Everlast Floors in Whippany, NJ did a terrible job with my installation and they damaged my file cabinets and scratched my floors and I can go on and on with the problems that I have had with the store. I wish I installed the 5.25" wide long boards Amendoim instead or the Brazilian Cherry long boards that were wide with a different store that takes pride in doing a good job and stands by their work. They were also supposed to do the installation in August 2014 but knew the wood was backordered so waited a few days so I could not cancel the contract to tell me and then told me that the wood would be there by the end of August but to wait until Gary would come back from vacation to cull the wood and be there. Gary the Salesman came back and then the wood still was not here and when it arrived I was trying to finish up my 10-15-2014 deadline and had to put off doing the floors. I can't believe how many damaged file cabinets I have and scratches on my floors and boards lining up with seams in a pattern that the installer admitted and the poor quality shoe molding used that looks terrible. Please do not use this store. When I have time, I will be doing a poor review on Yelp about the store. The salesman is a Bully and signs off if I pay, "we will pay for the file cabinet damage to the broken drawer that the installers did to a cabinet and replace the T-Molding (they stole the one I bought in a prior year that I had in the garage as they bought wood of another species stained that was too short) and other promises that they broke. They waited so long to say they will be here so I could not stop payment on the credit card. The installers that hardly spoke English did a good job but the one that headed the team that was an employee that they paid as an independent contractor, left green tape (I bought as they ran out) underneath the shoe molding and I can't get it all out and did the pattern and admitted it and had no idea we had enough wood and did not listen to me and used boards I told him not to use on my floor. I am so unhappy. The worst part is they never sent me the insurance claim form that I requested so many times to file a claim and they lied about the pad being so warm that anything in addition would be overkill and they keep telling me the owner of the store would call me back but he ignores the situation and I had to stop calling as it was my tax season. Just warning others.

I recently went through this carpet->wood on stairs conversion myself. We had 17 stairs + a landing and an extra step up to the landing. I used pre-finished 5" maple planks (engineered) on the treads to match the wood in the rest of the house. We bought pre-finished nosing for each step ($$$). For the risers I used 1/2" birch plywood painted white (nice contrast with the dark wood). Overall, I'm happy with the end result. However, it wasn't easy and took a long time. 1) it's a lot of work, and, if you don't put some thought and time into it, it will show 2) Walls and stairs are rarely straight, perpendicular, parallel, or aligned in any direction to make this job easier. Each and every cut will be unique 3) Our staircase has a stringer on each side - no balusters to worry about, but that doubles the number of unique cuts to make 4) pre-finished nosing is expensive. Our steps are 42" wide. The nosing comes in 78" sticks. I didn't want a splice in the nosing, so that meant one stick for every stair 5) After we started, I found some places online that sell one piece treads. I'm not sure that it would have been cheaper than fitting multiple planks on each step, but it would probably be a lot less cutting. 6) with 17 steps, the less trips down to the saw and up to test the fit on the top step the better. Of course the top stairs are probably going to be the ones hardest to get right I found the hardwoodflooringtalk website to be very useful during our entire install. There are several guides and a busy message forum. I recommend you (or DH) spend some time browsing it before starting. Unfortunately THS won't let me post a link to them here, but a google search for "hardwood flooring talk" should get you there. Good luck!

Just looking at the pictures again since I am now ready to install hardwood floors in my home office and just must decide between what type (Engineered or Vinyl or Laminate with no vocs) and which species of wood and which stain. Next year I want to do my bedroom but my budget will only let me do my home office part now. I Love all these pictures so much and I can see I would be happy with any of these floors. Thank you.

Hardwood, no question. The happiest day of my home decorating life in this house was the one last summer in which my son ripped out the LAST of the wall-to-wall carpet, in his bedroom, and laid hardwood. Now I have wood in the foyer, LR, DR, hall and all 3 bedrooms. As many others have pointed out it is far easier to keep clean, and I love the clean spare appearance of the wood floors. My son also ran the flooring directly through the hallway and into the bedrooms so there are no thresholds and it makes the space look larger. Someday when I do a full remodel of my kitchen I'll continue the same wood flooring into there and the back contiguous hall. A few months ago as a stopgap we pulled up the horrible homeade vinyl floor in there and laid a laminate floor that looks similar to the wood, just a lot less expensive. My goal is that the only non-hardwood flooring in my house will be tile in our florida room, which is a separate (added-on before we bought the house) space. Hardwood rules! Ann