What kind of flooring do you have through your home?

[lynn]

We are on the flooring debate and keep going back and forth on having carpet or not in the family room. I love the warmth of carpet but it is a family room not a museum so we do eat and drink in there, we were thinking about hardwood looking vinyl but also putting the same flooring throughout kitchen, hall, den and the boys room? Would this look strange. It would be broken up through the use of scatter rugs. Any ideas or suggestions?

[ChristusG]

We redid the flooring in our home about 2 years ago. We had carpet everywhere, but I have a lot of allergies, plus we have dogs, so we wanted something else. We put tile in our sunroom and bathrooms. And we put wood laminate everywhere else. I'm happy with it. It looks great. I do miss the warmth, but I'm so happy not to deal with carpet anymore.

[Parrothead]

hardwood (birds' eye maple)

linoleum (in the kitchen)

[Mommyfaithe]

We have Pergo fllors in most of our house...and I LOVE them. They are so easy to clean and look great even after being down for years....and we are HARD on our house....think 4 boys, 2 dogs, loads of cousins...you get the picture. All I do is damp mop witha little windex....done.

 

The floors which are not Pergo, are slowly being replaced with it....

 

Faithe

[hsbaby]

We have tile throughout the kitchen, entryway, and bathroom downstairs. The family room is carpet. I do get frustrated with the stains, etc., but my kids love to roll around on the floor, lay on it to watch movies, practice their gymnastics, etc. Plus, I just think it's cozy. I love the look of hardwood and a big area rug, but while we have kids we will stick with carpet.

[zookeeper]

We are in the process of replacing floors in our house. We put tile in the bathrooms, closets, hall, entryway, kitchen, dining and laundry. We're going to put it in the playroom after we put up bookshelves. We'll keep carpet in the bedrooms and are undecided about what to do in the living room. I'd kinda like wood floors, but there's a french door and I don't want to have to worry about water getting on the floor.

[edelweiss]

We have hardwoods throughout our whole first floor, except for the back hall which includes the laundry room and mud room. In the back hall, we have travertine tile. We have hardwoods on the stairs going downstairs and on the stairs going upstairs, as well as the upstairs "foyer"

 

The basement and all of the bedrooms upstairs have carpet. The upstairs bathrooms have ceramic tile or marble floors.

 

I LOVE the hardwoods and am so glad that is what we have on the first floor. At some point, I'll probably rip up the carpet in our bedrooms and put hardwoods down there as well.

[jennsmile]

stained & scored concrete

[Mom-ninja.]

I hate the hardwood in my house. Where I live there is a lot of sand. A lot. Between the dog and kids it always finds a way in the house. So imagine walking around with sandpaper taped to the bottom of your feet on hardwood floors. Yeah, that's exactly what's it's like. My floors are getting torn up.

 

I hate tile. We have tile in the kitchen, eating area, and bathrooms. When you drop something like glass in my kitchen it will shatter into a billion pieces and fly throughout the whole downstairs area. Think shrapnel. Plus, the grout is impossible to keep clean.

 

The carpet we have in the bedrooms is berber. I hate it. It is coming unraveled in every room. Stains are everywhere. Plus, we deal with allergies and the carpet makes it worse.

 

We have cork in our school room. Love it. Absolutely love it. It's the only flooring in my house I like.

 

Someday I will replace my flooring. It will be with either cork, bamboo, or laminate.

[extendedforecast]

Downstairs we have tile throughout, except for the master bedroom. In the living room and dining rooms, I placed large rugs to make the spaces more cozy and less cold. Upstairs we have carpet throughout, except for the bathrooms. I love having tile, but I wish there was a little bit of wood, even if only in the entryway or the dining area.

[happypamama]

My upstairs is almost all carpet -- warm, but a pain to keep clean.

 

My first floor is linoleum in the kitchen -- hate it. Too hard to clean; it has little "pocks" that trap dirt if I don't clean it by hand (as opposed to with a mop).

 

My living room is beautiful old wide plank hardwood -- needs some refinishing, but I love it.

 

The playroom is old (not as lovely) hardwood with a big rug over most of it so that the children have a soft, warm place to sit while playing.

 

My schoolroom and dining room are Pergo laminate. I'd prefer real hardwood, but the Pergo is really nice. It cleans up so nicely and easily, moreso than the old hardwood -- food, paint, etc. all are easy to clean up from it. It's a little cold but not terrible. For that in a family room, I'd probably go with a rug if people will be sitting on the floor.

[MeganW]

I HATE the tile in our kitchen. It is hard on the feet, and cold, and the grout is hard to keep clean, and when you drop things, they shatter.

 

We had hardwood in our last kitchen, and it was awesome! I could stand on it barefoot for hours and my feet didn't get tired, and it was so easy to keep clean, and glasses literally bounced when they got dropped.

 

We bought that laminate that looks like hardwood for the family room in our old house. In Lowe's, it looked just like real hardwood, but for some reason didn't look as nice at home. Hated that too. It just felt.... cheap isn't quite the word I'm looking for. Plasticy maybe? Just felt wrong under the feet. Also, it scratched easily. Didn't look nice for long at all. I wished we had just invested in the real thing.

Edited November 17, 2011 by MeganW

[MissKNG]

Carpet throughout except kitchen and bathrooms. I grew up with carpet so I totally love carpet!

[SailorMom]

We have tile in all the bathrooms, brick in the kitchen, bamboo everywhere else with an installed carpet inset in the living room (the carpet is awesome and shows absolutely no dity or dog hari :) )

I hate carpet generally because you can't clean well. With pets and kids, just not an option for us. We do have that tiny bit in the living room, but neither the pets nor kids really hang out there much.

[mamakimberly]

100% ceramic tile. NOT my choice. I would LOVE carpet in the bedrooms and living rooms. Tile in a kitchen, fine. Tile in my whole freaking house? Ugh. Ugh. I swear we have to Roomba or sweep or vaccuum every day to get all the dusty stuff off the floor- we end up with little balls of ?lint? everywhere- like fibers from the rugs and stuff... so annoying!

[Whereneverever]

Hardwood or tile in all the public areas, carpet in the bedrooms and on the stairs. I think it's perfect.

[The Girls' Mom]

We have hardwood throughout the downstairs (only the two bedrooms upstairs have carpet, and I wish it was hardwood as well) I love having it all wood. Easy to clean.

[DawnM]

We have all sorts of flooring.

 

Master bdrm, living room, kitchen and dining room have hard wood. (basically the entire main floor other than the bathrooms and sunroom)

 

Sunroom has brick. Bathrooms and laundry have tile.

 

Upstairs bedrooms have carpet.

 

Basement has cement and we are still debating what to put down there.

[Nakia]

Tile in the bathrooms and laminate wood flooring everywhere else except our bedroom, which is carpet. I detest carpet, and that last bit of carpet is coming up at the beginning of the year.

[Susie in SWVA]

Hardwood throughout (upstairs and down)

Tile in the bathrooms.

 

Susie in SWVA

[Serenade]

Marmoleum (linoleum over cork) in the kitchen and family rooms, carpet in the bedrooms, hardwood in the dining and living rooms, as well as my DH's office, Allure vinyl in the school room, and tile in the bathrooms and laundry room. Oh, and travertine (stone) in the foyer.

 

Our house has a concrete floor base, which is why we chose the Marmoleum for the kitchen and family rooms -- to give a little more cushion.

[Ellie]

In my two-story house, the whole downstairs is hardwood, the whole upstairs is carpet. I have area rugs downstairs. I *love* my hardwood.:001_wub:

 

I love the carpet, too, and it feel luxurious on the feet, but I will always have hardwood in the major living areas of my home. In fact, I'm thinking of taking out the tile in the downstairs bathroom (that and the laundry room are the only tiled floors downstairs) and putting in hardwood.

[Love HSing]

The living room, dining room, Master bedroom all have hardwood.

 

The kitchen has old tile that I hate. We're replacing it before Christmas but we haven't decided what, I'm thinking laminate or hardwood.

 

The bathroom on the main floor has new tile, so does the Master bathroom.

 

The basement that we recently finished has carpet, except for the Laundry room & Bathroom which have tile.

 

Upstairs is hardwood, except for the bathroom with tile. I was thinking about changing it to carpet though.

[Trilliums]

I'm surprised by the number of people who have hard wood or laminate throughout the entire lower level.

 

Do you have any problems with that in the kitchen? We are wanting to get rid of our carpet throughout the house due to DS's allergies. But, we have tile in the kitchen (white tile and grout which never can be clean all at the same time!) and with the floor lay out, I think the kitchen flooring should match the rest of the downstairs. I am reluctant to put hardwood in the kitchen though (in case of leaks ruining portions of the wood). Any thougths on how well wood holds up in that situation?

[Cera]

We have tile in the mudroom, laundry room, kitchen area (all connected) and the bathrooms. The rest of the house (including bedrooms) is hardwood. We have scatter rugs in the bedrooms, an 8x10 rug in the living room with a very thick carpet pad under it and a custom sized rug with pad in the playroom that covers the entire floor (bought from a carpet installer, they just cut a piece to fit and bound the edges).

 

If you have ever seen what is underneath a carpet when it is pulled up you will never want it in your house again.

[garddwr]

We are on the flooring debate and keep going back and forth on having carpet or not in the family room. I love the warmth of carpet but it is a family room not a museum so we do eat and drink in there, we were thinking about hardwood looking vinyl but also putting the same flooring throughout kitchen, hall, den and the boys room? Would this look strange. It would be broken up through the use of scatter rugs. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

 

This is exactly what we are doing--I'm going with the self-stick vinyl planks from Lowes, because I can afford them and do the work myself. I've done the children's bedroom already (last weekend) and really like the results. We're planning to finish the bedrooms and then hopefully do the larger living/dining areas.

[HistoryMom]

We have hardwood throughout. When we bought the house, there was industrial carpeting in the kitchen and bathroom. Carpeting. Oh, so gross. We just tore it out within the last month. There was beutiful hardwood under the kitchen carpet, and we put down vinyl in the bathroom.

 

About kitchens hardwood floors, I'm not concerned about damage because 1) it has a thick layer of polyurethane which protects from liquids and scratches, and 2) if there is any damage, it's easy to sand and refinish.

[mycalling]

We have 3 types and it all looks horrible. The carpet's stained, the Pergo's dull from the sand here, and the linoleum is gouged.

stained & scored concrete

How do you like it? We are planning to build and that's what we want as flooring.

We have cork in our school room. Love it. Absolutely love it. It's the only flooring in my house I like.

 

Someday I will replace my flooring. It will be with either cork, bamboo, or laminate.

We also have sand and need to replace our flooring before selling. I've looked into cork. Nice to hear good things about it standing up to sand.

[hsmamainva]

We have hardwood on the main level everywhere but in the kitchen and bathrooms. We have tile there. My husband and oldest daughter put down all the hardwood and tile themselves several years ago and I love it!!! We have 2 dogs and 2 cats and it holds up sooo much better than carpeting!

 

Upstairs is all carpeting except for the bathrooms, which are tile.

 

Thinking about doing hardwood in the bedrooms, too, but I like the soft feel of carpeting on bare feet! Not to mention that the kids play in their rooms and hardwood is too hard to sit down and lie on.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

we have yucky vinyl in the kitchen that needs replacing :tongue_smilie: LOL--newer better vinyl in the bathroom--wood throughout the rest of the house except for the "downstairs" room that has carpet--

[Ellie]

I'm surprised by the number of people who have hard wood or laminate throughout the entire lower level.

 

Do you have any problems with that in the kitchen? We are wanting to get rid of our carpet throughout the house due to DS's allergies. But, we have tile in the kitchen (white tile and grout which never can be clean all at the same time!) and with the floor lay out, I think the kitchen flooring should match the rest of the downstairs. I am reluctant to put hardwood in the kitchen though (in case of leaks ruining portions of the wood). Any thougths on how well wood holds up in that situation?

This house is over 15 years old, and the hardwood in the kitchen is holding up just fine.

[bbkaren]

We have carpet throughout and vinyl on bathroom/kitchen floors.

 

Never again...carpet is too much hassle, plus it harbors allergens.

 

The place we're moving to is going to be laminate throughout.

[mom2att]

We have laminate everywhere except the kitchen, bathrooms, and entryway, which are tile. We installed the laminate ourselves 7 or 8 years ago, replacing carpet--love the laminate. I can't imagine the stains and wear that 8 years and 3 kids would have done to carpet, even if it was brand new to start. Some say laminate looks cheap, but for the style of home we have (70's ranch), it just fits. I have a friend with a much newer, much larger custom home that had laminate in the family room and I have to say it looked out of place. They replaced it with hardwood and it just fit the character of the house better.

 

But for durabiliity and easy care at a reasonable price, laminate has been the way to go for us.

[laughing lioness]

Hardwood everywhere except 2 bathrooms which are ceramic tile. We have it in our kitchen. We did have a refrigerator leak and it did make some of the glue under the wood seep through the wood but unless you are looking for it, you wouldn't notice it. We have a lot of rugs.

[Mom-ninja.]

I've looked into cork. Nice to hear good things about it standing up to sand.

 

 

The cork is upstairs, and I do not allow shoes or the dog upstairs. So I can't say how well the cork would hold up to sand as we don't have as much upstairs. There is some but not as much as downstairs.

 

When you install cork, you apply layers of polyurethane stuff to seal it and protect it. I guess the more layers you do the better protection it would have. They recommended between 3-5 layers so my dh did 3 cause he's not one to do more work than he has to. :tongue_smilie:

 

I would love to have cork downstairs, but I am afraid of what my dog would do to it. He's an 85 lb, slobbery, sandy, long clawed, mass of energy.

 

I would be more willing to go with bamboo or laminate downstairs. However, your laminate is messed up by sand? Ugh. I *hate* sand. Why can't we just have normal dirt?

[The Girls' Mom]

Our house was built in 1961, and has the original floors, including hardwood in the kitchen. It looks great, and it is super easy to clean. Just make sure you spend the extra up front for quality wood and a good finish and you shouldn't have to worry much about it.

[Susan in TN]

Before we moved into our house, we put in hardwood floors throughout the entire main level - bedrooms, living room, dining room. The kitchen and bathrooms have vinyl "tiles".

 

Upstairs in the bonus room is carpet which is old and should probably be replaced. Downstairs in the basement is tile through the hallway and laundry area, cheap vinyl flooring in the bathroom and pantry, and carpet in the office and downstairs bedroom.

 

I love love love the hardwood floors and do not regret them at all. Yes, the floor is getting a little chilly now with the weather cooling off, but I just wear socks.

 

I put heavy duty "scraping" mats outside the front and back doors, and more absorbant rugs right inside the doors to catch leftover dirt, sand, and water.

[gardenmom5]

Kitchen/mstrbdrm/LRM/DRM/entry/all stairs - hardwood (kitchen was a prefinished floor. NEVER again. I will stick with swedish finish on site)

familyroom/hall - carpet (will probably get replaced with hardwood one day. but the carpet is still good.)

kidsrooms - vinyl (which I want to replace with either hardwood or carpet. built-in buffet in my dining room has higher priority for me.)

basement- laminate

bathrooms/laundry - ceramic tile

Edited November 17, 2011 by gardenmom5

[mycalling]

I would be more willing to go with bamboo or laminate downstairs. However, your laminate is messed up by sand? Ugh. I *hate* sand. Why can't we just have normal dirt?

It's dull from sand, but gouged by destructive children...and destructive dh.:glare: Hence my desire for stained concrete when we build something.

[Blessedchaos]

We have a textured multi-shade laminate in our dining room, living room and hallways which we put in last year, original tile in our entry, and vinyl in our kitchen which we also put in last year. Our main floor bath is newer vinyl and our main floor bedrooms and lower level are all cheap carpet. We have super ugly white patterned tile in our lower bath that will be getting removed very soon:D.

 

Of all the different types of flooring in my home, my kitchen vinyl floor is by far my favorite. We previously had laminate there, but this is so much more durable and comfortable, plus it is beautiful. There are some great sheet vinyls out there now that look very much like textured tile or wood. I love them. We will be redoing our lower level bath soon and will be putting in vinyl down there and I'm considering a funky, beautiful looking vinyl I saw the other day for our family room as well.

 

I like our laminate also, but I hate our carpet. I also hate tile; we live in a cold climate and it's too cold and hard.

 

We also considered bamboo. I love the look, but we were concerned it would dent and scratch too easily.

[Negin]

Tile - love it, particularly in this climate. :)

[Myeightkiddies]

Tile and wood throughout

[laundrycrisis]

Tile in the kitchen and front hall. Ash in the downstairs living areas. Carpet on the stairs and in the bedrooms. Industrial carpet on the basement stairs and in the basement.

[Lily_Grace]

Tile - love it, particularly in this climate. :)

 

Same here. That's one thing about Europe - I have yet to see a house with wall to wall carpeting here. Tile, wood, and vinyl flooring are the options. We have tile and I absolutely adore it. It's so easy to keep clean and doesn't wear out quickly. The only drawback is it makes our house a little louder since it doesn't damper the sound. We put down area rugs in two rooms, the living room and the spare room/school room and the rest of the house is just plain tile everywhere.