Just pulled the trigger on hardwood floors for the house.

[Hugh R]

$25 large, God help me. Tile floors in the bathrooms and laundry room are on top of that. It's some middle to slightly dark golden red "distressed" hickory that will work with our Rosewood furniture and the oak built ins, or so the guy says. Our carpet is 11 years old and looks it. Nice house, but the first thing you notice is the sort of emerald green carpet. It looked dingy from the 2nd month we installed it when we bought the house. I'll post some before and after pics as we get closer. Gotta move just about everything out of the house! I think I'll rent a dumpster and do some serious thinning of the junk. I don't mind too much tiling a bathroom shower, which I'm in the middle of, but 2,000 sq. ft. of flooring, I just don't see me doing that. It works out to about $12.50/sq. ft. which isn't cheap, but its very good quality hardwood. Also, I like dealing with one vendor, not buying the stuff from Lumber Liquidators and then finding a contractor who may or may not been around in five years. The company I'm using has been in my city for 30 years and I'm getting a 25 year warranty on materials and labor.

[many944s]

You'll love it in the long run!
When I decided to re-floor my place I decided to go with a thick hardwood parquet. I had the "pleasure" of laying Bruce hardwood plank in the past and decided I didn't want to go that route this time... In hindsight, I should have gone plank again, but I decided I wanted the visual complexity of the parquet. Too bad %75 of the flooring is covered by oriental rugs

Enjoy it! it will last forever!
-Nick

[Hugh R]

It will last was the compelling decision. Really good carpeting is about $9/sf installed. And it's good for maybe 10 years. Good harwood at $12-13/sf is a bargain in the long run. I was in a house north of Boston last week that was built in 1901 and had teak floors! I mean solid 3/4" thick teak planking! While its not a reflection on what I'm buying, it's a statement about permanence. I figure carpet is good for about 10 years, this stuff should be good for the life of the house. My flooring guy made the point that carpeting is not an investment, but hardwood probably is.

[LakeCleElum]

Hugh: Would luv to see photos when you can. Is the wood "pre-finished"?

I just had about 700 Sq. ft. installed in the 2,500 sq. ft. retirement house I'm building. Got a good price from a relative that works in a warehouse that sells hardwood and found a local guy to install for $20/hr. I really like the way it turned out. I did my entry, all hallways, kitchen and guest bath.

Good luck...

[Dottore]

You will love it. Always buy the best hardwood you can afford. And don't let someone talk you into a "floating floor". Always get those suckers nailed down.

[don911]

I'm dong this as well though not with as interesting wood as others posted. Part of my house already had 3/4" white oak and I didn't want to rip it all out to change woods.
The carpet in my house when I bought it was old and discusting. It was also on the stairs which always look the worst with all the traffic. Mine will be finished the end of April and I can't wait to have it done.

You're spending a chuck of change but it will look great when it's all done.

[berettafan]

The math on hardwood vs. carpet is great until you go shopping for rugs.

Hoy!

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by berettafan

The math on hardwood vs. carpet is great until you go shopping for rugs.

Hoy!

Yep. BTDT.

[Red Baron]

Great move! First thing I negotiated with the builder when I purchased our new house was to rip out all of the new carpet and replace it with wood floors to match the rest of the house. The look on his face was priceless!

[Rot 911]

Our house was built in 1926 with white oak in some rooms and red oak in others. 82 years later they are still some nice looking floors.

[JavaBrewer]

Make sure the installers use a top quality gule - assuming you're glueing over a concrete slab. Bostick best is top rated and what I used. It's really expensive but then you won't have any issues with boards letting go and I believe it provides a certain level of moisture barrier from the slab.

Sounds like we have very similar floors - I'll post a pic or two shortly.

[osidak]

sounds nice - use BBA to put down my bamboo floors about 18 months ago. Buddy and i layed about 750 sq ft ourselves

[sammyg2]

The house I was raised in had hardwood floors. One of the best days I spent in that house was the day we got wall to wall carpet.

I hate hardwood floors. Cold, sqeaky, noisy, etc. You can always tell when someone else in the house is walking or moving a chair. They are cool to look at but I live in my house, not just look at it.
Obviously I'm in the minority on this one.

[notfarnow]

Our house was carpeted wall-to wall, including bathrooms, when we bought it. Now we have some 10" wide maple plank flooring that I laid a couple years ago, some refinished 80 year old hardwoods, and some 50 yr old doug fir.

I think you'll be amazed at what a huge visual difference it makes... it completely transforms the rooms. The rooms will feel twice as big, and will be much brighter.

Looking forward to seeing before & after pics!

[JeremyD]

We did travertine and bamboo (and cork in two rooms) expensive yes, - long term it's good -

[frogger]

Jeremy, how do you like the cork flooring?

[JeremyD]

The cork rocks - I like it better than the bamboo to tell you the truth. The bamboo is high quality bamboo - end cut grain, solid 3/4 but it shows scratches and dimples with high heals (we only have it in the master and the girls rooms) the cork is on the office and the spare bedroom - it's quieter than the hard wood or marble - it doesn't show any scratches - it has just a minute amount of give that makes it seem much softer. If I did it again - we would ditch the bamboo for more cork - or go with a lighter hardwood

Back on subject - Hugh I agree - hardwood is an investment - 25K for flooring - you probably just added that in value in your house - what amazed me was the volume of dog fir we found after switching from carpet to hardwood/stone. It was like eeeewwwww - we used to live with that in the carpet!

[frogger]

Thanks Jeremy.

[on2wheels52]

I'm kind of with sammy also. I want my shoes off when I get home, and then I want carpet underfoot. If you do wood/tile don't you end up with rugs all over?
Jim

[Hugh R]

The madness begins! Supposed to be done by Friday, we'll see.