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Building a Home Flooring Design Dilemma

Porcelain Tile vs Engineered Wood Floors

LEWIN DEVELOPMENT LLC.

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

I am building a high end home at the beach in Florida . I am torn between porcelain/stone tile and engineered wood flooring. I know wood floors seem to be the rage today in Florida, but am very skeptical of the durability and long term wear of wood floors. Most of the wood floors presented in design studios/model homes scratch and dent easily. I am also not interested in wood looking porcelain or luxury vinyl tile as a substitute. I guess my bottom line is which alternative will better help sell the house when I put it on the market. Thank you.

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Lisa

2 years ago

I had hardwood throughout my house and my fiancee has engineered hardwood through his. We chose tile in our new home in FL. Hands down I choose tile. It's easier to keep clean and much more dog friendly. With my hardwoods, I saw every spot, scratch and imperfection. In his house it's more of the same. We did tile throughout the entire house with a very small grout line.

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Comments (7)

chispa
2 years ago
Wood floors are all the rage today? Where are you getting your information from?

Wood floors have been used for hundreds of years and continue to be used.

My first choice at the beach would be engineered wood floors ... unless I had a young family and a constant stream of guests, then I would probably go with tile, at least in high traffic areas.
LEWIN DEVELOPMENT LLC. thanked chispa
cpartist
2 years ago
I'm 2 blocks from water. I have engineered hardwood floors and wouldn't have tile if you paid me. Why? Tile is hard on the body. We rented a condo with tile before we moved into our home and my back and knees were constantly aching.
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solid wood is 3/4" thick. You can sand down to where the nails are which is where the 'tongue' is. Engineered wood is 3 5 or 7 plys with a veneer of hardwood on top. Its generally more stable than a solid. There is no intrinsic advantage of a solid over engineered, though there is a perceived difference as one is 'thicker'. That has really nothing to do with anything. Factory finishes are generally far more durable than anything you can do on site. Unfinished allows you to stain any color and sanding will make the floor real flat and smooth. Prefinished you can't pick stain color other than the std colors, and generally will have overwood if the floor isn't perfectly level. As anything in this industry there are tradeoffs to all flooring materials.
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Even without knowing the kind of wood or condition, I can't imagine replacing wood flooring in an 1890 home. In my opinion, the value is in the original material. If the floor is in good condition, it may not need sanding at all; a screening and recoat might be all that's necessary and the patina would be retained. There are many threads on this topic, try searching the Old House forum. I live in a converted schoolhouse built in 1890. The fir floors had been covered with layers of linoleum, glue, paint ... they were a mess.. but looked awesome after refinishing. That was years ago and I'm planning to have them screened soon (aka buff and recoat.) What kind of wood is it? Do you have photos?
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Thank you to everybody, I guess that I will do the tile floor since the dining room floor is quite old and will not make sense to match it, I may need to change it in the futute but I am not ready to do that, also because I feel that a wood floor in the kitchen even if it would be beautiful it will not be practical. Thank you again
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We had engineered hard wood in our last house. The dog scratched it to bits. A door leaked too… it was sold as we could sand and refinish. Not true. The level to which we’d need to refinish was not possible to make it look good again. We put some vinyl in our current house. Not sure I’d use it in the kitchen or bathroom, but it’s holding up rather well. I just dust it and that’s about it. Biggest problem is room transitions. Our bathroom ended up much higher so bridging that gap was a wooden transition… not ideal.
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jane__ny
2 years ago
I live in Florida and have both.

I plan to rip up the engineered wood floors and replace with tile. Florida, especially near the beach is not kind on wood floors. The sand that comes in on feet (no matter how well you wipe them) scratches the floors. Dogs carry in sand constantly. The 'soil' in Florida is beach sand.

I plan to put in wood looking tile. I put it in our den which has sliders to outside and is so easy to clean. I walk around in either sneakers for flip flops and the tile doesn't bother my legs.
ladybug A 9a Houston area
2 years ago
I would say wood except if you expect to track in a lot of sand. I'm not a fan of tile, it's cold and hard on the feet, but wood will scratch.
Caroline Hamilton
2 years ago
Wr have wood floors (not engineered) throughout our beach house. The house is 16 years old and they are in perfect condition. Lots of sand tracked in and it hasnt been an issue.
Karen
2 years ago
I don’t go barefoot day in and day out, on hard tile, but choose to wear specific footwear with a good cushion when indoors. Love the cooler floor, and my pets love to stretch out on them too! Very easy to clean a porcelain floor, (even disinfect it with steam if I need too!) especially when animal accidents are discovered after the fact, hours or days later. I could imagine that you routinely had your beach house cleaned especially after each use. A protective coating well applied, I can imagine, might keep a wood floor finish standing up to sand and extremes in humidity. I know that my wood French doors, stained and clear coated (I think I used a urethane years ago) have stood up well for at least as long as your floors, to the elemental weather changes in Florida. They serve as our entry doors to our screened porch.

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