Flooring options....

[MomtoCandJ]

We really need to replace our carpeting. We would like a hard floor for the hall, kitchen, living room and bathroom. Bedrooms will remain carpeted :)

So give me your best reasonably priced ideas (links would be great).

[gardenmom5]

you want the floor to visually flow - similar colors if not materials, or at least very complimentary

 

do not put wood/laminate in a kitchen (or bath).  My insurance company paid for me to replace my hardwood floor with quartzite tile in my kitchen. I really like it, and it looks better in my kitchen than my wood floor did. (stay away from soft/absorbant stone too. porcelain will give you the look of marble or travertine, but it is not porous.)

[zoobie]

My BIL is in love with vinyl plank flooring, specifically Core-tec. Home Depot carries another brand. We put it in the kids' baths, but it's only been a month. It feels great underfoot (there's a cork base) and looks very nice. I was surprised by how nice. He is planning on putting it throughout the house they're building after putting it in a million dollar lake house he remodeled last summer. It's supposed to be totally water tight. The flooring people kept samples in a tank of water for a month, dried them out, and installed them in part of the showroom.

[TammyS]

If you've got the money, I would go hardwood, placed in a direction to make it continuous through all rooms (thresholds are the devil). 

 

Stay away from laminate "wood" floor.  It's complete garbage.  Looks crappy, it has a loud tinny sound, and it you spill on it, liquid seeps between the joins and it swells up and is ruined.  Unbelievable crap.  I've known lots of people who have it (and there is some already in place from where we bought our house, it's gone as soon as I can afford to get rid of it) and none of them are happy that they have it.  It's basically 70s paneling for the floor.

 

If you need something cheap, but reasonable looking, newer vinyls are pretty decent and come in surprisingly nice patterns.  Lowes has some that is sold on a 12' roll, for about $15 per linear foot.  We've put some of this in a wood pattern in a couple of kids rooms and it looks ok.  It's not awesome, but it looks better than laminate and holds up better, too.  It's a good semi-temporary solution if you want to do something that costs big $$, but can't right now.

[Mom-ninja.]

We are in the process of staining our concrete floor.

[BlsdMama]

Costco had some gorgeous stranded bamboo plans last week for around $3 per square foot.

 

F looring prices vary so widely that it is hard to make suggestions unless you have a budget and know whether you are going to hire install or self install.

 

Bathroom and kitchen I would do tile. We recently had a tile DIY project and it was fantastic. Unfortunately we had already bought a vinyl cut for the master bathroom. We went vinyl because we wanted painless, quick, and we plan on adding onto the house there in a few years. What a pain! One wrong cut and it is cut.... no undoing mistakes like with tile.

 

And in a previous rental house we had beautiful floors that were wood.... and a dishwasher that dripped ever so slightly out of one corner. Obviously we didn't notice.... and over time we did notice the floor was warping and discoloring there. :( Tile for places with water!!!

 

 

Stranded bamboo is what we are doing for our den, dining room, and hall next spring simply because it looks nice and it is incredibly hardy. But we ended up with carpet fir our living room and we're not sorry. Our kids spend a lot of time on the floor.

[Pawz4me]

I don't know if I'd do a large area in laminate (mostly due to the noise factor), but we have it in our foyer and downstairs half bath and I really like it.  It's almost eight years old and still looks brand new.  No problem at all with water damage (and it gets a LOT of drips in the bathroom) or scratching from the dogs' nails.  It's held up much better than the hardwood at our former house did.  Like most things, I suspect it depends on the quality of the laminate used.

 

I think if I were re-doing floors right now I'd take a good long look at luxury vinyl tile.

[Catherine]

We just renovated our kitchen and put down linoleum, sheet, not tiles. I like it for several reasons: I personally don't care for wood kitchen floors, though a lot of people in my area have them. It doesn't seem practical for a heavily-used kitchen floor. I also don't like tile, because it's cold, hard underfoot, and loud. I wanted cork, but my dh talked me out of it, for practical reasons, and I think he was probably right. Linoleum is a natural product so seemed like a more environmentally sound choice than vinyl, though it is more expensive. It is quiet and relatively soft and easy to keep clean.

[Ellie]

I have 1500 sq. ft. of hardwood floor--all of the downstairs, including the kitchen. They wear like iron if they are properly finished. This floor is almost 20 years old and going strong. I just installed hand-scraped hardwood in the downstairs bathroom. Love the hardwood.

 

I would also consider bamboo or cork.

 

Whatever you decide on, it will look best if you do all of the floors with the same thing.

[Mom-ninja.]

I have cork in the school room and while I love the look, it is not holding up well.

[mom2att]

Stay away from laminate "wood" floor.  It's complete garbage.  Looks crappy, it has a loud tinny sound, and it you spill on it, liquid seeps between the joins and it swells up and is ruined.  Unbelievable crap.  I've known lots of people who have it (and there is some already in place from where we bought our house, it's gone as soon as I can afford to get rid of it) and none of them are happy that they have it.  It's basically 70s paneling for the floor.

 

Sorry, I disagree.  Of course it depends on the house (I wouldn't put laminate in a nicely finished, high end house), but for the 70's ranch which was remodeled in the 90's house that I live in, laminate has been great.  We put it in going on 10 years ago, replacing all of the carpet.  With a houseful of kids, you know carpet would have been dirty, stained, and needing replacement more than once in those 10 years, but our laminate still looks new.  We have of course spilled liquid on it multiple times in 10 years--just wipe it up and it's gone.  I love how easy it is to clean and keep clean.

 

So yeah, it's not hardwood, in quality or cost.  But it beats the heck out of carpet.

 

eta:  we do have tile in the bathrooms and kitchen