Wood, laminate, tile floors vs carpet-which do you like best? Which do you hate?

We have a mix of flooring.

LR/DR/front bedroom: original 1940 red oak with walnut plugs. I polyurethaned them - the old-style oil-based poly - so they're pretty much invulnerable. Already hard as rocks when we moved in (1990), it took forever to sand them down for a DIY job. Doesn't scratch, still a lovely semi-gloss. Oil poly has a yellowish cast to it that warms the red oak to a beautiful golden tan color.

Kitchen had sheet vinyl in our original remodel. We had Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) 18" squares glued over it. They are a sage green/tan slate-look tile, as it needed to coordinate with the HW flooring in the LR/DR areas that border the kitchen:
floor-LR.jpg

Both bathrooms have sheet vinyl. One is a slate-look, the other a chevron tile pattern.

Master bedroom is the biggest room in what is an otherwise small house: 17x25'. We had W2W as it was a very cold room, but I hated it. So much dust sifts through underneath, my allergies were always worse. Finally had the $$$ to remodel and chose a golden oak Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVT), glued down. Made a huge difference in my allergies, and so much easier to take care of.

We use rugs in various places, as we have a large collection of Chinese and Oriental rugs in varying sizes.
 
Carpet does take a lot of vacuuming, but with having pets all my life, doing floors daily has always been my routine, bare floors and carpet, keeps the pet hair under control, along with daily brushing, i don't mind the time it requires. If i miss a day doing floors, i don't feel my house is clean.
 

Lethe200 said:
We have a mix of flooring.

LR/DR/front bedroom: original 1940 red oak with walnut plugs. I polyurethaned them - the old-style oil-based poly - so they're pretty much invulnerable. Already hard as rocks when we moved in (1990), it took forever to sand them down for a DIY job. Doesn't scratch, still a lovely semi-gloss. Oil poly has a yellowish cast to it that warms the red oak to a beautiful golden tan color.

Kitchen had sheet vinyl in our original remodel. We had Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) 18" squares glued over it. They are a sage green/tan slate-look tile, as it needed to coordinate with the HW flooring in the LR/DR areas that border the kitchen:
View attachment 100131

Both bathrooms have sheet vinyl. One is a slate-look, the other a chevron tile pattern.

Master bedroom is the biggest room in what is an otherwise small house: 17x25'. We had W2W as it was a very cold room, but I hated it. So much dust sifts through underneath, my allergies were always worse. Finally had the $$$ to remodel and chose a golden oak Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVT), glued down. Made a huge difference in my allergies, and so much easier to take care of.

We use rugs in various places, as we have a large collection of Chinese and Oriental rugs in varying sizes.
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If someone chooses wood flooring, oak and maple,walnut, are great choices, being that they are so hard.
 
My place has a variety of flooring; wall-to-wall carpeting in 2 rooms, one bedroom & a den. The rest of the floors are either tile or wood. A repairman told me a large section of my entryway & the two stairways have an expensive flooring called "Terraza" (or something like that). He was amused that I didn't care.
My only concern about flooring is that it's safe - not slippery. All rugs have non-slip mats under them. Any rug that moves when it's stepped on or curls up at the ends goes in the trash immediately. NO polishes or waxes on my floors.
 
Suzy623 said:
My house has the original tile installed in 1965. It still looks good in some areas but other areas show the wear and tear. I've liked the tile because it keeps such a good shine. I've heard of a flooring that isn't slippery when wet but don't recall if it's a tile or wood grain though. Before this pandemic I was planning to have the tub taken out of the main bathroom and have a walk-in shower installed but don't want strangers in the house right now (they probably wouldn't come now anyway). Next project was going to be the floors but who knows when that will be now. Since the house is on a slab the floors do get cold, even with house shoes. But, especially during the winter months I have space rugs and runners. It's costly to have them cleaned but I much prefer taking them to the cleaners at the end of the season and they clean and store them for me.
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We put in a no barrier shower in our last house and quickly realized we had a major issue. With no barrier you end up with water all over the floor, and a slip hazard. If you need no barrier instead of a small barrier make sure you also put a drain in the floor as well as the shower.
 
win231 said:
....My place has a variety of flooring; wall-to-wall carpeting in 2 rooms, one bedroom & a den. The rest of the floors are either tile or wood. A repairman told me a large section of my entryway & the two stairways have an expensive flooring called "Terraza" (or something like that).
Click to expand...

What you have is this:
Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical binding), polymeric (for physical binding), or a combination of both.

It was popular in the 50's and early 60's. It is EXTREMELY durable and has always been more expensive than other flooring materials:

Why is terrazzo so expensive?
They are more expensive than marble and granite. You are not only using a combination of two of the most expensive materials, but also using concrete or resin to set it. The process of installing terrazzo floors adds to the expense because it needs to be professionally installed, unlike marble, granite or concrete.
 
Seeing what's on the tile or wood floors, makes me wonder how much is still left in the carpet after vacuuming.
 
Lethe200 said:
What you have is this:
Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical binding), polymeric (for physical binding), or a combination of both.

It was popular in the 50's and early 60's. It is EXTREMELY durable and has always been more expensive than other flooring materials:

Why is terrazzo so expensive?
They are more expensive than marble and granite. You are not only using a combination of two of the most expensive materials, but also using concrete or resin to set it. The process of installing terrazzo floors adds to the expense because it needs to be professionally installed, unlike marble, granite or concrete.
Click to expand...
That explains why it still looks new when the house was built in 1954.
 
Aneeda72 said:
We put in a no barrier shower in our last house and quickly realized we had a major issue. With no barrier you end up with water all over the floor, and a slip hazard. If you need no barrier instead of a small barrier make sure you also put a drain in the floor as well as the shower.
Click to expand...
I need it to have a short barrier because of that problem. I've already purchased the safety grip that fits over the barrier for in/out support and safety. Don't like the step in tubs. I would love to have a drain in the middle of my bathroom floor but the house is built on a slab and it would be too costly to have to remove some of the slab to install a drain.
 
Gardenlover said:
Seeing what's on the tile or wood floors, makes me wonder how much is still left in the carpet after vacuuming.
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That can be a concern. I use Dyson, excellent suction, and Bissell steam cleaner. The water coming out from the steamer it very light colored, will do it again till the dirt is gone. I'll give my Dyson vacuum a lot of credit.
 
Suzy623 said:
I need it to have a short barrier because of that problem. I've already purchased the safety grip that fits over the barrier for in/out support and safety. Don't like the step in tubs. I would love to have a drain in the middle of my bathroom floor but the house is built on a slab and it would be too costly to have to remove some of the slab to install a drain.
Click to expand...
We are to have a drain put into our laundry room. We had one quote for 5500 and the other for 2000, took the one for 2000, they cut out the slab, dug to the pipe and now we have the drain. Don’t know your budget to when you do the shower get at least 3 bids.
 
win231 said:
That explains why it still looks new when the house was built in 1954.
Click to expand...

Here in California,Terrazzo was used in many,many homes-at least in the area I grew up it was, San Francisco and south of there,most homes that had stairways to the front door had terrazzo stairs and porches. And bathroom floors as well.
 
The house we just moved into last summer has all laminate floors.I love them for the ease of cleaning-especially with dogs and cats. I have had wall to wall carpets for the past 30 years and hardwood before that.Always had to worry about the hardwood when the kids were growing up.

The only problem I have with this particular laminate is that it`s slick and the minute Gigi`s nails get a little long,she slips getting up.I`m worried she`ll hurt herself. When we start remodeling we`ll probaby change to different laminate or some of the other floorings they have now.
 

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