<p>I have started shopping to replace the carpet in our house and as usual I am finding more questions than answers. Initially I wanted to replace the carpet in the Living and Dining rooms with hardwood but that seems like it will be considerable expense and they will basically tear the room apart to do it - baseboards, etc. I will probably just go with carpeting again in the bedrooms, but I had hoped to spruce up the LR and DR a little. Is there an option beyond carpet and hardwood that I’m not seeing. I honestly would be fine just putting carpet down again, but I think people expect to see hardwood somewhere - although we aren’t planning to move anyime soon.</p>
<p>It all depends on your budget, but real hard wood would be my choice any day for a living room and dining room especially in an older house. If you are talking about something post 1950 in a non-colonial style bamboo and wood laminates are viable choices. I like cork, but to me it doesn’t have the formality I’d want in the LR or DR. You could try Lumber Liquidators if you don’t mind flooring that doesn’t look brand new. (I prefer a slightly aged look in my floors, but not everyone does.)</p>
<p>I just put vinyl planking in a bathroom and am so happy with it that I am considering putting it in our family room/kitchen. It looks like real wood- everyone who has seen it so far thinks it is wood. I like it better than laminate because the pattern goes all the way through so if it were to get a little dig in it, it wouldn’t show as much. It is inexpensive- less than $2 per sq. ft. for materials- and it is extremely easy to install. I did it myself and had no problems. We also have vinyl planking in the offices at work and it has proven to be very durable. It has been in for 3 years now and has a lot of foot traffic plus a lot of walkers, canes and wheel chairs, and still looks brand new! </p>
<p>We have added hardwood in two different parts of our home. Once, 12 years ago when we moved in, we took out carpet and put in hardwoods in the living/dining room. And then, more recently, in the family room, stairway, and upstairs hallway.</p>
<p>Ripping out the carpet and installing hardwood was much less disruptive than you might think. The baseboards do not necessarily need to be replaced. Each time it was a two day process. </p>
<p>We needed to move small items out of the room, but the large furniture (ex. couch, TV stand) stayed in the room. The workers covered those items and moved them from one side to the other side of the room as they worked. It did not take much time or effort to prepare the rooms ahead of time.</p>
<p>We used prefinished solid oak. The price has gone up a LOT in the past decade!</p>
<p>Lumber Liquidators is cheap because they use illegally logged wood.
They not only have excessive levels of formaldehyde in their oak wood, but it is logged from the habitat of the endangered Siberian tiger with underworld connections.</p>
<p>I am getting ready to redo some carpet and am wondering about the stairs, I hate vacuuming and cleaning the carpet on the stairs, but is hardwood too slippery or unpopular on stairs? They are not at all showcase stairs. One set goes down to a walk out basement and one goes up to a TV room/loft. Sweeping would be so much better than vacuuming.</p>
<p>We do have a few wood steps, 4 here, 4 there, and they definitely are more slippery. In 10 years 3 different people have slipped and fallen, each time, I think, was someone not paying attention to the steps, carrying something, talking on the phone, etc. </p>
<p>We redid two rooms, one with new carpet one with hardwood. Because this was downstairs, over the slab, we had to use the kind of hardwood that is more like plywood. It is still solid wood, but won’t be able to be sanded down quite as many times (I think the limit might be 5).</p>
<p>Both rooms ended up being close in cost. We could have gotten a cheaper carpet, but I really liked the feel of the one we got and when they measure your room, they charge you for as many rolls as they need and you keep the extra. The plywood/wood was the cheapest real wood option and it is beautiful! I’m happy with both decisions.</p>
<p>There was no need for trim removal and the crew moved all the furniture in and out. I just cleared off the bookshelves and stripped the bed. You’re paying for labor so you might as well let them do the work. </p>
<p>I find wood steps to be too slippery personally. And our old dog refused to go down them, which was problematic-- I wonder if he fell once when we weren’t home because in the beginning he was okay and then all of the sudden he needed to be carried down. I wonder if it can depend on the finish of the floor… my grandma has oak hardwood in her house with a more natural finish and it isn’t very slippery at all. I have glossy hardwood in my kitchen and it is deadly with socks on.</p>
<p>I have been agonizing over carpet or hardwood in our living room for the last year and am no closer to a decision. I love the look of hardwood, it was what I pictured, I like the idea of being less allergenic. It is so, so, so pretty. People want hardwood and we might sell in 8-10 years (will they still like it then?). I like that it is easy to clean up certain kinds of messes. But I find carpet pretty easy to take care of for all but the worst scenarios, I don’t have an aneurysm at the thought of a spilled glass of water or a puppy accident on carpet, I don’t have to worry about puppy nails or tracked dirt scratching carpet, carpet will be comfier for kids to crawl around on, we have a slab under the current carpet and I have no idea what I’ll have to do to make hardwood work, and if we get hardwood I’ll have to start wearing house shoes or my feet will hurt, so I don’t know. It seems like carpet is the winner in my case but I’m not really satisfied with that… so for now I have hideous, stained, ripped, dirt-colored carpet and continue to debate. </p>
<p>I would consider laminate and even the tile floor that mimics wood, I’ve seen some cool ones at home depot. My kitchen has engineered hardwood that is really beautiful and less expensive than true hardwood so that may be a compromise you can make on price if it’s wood you want and you don’t want to pay wood prices. It is basically laminate flooring with a real hardwood veneer, so just looking at it it looks like real hardwood, but it isn’t all the way through, just the surface. Some people can detect it “feeling” different when you step on it (I can), and you don’t have the benefit of being able to sand and refinish it, but you can get the look if that’s what you’re after. I would consider it for my living room. </p>
<p>somemom, I think carpeted stairs can be even more slippery than wood ones! If you can swing hardwood that can be sanded and stained (Swedish finish or similar stuff) in place, go for it. Re-doing the stairs is trickier than replacing carpet with hardwood.</p>
<p>I have hardwood floors nearly everywhere; kitchen and bathrooms are sheet vinyl. LOVE it and is wonderful fir reducing our allergy triggers. Would highly recommend. </p>
<p>Laminates are iffy in bpvery humid climates like ours–can delaminated. Hadn’t heard of vinyl planking, but it sounds intriguing. Our floors are solid oak and still look pretty amazing after 20 years and virtually no care. </p>
<p>I put wide plank wood thru living areas and I am so pleased. 4 years later, they look great. The carpet I put in my bedroom, not so lovely. I know some people are using tiles that mimic wood, but I haven’t seen that installed.</p>
<p>We had the carpet replaced with hardwoods in all but 2 bedrooms. This included the stairs. I will say that it is a lot easier to sweep however I’m not sure I would want hardwood stairs again. Why? Well for one slipping and falling on the stairs hurts a lot more without the carpet. The second reason is when one of my sons goes up or down the stairs in the middle of the night to get a drink of water it sounds like a large horse is clomping around and it usually wakes DH.:(</p>
<p>My sister had hardwood stairs with a Persian carpet runner & brass rods to hold it in place.
It looked pretty nice.
A few years ago she took away the runner & had custom made tiles installed. So when you were at the base of the stairs and looked up, you saw Mt. Rainier.</p>
<p>Well you could always have hardwood stairs and put a runner of them if you don’t like them after all. Best of both worlds. We’ve had 15 years of hardwood stairs in this house and I don’t think anyone has fallen down them. We had carpet on the previous house that came with the house. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it. Looks like Lumber Liquidators gets a lot of complaints these days - I think they’ve gone downhill from the days when they were using leftovers.</p>
<p>We have hardwood on our first floor, including the kitchen. (not the bathroom or entry…which have tile). We have carpet in the bedrooms. I would do the same again. I love the wood downstairs…ours is regular oak tongu and groove flooring. I like carpet under my feet upstairs.</p>
<p>We replaced carpet with hardwood at our old house. Really, it was not an issue. The installers removed the baseboards and put them back. What an improvement!</p>
<p>We bought hardwood for our house about 15 years ago from ifloor on the internet. They’re still around with decent prices. We replaced our Family room carpet with a large tile that has beautiful swirls in it. Looks much more expensive than it cost. Absolutely love it. It was a new technique they are using to put digital image on the tile to give it the look of natural stone…</p>
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We’ve had 15 years of hardwood stairs in this house and I don’t think anyone has fallen down them. We had carpet on the previous house that came with the house. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it. Looks like Lumber Liquidators gets a lot of complaints these days - I think they’ve gone downhill from the days when they were using leftovers.</p>