Flooring questions

Shag carpeting yesterday, today, and forever.

I dig, but God damn it -- the blood seeped into the foundation.

I had laminate plank flooring and recently replaced it with wide plank luxury vinyl, which is far thinner, but heavier and extremely durable. Its also beautifully textured and looks fantastic. I have even been able to shampoo my area rugs in-place due to its water resistant properties. I absolutely love it.

Friend of mine just installed "wood" tile that looks like high end laminate. Came out well.

I just bought a house and replaced the floors in the living and dining rooms with Brazilian mahogany...it was an easy install snd looks great. A little more expensive than I wanted, but it was worth it.

I replaced the carpeting in my home office, the smallest bedroom with oak hardwood 3/4' flooring. By I replaced, I mean I put it in myself with a flooring nailer and compressor, something I had never done before. It was a huge pain in the ass because the room had a huge oak L-shaped desk that I didn't want to move out of the room so I installed the floor with the desk in the room, constantly moving the desk. Like I said it was a huge pain but I am so happy that I did it, it looks great and will outlast me. I am thinking of doing the guest bedroom with hardwood floor this winter.

It really isn't difficult just a lot of getting down on your knees and back up again. I have a miter saw for the cuts which was in the basement for every cut required me to go down stairs and back up again. It was good exercise for my 68 year old body at the time.

Your only two choices are next-generation laminate or luxury vinyl tile.

Hardwood is extremely expensive and most hardwood now is what used to be called 'veneer' - meaning that it's not the 3/8" planks of real wood, it's manufactured plank floor with a thin veneer of real wood on the top. Regular hardwood has to be redone and can easily get damaged with water, humidity, liquids, etc. Plus the cost is so high you'll never feel you can replace it - and the amount is really not worth it for getting a 'wood look'.

Manufactured hardwood is less expensive, but it's really just laminate flooring with a veneer - like I stated above - and priced higher because they're trying to sell you on 'real hardwood'. Don't fall for it.

Laminate has come a LONG way in looking natural and not so first-generation Pergo from 20-30 years ago. It's easy to install, very durable and can go in most areas - including basements, entryways and bathrooms - places you really would never put hardwood flooring in due to moisture and damage issues. Some of the new laminate have scratch-free surfaces. I had some put down in my last condo and people would be horrified when I ran a knife-cutter over the floor - no scratches ever. It's amazing.

LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile) is also very real looking and durable - however, it can be uncomfortable to walk on unless there is sufficient padding put down underneath. It's very thin and many times you can feel the hard concrete or underflooring underneath it. ALSO, many people do not put in enough soundproofing, so you can hear EVERYTHING and the noise travels quite a bit between floors. My last place had LVT and it was placed on top of the concrete floor without much underpadding or soundproofing - thank god I lived on the top floor because others in the building could hear every single foot step.

Tile is fine - but it is very cold (great if you live in a hot climate like FL or the desert - it's a must if you live there). Tile can crack and the grout gets dirty and has to be resealed fairly regularly. If you don't live in a hot climate, I don't recommend it.

So - higher-end laminate or LVT. They're less expensive, easy to maintain and clean, and extremely durable and will last for years. BUT, make sure you put down padding and double up on soundproofing underlayers. It's not expensive for these underlayers, but it's worth it.

Yes - I used to work in the flooring industry.

Hardwood flooring is the way to go. Of course, its more expensive than vinyl or cheap laminate, but its beautiful, lasts forever, and easy to care for.

R8- not true - you don't know what you're talking about. You've watched too much HGTV. You probably recommend stainless steel appliances.

Your first consideration should be how well it will hold up to a nacreous layer of permacum .

Except for the kitchen, bathrooms, and foyer, which are 28”x28” travertine, my house has distressed Brazilian mahogany plank flooring. I had the floors installed 12 years ago and do not regret it at all. For the most part, the floor is easy to keep clean and it looks fantastic. The only extraordinary thing I have done is the grout about once every other year. Its structural integrity is good, but it gets dirty.

Linoleum. It's the way of the future.

Don’t get that herringbone (diagonal) pattern.

If you go with wood flooring do not got go with a dark color as it will show all the footprints.

R9 Genuinely curious in my ignorance: why wouldn’t you recommend stainless steel appliances?

Because stainless steel was a trend for a while. I've always liked stainless steel and still like it.

Is terrazzo out of the question?

A few years I did bleached oak for the bedrooms and living room and beige marble for the rest, both of which I love. What I didn't like was 1/ oak is easily scuffed and 2/in the winter (low 50's), the marble retains the cold and the house is like an icebox.

I wish recommendations on here came with pics. Newbie but interested.

My doctor is sort of obsessed with telling people to get carpet. Even if you aren't that old. He says those stone floors people like now bring in so many people to his office with injuries that carpet would have prevented. (slips and falls, hitting their head, breaking a nose...)

I prefer wall to wall carpeting. I love how it feels on my feet in the fall and winter.

It depends if you have dogs or cats, before we moved in we pulled out all the brand new plush bedroom carpet in the condo we bought and replaced it with light brown vinyl slat flooring and it looks and cleans great. The common areas and bathroom are large white marble tiles and yes it’s cold but we’re in Tampa and it shows when one of our three dogs has an accident and its easy to clean!

The three contingencies would be- choosing cost- if you’re planning on selling or staying put (maybe will replace again in the future), availability of flooring stock and hassle/how long vs. inconvenience the installation will take, and whether you’ll need to redo molding or modify existing thresholds and doors to accommodate thicker gauge or specialty flooring.

A friend installed beveled dark oak - with two cats, a shar pei, and a boston terrier. Visiting felt like a visit to a barn in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He had to use a a shopvac whenever he vacuumed.

If it’s an area without temperature extremes, I vote for slate. There is some maintenance involved, but it goes well with any furniture and makes a great transition to any wood flooring you already have in the house.

I am also trying to get everyone to choose cork flooring - especially if you include some of the old graphics in dark red and blue.

If you refuse cork, I would look into terrazzo especially if you can get the brass spacers. That shit is wonderful.

Dirt

I recently replaced everything with astro turf. No regrets, I adore all of the green!

Is that you, Uncle Betty @ R25? The grass compliments all that plastic ivy swag against the ceiling.

I am in Europe (Florence) and have lately visited a couple of former palaces being converted to apartments. The new flooring is ceramic tiles that look like parquet. It looks very good, but I wonder if they will look quite dated in a few years. Italians love ceramic tiles and you never see carpeting.

The French often use a veneer wood flooring that is the most awful thing you could imagine. Their idea of carpet is something you might put on a boat or in a kitchen.

If you’ve ever had a puppy or an old grouchy cat, you appreciate non-porous flooring. I remember not being able to get rid of the smell of cat piss and reading up on urine that’s reached the foam underlayment. You use syringes to treat those areas and you have to drench the foam. It works, but takes forever to dry.

Wall-to-wall carpeting is a dead end that needs to go away. It collects too much dirt and dust, takes forever to truly dry after cleaning, and loses it’s shape. Your solid floor may look like shit, but at least you know it’s cleaned and dry after you mop it.

Ancient Indian secret

Thank you R7 that was very informative.

"ECO FLOORS MADE FROM COW POO! "

Oh, sure, the wealthy can have anything they want

Thank you R7.

Very helpful!

We do actually live in a desert climate so we may consider tile as well.

And R17 I would love terrazzo, but it's probably prohibitively expensive. Same with concrete - if I had my way we'd do polished concrete through the entire house. But it's expensive and finding a competent, reasonable skilled person to install is a rarity and a miracle in these parts.

How about a rush floor? Workes great on stone flagging or pounded dirt. Just throw everything on the floor and dump it all on the dung heap every three months. No chemicals, 100% organic and fully recyclable.

I put in engineered bamboo flooring last March and I hate it. Don’t go with dark colors because they show every spot, footprint and pet hair.

I put vinyl plank down this winter. I hated the tile in my bathroom and the I especially hated the grout. Love the vinyl plank tile.

Pros: 1 - Easy to clean. 2 - Easy to install - I put it in and only messed up the first cut. 3 - my home is 150 years old and not perfectly level and I had no problems.

No herringbone as pictured in R1-- unless you get a top rated installer. Each of those cuts need to be perfect and they are all at an angle. You also have no baseboard to hide your mistakes

Don’t get vinyl with a texture. Dirty water settles into the concave spots when you are damp mopping.

Years ago a friend built her house and had linoleum? vinyl flooring? throughout with no thresholds at the doorways. Made it very easy to keep clean.

R32/OP - r7 here - you're welcome. I should say - yes, obviously hardwood floors look great, but to do a whole house would break your reno budget, which is why I don't recommend. Second, since you live in the desert, most homes did not come with HW floors, so if you're going to put it in, you're going to have a headache with the increased height of the floors. You'll most likely have to cut the bottoms of your doors to make it fit, plus the transitions from each room will have to be redone and closet doors won't close properly, etc. etc.

If you're in the desert, you really need to get tile or LVT for its cooling properties. If you like a marble look, I would definitely go for porcelain tiles instead, which mimic a marble look at a fraction of the price.

As others have mentioned above, there is very realistic looking wood-grained tile, if you want a warmer look.

I presume you may be in Palm Springs, where we also have a house. Terrazzo is extremely expensive, but common in PS mid-century homes. However, I don't think you need to be a slave to that trend. There are some terrazzo-look tiles that are much cheaper, but you really have to be married to that look. I don't like it personally and I think it's too cookie-cutter and expected, plus the price is just eye-watering.

Be aware that, in the desert, you will get frequent dust/sand blowing in. It all depends on how much you keep your doors open. Our main door opens into a courtyard by the pool, so we leave our house doors fully open (for the dogs) 24/7/365 and we get some dust and sand blowing in. And we live on the south side of Palm Springs, which has significantly less wind than the north side.

I'm saying this because all white tile may be a bitch to keep clean, depending on your house setup and where you live/how windy it is. Many homes have all white tile, which looks very modern and sexy - but just be aware of upkeep. On the flip side of that, tan/earthen tone tiles are very common and don't give off a high-end impression, even though they may be the most practical.

My vote would be a lighter-shade wood-grain ceramic tile, which can hide some dirt but gives some warmth and is easy to clean. I would stay away from the grey-shades as we've already hit peak greige in design.

R38 here - forgive me for all the brain dumps - one more thing to consider. LVT is SUPER easy to install. Like others have mentioned above, it's vinyl, so it is flexible and can mold to surfaces - i.e. it has some 'give' when you're putting it down. Obviously, you'll have to level the underfloor to put any flooring down, but you have to be more exact with tile. LVT is much more forgiving on a less than perfectly level floor.

I've seen LVT tile that has been molded to fit for sloping into drains, something you can't do with hard tile.

Lastly, if you use LVT, I would recommend you get it installed with grout (like real tile), which looks a lot more realistic. I've seen a lot of LVT that's just been glued down with no spacing in between or grout lines. It looks fine, but a bit on the cheap side.

And shop around for LVT for pricing. LVT has some of the biggest profit margins in the business because, well, it's just vinyl. Like with any large ticket purchase, you can ALWAYS get a discount for flooring, particularly if you're hiring their installers.

If you get quotes for flooring and install, get multiple quotes and don't sign anything right away. Don't be fooled by the 'special pricing if you act now'. They will come back within a few days with a lower price to try to get your business.

Carpet.

Who on earth wants cold floors, unless you live in a hot part of the world.

You put down area rugs, R40, and you wear your house slippers - preferably fuzzy malamute slippers. If you’re still cold, you put on a sweater. And pants.

R41 - or you put down underflooring heating, which, if you plan ahead of time, isn't as expensive as you'd think and is a great luxury to be able to adjust your floor temps, particularly with a timer.

Many people see carpet as not very hygienic and it can be a problem with people who are allergic to carpet fibers. Many people still want carpet in their bedrooms, which I completely understand.

For some reason, HGTV has made women in particular HATE carpet for the reasons I mentioned. The carpet segment has been on a decline since mid 2000's because of that - and for all the other hard surface options available.

When I bought my place 10 years ago, I had the oak floors, which were all scratched and damaged sanded down and stained a dark brown.

It looks great in photos and all that but even though the apartment gets good light it makes the place look dark during the day. At night it's kind of nice though.

I would not go that route again.

R23 - the problem with cork flooring (and also with hardwood) is - make sure you don't have any women over with high heels! Cork flooring particularly will leave heel marks. Hardwood is also susceptible to this within the first few weeks/months of installation. I've seen it many, many times.

R43 - watch out for putting hardwoods into intense direct sunlight, it will fade the floor. That's just another reason why I don't recommend real hardwood flooring anymore - particularly those with a dark stain. The damage in this pic is all too common.

Clearly, if your place already has hardwood or hw underneath a carpet (bonus! protected floors!), you need to keep them.

R15 - It's just that HGTV has produced this "hardwood, stainless steel, granite" mantra and that any home that doesn't have those 3 things are considered inferior. And many people vocally comment / parrot these phrases on the shows.

Stainless steel looks fine - but it's a real con. Thin stainless steel is really cheap. By adding that thin layer on top of appliances, they can charge 30+% more for only a dollar or two more cost, at most.

All 3 of these are expensive options that won't necessarily see a return on spend when you go to sell it. And all 3 have multiple downsides to them. However, due to this brainwashing of the American public, they probably do make the homes easier to sell.

Nowadays, that trio is the definition of an aged and commonplace design. It shows no originality. IMO, it's like those blown glass pendant lights in the kitchen - ugh - so ubiquitous.

I like carpet, wall to wall. But if I had indoor animals, probably not. I don't like echoing sounds and I just like the coziness of carpet.

Think of the dirty that is on your floors when you mop it. Now think of that dirty in your carpets. Now think of your oily feet walking on that carpet. Now matter what you do you will never be able to get that carpet clean, superficially maybe.

R47 - true, but people rarely give their area rugs the same attention or cleaning either.

I always find it hilarious that the people (usually women) who complain about 'carpets - YUCK, so dirty!!' then put down area rugs and runners to 'warm up the floors' - and they clean those maybe once every 2 years, if that. Typically people just vacuum area rugs - they rarely do deep cleans.

Thank you R38! You presume correctly

*peaks over hedge* Hey gurl! (((waves)))

Our home is not very old (10-12 yr) but unfortunately many of the finishes seemed to be circa 1990. We do have tile in most rooms and carpet in the bedrooms, and carpet is what we want to replace now. I'd love tile the whole way through but yes, the price for some materials has been a surprise. (We got a quote for hardwood for 25K, labor and materials, for about 1000 sqf.)

Your posts have been very, very helpful - thank you!

R49 - you're welcome! That quote for hardwood is very reasonable, but I wonder if it was for manufactured hardwood and not the real thing. You don't want real hardwood in the desert - just no. And don't overpay for manufactured hardwood, which can NOT be refinished or restained. It's just expensive laminate.

Laminate and LVT are 'imaged' visuals - meaning they take a photograph of real wood and replicate it on the strips. As technology has progressed, the images of the wood have become really good in the past few years. And many of them now have a wide print variety, meaning that you won't see the typical 'pattern' of wood like you used to in previous versions of laminate. That gives it a much more natural look, just like how real hardwood wouldn't have those pattern repeats with real wood.

I would stay away from some of the flooring/design shops on Palm Canyon - they've got great stuff, but boy is it expensive. Obviously, there are a lot of wealthy people in our area who don't care or don't know about pricing.

Another option is to do a mix - do some hard surface around entry ways and do carpet tiles in the middle of the bedrooms. Carpet tiles are relatively very inexpensive and can easily be done to provide the MCM look that is so popular in Palm Springs. Carpet tiles have a low profile and are super easy to swap out if there are any major stains. Just be sure to order extras so you can store them for future replacement.

Here's an example. I think it's a cool look and can cut down your expense considerably. Good luck!

[quote] I would stay away from some of the flooring/design shops on Palm Canyon - they've got great stuff, but boy is it expensive.

Which is, of course, one of the places we went. And then we went to Floor and Decor. So we've been at the peak of Mount Rushmore AND the Valley of the Dolls. We need to collect more info.

Ooh, yes - FLOR carpet tiles are something I'd completely forgotten about. Worth a look! Thanks

R51 - one more thought. Sorry for all the posts - clearly I have nothing better to do (!).

I don't know about you - but we're pretty much barefoot around our Palm Springs house around 9 months out of the year and light socks in the winter. You need to be careful of getting any high polished tile or flat surface flooring as you can slip and break a hip!! No, seriously, I've been in many homes here where they have this polished sexy AF white floors and have almost slipped and fell many times - especially the rooms right by the pool. Even getting out of the shower and walking into a highly polished flat tile floor in the bedroom would give me pause.

You may want to think about a tile with slight texture for gripping (like wood grain in the wood ceramic tiles). The carpet tiles would also be good for this and can be relatively cool like tile as they're right on top of the concrete subfloor.

Now, I don't know how to install a 'mix' room like the pic I linked to - many times carpet tiles are just placed on top of a hard surface floor.

Finally, Floor & Decor has some good stuff, but don't rule out a trip to LA for more options. It's not that far and flooring should be a thoroughly thought-out purchase.

[quote] Sorry for all the posts - clearly I have nothing better to do

Don't apologize! You have no idea how helpful this is. We are struggling big time - PS seems to have some limited choices, and I think I'm a bit gunshy because we've had terrible issues hiring anyone to do aaaaaannnnnyyyyyything here.

[quote] don't rule out a trip to LA for more options. It's not that far and flooring should be a thoroughly thought-out purchase.

This has been my instinct too. That handsome guy on HGTV that does all the houses in Redlands seems to have a few shops there or in Riverside at his fingertips, too, so checking beyond the city limits is a solid idea.

R53 - yep - between the insane amount of houses being purchased in the valley and when this is the normal time people do renovations to their homes, I would imagine it would be difficult to get materials or labor.

If you've recently purchase a home here, I can imagine it wasn't cheap considering how much prices have gone up. I would also think you have a lot of other costs, including furnishing the place and doing other updates.

In that case, I would recommend doing the carpet tiles in the bedrooms. It's relatively inexpensive, you can do some really cool designs, and anybody can install it. You just rip up the old carpet and padding, potentially level the floor (if needed) and start installing. You don't have to worry about fighting for installers, some of whom may not be very good.

Getting good labor and crews in the valley is always a crapshoot - but I would imagine particularly now. There are 5 houses around me currently doing renovations, so you're in a tight labor market.

And you can't really decorate the way you want until the floor is down. Good luck! See you on Arenas!

Wouldn't you need padding under the floor tiles to make it comfortable to walk on?

R55 - I believe some of them come with padding already in the tile, but you can also buy padding, which isn't expensive. Just cut it into squares and put underneath.

I'm just saying that everyone is doing renovations and everyone does tile in the desert - flooring tile, bathroom tile, kitchen tile - so getting tile installers will probably be an issue. Carpet tile is relatively DIY or something you can hire someone to do without a great amount of experience. You need experienced tile installers or you will regret it.

Good points R56!

Yes, four years ago. The floor guy who worked for my bonehead contractor installed hardwood over the subfloor without using plywood under it. When the heavy counters were installed, the floor buckled in places. Not terrible (it's a small galley kitchen) but I hate it. I'm currently looking for something to put over it because food odor comes up from the kitchen below - cork? vinyl? What?

Floor Guy you are a wealth of knowledge thank you!

Has anyone ever heard of Porcelanosa?

They are just a distributor R60.

Sorry, should have added they are a manufacturer, but Porcelanosa is just the name of the company

I would love to go retro and have old fashioned linoleum. But it costs as much as the highest end floorings, and seems fussy to boot. So no.

Thank you R61/R62, I thought from the description that it was a porcelain plus something else combination.

R63 I'd love to do linoleum too, if I had a craftsman or older house I would do that in the kitchen.

I think under-floor heating is the ultimate luxury.

Honey, it's going to be 120 here next week. I need some under floor COOLING!

Is it possible to use a rolled linoleum and it not look cheap? Have there been improvements since the horrid, shiny, 80's plastic look? My rooms are all 12' wide, so I assume there'd be no seaming, at least.

Linoleum vs vinyl

I am the OP and appreciate all the responses, especially from our flooring expert!

My husband is pushing for engineered hardwood. He has concerns about VOC's from luxury vinyl. I have allergies and while I can't recall ever having an issue from VOCs or offgassing of anything similar before, he seems to be concerned.

We're having a measurement from (oy vey) Lowe's next week. I have no idea whether we'll choose them to proceed but it looks like he's really considering it, because they do install and because installation sounds like the biggest challenge in our area.

I think because these are bedrooms we're willing to be a bit more frugal on these, we'll be putting rugs in most of them anyway. When we replace the hideously aged looking travertine all over the rest of our home, though, we'll spend more (on areas people will actually see).

R65 - flooring guy here - it's not as expensive as you think if you plan ahead. The only problem is that it has to be part of your plan from the start - and you need to have good installers who have done it before. If they fuck up and don't do it well and it breaks or doesn't work after you put it in the flooring - then you're in for a real pickle. And it does tend to raise your floors, so you have to think about the doors and transitions. But there's nothing like it in a colder climate.

Personally, I think you have to get it done in bathroom renovations - particularly if you have tile floors. For the average small bathroom, materials are about $150-$200. You also only need to install it in the foot paths. There's no need to heat up the entire floor - so really only about 25-35% of the floor needs the underlayment heating elements. I've seen people do the entire floor, which is just stupid. Does the bottom of your TV stand need to be heated? Behind your toilet and under your vanity? No.

Last comment - I'm going to expound on my statement above about LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile) and the high profit margin. You have to be wary of anything called 'Luxury' - because that's just a marketing term to make a lower end product sound 'premium'. It's vinyl strips, so there really isn't anything 'luxury' about it. That's why you need to be wary of the over pricing.

Amen about LVT R70. I bought a house with LVT, and got a $3,500 concession at closing. Why? Because it started to raise up at the edges, curl and crack. What a mess. The sellers offered to replace it all, but I took the cash.

Ugh, I think after seeing more options and prices I am ready for dirt floors.