Flooring: What do you think of this one?

[steph96]

We need to replace our floors and we want something hard that will have a good return on investment.  We're having a major disagreement about what color to pick.  I want something darker because we will be painting all of our trim white and I think it just looks better and more expensive/desirable.  My husband thinks we need something lighter because living room walls are a medium tan color (all of our other rooms are light colors).

A guy at his work has a family member that can get us this floor for $1.99/sf (normally $5). It's heavy duty commercial bamboo.  My husband insists that he loves this floor. I think he's just in love with the price. I'm not a fan. It has yellowy/greenish undertones. It shows smudges extremely easy.  I don't see how he can go from thinking the floors at the bottom of the post are perfect to thinking this is perfect--they aren't even close to being similar tones. He keeps going on and on about how the bamboo will hold up to our dogs and since it's such an expensive floor, it would increase our resale value WAY more than engineered hardwoods would. 


Here's one of the floors that we had previously decided on before he heard about that sale. It's hickory and $2.98/sf. We could probably find a 10% off coupon to use on it.


Here's another one that we both really liked.  It's birch and it's on sale for $2.59 (normally $4.49).






So tell me your thoughts.  If you were looking to buy a house, would you rather have the light colored bamboo or a darker shade of some other wood?

[steph96]

And for what it's worth, we haven't really even shopped around. I ordered some samples from the place we used for the flooring on our old home. I grabbed some samples when I stopped at HD and Lowe's. We haven't even attempted to look anywhere else.

[lolo]

I prefer either of the latter two options.

[scout8]

I like the bottom two.

[flatlan]

Either of the bottom two. I severely dislike the top one.

[cuadrado]

Feb 22, 2016 21:34:09 GMT -5 flatlan said:

Either of the bottom two. I severely dislike the top one.

Me too

[whitemerlot]

I like the one with the black leather couches.

[larzhope]

I also dislike the top one. I will say, we had birch with 2 dogs and we ended up refinishing it after 12 months because it was so scratched up. When we eventually replaced it, we went with pre-engineered eucalyptus. for the 2 years that we still owned that house, we had zero scratches to the actual wood, just the poly coat. When we built a new house, we did high end laminate and I have zero regrets (though we've only been in for about 4 months, so we'll see).

[mcsangel2]

Feb 22, 2016 21:40:34 GMT -5 cuadrado said:

Feb 22, 2016 21:34:09 GMT -5 flatlan said:

Either of the bottom two. I severely dislike the top one.

Me too

Me three.

[thatgirl2478]

that bamboo is awful. the green / yellow tone is really making me ill to look at it.

BUT - dark floors are pretty but they show ALL the dust you didn't know you had. We went mid tone just for that reason.

[steph96]

Feb 22, 2016 21:52:05 GMT -5 larzhope said:

I also dislike the top one. I will say, we had birch with 2 dogs and we ended up refinishing it after 12 months because it was so scratched up. When we eventually replaced it, we went with pre-engineered eucalyptus. for the 2 years that we still owned that house, we had zero scratches to the actual wood, just the poly coat. When we built a new house, we did high end laminate and I have zero regrets (though we've only been in for about 4 months, so we'll see).

Idk if this makes a difference, but we are looking at engineered wood, so I don't think refinishing is much of an option down the road. We are really struggling on picking a type of wood.  All the birch seems to be cheaper, but it just doesn't hold up to my banging/scratching test.  That's why my husband is all "WE NEED BAMBOO!!" I don't like the look of bamboo.  I want it to look like legitimate wood planks.

[larzhope]

steph96 - I didn't care for the look of bamboo either and honestly? it wasn't as hard as advertised - we went to lumber liquidators and took a key to every sample. our first house (rental) was birch (which we refinished). 2nd house was engineered birch, which we ripped out and replaced with the eucalyptus 2 years after building.

We ended up purchasing from hardwoodbargains.com and had a really good experience. Check out the eucalyptus there. You can order samples and they will send you a ton of extra samples they thing you might like in all different types of wood. You can go to town trying to scratch them in your own home. We went with a handscraped engineered wood and got so many complements on it. The laminate in our current house looks handscraped as well which is what made us okay with making the switch from hardwood to laminate.

[steph96]

Feb 22, 2016 21:54:41 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

that bamboo is awful. the green / yellow tone is really making me ill to look at it.

BUT - dark floors are pretty but they show ALL the dust you didn't know you had. We went mid tone just for that reason.

The picture of the room literally made me feel queasy. I don't know if it's the green undertones or what. I can't stand it, but he's now dead set on it because "it's such a great deal!".

Do you have an example of the floor you chose? I'm really having issues picking samples. They look completely different in the store vs in the evenings vs in the afternoon. I keep on picking ones with red undertones and I'm not sure if that's really what I want.

[biscoffcookies]

We have dark wood floors (although darker than your options that you like). The thing to know about dark wood is while it looks gorgeous when clean it shows EVERYTHING. It is not a low maintenance choice.

Assuming you are ok with thst possibility, I like your choices better than his.

[steph96]

Feb 22, 2016 22:08:30 GMT -5 larzhope said:

steph96 - I didn't care for the look of bamboo either and honestly? it wasn't as hard as advertised - we went to lumber liquidators and took a key to every sample. our first house (rental) was birch (which we refinished). 2nd house was engineered birch, which we ripped out and replaced with the eucalyptus 2 years after building.

We ended up purchasing from hardwoodbargains.com and had a really good experience. Check out the eucalyptus there. You can order samples and they will send you a ton of extra samples they thing you might like in all different types of wood. You can go to town trying to scratch them in your own home. We went with a handscraped engineered wood and got so many complements on it. The laminate in our current house looks handscraped as well which is what made us okay with making the switch from hardwood to laminate.

Ohhh do you have a link or picture of the flooring you chose in your current home?  That's my other issue with the bamboo--it doesn't have any texture to it.  I want my floor to look like real wood planks.

We've been shying away from laminate because that's what we used in our last home. We went with something *really* cheap and it just didn't hold up well. I know there are some really nice laminates out there, but we are a little apprehensive. I want to be MM, but I also don't want to have to worry about it looking like crap within a few years.

[larzhope]

this is the hard wood we used (I actually think amaretto color is more similar to what you are looking for):
www.hardwoodbargains.com/hand-scraped-cognac-eucalyptus.html

for our current house, we didn't get much of a choice, and unfortunately I'm out of the country right now so I can't look up the brand of what we have, but we really like it. If you can wait a few weeks I can find our paperwork when I get home and send it over to you.

ETA: I found it! it's called "Evoke" Laminate flooring. Not sure if it's regional (i'm in the PNW) but most people don't believe it's laminate when they see it/walk on it.

[thatgirl2478]

Feb 22, 2016 22:10:35 GMT -5 steph96 said:

Feb 22, 2016 21:54:41 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

that bamboo is awful. the green / yellow tone is really making me ill to look at it.

BUT - dark floors are pretty but they show ALL the dust you didn't know you had. We went mid tone just for that reason.

The picture of the room literally made me feel queasy. I don't know if it's the green undertones or what. I can't stand it, but he's now dead set on it because "it's such a great deal!".

Do you have an example of the floor you chose? I'm really having issues picking samples. They look completely different in the store vs in the evenings vs in the afternoon. I keep on picking ones with red undertones and I'm not sure if that's really what I want.

Don't go for red undertones - it will make most other colors look awful next to it (particularly beige's - they all look like skin).

We had our floors refinished - so red oak with minwax's Provincial stain on it. Looks like this (not my photo):



Less red - more golden but the grain comes out more black/neutral.

We used Red Mahogany on our floors at our old house (not my photo):

[thatgirl2478]

Feb 22, 2016 22:08:30 GMT -5 larzhope said:

steph96 - I didn't care for the look of bamboo either and honestly? it wasn't as hard as advertised - we went to lumber liquidators and took a key to every sample. our first house (rental) was birch (which we refinished). 2nd house was engineered birch, which we ripped out and replaced with the eucalyptus 2 years after building.

We ended up purchasing from hardwoodbargains.com and had a really good experience. Check out the eucalyptus there. You can order samples and they will send you a ton of extra samples they thing you might like in all different types of wood. You can go to town trying to scratch them in your own home. We went with a handscraped engineered wood and got so many complements on it. The laminate in our current house looks handscraped as well which is what made us okay with making the switch from hardwood to laminate.

Thanks for this tip.  If we get the house we're thinking of, we'll need to replace carpet with hardwood in at least a few rooms.

[mbcdefg]

I don't like the first one. I like the bottom one. The middle is just OK.

I don't know anything about quality/scratching/resale, sorry. I'll be paying attention to this thread, though!

[Deleted]

I'm not a fan of the first one at all. The last one would be my choice just based on pics, I don't know anything about wear.

[steph96]

Feb 23, 2016 9:36:09 GMT -5 spearmintleaf said:

FWIW I scratch tested a million samples and a higher end laminate ended up doing the best by far. It was cheaper than bamboo and hardwood despite being higher end. I couldn't justify spending more for something that would wear worse. I ended up selling to another pet owner (there are a lot of us out there!) who preferred my choice for the same reason. Resale is a funny thing.

We are basically in a starter home. I'm pretty sure that all people care about is that the floor looks nice. They [hopefully] wouldn't be doing scratch tests. They aren't going to go look up the floor to see what the price is. All they probably care about is whether or not it looks nice. If they say that it looks nice and then they find out that it's just laminate, I don't think that will change their opinion. Right?

[kore2]

I also like the look of the last one best. It's very similar in color to what I have now. As the others said, it shows evvvverything. I vacuum everyday, and still have shit on the floor. Grr. But it's pretty. lol.

[UnderProtest]

I like bamboo floors, but I do not like the one you posted. The color is awful. Can you get that one in a darker or lighter color?

[genet313]

_{I really like the last one.    The first one doesn't look great to me, honestly.}  

[steph96]

Feb 23, 2016 10:34:38 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

I like bamboo floors, but I do not like the one you posted. The color is awful. Can you get that one in a darker or lighter color?

That color is the only one on sale. I wonder why it's on clearance

From what I've seen, the bamboo floors tend to be more expensive than the other woods. Plus I don't think I like the look of bamboo. I want a hand-scraped look and I don't want to spend a ton.

[steph96]

Feb 23, 2016 11:12:13 GMT -5 spearmintleaf said:

Feb 23, 2016 10:05:01 GMT -5 steph96 said:

We are basically in a starter home. I'm pretty sure that all people care about is that the floor looks nice. They [hopefully] wouldn't be doing scratch tests. They aren't going to go look up the floor to see what the price is. All they probably care about is whether or not it looks nice. If they say that it looks nice and then they find out that it's just laminate, I don't think that will change their opinion. Right?

To me it's not "just" laminate. It's a kid and pet friendly practical choice.

I brought up the point that laminate seems more durable and harder to damage. My husband was all "you can refinish bamboo or engineered hardwoods! You can't do that with laminate!" And I kindly told him that for the price of refinishing those, we could just get new floors. He didn't have a response. The conversation ended right there. Lol.