Family room flooring thoughts

[Susie]

Our family room currently has cream colored patterned berber, which the previous owners put in:





I'm not sure how old the carpet is.  More than 5 years old (we've owned the house for 4.5 years) but not original.

Although it's a lot less hideous than the jewel tone carpet upstairs, we're starting to talk replacement.  It's looking worn, and this spring, Puppy Derkins ripped up a small patch under the kitchen step-down (a fiber was loose; she made it worse), and a fireplace spark singed a spot by the hearth.  The question is what to replace it with.

Now.  LET ME PREFACE THIS with the note that I know hardwoods are the GBCN H&G preferred flooring.  But I'm looking for what makes sense for our house, not necessarily the HW knee jerk reaction.

Here are the factors:
- Unlike the entire rest of our first floor, there is no basement under the family room (it is on a slab).  It is really cold in the winter.
- We spend most of our time in this room. 
- Both dogs' crates, bowls, etc. are in here.  Lots of pet and people traffic.
- The only flooring types that it directly borders are tile (half bath) and linoleum (kitchen - will eventually be tile).  Our LR & DR, on the other side of the kitchen, are new tan flecked berber.
- Right now we treat those glass doors (to the backyard) like windows - never open.  Someday we plan to have a patio out there.  I am not sure whether I plan to eventually use those as an exterior door (there's also a slider in the kitchen, we use that).  For right now the couch and the carpet-to-grass transition say no.
- Our neighborhood is all 1970s-80s suburbia.  Standard is W2W carpet, laminate, tile, and only very sparing HWs.

Part of me wants carpet again in here because anything else would be cold underfoot in the winter.  (I don't find W2W carpet gross.)  Part of me thinks that's a mistake with possible future exterior door use, and also with the fireplace (but what wouldn't singe?).

Part of me thinks hardwood makes sense with the possibility of someday maybe using the exterior door.  Another part of me HATES vacuuming rooms with hard flooring + area rugs, and therefore doesn't want HWs.  Yet another part thinks it'd look weird to have HW in the FR and tile in the kitchen (which we are pretty sold on, long term).

Laminate doesn't appeal to me, and I think tile in a family room would be a weird choice for the northeast.

I sort of feel like I can't win.  Everything is the wrong choice for some reason.  So what's the least evil for our circumstances?  Reasons/rationales to think about?

[emoflamingo]

I think the slab alone makes me go with carpet again. Berber is pretty sturdy when installed correctly and at 5+ years, if that's all that is wrong with it (baaaaaad puppy derkins!), then it's probably a good option. Unless you can find a way to make wood floors warmer in that room so that you don't have to put in new flooring when you start using those doors.

[Susie]

Yeah, I am pretty comfortable with berber with the dog toenails; we have it in the other rooms and haven't had problems.

The current carpet has shown wear from foot traffic from the kitchen --> bathroom, but I attribute part of that to it being a pretty unforgiving light color. Plus the pattern - never again - highlights wear from traffic.

The heavy wear in that room just keeps giving me pause. The wood that gets lugged in from outside for the fire, the exterior door, fireplace ash, kitchen-bathroom foot traffic, dog detritus... ugh.

It is a tough call. Fortunately we're talking about an isolated ~196 sf room that doesn't HAVE to match anything else. We don't have to LOVE whatever we pick or live with it forever. Must remember that.

[FoxInFiji]

I agree I think carpet or HW are your best choices. The HW would need to be engineered since it's on a slab. I would prefer HW or some non-carpeted surface so you could use the patio doors as exterior doors. I don't think it would look weird at all to have HW in the family room and tile in the kitchen. That is what everyone does around here. I know HW in the kitchen are the new hot thing but they just aren't as practical. If you didn't have dogs I might have said cork but it's too soft for dog nails.

[auntie]

I grew up on a slab with tile, but we had radiant heat, so it was comfortable.

Wall to wall carpet makes sense, or as much sense as a hardwood in that application. Indoor/outdoor traffic is hard on wood too, as my foyer will attest. If you do decide to use the slider as a regular egress, you could always install a small washable area rug, a bound section of the new carpet as an area rug, or even a tile entry pad.

[kaylie]

I was actually thinking wood-look tile with radiant floor heat might be a good but non traditional choice. I would probably go with that or a higher end laminate that would stand up to the dogs but with a large solid color area rug covering most of the area. My thought is that the room would be warmer and the laminate would have more protection, and if the carpet gets gross in another five years you could just get another giant area rug to make it like new again.

[TBM]

May 13, 2013 17:00:03 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

If you didn't have dogs I might have said cork but it's too soft for dog nails.

Cork can be a great surface for dogs. Some of the 'too soft' factor is dependant on the pattern of the cork, the manufacturer, and/or the finish.

Cork is warm, soft (the joints of people and older dogs will love it), quiet, and is resilient to moisture (particularly a site finished floor where the joints are sealed) and even resists pests like fleas. It is also somewhat self healing, and is anti microbial.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using proboards

[SusanBAnthony]

That is a tough one.

If it was just adults, and no kids were ever going to be in the picture, I think I would do hardwood. Reasoning is that you aren't sitting on the floor, so who cares if it is cold. I assume the dogs will have bedding to keep them off the cold floor? If you go with an engineering with a 25 year warranty you are probably ok for foot traffic to the bathroom and in/out patio door traffic, as well as fireplace sparks.

We had pergo in our old living room, and when we had kids we got a carpet remnant bound so that it was the exact size of the room. We bought a piece of carpet padding and put it under, then the remnant rug. It basically looked like wall to wall carpeting, but we could haul it outside and wash the crap out of it if needed. Then once the kids weren't crawling babies anymore, we gave it away.

If I could ignore the environmental aspect of ripping out and replacing carpet every 5 years, I might just do that. But I personally would not be able to get over that.

[Deleted]

I'd get the carpet. I am not a carpet lover at all (mainly due to lifestyle) but if I had room that had no basement esp. where I live, anything else would make that room frigid. It'a also more easily replaced down the line again if the dogs should happen to do something to it, than some of the other options.

Also has someone with an exterior door in the LR...I rarely use the damn thing..lol. I have so many other easier in/out doors to the outside that I don't even think about it. I'd just put a bit of tile around the doorway, carpet the rest and call it a day.

[Susie]

May 13, 2013 22:08:54 GMT -5 @justdairy said:

I'd get the carpet. I am not a carpet lover at all (mainly due to lifestyle) but if I had room that had no basement esp. where I live, anything else would make that room frigid. It'a also more easily replaced down the line again if the dogs should happen to do something to it, than some of the other options.

Also has someone with an exterior door in the LR...I rarely use the damn thing..lol. I have so many other easier in/out doors to the outside that I don't even think about it. I'd just put a bit of tile around the doorway, carpet the rest and call it a day.

Interesting idea!  I had not thought of that.

The one reason I can think of that we might like to use the door in the future is that we currently store firewood on the front porch.  It's a pain to haul to the family room in the back of the house.  We've talked about moving the wood pile to a corner of the backyard near the family room, maybe keeping a wood ring on the future-patio, and then we could just reach out the back door to get wood.  Appealing!

A small tiled spot by the door could be a good compromise.

Thanks for all the thoughts.  We will be mulling this over for a while, but some outside perspective helps.

[emoflamingo]

May 14, 2013 6:01:38 GMT -5 Susie said:

May 13, 2013 22:08:54 GMT -5 @justdairy said:

I'd get the carpet. I am not a carpet lover at all (mainly due to lifestyle) but if I had room that had no basement esp. where I live, anything else would make that room frigid. It'a also more easily replaced down the line again if the dogs should happen to do something to it, than some of the other options.

Also has someone with an exterior door in the LR...I rarely use the damn thing..lol. I have so many other easier in/out doors to the outside that I don't even think about it. I'd just put a bit of tile around the doorway, carpet the rest and call it a day.

Interesting idea!  I had not thought of that.

The one reason I can think of that we might like to use the door in the future is that we currently store firewood on the front porch.  It's a pain to haul to the family room in the back of the house.  We've talked about moving the wood pile to a corner of the backyard near the family room, maybe keeping a wood ring on the future-patio, and then we could just reach out the back door to get wood.  Appealing!

A small tiled spot by the door could be a good compromise.

Thanks for all the thoughts.  We will be mulling this over for a while, but some outside perspective helps.

Our last house had this and our current house does too (though now the carpeted area is wood) and it's nice. People can take off wet shoes on the tile and not trek the wet or mud all over the wood floors or, in your case, the carpet.