Yes, we will have in floor heat. Without that, it’s a nonstarter. It would be absolutely frigid!! Shoot - we’d probably be going with carpet everywhere but the kitchen and bathrooms if we didn’t have in floor heat - it’s too damn cold here from late October to May!!

---

**********************
Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."

I probably should have said we can’t afford real hardwood. So laminate would be the other option instead of hardwood. This is definitely an option too. Thanks!

---

**********************
Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."

With in floor heat I would 100% go tile. Love lying on the floor at our friends place on the warm tiles.

Ah, yes, wood floors are definitely more expensive, which is why even though I love them, I don't have them in my house.

If $$ is a limiter, the I guess real wood is not an option :*) I'd still choose a non faux-wood type tile then.

I ripped up all the carpet and linoleum in my house when i bought it and put tile in.

.

I had real hard wood in my first house. I have installed pergo and engineered hardwood (clearance products for small rooms). My current house has engineered hard wood and my in-laws across the street had solid oak floors. Both builder installed ~2 years old. I have also lived in older houses with old solid oak floors.

So here are my opinions.


Old Oak floors 1960 and earlier are head and shoulders ahead of most newer wood floors. They have tight seems and usually have a fully sealed surface or very few gaps in the finish.

Newer pre-finished hardwoods are nice depending on wood density, how they were finished and how well they are installed. My first house was pre-finished of an unknown type. anytime something was spilled on the floor if found a seam between boards and ran into the sub floor (not Ideal). Overall the wood was of decently high quality and resisted scratching well. Now my in-laws and come to think of it two more home owners in the area that I know have solid oak floors installed ~ 2-3 years ago buy the builder. Pre-finished garbage. The oak is slightly more dense than pine and in the first year they all have major gouges up to 1/8" deep.

Last summer the in-laws replaced the oak with wood look tile. The water/spill stains on the sub floor were amazing for only being 1.5 years old.

My current house shows some wear from the dog but nothing like the in-laws or the cheaper engineered hardwood I installed in my old house. In 5-10 years maybe sooner depending on how the flooring holds up I will be putting some form of tile in with sub floor heating. I have been interested in the luxury vinyl but it still seems cheep to me.

Are you talking porcelain tile that looks like wood or vinyl tile that looks like wood?

Are they really though? Especially if you will be in the house long term.

Top end hardwood is $7/ft, with a lot of varieties being half as much or less, install around here costs $3/ft. Or if you are decently adept, you can install it yourself. It takes some skills, but you don't have to be a master carpenter, just patient.

So cost of hardwood is basically $5 or $6 - $10/ft installed. Which isn't that far off of carpet. And it will outlive you. Carpet will not. And carpet never is clean, no matter what you do.

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

We did it in our kitchen a few years ago, we have loved it.

---

~Brad

We just reno'd our entire upstairs last year... Got heated tile in master bath, which we love love love, but outside of that feel like tile is too cold & hard ~ end up needing to put on shoes just to walk around the house any length of time, although it can look lovely in the right color/pattern (but not faux wood grain for ceramic tile ever, since the grout lines make it way too obvious that it's not even close to actual wood; just get some sort of stone or more vivid color pattern if you're gonna bother w/ tile for real).

Wife wanted real wood, but A) cost too much, and B) wanted something we didn't have to worry about getting wet in the kitchen all the time. Ended up getting the new-fangled vinyl plank (which i'd not even heard of previously) and would do it again. The cheaper versions look super obviously fake, but the higher-end choices look much better if it's installed well ~ there are only a couple places where you can see a pattern repeat too closely, and i'm an absolute OCD freak about shit like that; most folks like my wife would never notice unless I point it out. Cost was reasonable, durability has been pretty good (only a couple of bad scratches where we got careless moving furniture; it had seemed tough enough before, we could have avoided fucking it up easily enough w/ only a little more thought). I also like that it has just enough give/flex in it (along w/ the foam backing layer) that it's more forgiving ~ both in terms of walking comfort, and for a nice smooth install on an older/uneven subfloor.

Have various friends/fam w/ real wood, tile, and the EZ-install wood laminate ~ all of which I've paid much closer attention to since we had to make that same choice, and still feel like the LVP is the best trade-off for general use between material/install cost, looks, and durability/care.

Just finished our kitchen, put in Luxury Vinyl planking. LOVE it. Stuff is taking over the flooring world. Its not your old vinyl floor.

Just one brand. http://www.usfloorsllc.com/...tegory/coretec-plus/

---

Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

That is a nice stove.

Please. Do not listen to the stretchy jean wearing, poo water drinking, Green Bay fanboy. Laminate is disgusting. It looks as terrible as JSA looks in his denim yoga pants.

If budget is an issue, use vinyl plank flooring. It looks way better then laminate, wears just as well, is around the same price point, and is currently decimating the laminate flooring industry.

---

Long Chile was a silly place.

2nd this.

DONT DO LAMINATE, you wont be happy. LOVE our new Vinyl Luxury Planking its awesome

---

Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

So every reply to the OP is correct, because it depends.

If I were JSA in a 1920s bungalow, or Duffy in a salt-free/mud-free Santa Barbara environment then go natural, because it can certainly take it.

Not humble bragging here but I own multiple houses--most of them high-end rentals. And quite simply from a PITA-maintenance factor the natural stone, or high-end ceramic is better (to maintain). They clean up better. They can take a ton of abuse. And if a stone/tile breaks, fixing it is pretty ez. That being said, there is something about hardwood floors in bedrooms that is really really nice (especially vs carpet). And our ski houses present much better due to the "mountain-chic" feel that hardwoods give the bedrooms.

And it also depends on where. I moved from Pasadena to MI about 2 years ago---our Pasadena house had hardwoods in bedrooms and in the "formal" LR/DR, and was great, but the travertine in the main walkways/living area/kitchen was bombproof. We moved to MI and bought a house with ALL hardwoods.....and I wish I hadn't (aside from the weather talking about the hardwoods-only; keep in mind we are talking 2 big dogs + 2 kids <13). Hardwoods don't do great in massive temp/humidity swings. They stain (which is good/bad depending on whether you want character). Salt (winter) is really, really hard on them. So is sun. Young kids are not hardwood friendly (especially dark hardwoods which don't do well with water stains). We end up having runners & rugs in the living areas to keep dog scratches & midwest dirt/mud/salt/chlorine from destroying them. Especially in the kitchen---hardwoods in a kitchen are a no bueno.

We redid our walkout basement when we bought the place and put in a combo of fake wood glue-down rubber/laminate/pergo 10.0-whatever, + the ceramic look-alike in the bathrooms.....and I hate to say it is awesome. On a high moisture slab it hasn't moved, and it has been bullet proof. Do I want it everywhere in my house? Maybe.....to each his/her own. But there is no perfect answer. Just anything is better than carpet (well maybe except on stairs......).

---

____________
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." John Rogers

Uh, no, you moose-fucking, shit-beer-drinking, awkwardly feminine, hose blower. In addition, my buttocks look sublime in my denim man-leggings to the point that you would look, twice, with desire and lust.

Appearance

Not long ago, it was quite easy to distinguish vinyl from laminate flooring. Vinyl floors were usually sheet goods with printed patterns, often designed to look roughly like ceramic tile, though not very convincingly. And laminate plank floors were "wood look-alikes" that was also less than convincing since they looked and felt like the plastic materials they were. But modern laminate flooring and luxury vinyl can now both look remarkably like wood, stone, ceramics, or just about any material. They may even have three-dimensional texture to the surfaces, such as forms that resemble hand-scraped hardwood.

and

Real Estate Value

There is a slight edge to laminate flooring here, as it is usually regarded as superior to vinyl when it comes to improving the resale value of a home. But vinyl flooring's stature has been creeping upward in recent years, especially with the introduction of luxury vinyl flooring (LVF). But while buyers may expect—or excuse—vinyl flooring in the bathroom, they will cast a more critical eye on a living room floored with vinyl, even good-quality luxury vinyl plank flooring.

https://www.thespruce.com/...ate-flooring-1822800

---

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

You call me awkwardly feminine, yet, you wear denim yoga pants. You make fun of our beer, yet, your local offering is old milwuakee. You wear cheese on your head, and let your dogs piss in your house for Christ's sake.

As for your cute article it is mostly discussing sheet vinyl, which does look cheap. I am talking about vinyl plank, which is an entirely different product. Vinyl plank is simply superior to laminate. Any professional would agree.

Also, that article says laminate flooring is 99% wood. That is not entirely accurate, nor is it a good thing in an alternative to wood floor. See, with your shitty laminate flooring, the 1% that isn't wood is the wear layer. That's why it looks so bad. But you still get the instability of the wood substrate, which is where you want wood the least. It's literally the worst of both worlds. No wonder you cheese heads like it so much!!!

At least the article got one thing right in mentioning that LVP is taking over the laminate industry.

I work in the renovation industry. The only people still using laminate here are the cheapest of cheap spec builders and lowest end renovators. I'm glad you found some in the home Depot clearance bin that fit your tastes and budget, but, I wouldn't be trying to sell others on it.

You've got great taste in cigars, bourbon and watches, but I'd leave the home renovation tips to others, my friend!

---

Long Chile was a silly place.

If you are going to offer nothing but an argument from authority, then stick to the issues you know best: man-moose love, being good at only one sport, apologizing for everything, and going "oot and aboot!"

You seem pretty worked up about my denim man-leggings. Not surprised. If you took one look at my sublime buttocks gently cradled by said man-legging, it would move. You know it. I know it. Now the LR knows it.

---

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

It's called knowledge. All you brought to the table is an article from Spruce comparing your disgusting floors to a product I wasn't even talking about (sheet vinyl).

---

Long Chile was a silly place.

You must really, really know stoves to spot it at that angle but yes, we've been thrilled. We got a deal where we bought the fridge and stove and they threw in the hood and dishwasher and all 4 have been flawless for 5 years now. Brand is Thermador which are a turn cheaper than the best known fancy brands (Viking, Wolf) but really well specced and built.

---

"Are you sure we're going fast enough?" - Emil Zatopek

Nope. It talks about "luxury" plank vinyl as well. Stick to a topic you know, like man-moose love.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures I sent of my sublime buttocks clad in my denim man-leggings. At first, I was a little taken aback when you PMed me and asked for the pictures. But, then I thought - yeah, I get it, go ahead and drink it in!

It moved when you looked at the pictures, didn't it?

---

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR