Wall to wall carpet is OK in bedrooms but in living spaces I prefer area rugs on hardwood; it's just more elegant. I suppose it would look odd in a mobile home.

Aside from looks what do you think? Aren't they louder when you walk? Isn't the house colder due to less insulation? Don't nice area rugs cost a small fortune?

Carpet is less expensive to install. It is more expensive and labor intensive to keep clean. Actual carpet life is seldom more than 12 or more years. There is more color/texture choices with carpet. Carpet is softer, insulates better, and deadens sound.

Hardwood flooring, when 3/4" thick and nailed/stapled, can last for over 100 years with one or two refinishes. It is much more easily cleaned. Hardwood allows for much more latitude in design treatments with area rugs. Hardwood floors are only cold when installed on concrete or uninsulated floors. They will be the same temperature as the room with basements/lower floors below.

Refinishing a hardwood floor is generally less expensive than intalling new carpet, but does take longer. Most carpet can be removed/installed in a day or less for several rooms. Refinishing hardwood flooring can take several days, depending on the level of work done.

We have had carpet in all our houses until this one. I had the opportunity to install the hardwood flooring before we moved in. I walk around barefoot all year long and do not have to worry about stepping on small sharp things stuck in the carpet.

I must stop this forum right here, obviously there is a ton of differences between the two. Color, texture, longevity, maintenance, etc. Hardwoods in reasonably decent shape can actually be less expensive to refinish than installing new carpet. (sorry installers) refinishing runs about 2-3$ per foot where a decent carpet with pad and installation could be in the high teens per yard divided by 9 feet per yard equals the same per foot. sometimes less, sometimes more.

Hardwoods shouldn't be very noisy if nails are added before refinishing. It could be a degree cooler on the toes if your basement isn't insulated well. But the color can be changed as easy as choosing a different area rug. The elegance and class is in the hardwoods.

There has been little said about the maintenance involved with hardwoods verse carpet. less vacuuming, less dirt, less mites, less allergens! safer for children and considerably longer lasting!

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.rochesterpropertyexperts.com/

property ex, repeating what has already been said as a sordid attempt at free advertising is low class and against garden web policy. Because of your attempt, I would steer clear of your business for the simple reason that if you pull stunts like this on these forums, what are you pulling on your clients!

although the link is self serving his comments are correct.

I much prefer hardwoods with an area rug.

when you refinish the hardwoods, you can stain the wood.

Area rugs depending on the purpose don't have to be costly. For example growing up I had hardwoods in my bedroom, but my parent's bought a carpet reminent, had it bound, and took up 90% of the floor space for probably around $200. Looks good and was cheap.

I guess its all personal preference, but I prefer at least in the living areas hardwood over carpet. Right now I only have wall to wall in the 1 bedroom and the stairs. tile in the kitchen and baths, and hardwood everywhere else.

Hi, this is my first post in this forum. I've been in kitchens and baths mostly, as we're adding on to our house. I found this forum, as the rest of our house will now need an update to match the new. :-)
I'd like to add something to this thread. Our house is all hardwood and I'm installing it in the extension. Growing up, siblings were asthmatic and we had to remove the carpets. I like the look of hardwood and find them easy to clean. But besides that, we decided to install hardwood because if in the future we want carpet, we can add it with minimal fuss. If we decide to tile the kitchen, we'll just do it over the wood. In short, we now have flexibility for the future. If we were to install carpeting over the subfloor, it would be much harder to put in wood later on.

I have hardwood throughout my 1100 Square Foot, decidedly non-grand, cozy 1960 ranch, and I love it. It's very easy to keep clean, I can run a swiffer duster underneath the furniture and pick up anything lurking under there--or I can slide the larger pieces around if I want with very little effort. (We put little protectors on the furniture feet to protect wood and it makes furniture moving easy) I do NOT have it covered up with area rugs. It's an absolutely gorgeous rustic maple hardwood, and I let it shine in all it's glory. The only rugs I have are in front of the door to keep dirt and snow off it. I'm not a carpet person, so this was the choice I made. If you like hardwood, use it--you're the one living there, and you are the one that has to enjoy looking at it. As to refinishing--the back bedrooms of my home came with an orangy-aged oak hardwood (not pretty), and I had them sanded and refinished before we moved in. The orange was completely gone, and they looked great--enough to hush up the family members that raised their eyebrows high when we insisted that no, we were not carpeting over the hardwood floors....sigh...
Cj

I would never live in a house with carpet. Look at what comes out in the water the next time you steam clean your carpet. Disgusting. Hardwoods are easy to clean, easy to maintain, add a warmth and character, and enhance the value of a home. Even expensive carpet is nasty after about 6 year, even with proper maintenance. As for it's appropriateness in a small house... in Houston, all the old bungalows with 800 - 1500 square feet that were built in the 20's through the 40's have wood floors. When stained and sealed with several layers of polyurethane, they are virtually maintenance free for many years. Sweep, mop with warm water, and that's about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bye Bye Tiny Sad Kitchen

Festus - your ignorance is showing. Carpet gets disgusting when it isn't cleaned or taken care of. My carpet is four years old and looks great. My hardwood floors get disgusting - at least I can tell when my carpet is dirty. I use a buffer on my hardwood floors and am always surprised at how dirty they are without me knowing it. Both floors have negatives. Hardwood floors scratch and are troublesome to refinish. During installation, hardwood often requires more prep work than carpet meaning the subfloor conditions have to be more exacting than with carpet. Hardwood can be cold. We have been needing to refinish our hardwood floors for a number of years and just the thought of doing it keeps the project postponed. Carpet requires professional cleaning every year or so and very few people actually do this like they are supposed to. A homeowner has to be careful and do their homework on carpet because there is a lot of cheap carpet sold out there.

Hardwood is noisy if it ins't installed properly and creaks or if you are walking around in hard soled shoes. THat being said, if it has been installed properly, it is quite and while not a 'cushy' as carpet can be, good area rugs with underpading breaks it up.
As for colder, so many factors affect the 'coldness' of your house. We have just compelted a whole house reno and installed new windows, HVAC system, spray foamed the heck out of the basement and many other energy 'waster' have been tkaen care of. My home is not cold at all and it gets quite nippy here in Toronto.
Wood has a natual warmth about it visually too.
ARea rugs can be as inexpensive or expensive as your budget allows. Good choices in all price ranges. Get a good underpad to add cushioning.

Do you have pets? Kids spilling a lot? These are things to consider. Carpet is warmer feeling and a lot more comfy to sit on than a hard floor. Carpet does not insulate your house much if at all I don't believe. There are many many discussions on this - do a search and then figure out what works best for you. See the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Carpet vs. Hardwood Flooring

Hi, I came across this site while trying to get some facts on various floor types. What would you put in in my situation? I bought some apartments. Currently they have carpet (on top of Terrazo) in the living rooms and bedrooms, with either Terrazo or stuck on tiles on top of the Terrazo floors in the kitchens. What would be the best overall cost effective easy to maintain flooring with low class tenants???? I'm considering removing carpet, refinishing the Terrazo OR going all Laminate OR Replace carpet OR Hardwood. I'm not handy and would hire out the work. I'm just fed up with the condition people leave the carpet and was wondering if the is a better route???? I plan on owning the apartments for decades. They are in Florida 1 block from a body of Salt Water. I'll consider anything!

Landlord, I'll chime in on your apartments. I don't know anything about Terrazo, but we ripped out the carpet in our apartments and put in hardwoods in the living room areas and upstairs hallways. We left carpet in the bedrooms for sound, and on the stairs for sound and safety. We also were tired of having to recarpet every couple of years, as people absolutely destroyed decent carpet. We put in prefinished hardwoods ourselves (DH has a handyman business), and I love how easy it is to clean up. We had some damage to one area, but he just pulled out an area of boards and replaced them. They are no longer as sparkly as when they were new, but hey, it's an apartment.

A bit costly up front, but the cost is more than recovered by the savings of a couple of recarpeting jobs. As an added bonus, the hardwoods in the upstairs hallway makes the carpeted areas totally separate. If one room needs to be replaced, we can do that with something that matches, without having to replace all of the carpet. This was a suggestion from our carpet installer.

I would imagine that the wood under the carpeted area is of decent quality due to when it was put in. I would refinish that area. Area rugs do not have to cost alot. At least see how the wood in the living room area looks when pulling up the rug. I don't think there is a rule as to smaller homes not being appropriate for hardwood floors. I think the wood would add charm.

I am a hardwood fan for all the reasons listed above but also because moving furniture and cleaning behind it is so much easier. You can just slide it around (with protectors of course!)

We just pulled up the 13yo carpeting on the stairs in our 105 yo house, which thankfully was the only carpet installed there. We were hoping to refinish the stairs but weren't able to without major expense/effort (we were days away from going to market). Reluctantly, we had them recarpeted for $800. Meanwhile, the over 1700sf of 105 year old hardwoods in that house were able to be refinished for just over 2x that amount.

Let me just say, that after seeing WHAT was underneath that carpeting, my husband (who's grown up with w/w carpet) and I both agree we will NEVER have w/w carpeting again. Each step had handfuls of dirt and dust that looked like a beach. This carpeting was cleaned/shampooed and vacuumed regularly. Even so, it was disgusting. Luckily our new home, even though only 17yo has not a lick of carpeting. We had the hardwoods buffed and re-coated and are loving them!

Hope there is still interest in this thread. Need updated info please. Have a living/dining room combination that currently has w/w carpet. Hardwood flooring in adjacent kitchen and entry way. Problem is the existing hardwood, although in good condition, has beveled edges and only 2" wide and kind of a honey oak color. I know this is not the newest look in hardwood but to replace it (it also extends down the hall and master bedroom) would be very expensive. Refinishing would also be costly. So.....do I replace the carpet in the living/dining rooms? It's just my husband and me and we do have a small dog. Suggestions please.