We have replaced our flooring a few times in the last 25 years. We had our original hardwood floors covered for years. Recently pulled up all the carpet and had them refinished. Turned out beautifully! One exception is the family room, where I like the carpet as it feels more warm and comfortable.

 

A couple years we redid the kitchen. Put a stone floor in. It is a little more expensive but practically indestructible. You do have to seal it every few years because it is more porous than tile.

I suggest bamboo, for a variety of reasons.

 

1) It's a renewable resource. Bamboo grows like a weed.

2) Bamboo is integrally colored - not just stained. The color you see on the top of your plank goes clear through to the bottom. Cut it, scratch it, gouge it...SAND IT DOWN IN A LOCATION THAT HAS BEEN HEAVILY SCRATCHED...the same color is still there.

3) Bamboo seldom run much more than $2.75 per square foot, material price. That's not bad at all.

4) Assuming you're not going to be springing for the super expensive exotic hardwoods out there, bamboo is harder than most. There's a rating system for wood hardness called the Janka rating scale. The higher the rating, the harder the material:

 

Eastern White Pine - 380

Western White Pine - 420

Shortleaf Pine - 690

Mahogany - 800

Longleaf Pine - 870

Cherry - 995

Carbonized* Bamboo - 1180

Red Oak - 1290

Ash - 1320

White Oak - 1360

Natural Bamboo - 1380

Hard Maple - 1450

Locust - 1700

Paduak - 1725

Strand Woven Bamboo - 3000

Ebony - 3220

 

*Carbonizing is a heat treatment used on some types of bamboo flooring in order to obtain a certain range of brown color tones. The process lessens the hardness of the bamboo as compared to natural bamboo.

And a central vac makes it even easier.

 

I bet! Before Christmas I repeatedly saw a tv ad about an i-robot little vacuum cleaner that just kind of bounces around cleaning the floors. I want one of those so bad!! (one of my kids googled it and it sounded pretty expensive though).

I suggest bamboo, for a variety of reasons.

 

1) It's a renewable resource. Bamboo grows like a weed.

2) Bamboo is integrally colored - not just stained. The color you see on the top of your plank goes clear through to the bottom. Cut it, scratch it, gouge it...SAND IT DOWN IN A LOCATION THAT HAS BEEN HEAVILY SCRATCHED...the same color is still there.

3) Bamboo seldom run much more than $2.75 per square foot, material price. That's not bad at all.

4) Assuming you're not going to be springing for the super expensive exotic hardwoods out there, bamboo is harder than most. There's a rating system for wood hardness called the Janka rating scale. The higher the rating, the harder the material:

 

Eastern White Pine - 380

Western White Pine - 420

Shortleaf Pine - 690

Mahogany - 800

Longleaf Pine - 870

Cherry - 995

Carbonized* Bamboo - 1180

Red Oak - 1290

Ash - 1320

White Oak - 1360

Natural Bamboo - 1380

Hard Maple - 1450

Locust - 1700

Paduak - 1725

Strand Woven Bamboo - 3000

Ebony - 3220

 

*Carbonizing is a heat treatment used on some types of bamboo flooring in order to obtain a certain range of brown color tones. The process lessens the hardness of the bamboo as compared to natural bamboo.

 

Just don't buy it from Lumber Liquidators. There seems to be a lot of people having issues with shrinking and splitting.

I bet! Before Christmas I repeatedly saw a tv ad about an i-robot little vacuum cleaner that just kind of bounces around cleaning the floors. I want one of those so bad!! (one of my kids googled it and it sounded pretty expensive though).

 

They are getting cheaper.

 

But if you have a dog...

 

As for scratching by pets, etc...When I was looking for a house, I knew I wanted hardwood throughout, except the kitchen and bathroom were up for grabs, because I really didn't mind if they were tiled, laminate or linoleum. When I toured this house, the living room, bedroom and dining room have the original pine floors from when it was built 115 years ago. They are scarred, pitted in some places, and in a few places there are actually small chinks out. The planks are about 2" wide and they're oiled. The kitchen has a newer (meaning not 115 years old, not like laid in the last 6 months) 1" plank and are just waxed. The bathroom has the same as the kitchen, but painted white. My realtor apologized for the floors in the living room, bedroom and dining room, telling me that for the price the house was listed for, I could have them replaced or redone and still be getting a good deal. But I was already in love with them just the way they are. I absolutely love that they signify the life in this house over time. They aren't unsafe, just not perfect. If you can live with that kind of mentality, I highly suggest hardwood despite being softer than other alternatives. But if you want something that's going to look new for a long time, then all the other suggestions are probably better for you.

Edited January 16, 201610 yr by rockmom

As for scratching by pets, etc...When I was looking for a house, I knew I wanted hardwood throughout, except the kitchen and bathroom were up for grabs, because I really didn't mind if they were tiled, laminate or linoleum. When I toured this house, the living room, bedroom and dining room have the original pine floors from when it was built 115 years ago. They are scarred, pitted in some places, and in a few places there are actually small chinks out. The planks are about 2" wide and they're oiled. The kitchen has a newer (meaning not 115 years old, not like laid in the last 6 months) 1" plank and are just waxed. The bathroom has the same as the bathroom, but painted white. My realtor apologized for the floors in the living room, bedroom and dining room, telling me that for the price the house was listed for, I could have them replaced or redone and still be getting a good deal. But I was already in love with them just the way they are. I absolutely love that they signify the life in this house over time. They aren't unsafe, just not perfect. If you can live with that kind of mentality, I highly suggest hardwood despite being softer than other alternatives. But if you want something that's going to look new for a long time, then all the other suggestions are probably better for you.

I bet they're beautiful

We had regular laminate in the kitchen and when the fridge developed a leak we didn't see at first it ruined the floors, now have tile in the kitchen, dining, and bathrooms. The living room and family room are both pre-finished engineered hardwood. It's cheaper than "real" hardwood, durable and fairly easy to install (not as easy as laminate since it was nailed in not clicked in place).

As for scratching by pets, etc...When I was looking for a house, I knew I wanted hardwood throughout, except the kitchen and bathroom were up for grabs, because I really didn't mind if they were tiled, laminate or linoleum. When I toured this house, the living room, bedroom and dining room have the original pine floors from when it was built 115 years ago. They are scarred, pitted in some places, and in a few places there are actually small chinks out. The planks are about 2" wide and they're oiled. The kitchen has a newer (meaning not 115 years old, not like laid in the last 6 months) 1" plank and are just waxed. The bathroom has the same as the kitchen, but painted white. My realtor apologized for the floors in the living room, bedroom and dining room, telling me that for the price the house was listed for, I could have them replaced or redone and still be getting a good deal. But I was already in love with them just the way they are. I absolutely love that they signify the life in this house over time. They aren't unsafe, just not perfect. If you can live with that kind of mentality, I highly suggest hardwood despite being softer than other alternatives. But if you want something that's going to look new for a long time, then all the other suggestions are probably better for you.

 

OK, now I need to see some pics. :-)

Even though it's not the wide plank, I'd love to see what they look like. The oiled route is what I eventually want to do. I thought about the pine even knowing that it is extremely soft. One thing about the pine, like in your house, it becomes compressed over time so it hardens. I love the look of those types of floors, and I'd love to mimic it in my house.

We spent a lot of insurance money on nice hardwood floors after a kitchen supply broke and Ruined the floors. 1 year later our lab had all but destroyed it. Talk about sick. The insurance money paid for the floors at like $7 a sq ft. We wound up covering it with the Pergo XP hand scraped look laminate and almost 2 years later, still looks great and it's extremely durable. I say tile your kitchen and baths, hardwood laminate for the living areas.

I bet they're beautiful

 

I think they are. But, and it's a big but, I realize most people probably would replace them. I think it's just my nature, though, to love old things. I mean, I actively sought out a house that was old and spent my career primarily in historic properties. Something about the imperfections you encounter is beautiful to me. I'm weird. I admit it.

I think they are. But, and it's a big but, I realize most people probably would replace them. I think it's just my nature, though, to love old things. I mean, I actively sought out a house that was old and spent my career primarily in historic properties. Something about the imperfections you encounter is beautiful to me. I'm weird. I admit it.

I hear you, rockmom. One of the coolest floors I think I have ever seen came out of an old bowling alley. Something about those thin boards.

OK, now I need to see some pics. :-)

Even though it's not the wide plank, I'd love to see what they look like. The oiled route is what I eventually want to do. I thought about the pine even knowing that it is extremely soft. One thing about the pine, like in your house, it becomes compressed over time so it hardens. I love the look of those types of floors, and I'd love to mimic it in my house.

 

I'll try to post some sometime today.

 

In a related note, while my fireplace has the original tile and mantle, someone replaced the hearth with a hardwood that doesn't match the floor. I'm trying now to figure out what I want to do. Do I paint it? Stain it to match the floor? Remove it? If so, replace it with what? The tile is green, so I don't think it would look good putting down green tole, but not thinking white would be good either. It's non-working, so I'm not concerned about safety as much as aesthetics. I'll post a pic of that too and see if any one had any ideas, since techinically it's floor related and won't derail Tootsie's thread .

I'd love to see pics rockmom. Don't worry about derailing.

 

Is the fireplace something you might someday put in a natural gas or propane log insert? They can be really nice way to suplement your heating, and in the case of a power outage, can be your primary heat source. Plus they look really nice.

I'd love to see pics rockmom. Don't worry about derailing.

 

Is the fireplace something you might someday put in a natural gas or propane log insert? They can be really nice way to suplement your heating, and in the case of a power outage, can be your primary heat source. Plus they look really nice.

 

I have thought about making it a working one again. Just not sure what all that will entail, and as far as what I want to do immediately, I need to fence the top part of my Front yard so I can be out front with the dogs, figure out some options to make the hill that the rest of the yard is, low maintenance, and get either storm or security doors so I can open the door and let loght/air in. With 10' ceilings and ceiling fans, I could really minimize my AC use in the summer that way.