Hardwood or Carpet? Help!

summerfun123

We are trying to decide whether to replace our carpet with all carpet or a mix of carpet and wood.  Right now my house is hardwood in kitchen, foyer and dining room.  Family room has carpet that feeds into the stairs and then the entire upstairs is carpet.  When we replace the carpet, we can?t decide if we should do all or leave out the family room and put in hardwood.  If we did hardwood, we would have to replace all of the hardwood.  The color is a light honey oak ? not our style and while only 10 years old, has scratches and other dings in it.  Doing so would also mean we would have to paint / replace all of our baseboards ? they are a honey oakish color (fake wood ? plastic like) that kind of matches the floor and it would look bad to do darker floors and leave the trim.  I know they could wait but if we are going to paint, we should probably do it before replacing the flooring.  So please give me your advice!  I know hardwood adds to re-sale but is it the best choice for our situation?  We are starting a family ? one baby now and more to come ? so maybe carpeting in the family room is better for them?

ky29

We refinished our hardwood floors before we moved into our home, about 6 years ago.  They were showing a lot of wear & tear from all the other work we were doing on the house, etc.  We knew we didn't want to go through the refinishing process again, so it was between laminate and carpet.  We chose carpet for a few reasons.. I've always been a carpet person (even though I love the look of hardwoods).  The floors are warmer.  And we also hope to start a family soon.. and I feel much better about little ones on carpet. Some thought we were crazy to cover natural hardwoods, but we love it!

edit: Plus, carpet was way cheaper!

LilLee11

We have hardwood throughout our house except bedrooms. Seeing how much junk gets tracked in the house makes me have to clean more, but the thought of all that in carpet totally grosses me out. My LO was fine on the hardwood too. It's actually quite soft...not like tile, so the falls arent THAT bad. We do have an area rug in our family room to warm it up, but DH bought carpet padding to put underneath it and it is super cushy. I love it! 

getaclue44

My FI and I just had this conversation.  Our first floor is all hardwoods and then the upstairs is carpet.  We are going to pull up the carpet and I think do hardwoods. Our thought process was that area rugs are easier to replace if you want to change your decor and carpets are a lot more upkeep.  My uncle is a contractor and he said that the extra money for the hardwoods make sense because they last longer than carpet.

Sapphire70

I just bought a house and had all the carpet removed and put in Pergo.  Granted some rooms had the original carpet (30 years old) but I was shocked at the amount of dust that was just sitting on the sub-floor under the padding.  I will never.have.carpet.again.ever