$ hardwood floors *might* someday need to be ripped up to get to pipes.

The one CaMacho used looks like real hardwood floor!

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Laminate is a BI*C to clean..

I would 100% do the hardwood prefinished.. u can get it off lumberliqudators.com

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

We have a Hi-Ranch just like yours. We are having the same problem trying to decide on floor for that room downstairs. We are probably going to do laminate flooring, but we have also talked about tiles with area rugs. I think we are going for the laminate though. Our den is right off of the laundry/boiler room, so if anything ever happened in there, at least it wasn't expensive hardwoods. We have hardwoods throughout upstairs and we thought about it downstairs, but my first thought was the washer over flowing and that changed our minds really quick. Plus we have a pool and that is the door to walk in and out for the backyard, so we thought hardwood might not be a good idea once we have kids. GL with your decision.

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

I had high end laminate in my condo, and i loved it. It was almost the thickest you could buy at the time, and we used the highest thickness moisture barrier. My condo was on a slab and it was super easy to install and it cost us about 600 bucks for 700 square feet of flooring. It looked like real wood, even had grooves.

I wasn't hard to clean at all, it's the same way you would clean hardwood-with spray and terry cloth mop. My IL's use a steam mop and their laminate and hardwood and it does a great job.
For spot cleaning i used windex.

It held up to a very active jack russell, 2 kids under 2 years old and us. I had it for 3 years and it still looked brand new-no dents, knicks or scratches.

We put tile in the kitchen which connects to our entry and it looked great.

I did it in natural color, we got it on clearance from HD.

I say do what fits your budget, and if you want hardwood, i'd wait a couple years so you can do it all at one time. I wouldn't do laminate now, then rip it up to do wood, that's a waste.

GL

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

I vote for a tile or marble floor instead of laminate because it won't match the rest of the hardwood in the house. Go to HD or Lowes and check out their tiles. We used travertine and limestone tiles in our house. DH did it himself and it looks very nice.

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

I think it would look really nice using this flooring throughout...

Message edited 6/11/2008 10:35:24 AM.

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

you dad is right. you have water pipes that are in your concrete slab and if one bursts the slab has to be dug up. i have a slab and this happened to me. its a messy job and thankfully didn't cause too much damage. ive had laminate for years in a very high traffic area and love it. easy maintenance and upkeep. plan on putting it in other rooms.

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

We put in a laminate in the basement that looks exactly like hardwood flooring. I think it was only 200 dollars from home depot.

As others have said, if there is ever an issue with water, or needing to get under there, I'll be more comfortable with destroying 200 dollars worth of laminate instead of 3,000 worth of hardwood floor.

We have 2 rooms in our basement - one is a workout room and one is just a room to hangout in. We put the same laminate in both areas, but in the 'hangout' room we got a 70.00 area rug also from HomeDepot to throw on top just to give it a little more homey feeling. Again, if my 70 dollar rug gets destroyed, I'm not crying about it.

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Your house sounds similar to ours. We have hardwood all throughout except for the lower level - it is concrete slab underneath so we put in a laminate floor, and I think it looks great. It was also pretty easy to install.

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Message edited 6/11/2008 3:36:17 PM.

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

I see, so this is what you all call a Split Level with the kitchen area on the 2nd level?

Message edited 6/11/2008 5:43:05 PM.

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

We have laminate throughout our home. We are on a concrete slab. We did have a pipe burst beneath the concrete slab once and had to have someone break up the concrete to get to the pipes to repair it. Luckily this occurred while we had carpet down. We have since installed laminate instead of real wood because we thought about the cost if we installed real wood and had to go through the same experience. Also, we do not plan to be here much longer.

Laminate is easy to install and clean. To clean it, just get yourself a spray bottle and put 1 part vinegar and 2 or 3 parts water. Spray this lightly on the floor and wipe.

I would not be concerned about the upstairs wood vs. downstairs laminate issue. Match it as close as possible if you're really concerned. No one will ever know the difference even if it's a different color because one will never see both at the same time.

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

Re: i'm reading all the posts on laminate but...

I would put in hardwood. If you plan on living there forever, you should invest in it. I have hardwood floors and LOVE them. I could never have laminate in part of my house if I had hardwood in another.

Don't worry about pipes that may or may not burst, anything can happen when you own a house. Plus, homeowners might cover that if it was to happen.