Hardwood vs. Laminate

[spencersmommy]

We're thinking of getting hardwood flooring in our house and the guy we had come give us an estimate was trying to talk us into high end laminate instead. It can look like hardwood, but is more durable and easier to maintain, he says. It would be planks with the beveled edges, so it looks like hardwood. It's about $2 cheaper a foot. Does anyone have this in their house? What do you think? We do have 2 boys and may get a dog sometime. Thanks!

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

Just my opinion on beveled edges, they are hard to keep crud out of, I also would go for hardwood when feasible. It will add huge value to your home and can be refimished.

Susan

#1 Nick 11-18-04
#2 Kate 04-26-06

[lisams]

We have laminate (Pergo) but it does not have the beveled edges. I would think that the beveled edges would be huge crumb/dust collectors and a pain to keep clean. I really like our laminate, it's good with young children and pets. Doesn't scratch, super easy to clean, and looks nice.

[Jo..]

Here's my two cents on the laminate: we have dogs, and after talking with other dog owning families we went with laminate in a couple rooms. It wears like crazy and seems to be almost impossible to scratch. Ours looks like new after 3 years, not a scratch anywhere. We got beveled edges and a textured finished and it looks and feels like real wood. The grooves formed by the beveled edges are REALLY thin and shallow, almost non-existant. So far we haven't had a crud collection issue ;).

Another bonus is that if you shop around (even online) you can find really good quality laminate at amazing prices, and it is REALLY easy to install. DH and I did it 100% ourselves, and we are not very handy. Saved a fortune.

[mommyoftwo]

We have pergo flooring in our kitchen and while it wears well, it doesn't entirely look like wood to me. If we had put it in, I would have done hardwood floors in an instant. JMO though. I know a lot of people do like the laminate floors.

[KBecks]

We have it in our kitchen, it's been here for about a year, and I like it.

It's not as beautiful as wood, but it looks good. I think it will wear better than wood, because the floor gets wet, etc. and DH is not careful about wiping up water spills. I have seen too much water damaged wood from overwatered plants, etc. etc.

People have thought our floors are wood, but I think it's obvious if you are really paying attention to the flooring.

I was also concerned about dents on the wood floor.

That said, I chose it because of our history with not doing well with wood floors. I think real wood would be better for resale, and you can maintain it, sand and refinish, etc. Water is the big problem, IMO. Dents can also be difficult.

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

Amy are you considering prefinished hardwood or site-finished?

Susan

#1 Nick 11-18-04
#2 Kate 04-26-06

[mamato1]

FWIW I've had both and while I love the look of the hardwoods, they scratch and dent so much more easily than out laminate did.

Chris

Mama to Brendan (aka Boomer) 01/04


http://b3.lilypie.com/FnI6m5/.png

[Karenn]

The house we bought last year had laminate in the family room and I've become a fan. My kids are really tough on it (cars, legos scraping across the floor, ride on toys back and forth across the room and furniture shoved all over the place) and there's not a scratch to be seen. A friend of mine has hardwoods that are only a couple of months old and they're already scratched to pieces.

[jenmcadams]

We put in relatively high end laminate flooring like th PP poster mentioned (a brand called QuickStep). We ended up ~$3 sq ft for the flooring we chose by doing a ton of comparsion shopping online -- I think the online retailer we ended up with was called FloorShop, but I could look it up if it's helpful (as a comparison the uninstalled price for the same flooring we chose at a local flooring store was almost $6 sq ft).

Ours did hold up well (for the 9 months we lived in the house) and was pretty easy to take care of. No crud in the bevels that didn't come up with basic vacuuming, damp mop for cleaning, no scracthes from our two 80 lb dogs, etc. Having said that, depending on the price point of your house and comps in your area, hard wood is much better on resale than laminate. We were selling in Naples FL which was an extremely active real estate market and it didn't hurt us, but hardwood is almost always better.

[jess_g]

Has anyone put in laminate flooring on their own? Is it a lot of work? I saw that they sell laminate type flooring at Ikea that they expect for you to put in yourself. Its tempting for us since we badly need a new kitchen floor but don't want to spend $1000 for one from Lowes (our kitchen is a funny shape but its 180 square feet in all). Although we are not do it yourselfers by any means. Could we do most of it and then hire a handyman to finish it up for us?

Thanks,

Jessica.

[BillK]

also....in the event you have water damage (broken pipe, overflowed toilet etc) - laminate almost never can be saved - whereas it's possible to mitigate water damage with hard wood if it's taken care of quickly enough. I would never install laminate in a kitchen or bath.

[icunurse]

It really isn't that hard to install (says the wife who watched from afar! :) ) You do need a couple of special tools (basically shims for the outside spacing, a tool to tap the pieces together, a hammer, and underlayment). DH has installed most of ours and it hasn;t been a problem except for one room (we bought super-cheap flooring and while it looks nice, it was harder to tap together).
We have laminate in most of our house simply because of the durability (no scrapes from the cats and dogs, no dents from dropped items or things DS has thrown to the ground, never needs to be refinished). Most people think they are hardwood floors, but I think you can tell the difference if you really look. While I wouldn't put laminate in a bathroom because of the humidity from showers, we do have it in our kitchen. We did have it installed before we moved in, so the kitchen flooring is glued instead of just tapped together, and it has held up really well to spills, etc. Our other flooring that isn't glued has been covered with water at times for short periods and we haven't had any problems.
Traci
~Connor's Mom 02/2004~
Agency paperwork completed - waiting (and waiting) for another baby!