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Has anyone moved from a carpeted home to one that is all hardwood floors?


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We are going to be moving this summer and are currently looking for homes. The neighborhoods we want to live in contain homes typically built in the '60's and all rooms (except bath and kitchen) have hardwood floors. We currently live in a home with plush carpeting throughout--it's warm and cozy, and even the golden retreiver hair vacuums up easily. I'm not sure if I will like the hardwood.

 

Have any of you made this switch? Did you find the casual living spaces to be comfortable with wood floors? If you used area rugs, was it inconvenient to both vacuum and sweep? If you had dogs, how hard was it to manage the hair cleanup? Do the dogs' nail scratch the floor?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Beth

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I love hardwood. I've had it since 1987 and I don't think I'll ever go back to all carpet (in this house, there is carpet upstairs in the bedrooms and gameroom; my other, one-storey house had carpet in all the bedrooms, too).

 

I have a cannister vacuum with a carpet attachment; all I have to do is switch from the "regular" floor thingie to the carpet one, which takes all of, I dunno, 5 seconds. No biggie.

 

For daily dustmopping, I use a mop similar to this one from Bona. When I need to do actual cleaning, I use the Bona cleaner--no muss, no fuss, no streaks, no odor, easy peasy.

 

I have 3 cats and 1 long-haired human (me:D). I try to dustmop daily; takes about 10 minutes to do 1500 sq. ft. When I clean the floor it is CLEAN. There is no dust or other icky stuff lurking under the carpte. Friends who are allergic to animals spend hours at my house with no problems whatsoever.

 

There may have been some scratches from my dogs in my other house, but it was no big deal.

 

All furniture "feet" have felt pads on them.

 

Love my hardwood.:D

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Our main floor living space is all hardwood now - family room, kitchen, mud room, bathroom, dining room, reading room, and the stairs to the second floor. Upstairs as well as the basement are carpeted.

 

Aside from 2 carpet "runners" (not sure what to call them - about 6 x 3 feet long) that we have put in the front hall and in the kitchen, between the island and the sink, we haven't put area rugs in yet. I'd like to get a braided rug for the family room, but that is still on the wish list. :)

 

I actually love the hardwood. It is a deep honey / caramel color, with a few very dark boards here and there (heartwood, I think?) - and the house feels very warm and cozy. In the summer, the floors are nice and cool in barefeet - I love that! And in the winter, we just wear socks and slippers. :)

 

The floors definitely don't look perfect, but the wood is very old - originally from an old barn, so it isn't supposed to look "new". We do have a dog as well - a German Shorthair Pointer with nails that grow QUICKLY! - and we have surface scratches on the wood. But, she is part of the family, so we live with it! The family that lived here before us had dogs as well, so the floors are well-loved. Someday, when we no longer have a dog, we'll have the floors refinished (and I know, then, I'll miss the scratches...).

 

I hope this helps - let me know if you have any more questions.

 

Deb

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I can't speak to the dog issue, as we had no pets, but our old house had hardwood floors in the living and dining rooms. We loved them so much that we are getting ready to remove the carpet from our current living/dining room and hallway, and the ceramic tile from our entryway and kitchen to replace all of it with hardwood. We did have a large area rug in our old living room w/ a non-slip rug pad underneath. I vacuumed everything, the rug and the hardwood floors, and used a swiffer to clean under the furniture.

 

I did wonder about the comfort factor when we were getting read to move in, but with the area rug I found it quite cozy and comfortable.

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We've been all hardwood since the mid 90's. This house had hardwood but carpet had been laid on top. We suffered through a couple of years with the carpet and then removed it, revealing the hardwood floors installed in 1880. Yes, they scratch(we barely notice), and our house is cold in the winter but it was cold even with the carpet.

It is EASY to keep clean and we just run the vac on the area rugs as needed...the hardwood gets swept and swiffed more frequently than the rugs get vacuumed.

We have had a couple of rooms refinished and they are holding up exceptionally well considering the abuse they take. We love our hardwood but I think it's just a personal preference.

I'd love the houses you're looking at but you sound like you enjoy plushy carpet.

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I have a cannister vacuum with a carpet attachment; all I have to do is switch from the "regular" floor thingie to the carpet one, which takes all of, I dunno, 5 seconds. No biggie.

 

All furniture "feet" have felt pads on them.

 

Love my hardwood.:D

 

Yep. Same here. I vacuum the main floor including area rugs nearly every day, takes all of 10 minutes.

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We changed our house to be all hardwood floors, except for the basement. I love that the kids' rooms are hardwood, especially when the are sick with a tummy bug! KWIM!!!

 

While dh and I LOVE our floors and will never go back to carpet, I do notice that the kids will roll around on the carpet in the bsmt and just lounge- they do not do this upstairs. Now that we have an area rug in the living room- they do the same thing on that, so there must be something to plush carpet that kids really enjoy. I still find our home cozy and warm despite the lack of carpet. There's something about wood that is just homey too.

 

I much prefer the clean up of hardwood & it is so easy to take care of. I don't like that you see all the dirt (I find I have to sweep a LOT more often than I had to vacuum the carpet), but just because you can't see it with carpet doesn't mean it isn't there!

 

It's not that we didn't like the carpet we had before or that I don't like carpet in general...I don't know how young your kids are, but I certainly think that hardwood is the way to go with kids. I agree with Lizzy- the noise level does go up a bit w/o the carpet, especially if the kids are up in their rooms and I'm downstairs. It's a small price to pay.

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I'd love the houses you're looking at but you sound like you enjoy plushy carpet.

 

I guess I've only really known plushy carpet. It's funny, because 20 years ago I would have insisted on hardwood--I really like the way wood looks. You make a really good point about cold houses. I currently live in a warm house with carpet, and I previously lived in a cold house with carpet. It's not the carpet that makes the difference, although I think I've been mentally thinking carpet=warm.

 

Beth

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I do notice that the kids will roll around on the carpet in the bsmt and just lounge- they do not do this upstairs. Now that we have an area rug in the living room- they do the same thing on that, so there must be something to plush carpet that kids really enjoy.

 

In our current family room, we tend to have people lounging on the carpeted floor (I have teens). The right type of area rug with a good pad will probably achieve the same feel.

 

 

 

 

I don't like that you see all the dirt (I find I have to sweep a LOT more often than I had to vacuum the carpet), but just because you can't see it with carpet doesn't mean it isn't there!

 

You are so right! We replaced a carpet about a year ago, and I was amazed at the piles of dirt left behind on the slab floor! Maybe our allergies will improve.

 

Beth

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We just remodeled our home by replacing all of the carpet with Pergo wood laminate. I really like my new floors, but I definitely have to dust mop more often because you can see the dust now that it can't hide in the carpet anymore. As Lizzybee noted, noise is amplified with the wood floors, so I have noticed that our home is a little louder, but what home of 3 boys is really quiet? My boys really like the hard wood floors because all of their Lego creations and action figures will stand up. In addition, they can work puzzles on the floor and play cars anywhere.

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I did find it easier to vacuum than to sweep and dust mop but spills and sticky messes are easier to clean up now. It seems like you can never really get a carpet clean especially traffic areas or where you have had a spill. I have four long hair cats and I don't sweep as often as I should so I have giant dust bunnies lurking under couches and such but that's just not a major concern in my life right now. I have been thinking about getting a Roomba to deal with that but it's pretty far done my list. Overall, I much prefer the hardwood floors.

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We did this last year, and I have really mixed feelings on it. I really do love the look of the hardwood floors. They are truly beautiful. BUT...

 

I love love love plush carpet. No one in my family has allergy problems, so that is not an issue for us. My dd and I DO have bad feet and some sensory issues, so again, we really prefer the feel of carpet.

 

My dd and I have long hair, plus we have two dogs, and I really hate how now all our hairs end up under the furniture in huge tumbleweed-like dust bunnies. That never really happened with carpet. The hair would fall and stick wherever it fell, and then would get vacuumed up. We rarely had to move furniture to clean under, because with carpet, it just didn't get as dirty under there as quickly as it does with wood. It's a particular pain, for example, under our piano. It is high enough off the ground that you can see under it (because with wood, you will see the least little bit of dust), but low enough that it is hard to get a dust mop under it. Moving it will totally scratch the floors, so it just aggravates me.

 

Our living room is fairly big, and trying to find an area rug that we can afford is a joke. It would almost be cheaper to just have carpet installed. (And cushier, and easier to clean.)

 

And yes, the dog's nail do scratch ours. The previous owners had a toddler and a couple of dogs, and the floors were beautiful and had hardly any scratches. So we assumed the floors were pretty durable. NOT! We have small dogs, and that may be part of the issue, but unless we were to get their nails trimmed every other week, scratching is inevitable.

 

Now I will also admit that some of the problem is the type of hardwood. We lived in a rental before this that had hardwood that was very flat and not very shiny. It was fine, pretty durable, no noticeable scratches. The wood we now have is Bruce hardwood flooring and it is very shiny, and the edges are kind of beveled, so there is a bit of a rut between each piece of wood. So the shiny aspect makes each little scratch all the more obvious, and I think that the ridges make it a little easier to gouge, and a little harder to clean.

 

So anyway, I like the look, hate the feel and upkeep. I know I am the exception on this, and I do wish I could be more like everyone else and love my floors. If we ever can afford to finish the basement, you better believe we are putting the softest, plushiest carpet we can find. And I will probably never come upstairs again... :D

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primarily for the look and "clean-ability" of them. When the children were little, we had a house with wall to wall carpet all over, even the dining room. We bought a carpet cleaner and used it alot but the carpet still looked dirty. The hardwood floors are much easier to clean - just wipe up. We had to sweep both. We've since found out that my oldest has allergies. I'm wondering if those carpets weren't the cause of all his ear infections that ended when we moved?

 

Now we have an 1820's farmhouse with wood (some hard, some soft) floors. We have a Bernese Mountain dog (sheds a ton) and a bunch of cats, so I do sweep almost every day. The finish is more worn, than scratched. It would probably be better if we kept his nails trimmed shorter and the kids took their shoes off when they came in. Oh well.

 

I haven't heard any complaints about the floor being cold. We do have a couple of area rugs, but just threw another one out. The kids (16,13,11) tend to flop on the couch/chairs instead of the floor and everyone has slippers (Haflinger wool bootie types when they were small).

 

It works for us.

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My dd and I have long hair, plus we have two dogs, and I really hate how now all our hairs end up under the furniture in huge tumbleweed-like dust bunnies. That never really happened with carpet. The hair would fall and stick wherever it fell, and then would get vacuumed up.

 

So anyway, I like the look, hate the feel and upkeep.

 

You have articulated my fears very well! As I've been pondering the responses, I've begun to wonder if I'm just a different type of housekeeper. Although I don't like the idea of dirt embedded in my carpet, there's a certain part of me that can ignore dirt I can't see. I'm afraid that if I see the dust, I'll feel compelled to do something about it.:001_huh:

 

Right now, we get the clouds of dog hair that collect under the refrigerator. The floor vent blows them there. If the same thing happens with the rest of the furniture, I may really hate the floors.:willy_nilly:

 

Beth

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we moved from a carpeted house with a concrete pad to a house with raised foundation and all hardwood floors. I love the hardwood. We have an area rug in the living room, it is not hard to clean. The big unexpected bonus was the improving of our kid's asthma.

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My plan, just as soon as we can afford it, is to rip out all the carpeting and replace with either hardwood or laminate.

 

For cleaning: a Roomba or two should do the job just fine. My Roomba cleans the hardwood we have with no problems. It also transitions to low pile area rugs and does a great job on them too. Even the new Roombas don't have quite enough power to vacuum up the deep down dirt out of my very thick carpeting. (Ugh). So I see less work on my part when we chuck that carpeting out.

 

For scratches: We do have some hardwood already. Between the dog and the kids, it has some scratches. As long as the surface is scratched relatively evenly all over, I don't care! ;)

 

Word of advice: Don't let the kids use their Heelys on your wood floor. That caused way more damage than the dog's nails ever did.

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Beth,

I have intended to respond to this post since yesterday when I first read it but could never find the time. Meanwhile, all the hardwood lovers have basically said the same things I would so I'll just "ditto" the positive reviews for hardwood! We *purposefully* replaced all the carpet in the new to us house (except for the bedrooms) with hardwood placing tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. As far as your reservation about the hair balls that can get in inconvenient places - for me, personally, I MUCH prefer that to the horrible run of dust along the baseboards at the edge of carpet. It is so much preferable to me to have to run a dust mop under couches or the like periodically than to have to painstakingly take a crevice tool and contend with the crud that collects near baseboards with carpeting!! :-{

 

For caring for hardwoods I do this - use the Swivel Sweeper daily to every other day. (We have a horribly shedding Border Collie that necessitates this. When we had predominantly carpet, we had literal patches of black hair sprinkled over the flooring because it was just too cumbersome to vacuum daily. With hardwoods, that is no more 'cause the Swivel Sweeper is just so light and easy to use!). I get out my Rainbow vacuum once weekly for a thorough vacuuming followed by damp mop (Shmop with hot water/vinegar).

 

The dogs' nails do create mild scratching for us. We went with Brazilian cherry because of this. It is a VERY hard wood and does not succumb to the torture of dog nails as readily as softer woods might.

 

HTH,

sharon

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We couldn't afford hardwood but put laminate everywhere except the kitchen/laundry area and the bathrooms. It seems much more open and clean to me. Maybe not quite as "cozy" but we picked a warm reddish color to the laminate that compensates for that.

Wendy

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You are so right! We replaced a carpet about a year ago, and I was amazed at the piles of dirt left behind on the slab floor! Maybe our allergies will improve.

 

Beth

 

Definitely. hardwood is HIGHLY recommended for people with allergies and asthma. My friend just built a house and they had hardwood put in all the living areas and their son's bedroom because of his SEVERE asthma. He's doing so much better since they moved.

 

Carpet collects all kinds of 'stuff' and honestly, it sort of grosses me out. Sort of like a hotel mattress :ack2:. That said, I do have carpet, but when it comes time to change it, I will HOPE and maybe even push a bit for hardwood.

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I don't have pets (do messy kids count?), but I love my hardwood floors. The house feels cleaner because I know that after I have swiffered, the floors are clean enough for a baby. I don't sweep the hardwood everyday. I (or should I say "my kid") use a microfiber cleaning cloth and "swiffer" the hardwood. It takes less than 10 minutes to do the whole house if you make it an aerobic activity. I only sweep when we have lots of bigger debris that won't stick to the cloth. Since we don't have pets, I don't vacuum my area rugs every day, so when I do vacuum, I just do the whole room rather than just the rugs. I just use the bare floors setting for the hard wood.

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The right type of area rug with a good pad will probably achieve the same feel.

 

Yes. We had an area rug made out of carpeting for the music room (for acoustic purposes) and went with a thick underpadding. Great combo for comfort. We'll probably do the same for the family room after it is painted and the bellawood paste board boxes (currently being used for protection of the hardwoods during renovation) can be taken up! :tongue_smilie:

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You guys are terrific! We went house hunting again today, and looked at the one with hardwood for a second time. We also looked at some newer homes with more carpeting for comparison. I was able to look at the wood floors with a fresh set of eyes after reading all of your comments. They are in great shape, and now you've taught me how to take care of them quickly and easily! We really like the neighborhood of the older house, and we may be making an offer. Thanks so much!

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