WWYD: new flooring

[mrscatfarmer13]

We're planning on doing some major improvements in the near future, but I'm not sure what to do about floors. We currently have white/ivory 12×12 tile in the bathrooms and kitchen and the rest of the house has carpet except for one room where we were experimenting with laminate.

[dogmama22]

I'd probably do something like Bova in the kitchen and living areas. Laminate tile squares in the bathroom. Something that looks good without shelling out a ton of money since I know it's not your forever house.

[mrscatfarmer13]

There's a poll for all you tapa users.

[sstwinklinglites]

I voted SS. I like tile in the kitchen and bathrooms, but I like larger tiles, and I really, really love those tiles that mimic wood floors; beautiful, but easy to clean and maintain. I wouldn't spend the money on hardwoods. If you do the above mentioned tiles, you can do the whole house, otherwise I would do tiles in kitchen / bathrooms, a nice laminate or engineered wood if you want something nicer, but not as expensive as hardwoods.

[sstwinklinglites]

These are all tiles:

[mom2boxers]

I don't care for laminate flooring. It sounds weird when you walk on it and it was a PIA to clean when it's winter and salt and water are getting tracked in all the time.

[JoBub]

I don't remember, are your pets large enough to be worried about scratching hard floors?

I'd probably replace the kitchen with a new more modern tile. The large rectangle squares look nice IMO, but it kind of depends on the space. Then I would put new carpet in the rest of the house. Something durable that will still look good when you're ready to sell. I just don't think you'll get your return on investment with hardwoods, especially if they might be damaged by pets.

[mrscatfarmer13]

Thanks it's good to get some different perspectives abd you gave me some things to think about. I like the idea of putting in new tile and replacing the carpet.

mom2boxers we hate the laminate we have, which is precisely why we decided to try it in one room before we committed to a whole house.

JoBub yes our dogs are large. I hadn't thought about them scratching it. If we do go the hardwood route it will be done literally right before we go on the market.

sstwinklinglites my chiropractor has woodlooking tile in the entire office. I don't hate it.

[mrscatfarmer13]

This is the tile that is currently in the kitchen and bathrooms. It's builder grade ceramic tile, nothing special.

[lindsay]

I like the laminate that looks like wood, like sstwinklinglites posted but I know nothing about its durability. Didn't think about the messiness in the winter either, that could suck with pets.

I realize this post is not helpful.

[sstwinklinglites]

mrscatfarmer13 - Sorry, but I seriously hate that tile. I grew up with it in our homes, like you said, builder grade, but DNL.

[sstwinklinglites]

We had wood mimicking laminate at our previous apartment in the foyer and kitchen. It looked good and was really durable. Extremely easy to clean the snow and salt in the winters. I'm sure there's different levels of laminate, so something to look into.

[JoBub]

I don't think there's anything wrong with that tile mrscatfarmer13. If I were you, I'd just replace the carpet with something that is durable and will hide stains. That way you know it'll still look ok when you're ready to sell. People like hard wood floors, but it's not worth it to do it just to sell. Almost every house we saw this weekend had some combination of tile and carpet.

[sstwinklinglites]

Sept 26, 2016 19:44:19 GMT -5 JoBub said:

I don't think there's anything wrong with that tile mrscatfarmer13. If I were you, I'd just replace the carpet with something that is durable and will hide stains. That way you know it'll still look ok when you're ready to sell. People like hard wood floors, but it's not worth it to do it just to sell. Almost every house we saw this weekend had some combination of tile and carpet.

I agree with this. If the goal is to get the house ready to sell, I'd wait on any flooring until you're ready to move, then just do carpeting and leave the tile. I like having carpeting with small kids, but I feel like they get super gross.

In my future home I would ideally have hardwoods throughout or the tile I mentioned above, and carpets in the bedrooms.

[mom2boxers]

Or get them professionally cleaned right before showing and include a carpet allowance in the price and people can pick their own. Can shell out more and get laminate or wood or take it and just replace with carpet they like but it's not hen. Or just go the cleaning route and let the new owners deal with it.

[JoBub]

Sept 26, 2016 20:08:31 GMT -5 mom2boxers said:

Or get them professionally cleaned right before showing and include a carpet allowance in the price and people can pick their own. Can shell out more and get laminate or wood or take it and just replace with carpet they like but it's not hen. Or just go the cleaning route and let the new owners deal with it.

This is what we're doing. Our carpet was cheap since our house was a flip when we bought it. So it looks pretty worn on the stairs and hallway. We got it shampooed today and will be willing to negotiate the price or pay closing costs because of it. But if I was a buyer, I would want to be able to choose my own so we probably won't replace it. 

[mrscatfarmer13]

Idk, this house doesn't have much going for it so we're going to do as much as we reasonably can to make it appealing. I'm so scared it's going to sit on the market fooorrrreeeevvveerrrr

[mrscatfarmer13]

I think I'm settled on doing wood grain ceramic tile in the living room, kitchen, hall, and bath then carpet in the bedrooms. I was going to do carpet in the living room, but I think doing tiles will make the house seem less choppy.

[sstwinklinglites]

Sept 27, 2016 9:55:06 GMT -5 mrscatfarmer13 said:

I think I'm settled on doing wood grain ceramic tile in the living room, kitchen, hall, and bath then carpet in the bedrooms. I was going to do carpet in the living room, but I think doing tiles will make the house seem less choppy.

I think this sounds great. Let us see what color you go with.

[JoBub]

That sounds like a good choice. Hopefully you can do it in time to enjoy it a little before you sell. It sucks making updates like that just to be able to put it on the market.

[mrscatfarmer13]

Sept 27, 2016 10:00:48 GMT -5 sstwinklinglites said:

Sept 27, 2016 9:55:06 GMT -5 mrscatfarmer13 said:

I think I'm settled on doing wood grain ceramic tile in the living room, kitchen, hall, and bath then carpet in the bedrooms. I was going to do carpet in the living room, but I think doing tiles will make the house seem less choppy.

I think this sounds great. Let us see what color you go with.

Lowes and THD don't have much of a selection but until we go to a flooring place, these are the top two contenders
www.homedepot.com/p/Daltile-Parkwood-Cherry-7-in-x-20-in-Ceramic-Floor-and-Wall-Tile-10-89-sq-ft-case-PD14720HD1P2/205051799

www.homedepot.com/p/MS-International-Sonoma-Pine-6-in-x-24-in-Glazed-Ceramic-Floor-and-Wall-Tile-14-sq-ft-case-NSONPINE6X24/202948121

They're not my favorite, but I'm worried about going darker. The house has crappy natural light and I don't want it to look smaller/more dreary/closed in than it is. 

[sstwinklinglites]

mrscatfarmer13 - Of the two, I prefer the first one, but also do not love either one. There's def. much nicer options out there that are a lighter color to help brighten up a space.

[chrispy1122]

Post pictures when you do the wood tile. We are thinking about putting that in our basement, but it can be so expensive and would be beyond our ability to DIY. My coworker (who used to work in construction) said they are hard to put in because the grout has to be really thin for it to look nice and they need to be spaced a certain way. We are also looking at LVP flooring for the basement (the other option for areas that could get wet) which is also expensive, but we could probably put in ourselves. I'm so indecisive about these things, so it may be awhile before we figure it out.

[mrscatfarmer13]

Sept 27, 2016 14:40:49 GMT -5 chrispy1122 said:

Post pictures when you do the wood tile. We are thinking about putting that in our basement, but it can be so expensive and would be beyond our ability to DIY. My coworker (who used to work in construction) said they are hard to put in because the grout has to be really thin for it to look nice and they need to be spaced a certain way. We are also looking at LVP flooring for the basement (the other option for areas that could get wet) which is also expensive, but we could probably put in ourselves. I'm so indecisive about these things, so it may be awhile before we figure it out.

This is good to know because I was trying to decide if this was someting we can DIY  or not. If it was just a small bathroom I would probably attempt it, but since this will be the majority of the house, we'll use a contractor.