DD is ripping out the carpet of her upstairs bedrooms, hall, and staircase and replacing it with either real hardwood or engineered hardwood. Assuming the cost of the install is not a factor, what reasons do people love one or the other. This would be about 1,000 sq ft in a farmhouse with kids & dogs.
She is being told that the engineered works really well for kids, that almost nothing can damage it. But she does love the look of traditional hardwood, and does seem to be gravitating toward oaks, maples, and hickories in wide planks.
Any comments on why you chose yours, how it is wearing, a particular brand and style?
It sounds like at any comparable style the engineered will be less expensive, but she has to decide once she sees the actual prices if it is worth it to her to pay the extra.
Anything but solid maple. It is a softer hardwood, especially the stuff that is sold now as hardwood, and the dogs will destroy it.
With dogs I’d definitely do real wood. I think you can only redo engineered a few times.
There are some important distinctions to note. First, different woods have different levels of hardness which can vary significantly. For example, “maple” mentioned above has different variations including soft and hard maple. Alder is a hardwood but is actually quite soft. So regardless of whether or not you get engineered or solid (what you called “real”), check the specific species of wood used and you can actually look up the hardness relative to other woods.
Next, engineered wood can have a top layer of real hardwood. Engineered wood ideally is similar to what’s called “veneer-core plywood”, which is layers of real wood glued together at 90 degree angles. This makes engineered wood more dimensionally stable, so one application where you’d definitely want engineered would be on top of a concrete slab. The thickness of the top layer determines how many times engineered floors can be sanded and refinished.
The topcoat is an entirely separate consideration from the wood. When a sales person says, “almost nothing can damage it” they’re really talking about pre-finished wood with something like an aluminum oxide coating, which can’t be applied at home. You can get both pre-finished engineered and pre-finished solid with a cheap and soft topcoat. So that’s why this is a separate consideration.
Pre-finished flooring typically has bevels because you can’t sand the edges smooth/flush post-installation. Some people hate bevels, others don’t care, and others think it’s a small price to pay. Finished-on-site gives you that gorgeous smooth basketball-court type of look. You can do that with both unfinished engineered or unfinished solid.
Solid hardwood will move (shrink/expand) more with the weather than engineered. The wider the planks, the bigger the gaps you’ll have in winter. Be aware of how much humidity varies in your area and how it will affect your wood - you can look up wood movement rates by species while you’re checking on the hardness.
Hope that gives you enough to chew on. Let me know if you have more specific questions.
I have two 30 something friends who just did their entire houses with that fabulous vinyl that looks like wood flooring. There is no doubt that I would do the same if I was flooring my house now. It’s very durable, and looks terrific. Both families have dogs…and children. Easy peasy maintenance as well.
ETA…both have wide plank.
^We are about to put Lifeproof “luxury vinyl plank” in our basement, replacing carpet that had been exposed to water a few times. I have mixed feelings - LVP is colder than the carpet and doesn’t absorb sound. (Basement has a concrete floor over a crawl space and the floor gets cold.) But, LVP looks interesting and appears durable. I’m not sure I’m ready to give up hardwood in the rest of my house, though I’ve been told LVP is also being used throughout some new houses.
I installed the LVP in one basement bedroom myself and I think Home Depot will be doing the rest. We may add a few area rugs.
My sister in law did tile that looks like wood with in-floor heating because she has three dogs. The feel under bare feet isn’t wood, but the look will fool you!
We have prefinished oak throughout our house in Maine. I don’t mind the bevels, but my husband hates them. The finish is beautiful and it cleans easily. We don’t have dogs and have lived in Asia too long to ever feel comfortable wearing shoes indoors. It has worn well. I like the little dings that prove that life happens.
I recently finished my entire house (basement, main, and upper floor) with German-engineered 14mm laminate wood that I purchased from Sam’s Club. I got them when they took $7 off each box, which was a great deal. It was a lot of work doing them all by myself, but I’m loving my house now!
https://www.samsclub.com/sams/honey-maple-lam-flooring/prod20612366.ip?xid=plp_product_1_4
I’m old school. I love oak floors on the main floor and fir on the upper floor- pretty standard way back when.
The previous owners of this house actually pulled out some of the hardwood on the main level when they installed vinyl in the entryway. Years after we moved in, we added a new entryway that made more sense. We matched the flooring - 2” wide white oak. You can’t tell where the 1922 oak floor and the 2010 oak floor meet. I love oak because it stands up to normal traffic (including dogs!) and refinishing is a possibility.
The upstairs fir floors (typical of this era of a house) are beautiful but not meant for dogs.
I had birds eye maple installed in the kitchen of my old house - beautiful flooring! I walked through the old house about three years ago (so the flooring was about 17 years old then). It hadn’t aged well. I’ll stick with oak when I redo the kitchen.
! personally I would tell her to wait until the kids are gone and the dog is dead before spending any money on nice flooring. If she has to put something in anyway, pick cheap and functional and do something nice later when the kids and dog won’t trash it. We delayed putting wood on the stairs until our dog died becuase it is too slippery.
We raised our kids on white oak floors. They still look fine to us more than 25 years later. The kids were totally fine with the wood floors.
I don’t have indoor pets so can’t say how they may harm a floor.
Part of it depends on the finish that’s put on the floor. The guy who installed our floor put on the same finish he uses for the shopping malls. He says only sand and stilettos will destroy the floor. Our home is a barefoot zone (as are most HI homes). We don’t track sand indoors and the electronic vacuum helps keep the floors pretty clean with minimal effort by us.
I live in a 100 year old house with real oak on the first floor and pine on the second. I don’t mind that it doesn’t look perfect. To me it looks the way a wood floor is supposed to look - lived in.
Our oak floors were sanded and finished on site 8 years ago, and they still look new. I even have wood in the kitchen and have had no problems.
Whichever you choose will be better than carpet. I couldn’t believe the difference in the reduced amount of dust and improvement in allergy symptoms.
White oak floors in the entire house including the kitchen—no problems. The floors are 16 years old and look good—they aren’t pristine, but I still loke the look. I might have them refinished this summer because I need to have a hallway floor repaired/replace (water damage from sjylight).
We have red oak regular wood flooring on our first floor including the kitchen. Kids had no issues. We had a dog too,and now a cat. No problem.
After 23 year, we had these floors refinished. The key is what you put on them. We used Street Shoe, which is what is often used on bowling alley lanes and in gyms. It was very easy to maintain. We have it again now and it still is great. Just use Bona.
But really, if i were installing now, I most definitely would look at that vinyl especially with pets sand kids.
We also have Street Shoe finish on our white oak floors, which is the finish on shopping malls. It holds up well.
Interesting - I will check out Street Shoe if we ever get around to refinishing. We have Bona Traffic matte finish on our hardwood floors and for the most part it’s fine, but the major exception is the kitchen. After 13 yrs, the finish is worn through to the bare wood in many places, but we can’t refinish without doing the entire first floor. (The wood itself is fine.) The inconvenience of refinishing the entire first floor at once is the reason we continue to procrastinate.
We have a basic red oak, if I recall. One regret: not paying more for wider planks.
Getting Australian Cyprus prefinished hardwood ( microbevel ) to redo the carpeted areas that are 18 years old. The rest of the house has the wood.
We installed prefinished Oak 23 years ago and it still looks great. I don’t like the bilevels at the edges though and If I was to do over would not go that route. We went that route because I had two young kids at the time and did not want to deal with fumes from finishing. The prefinished wood is very durable though and will last much longer than that finished once installed.
Also did not want to deal with the fumes. Good choices of prefinished are available. I got samples of prefinished hardwood and engineered wood and compared them.