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Flooring Design Dilemma

Best flooring types. Engineered Hardwood vs luxury vinyl vs tile.

4 years ago

wjqt wousl you put down throughout a House for an eventual total remodel? House is 3000 sq feet. Would you do a combination of flooring surfaces or same one throughout?

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Comments (4)

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JAN MOYER
4 years ago

As much ONE flooring as possible. That is best as sand on site hardwood, or quality engineered hardwood, unless climate would dictate another surface.
SJ McCarthy
4 years ago
Your previous posts mention issues with odour and a budget that could be limited. That means tile is out for the entire house. Tile, once purchased and installed can be $20/sf. That might not include substrate preparation. Nor would it include moisture/mold mitigation. Nor a bathroom renovation.

First things first. Deal with the big ticket items FIRST (like bathrooms with odour issues = mold issues). Demolish and then decide. Do NOT purchase until you have ripped out everything to see what you are working with.

And if you need a budget friendly product, remember that carpet is one of the best priced products per square foot (installed) that you can find. The wet spaces can receive their specific treatments = higher cost flooring/installation.

But first...find out the issues in the areas that have an odour. Don't pick the pretty stuff until the important stuff is dealt with.
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hardwood vs engineered hardwood vs vinyl?
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Comments (9)
Definitely choose wood. Vinyls are great, however, for resale value, wood is the absolute best ROI especially for the main living areas. You can choose an engineered or solid- whichever makes most sense. We are able to provide engineered HW that can be sanded and refinished just as many times as solid. If the wear and tear is something you are worried about, consider choose a floor that has a reclaimed look with a strong grain pattern and saw markings that can hide many of the scratches and discrepancies that will happen over time. If that specific design isn't your style, consider a light color floor. Oiled floors are a decent choice because fixing superficial scratches are relatively easy. Oaks are good because of their graining and if kept a light color- will be able to disguise many of the scratches. You can ALWAYS sand and refinish your floors a few years down the line if needed. Plus, when you go to sell and the floors have been lived on- they can be sanded and finished for the new buyer. A vinyl floor will need to be replaced. Hardwood is more expensive at the moment, but they actually end up paying for themselves years down the line with the proper care and maintenance. Or you can choose wood in the dining and great room and a tile in the kitchen. SJ McCarthy has a good recommendation for hickory and oak. Another option is Character Maple(make sure it is hard maple). If you really want to be bold- go for Brazilian Pecan. :)
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I have vinyl plank with huge dogs in my walk out basement where they have free access to a large dog run it has been in for 11 yrs and still looks awesome. We have a laminate on our main floor that looks like slate and has also stood up to the brats for 11 yrs there is no way wood could have handled all that abuse. IMO laminate or vinyl plank in good condition is better than scratched up wood floor that would have to be refinished before sale. We now have a great pyrenees as our 2 old dogs have passed away and he really is rough on floors , no wood could possibly stand up to him.The pic is the laminate floor and the old dogs
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I had always loved hardwood floors and wouldn't consider anything else... Until we bought our current house. It has LVP (Coretec Plus) that visually is pretty good at fooling people into thinking it's real wood. When you walk on it, you can tell it's not because it doesn't have the echo of wood. But it also doesn't have the hollow sound that I remember Pergo-type floors having. Since we have an open floor plan, it is actually nice that is is a quieter flooring. We found a box with a few extra pieces of the flooring in the garage, and decided to test how hard it was to scratch/damage. Hubby dropped an ax on it, no marks. Then he "chopped" it with varying degrees of strength and it really took a solid blow to do damage. He also took a screwdriver to it, dragging the tip of the tool across the "grain" of the LVP (the grain is raised) to see how much pressure it took to create a visible mark, and again, it took significant force to make a mark that was noticeable. And with all of the marks that were eventually made, they all maintained the same color under the damage, so they weren't terribly noticeable until we held the plank up in the sunlight at the right angle. So I'm not pretty happy with the flooring, especially since we live in a mountain climate (snowy, muddy) and have large dogs. I think it will hold up very well. I have no experience with other brands though.
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Engineered Hardwood vs Hardwood vs LVP in Kitchen/Dining/Living? MDWST
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Comments (19)
Kim,,,it's very solid. just make sure the glue is spread to completely cover the plank. I have a few spots (like under the kitchen sink) where they missed the corner and it squeaks. They've held up great. I don't have dogs, but I have cats and have heard their nails burning rubber across the floor they go off on their tangents. I've spilled water, cleaned up their barf, spilled food, whatever, it all cleans up very well. as for dents, only if you drop something very heavy. but any wood floor will dent. I vacuum w/a Dyson, and then I use Bona wood floor cleaner on a mop. in the kitchen, i'll often take the scrubby brush and watered down Dawn to clean up spills or oil stains. no problem. no, I don't baby them. I don't wear shoes in my house though. I love my floors. just make sure on install they clean up all the glue residue. my guys were messy and lazy. had to call them back w/special glue remover and rag and go over the entire floor.
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ocrose
4 years ago
We are planning to replace flooring throughout our house as well, 2900 sq ft. We currently have 20yo tile and carpet that our new dog has had accidents on. We are trying to budget and also debating btwn hardwood, porcelain wood look plank tiles , or engineered vinyl luxury plank. Any thoughts on Engineered vinyl. I’ve read feels/looks most like wood, is waterproof (rather than water resistant) , doesn’t dent from weight of furniture is pet friendly, and cost less than real wood and tile. My preference is tile due to pets and water , but most likely cost prohibitive due to labor intensive/cost. Hardwood not pet friendly or moisture friendly in kitchen , guest bath. We have a very open floorplan where we cannot separate flooring from kitchen and bath. BUT i’ve also read that you do not get ROI on vinyl flooring, even though a designer told me she is installing Luxury vinyl in multi-million $ homes these days (I am in S. California)

Any advice appreciated
Chessie
4 years ago

ocrose - I would advise starting a new thread.

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