What's on your floor?

[Point of Order]

I hate vacuuming. I'm thinking about doing laminate flooring in the living/dining room area, kitchen and entrances. I have seen it at Costco "starting at $3.29 per square foot." A friend of mine bought something called Pergo and said he liked it but you have to be careful not to get water on it or it will mess it up (entrances/kitchen).

What's on your floors? Any laminate folks out there? Anyone gotten the laminate flooring via Costco? What do you think about the product? Are there key things I should either make sure the product I buy has or make sure to avoid? Thanks for the advice.

 

[bydesign77]

Re: What's on your floor?I

I've got laminate. It's OK. A couple of places where it's troublesome, but overall nice. If you have pets, I would highly recommend rugs, though, with those things you can get to prevent them from sliding around.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Hardwood. Apartment living. Original floors. Sanded them and refinished them about 2 years ago and have held up great. Can't beat it.

 

[Point of Order]

Thanks Bydesign. Where is it troublesome? In what way? Did you have it installed or do it yourself?

 

[RedSmithClone]

I'm a big fan of lanolium. Easy cleaning simple living. Hardwood everywhere but living room (rug), bathroom and kitchen lanolium.

 

[bigpern23]

Dirty draws and Doritos crumbs. Wait, what?

 

[Wenders]

If you have pets, I would highly recommend rugs, though, with those things you can get to prevent them from sliding around.

Well, that's no fun. I have wood laminate in my living room/dining room and I get all sorts of amusement out of my cat trying to make the 90-degree turn and sliding into the wall.

 

[ArnoldBabar]

For starters, 26 alphabet blocks. A plastic farm. Rattle, stuffed penguin, two plastic trains, stuffed rocking horse, wooden animal puzzle, rubber ball, plastic ball, stuffed moose, stuffed cougar, stuffed dog, half a dozen books. Two pacifiers. One sippy cup of water.

And that's just what I can see from where I'm sitting.

 

[imjustagirl]

Where do you keep all your son's stuff?

 

[ArnoldBabar]

Oh, it's all put away. That's my stuff.

 

[imjustagirl]

Pssst...that was the joke.

 

[fishhack2009]

This week's laundry, a few empty Doritos bags, a few bucks in change.

And some bad carpeting that started out beige.

 

[ArnoldBabar]

Pssst...that was the joke.

Aw, crap. I get it now.

 

[imjustagirl]

Serious answer: Hardwood floors. It's an older building, a multi-family home. I love it.

The laminate floors that look like hardwood that piece together (I think it's laminate, whatever) always look nice, but they're costlier.

 

[cranberry]

When I bought my 1920s Tudor it had wall-to-wall carpeting all over the place. I removed it found beautiful, detailed hardwood floors beneath, as I suspected. The only place I have carpet now is in the staircase and upstairs hallway.

 

[The Big Ragu]

When I bought my 1920s Tudor it had wall-to-wall carpeting all over the place. I removed it found beautiful, detailed hardwood floors beneath, as I suspected. The only place I have carpet now is in the staircase and upstairs hallway.

Something similar slayed me in my place. My building is of unknown date. Probably late 1800s, which makes it a youngster for the area I live in. Brilliantly nice details and plasterwork throughout the buildings and the apartments. My place had been done over so poorly on the cheap, though. Before I renovated the place, the bedroom had this bad tiling -- I can't even describe how cheap and horrible it was. We assumed there were hardwood floors underneath like there are in the living room (and they are beautiful), but couldn't know for sure. So when we renovated, we lifted the tiling and underneath someone had nailed a piece plywood as a backer. We lifted the plywood and underneath there were these beautiful hardwood floors that just need to sanded and refinished. Why anyone would have done that to floors like these was beyond comprehension. Some of the work I did required taking out bits of flooring in the living room and bedroom (to remove old radiators and caps), so we removed the hardwood from the closets, carpeted the insides of the closets and used the floors from the closets to refloor the areas we messed with. It worked out really well.

 

[cranberry]

When I bought my 1920s Tudor it had wall-to-wall carpeting all over the place. I removed it found beautiful, detailed hardwood floors beneath, as I suspected. The only place I have carpet now is in the staircase and upstairs hallway.

Something similar slayed me in my place. My building is of unknown date. Probably late 1800s, which makes it a youngster for the area I live in. Brilliantly nice details and plasterwork throughout the buildings and the apartments. My place had been done over so poorly on the cheap, though. Before I renovated the place, the bedroom had this bad tiling -- I can't even describe how cheap and horrible it was. We assumed there were hardwood floors underneath like there are in the living room (and they are beautiful), but couldn't know for sure. So when we renovated, we lifted the tiling and underneath someone had nailed a piece plywood as a backer. We lifted the plywood and underneath there were these beautiful hardwood floors that just need to sanded and refinished. Why anyone would have done that to floors like these was beyond comprehension. Some of the work I did required taking out bits of flooring in the living room and bedroom (to remove old radiators and caps), so we removed the hardwood from the closets, carpeted the insides of the closets and used the floors from the closets to refloor the areas we messed with. It worked out really well.

I blame the '70s. All of a sudden, beautiful details in homes was covered up by fake wood paneling and shag carpets and bean-bag chairs.

 

[bydesign77]

We installed it ourselves and a couple of place the boards have started to separate. So I would suggest professional installiation

 

[Buck]

Saltillo tile through most of the house with carpet in the bedrooms and living room.

 

[Moderator1]

Cheap linoleum on the kitchen floor - needs to be replace. We will do it with ceramic tile.
Hardwood in entry foyer and two "formal" rooms up front. Kind of joke since both are cluttered storage rooms for now. Need to be refinished after 18 years.
Nice Berber carpet in family/sun room combo. We spend almost all our time there and put the most money into flooring there.

"Builder grade" carpet up steps, upper foyer and in four rooms up there. Will go as soon as I can afford it.

Hardwood in master bath - should have gone with ceramic tile. Tile in other bath, has held up pretty well.