Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

Hi all. In the next week or so my dh and I are finally going to get our flooring done. We are trying to decide whether to get real hardwood floors or laminate that looks like hardwood. I love the look and shine of real hardwood, but I have an almost three year old and a dog. I am so afraid of scratches! Any opinions?

ETA: The flooring will be put in the hallway, living room, dining room, and possibly the kitchen. (Basically our entire downstairs)

Message edited 11/30/2006 1:13:13 PM.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

Hardwood - one it will add to the value of the home, and it looks so nice! And if one area gets chipped, that one planl can get ripped up and replaced whereas the laminate would all have to be replaced.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

I have real hard wood throughout my whole house except the kitchen, hallway and den. I have a dog, a husband that plays golf in the house and girlfriends that come over and strut around in their stilettos all over my wood floors. But I have no problems with it. I think I have 2 coats of poly on it and it stays very shiny. I use the dry swiffer to dust and then pledge or just vinegar and water to clean it. I voted to go with the real thing!

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

I have real hardwood but I am on the fence about them.

My neighbors have a large dog and their hardwoods look TERRIBLE! I would love to get a dog, but I take one look at their floors and constantly think twice.

The other consideration is price. My hardwoods (we got the pre-finished ones) were about $8-9k installed.

Not sure if you would be doing the instal yourself, which would bring the price down, I think.

Hope that helped & good luck!

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

we just installed pergo hard wood laminate flooring- it looks GORGEOUS.

it is expensive, but not as expensive as real hard wood..

we paid 750 for 200 sf, and we installed it ourselves.. but, if we were to have it in stalled, they quoted us 1k on top of the 750..

i think hard wood flooring all around is better- most durable, and adds more value to the home.

i suggest laminate for basements and for rentals- which is why we put it- we put it in the hall and dining room of a rental.. it came out fantastic..

it also has a 30 year warranty which is not bad either.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

if you are on a cement slab and have no subflooring, don't do real hardwoods bc you might have a termite problem.

The owner in the house im buying put pergo's OVER hardwoods - we are goign to leave it for now and finish the hardwoods in the future.

there are pro's and cons to both -

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

We're on a slab and opted for the laminate. We're really happy with the results. We used Tarkett and selected the type that is laid out in single pieces. (I'm not explaining this well but instead of wider planks, we used the narrower ones that look like single pieces of wood).

The laminate is a good option for people with pets too. And it's easy to clean.

But then again, there's nothing like real hardwood floors.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

if laminate gets damaged, it has to be replaced. hardword can be sanded to repair it.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

My two cents....

Laminate is more durable. It does not scratch or dent as easy as hardwood. It also requires less maintenance.

It is true that if hardwood gets damaged you can sand the damage out however, when you sand, it can create dips since you’re sanding away a portion of the floor. Depending on the size of the damage it's better to pull up the plank or planks.

Most hardwoods require glue. If installed in a basement or a slab this could be a problem if water damage occurs. In this case, you cannot simply pull up the floor and replace it. There are some hardwood floors that do not require glue which are the better choice.

If you have a large family, kids, dogs etc, laminate is a better choice. Real hardwood floors do add more value however only when maintained correctly.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

Our new house has Pergo and while it does look very nice, I'd LOVE to have the real thing.....They are both very nice, but hardwoods add more value to your house.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

Most of my house has hard wood but the den has pergo and to me there is no comparison, the hard wood is so much nicer. I would love to redo the den one of these years.
We have 2 cats with claws and it doesn't show anything... lots of poly to keep it durable.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

Hardwood.

Yes, we even put it on the slab in the livingroom. We made sure we prepped the area with a moisture barrier. Some companies didn't want to do it.

In the basement we are going with laminate because it's only going to be a practice studio for DH and later a playroom for the kids.

I'm even replacing my current basement stairs (entire thing) because I want oak treads. I am really anti carpet.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

I installed Pergo Laminate Flooring about 8 years ago in a very high traffic area. It looks just as good today as it did when it was first put down and so easy to take care of. Hardwood floors are beautiful, but, too hard to keep looking that way for me.

Forgot to add, I have three dogs and they haven't caused any damage at all.

Message edited 11/30/2006 4:55:34 PM.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

I have "engineered hardwood" which is basically a type of laminate but made with real wood. They are a light bamboo and are really nice but they are so scratched.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

Both choices are gorgeous but I just wanted mention not to go with bamboo wood floors. They are very delicate and scratch easily.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

We have hardwoods upstairs and it our kitchen and we put Quick Step laminate in the living room. We have to cats with their claws. The laminate looks great and is very durable and easy to maintain. It was also $4000 less than hardwoods. We had to have a subfloor installed because the floor was not even. Either way, we had to lay a subfloor.

We made the choice to go with a less expensive floor at the time and it was a good choice. I get lots of compliments about it believe it or not. No, people are not fooled into thinking it's hardwood, but it looks good.

Suited our purpose at the time. Would we love all hardwoods, sure..but there's only a certain amount of money in the budget for each home improvement.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring

hands down, hardwood. no contest or comparison.

Re: Hard Wood or Laminate Flooring