flooring question - WWYD

[minniebee]

I'm moving back into my condo soon, and since the carpet in the living/dining rooms and hallways was trashed by my last tenant, I need to do some updates to flooring. I'm not a big fan of carpet, so I'm looking at either wood laminate or engineered hardwood instead of carpet. 

I know laminate flooring isn't hugely popular around here, but the reality is that my condo is not a luxurious home. It's a small basic condo, the investment of solid hardwood flooring would be silly in this home. I even question the investment of engineered hardwood. When I initially looked at laminates at Home Depot and Lowe's, they all looked cheap and so obviously fake. Then I went to some flooring stores and found better quality laminate options that actually look pretty decent.

Depending on which option I choose, I may put new flooring in just the hallways, living and dining rooms or I may add in the bedrooms too. There is carpet in the two bedrooms, but the bedroom carpet is in better shape and doesn't need immediate replacement. The guest bedroom carpet is still looking pretty good. The master bedroom carpet is in okay shape, but if I don't replace it with wood or laminate now, I will replace the carpeting in a year or so.

There are two open doorways where the kitchen floor will butt up against the new flooring in the kitchen and hallway right outside the living room. The kitchen currently has engineered hardwood. However, I can't get more of that flooring to match since it's been discontinued. 

Which option do you think sounds best?

1) Match the kitchen floor as closely as possible, which means buying engineered hardwood. Cost of flooring is roughly $3.50/sq ft and installation would cost $3/sq ft because it needs to be glued down. Because of the higher cost of engineered hardwood, I wouldn't make any changes to flooring in the bedrooms at this time. I need about 460 sq ft of flooring to cover the hallways and dining/living room area. Estimated cost = $2990

2) Don't worry about matching the kitchen floor, in fact, pick a wood tone that is complimentary but not so close that it looks like I tried to match it but missed (this was actually recommended by sales people in both flooring stores I went into). This means I could go with a wood laminate, which is cheaper. Cost of flooring is $2.25/sq ft, and installation is $1.89/sq ft because it's a floating floor. Estimated cost to cover the hallways and living/dining rooms = $1904

3) Go with the same laminate flooring as #2, but add in the 2 bedrooms as well. I would need 740 sq ft of flooring to add the bedrooms. Estimated cost = $3063

4) Everything in #3, but also rip up the engineered wood floor in the kitchen and replace with laminate so all the flooring matches. The kitchen floor is in great shape, looks brand new (was installed 5 years ago), and doesn't need to be replaced. This would be a purely cosmetic choice. 840 sq ft of flooring means a cost estimate of $3477

[sierramist03]

I'd do #3 but agree I like carpet in the bedrooms. I've had hardwood throughout and it was cold and expensive to get large area rugs for under the bed. A queen needs at least a 8x10.

[minniebee]

Sierramist03 - that's a good point about rugs. The good thing is that I have lots of rugs. My last house was quite large and we had hardwoods in much of the house, so we bought a lot of rugs for that home. As stbx and are are splitting up things in preparation for the divorce, he doesn't care about keeping any of the rugs, so I can have all the rugs I want.

[adhdfashion]

#4
Having all the flooring the same will make your condo appear bigger. Also buy some extra boxes for future repairs.

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[emoflamingo]

I think if cost isn't much of a factor, I'd do #4. If I couldn't swing it, I'd still do #3. I don't have a rug in our room (the bed takes up most of the space) and I don't think I miss the carpeting there. I do have rugs in the boys' rooms though because that's what I did their rooms around. I don't have rugs anywhere else in my house because I paid too much for my flooring to hide it yet lol.

[susieq]

I would do the entire condo if you can swing it financially. If not I would do the main living areas, kitchen included.

Why do you have to glue the floor down? That makes it almost impossible to repair any section of the floor w/out having to trash the rest of the flooring in that room. Even high end laminates and manufactured wood floors have a click system. I would spend $ on a high end underlay and click the floor together.

I will put a shameless plug in for Mannington floors. Their wood and laminates are made in NC. If you have any questions I would be happy to ask DH for you if I dont know. He works in the flooring industry