<p>Personally carpet is so dirty and dust ridden I wouldn’t consider replacing any carpet. If you ever dusted an entire house of hardwood floors you’d realize there is no way a vacuum is picking up all that dust. With pets and allergies I think wood is way cleaner. But then again I would have an aneurysm with puppy pee on a carpet. </p>
<p>I thought this was an old thread of mine that someone revived, as I had the same question several years ago. </p>
<p>Our townhouse came with staple-down hardwood on the main floor, and laminate in the basement. We ripped carpeting out of the upstairs bedrooms and hallways, and off of both sets of stairs. We installed floating hardwood upstairs, and painted the stairways. In two and a half years here, no one has fallen on the stairs yet.</p>
<p>The floating hardwood installed very quickly, and did not require the removal of the baseboards. The installers added strips of quarter-round at the foot of the baseboards to conceal any remaining expansion gaps. My only regret is that I did not understand how uneven the sub-floor is and so I didn’t insist on the installers using leveling compound before laying the flooring. Small fractures have begun to appear in some of the floorboards because of the strain of lying over that sub-floor. Fortunately, I have almost a whole box of wood left, so if we ever do move, and the realtor wants us to fix any cracked boards, we can. Here’s the floor we put in: <a href=“http://www.homedepot.com/p/Millstead-Maple-Natural-3-8-in-Thick-x-3-3-4-in-Wide-x-Random-Length-Engineered-Click-Hardwood-Flooring-24-4-sq-ft-case-PF9596/202617793?N=5yc1vZb9asZzsZ1z11xzp”>http://www.homedepot.com/p/Millstead-Maple-Natural-3-8-in-Thick-x-3-3-4-in-Wide-x-Random-Length-Engineered-Click-Hardwood-Flooring-24-4-sq-ft-case-PF9596/202617793?N=5yc1vZb9asZzsZ1z11xzp</a> Our installer charged $2/sq. foot for nail-down, staple-down, or floating. </p>
<p>Happykid and her pals had plans for painting the stairs to the basement, so I slapped a coat of ceiling white on that stairway as primer. Two and a half years later, that’s still all the paint that is there. But it isn’t slippery, given that it is ceiling paint, and no one sees those stairs all that often anyway.</p>
<p>The front stairs (facing the door) received one coat of ceiling white primer, and two coats of the same glossy white trim paint as was used throughout the house. Clean-up is a breeze. And as I wrote above, no one has fallen (yet), so the glossy look doesn’t mean slippery to walk on.</p>
<p>The biggest challenge in prepping the stairs was finding and pulling out all of the carpet staples from at least two (maybe three???) carpet jobs. The folks at Home Depot recommended a pry bar like this one, and life was much easier: <a href=“http://www.homedepot.com/p/Estwing-Pro-Claw-17-in-Contractor-Bar-RSC/100351731”>http://www.homedepot.com/p/Estwing-Pro-Claw-17-in-Contractor-Bar-RSC/100351731</a></p>
<p>Well, puppy pee on the carpet doesn’t give me a thrill either, but I know how to clean it-- I don’t know how to unwarp wood. I’m not sure how long you have to catch spills before there is damage, maybe it is longer than I imagine? With our kitchen floor I am always afraid of moisture getting in between the boards where I can’t wipe it up even if I do catch it right away. I am not sure what would happen if puppy had an accident and it took me a couple hours to find it. I’d like to think that will never happen but not sure if I’d chance that.</p>
<p>I’m not replacing our carpet until our dog is housetrained anyway, but given the timing for our family our main considerations for what we’ll pick will be small kids and dogs. I’d pick tile if it wasn’t so uncomfortable.</p>
<p>Ema, I have had sealed hardwood on my kitchen floors for well over 25 years. Unless you leave a puddle for DAYS, it’s not going to warp a sealed floor. Ours is sealed with Street Shoe, which is what is used on bowling alley lanes. It’s tough stuff. Most of my neighbors have water based polyeruthane on their kitchen floors (which is likely what we will get this summer when we refinish unless we can FIND another Street Shoe applicator). None have ever had issues with warping floors.</p>
<p>Yeah, pee on the carpet is MUCH worse than pee on a sealed hard wood floor. Not even close. I have had some amazingly horrible spills and pet episodes on both and the carpet is dead. The wood floor still looks beautiful.</p>
<p>Does sealing the floor just protect the surface of the planks or does it prevent water seeping in between the planks, or is that not really a concern? </p>
<p>We had been interested in one of the pre-finished hardwoods they had at home depot, I would assume that isn’t what I need. I can’t spend my whole flooring budget on the living room, I need to do two bedrooms and a hallway too before we bring kids into the house. The carpets all smell like smoke from the previous owners. :(</p>
<p>Sealing a real hardwood floor pretty much stops between the plank seeping, as well. It’s a gooey liquid coating that gets applied over the entire floor after staining. We did two coats and basically had to evacuate the premises for a few days but nothing is going to damage that floor with the exception perhaps of a major flood. I’m not sure about the pre-finished stuff and whether it can be sealed after installation. I don’t see why not, but you should definitely ask them.</p>
<p>We have softwood floors and used a hard drying clear oil varnish. Think about a nice yacht. It is exposed to a lot worse than puppy pee, but with the right maintenance and protection in the first place, the wood trim stays looking great for decades.
I also like softwood floors because they look good with a little aging.
(I do however have Persian style rugs as well)</p>
<p>The prefinished wood flooring we looked at WAS sealed on the sides. </p>
<p>Ema…we did not put wood in the bedrooms…and we have allergies in the family. We realized that all we would do is put down significant area rugs…so we got carpet in the bedrooms…and a GOOD vacuum (we have central). If you go with carpet, you want something with the current version of Stainmaster on it. We also bought a Capet shampooer…and use that once a year on those rugs. Ours are now 20 years old…and I’m thinking they will need to be replaced sometime in the nearer future. But really 20 years? The key…no one wears shoes upstairs. We leave shoes in the mudroom and have slippers. So there isn’t any outdoor guck being tracked into the carpets in the bedrooms.</p>
<p>If there were smokers in the house I would paint all the walls too. I think the smoke smell would be on the walls too.</p>
<p>We must be one clumsy family… even though we have landing in the middle of the stairs the only one who hasn’t fallen on the wood stairs so far is DH. I don’t think it’s because they are slippery though since we also fell when we had the carpet. </p>
<p>When painting the walls of a smoker’s former home, first prime with a shellac or oil based sealer/primer for best results.</p>
<p>Yep, we will be painting, too.</p>
<p>Did you all have hardwood when your kids were babies? It seems pointless to pay so much for hardwood just to cover it all in area rugs. Do the kids not mind crawling around on it? That seems like it would hurt!</p>
<p>We don’t wear shoes in the house at all because of the hardwood in the kitchen. I read it would scratch if we tracked dirt in and I don’t like it to get wet. It’s probably more durable than I give it credit for. I tried to scratch it in a discreet spot with a key when we moved in to see how hard it was and it didn’t scratch.</p>
<p>That carpet claw brings back memories! We paid our kids a penny a staple - they were in elementary school and biddable!</p>
<p>Thank you all for the great information. The lazy, and less expensive, way out for me would be to put down new carpet in the LR and DR rather than the do research for hardwood. I’m not really commited to the idea of hardwood although that’s what my husband would prefer. I hate to wait much longer to make a decision because it really needs to be done. Or maybe, I will start with the upstairs because that also needs new carpeting. No shortage of projects in my house!! And yes, I’m also a proud member of the bag a week club. The thought of having to move everything to get new floors put it made me look at all of my junk with a new eye! Sigh…keep the info coming.</p>
<p>I’ve seen some TV home shows installing hardwood in the master bedroom, and I don’t get it. The cost is high (I just saw one for $8k), and much of it gets covered by bed, furniture, and area rugs). And it seems like it would be not-cozy on bare feet. </p>
<p>I can see it more int LR/DR. But even then folks seem to cover much of it with area rugs. </p>
<p>@Ema–we had hardwood when the children were babies. I think each boy has fallen down one flight once, but that was during the early walking toddler days. I would say one slipped and one just should not have been at the top of the stairs by himself, and tumbled down. No one ever seriously injured. </p>
<p>Both flights of stairs are sealed hardwood, no carpeting. We have area rugs in a few rooms but lots of bare floor, including kitchen. I find the hardwood more forgiving on both the back and to dropped items. (Dropped glasses roll instead of breaking. Now glasses that simply fall over on the granite countertop do shatter.)</p>
<p>Agree with someone above who commented about carpets trapping dust. If I let the vacuuming go too long, I can see the accumulated dust bunnies, especially in a smaller room with electronics, like the office. Also, you can mop a hardwood floor with water and white vinegar and it looks as good as new. </p>
<p>We now have wear spots in front of fridge, and at top of stairs, so need to think of how to solve that. I can’t imagine we need to sand everywhere again, but I don’t know if stain can be added to spot areas only.</p>
<p>I have tile throughout my house with area rugs. I love how easy the clean up is. I (and my pets) love that the tile is cool to the feet as I live in a hot area. </p>
<p>As to the use of large area rugs I love the way the area rug is framed around the edges by teh tile (or in another case hardwood) It defines a living room, for example, beautifully. Second, I can replace the area rugs as needs be…whether due to wear, damage or a “need” to redecorate (switching from a brown to a red, for example totally changes the look of a room with otherwise nuetral furnishings or a kid who moves from young to adult). Third, although I have a couple nice area rugs most are inexpensive from IKEA. They often have a solid color choice 8x6 or 10x8 for under $30, although prices can skyrocket fast. I use two in my living room. </p>
<p>We have hardwood in our master bedroom because DH has allergies including dust, mold and dustmites. His doctor recommend we get rid of the carpet in the bedroom.</p>
<p>I love my hardwood floors. Bought our house when it was carpeted throughout, pulled up the carpet to find wonderful oak hardwood that had hardly been used! We added hardwood to match in the kitchen and one bath that had vinyl. The wood we added was what DH called ‘old fashioned’ wood, meaning it wasn’t prefinished. They laid the raw wood and stained it to match the existing flooring. Love the choices and would happily do the same thing again. </p>
<p>If there is a down side to hardwood, I believe it does make sound travel more easily resulting in a louder home. </p>
<p>Dishwasher hose broke a few years ago, the floor warped right in front of the DW, but went back to normal after a few weeks time. We have had floor refinished once in the high traffic rooms, should probably have it done again. Doggie toes do scratch but I’ve told myself it give the floor ‘character’. Picked that up sometime ago and I’m sticking with that line! Much easier to clean up accidents (fortunately haven’t had an animal prone to such things!) on wood than on carpeting.</p>
<p>We are all very allergic in this house. Hardwood floors have been great for us, with reduced dust and dust mites, and less gunk growing in carpet and padding. We have thick plywood under the hardwood floors and the finish used at malls on the floor so it has held up very well over the years. We only have a very small washable bathmat at each entrance to our home and otherwise don’t cover up our floor. Bedrooms are where dust and mites are most important to minimize for those of us with allergies. So happy with our hardwood floors!</p>