Hard Woods vs. Laminate

[sweetoj]

Hey! I am looking for open opinions on hardwood floors vs. laminate. I really want to put new floors down in my living area (white stained carpet) but am having trouble figuring out what to do.

Hardwoods would be great, but they are pretty expensive. I like that laminates are more durable (resistant to scratches, etc...) I have a choco lab and a 3 month old boy, so I know that I will have to have something that can stand the test.

I am all for laminates since they are less expensive, but DH hates the way they sound when the dog walks on them.

What are your opinions on the two?

[moonlight]

I think the general consensus when this comes up is always hardwood if you can afford it. It's always better in the long run. If it's not in the budget, they make some very nice laminates.

[pinkeggs]

Check out www.builddirect.com

You can get a bunch of free samples and the prices are pretty good. I just ordered our strand woven bamboo from there and the company has a good rep.

[kaylie]

Personally, I hate the way laminate feels and sounds. Maybe the nicer ones are better, but the the ones that I've had have always felt and sounded kind of hollow.

Two things I would consider:
- How long are you planning on staying in your house? If it's your forever home it will probably save you money in the long run to have unfinished hardwood installed and finished onsite since you'd be able to refinish many times in the future.
- If it's not your forever home, is your house in a style/area that supports the investment in hardwood? This is mainly an issue in starter homes and townhouses, where you'd likely get less return on investment.

Also, have you looked into engineered hardwood? That might be a good middle ground option. The site pinkeggs posted has great options. Look for something with a high Janka rating and a strong coating which would help it stand up to your pup.

[effisia]

I'm actually having this debate with my guy right now. We're moving in a few weeks and looking to get all the floors redone before we move all of our stuff in.

I've always heard that hardwood, while more expensive, is better in the long-run. It adds more value to your home and, as PP mentioned, it can be refinished. That adds longevity.

Laminate... well, personally I'm not really a big fan of laminate, myself. It IS significantly less expensive, though, so if there's a tight budget, I think it's just fine. Just keep in mind that you might get more expenses down the road. Though I think that's true for both.

The choice I think we've settled on is strand woven bamboo. It's not cheap, but I feel better about it because bamboo is such a renewable resource. The strand woven bamboo is actually fairly strong (I've read that it's like a red oak in those terms, but not quite sure I believe that) due to the strand weaving process, and it looks just like any other hardwood.

The bamboo we've been looking at is about the same price as the hardwoods. I just feel better about it being bamboo and am willing to suck it up and pay a bit more for that piece of mind.

[FoxInFiji]

I agree with the pps. It depends on how long you plan to stay in the home and if you'll want/need to refinish them in the future for yourselves or for resale. Your kid will be hard on the floors now but will you ever want to refinish them when he gets older so you have a nice new looking floor?

Laminate can't be refinished. It needs to be replaced.
Pre-finished engineered hardwood and solid hardwoodcan be re-screened but not refinished. (ie. a new clear coat is put on)
Unfinished engineered hardwood and solid hardwood can be completely refinished to look like new.

[sweetoj]

Thanks guys! I will have to look into the engineered hardwoods.

[minniebee]

In addition to what others have already said ... I wouldn't avoid hardwood because of a dog.

I have hardwoods with a big dog (68-lb rott/lab) and our floors have worn pretty well. There have been a few surface scratches, but only the polyurethane coating is scratched, it's not deep enough to actually scratch the wood. The surface scratches are easy to fix without refinishing completely. You just have to sand a little bit, wipe to remove any dust, and brush on a little of the same polyurethane coating that was used when the floors were originally finished.

[kaylie]

Jun 19, 2012 19:33:14 GMT -5 operagirl said:

Just a comment: I had engineered hardwoods in my old house (BR11) and they scratched badly. New house has hardwood floors and I love them.

Could you share which species of wood you used?

[lys]

Hardwood.
A quality laminate is about the same cost as real hardwood. I would avoid cheap laminates - not worth it as you will replace it.

[pinkeggs]

Just adding my own experience:

I ordered several samples from the site I posted above (Build Direct). I had two samples of the engineered hardwood, one oak, and two strand woven bamboo.

I kind of do my own little tests to the samples. I drop my remote control on them from high up, I scrape them with the handle end of spoon, I sit my kids in one of their wooden play chairs and run it across. I smack them with other wood samples. Basically, I beat the crap out of them lol

What I found was that the engineered hardwood was by fat the flimsiest. Scratched easily, and deeply, and dented as well. The oak was a lot better, but the strand woven bamboo was the best one. I had a hard time scratching and denting it, and supposedly the Janka rating is 2820, which is pretty good.

Regardless of how you choose to go, I recommend getting samples if you can to see how you like them. I was pretty set on engineered hardwood until I compared it to the others. It would have been cheaper on the onset, but I definitely would have had to replace it sooner.

GL!

[patches31709]

My mom had woven bamboo floors put in and I can't believe how durable they are. Her dog is around 140 pounds and he hasn't scratched the floors at all.

[perhapsprincess]

Jun 20, 2012 9:08:43 GMT -5 lys said:

Hardwood.
A quality laminate is about the same cost as real hardwood. I would avoid cheap laminates - not worth it as you will replace it.

What do you call a quality laminate? We're looking at 10 and 12mm laminates and they are still $1/sq ft cheaper than the cheapest hardwoods we can find. plus the laminates have a pad on them and we'd still need to buy the pad separate for the hardwoods.

[kaylie]

Jun 20, 2012 11:24:44 GMT -5 operagirl said:

Jun 20, 2012 5:20:42 GMT -5 kaylie said:

Could you share which species of wood you used?

I got the BR 111 Tigerwood. It had several different colors, which looked fabulous. My only problem was the scratching. I found a pic:

Good to know - that's one of the harder ones, so I would have thought it would hold up better.

[sannice1979]

My sister just got laminate planks with a hand scraped look. Honestly, I was wary but now love them. I don't notice any noise and they are beautiful. I just went to the site mentioned above and ordered some samples. We are thinking about getting some because we don't know when we will ever be ready for the expense of real hand scraped hardwoods and our carpet has gone to hell.

[perhapsprincess]

Jun 20, 2012 21:57:30 GMT -5 @zolly said:

Hardwood is better for the long haul because it can be refinished. If you're not going to be in the house for a long time or the neighborhood doesn't support the upgrade to hardwood, stick with laminate. We put laminate in our first home because we were only going to be there for a few years.

I don't think our neighborhood supports the upgrade. (we're buying at $130K)

However, although hardwood can be refinished, it is a LOT of work. And by the time you pay someone else to do it, you could have put new flooring in instead.

[FoxInFiji]

Jun 21, 2012 10:43:00 GMT -5 perhapsprincess said:

However, although hardwood can be refinished, it is a LOT of work. And by the time you pay someone else to do it, you could have put new flooring in instead.

Refinishing HW and putting in new flooring would be the same amount of work if you're hiring them both out. The entire space needs to be cleared of furniture either way. Refinishing HW floors costs anywhere from $2-4/sf in our MCOL area and even cheap flooring would cost more than that installed. Plus refinishing keeps you from filling the landfills with your old flooring. Replacing floors every time they get excessively damaged is not a good plan.

[pickle123]

We are going with laminate in the house we are building right now. Mainly because of our big dog. They will not scratch...and our dog will often get the "zooms" and I would be sick about him scratching hardwood. When the kids get older I can see us switching to hardwoods.