I'm officially done with carpet

vlagrl29 · November 2015

GAH! DD spilt ketchup on the carpet today and I'm having the hardest time getting it out with the steam vac. It will bother the hell out of me if we always have the constant faint stain in the living room. I just can't take it anymore! I know I'm going against all MM suggestions when I say I will open a HELOC just to get them installed. I'm not talking about wood floors over the entire house just the first level - kitchen, family room, hallway, master bedroom. I'm going to call companies this week to give us a quote. I really have no idea how much it will cost. I do know DH can't install himself because he has bad knees and back so we will have to pay for labor. Our total sq ft of the house is 1700 so I'm guessing half of that but guest bath and master bath and laundry room (all first level) have vinyl.

lbonga1 · November 2015

I hate carpet too. If we end up buying a house with carpet, one of the first things we do is rip out all of it except for the bedrooms and put down some sort of wood or laminate. We'll probably just save enough to do it before we even move in.

Erikan73 · November 2015

In 2017 I plan to replace the carpet in our living room with solid surface. Probably an engineered wood or something. But with having dogs, it would be so much easier to maintain then carpet.

bmo88 · November 2015

Do it! We had wood floors installed on our entire first floor and don't regret it. We don't have children, but have two dogs. They have stained the two rugs we have down stairs, but the floors look great! We got dark hardwoods and love the look it creates for our living area and kitchen.

vlagrl29 · November 2015

Talked to DH about it today. Looking back on it when my first H passed I should have taken some of the inheritance and put hardwood floors down - that carpet had to be ripped up anyways (don't ask why lol). I had too much on my shoulders at that time though to compare wood samples.

We decided to go ahead and get some quotes, in the meantime go in together at the bank and apply for the line of credit - then go to lumber liquidators and get some samples. I know I don't like the light color or the very dark color - something in between. BUT i'm going against what every one says here and not saving 100% of the money first.

I don't think that it helps I SAH with DD either because I'm at the house most of the time so I see it every day. I told DH I would want carpet in our bedroom because it drives me crazy that I can't get the dust out from under the bed. I'm a tad OCD

vlagrl29 · November 2015

our neighbors have very dark hardwoods and I don't like it because you can see all their dogs hair shed and marks are more noticeable. They have 2 dogs and 2 kids so I don't think dark hardwood is good for that.

hoffse · November 2015

I would pay for the real stuff instead of engineered, unless you are on a slab. We have both (real stuff over the basement, engineered over the slab). They look great together, but the real stuff can usually be sanded a dozen times and you will only get a couple of sands out of the engineered.

Refinished floors sparkle. I love how they look.

bmo88 · November 2015

We sweep every few days and the fur isn't a huge problem for us. We did not like the look of light hardwoods, so a little sweeping doesn't bother us at all.

dragonstarjk · November 2015

vlagrl29 said:

Talked to DH about it today. Looking back on it when my first H passed I should have taken some of the inheritance and put hardwood floors down - that carpet had to be ripped up anyways (don't ask why lol). I had too much on my shoulders at that time though to compare wood samples.

We decided to go ahead and get some quotes, in the meantime go in together at the bank and apply for the line of credit - then go to lumber liquidators and get some samples. I know I don't like the light color or the very dark color - something in between. BUT i'm going against what every one says here and not saving 100% of the money first.

I don't think that it helps I SAH with DD either because I'm at the house most of the time so I see it every day. I told DH I would want carpet in our bedroom because it drives me crazy that I can't get the dust out from under the bed. I'm a tad OCD

Meh. We financed the bulk of our front porch with an unsecured line of credit. If you've thought it out and budgeted and aren't making a compulsive decision, I'm not one to tell somebody to never use debt.

Also--we have real hardwood throughout our whole house (all but the bathroom) and we have a Roomba that goes under the bed, couch, TV stand, etc. so no dust bunnies. Amazing! A future investment to consider .

vlagrl29 · November 2015

dragonstarjk said:

vlagrl29 said:

Talked to DH about it today. Looking back on it when my first H passed I should have taken some of the inheritance and put hardwood floors down - that carpet had to be ripped up anyways (don't ask why lol). I had too much on my shoulders at that time though to compare wood samples.

We decided to go ahead and get some quotes, in the meantime go in together at the bank and apply for the line of credit - then go to lumber liquidators and get some samples. I know I don't like the light color or the very dark color - something in between. BUT i'm going against what every one says here and not saving 100% of the money first.

I don't think that it helps I SAH with DD either because I'm at the house most of the time so I see it every day. I told DH I would want carpet in our bedroom because it drives me crazy that I can't get the dust out from under the bed. I'm a tad OCD

Meh. We financed the bulk of our front porch with an unsecured line of credit. If you've thought it out and budgeted and aren't making a compulsive decision, I'm not one to tell somebody to never use debt.
Also--we have real hardwood throughout our whole house (all but the bathroom) and we have a Roomba that goes under the bed, couch, TV stand, etc. so no dust bunnies. Amazing! A future investment to consider .

oooh a Roomba - sounds awesome

smerka · November 2015

About seven years ago, we put in pergo throughout our first floor. The materials cost about $3,000 for about 1,200 square feet. The labor to put it in would have been about the same cost. We did it ourselves and there are spots that don't look geeat. At the time we had a dog and her nails did not scratch the floor at all. Dropping things on it has caused some nicks in the laminate so you can see the core material below. I had wood in my condo and my cat scratched the hell out of it.

vlagrl29 · November 2015

yeah I don't want laminate thats what we have in our kitchen. Its fine and honestly looks good for as long as we've had it but I want the real stuff now

AprilZ81 · November 2015

vlagrl29 said:

our neighbors have very dark hardwoods and I don't like it because you can see all their dogs hair shed and marks are more noticeable. They have 2 dogs and 2 kids so I don't think dark hardwood is good for that.

My sister and BIL have dark hardwood floors and they are horrible about showing dirt, pet hair and dust. When they are clean they are beautiful.

I want to put hardwoods in the first floor, it will probably happen after we do the master bathroom in January when we see what DH's bonus is. I'm not sure how much it will cost...

We have hardwood in the hallway and entryway but it wasn't installed properly and is in rough shape. We want to replace that and extend the hardwoods into the formal living and dining room. I'm 50/50 on putting it in the family room. That is where we spend all of our time (including our cat who sheds like crazy). That room is so big that buying a rug to go over the hardwood would mean going to a carpet store to get something bound, so we may as well keep carpet in there.

jessica490 · November 2015

As much as I love carpet under my feet, it is a pain to keep clean. We are having the debate for our 2 bedrooms and as much as I want carpet, I know refinishing the hard wood floors is the right answer. I just may put a large area rug in the room though lol.

brij2006 · November 2015

vlagrl29 said:

our neighbors have very dark hardwoods and I don't like it because you can see all their dogs hair shed and marks are more noticeable. They have 2 dogs and 2 kids so I don't think dark hardwood is good for that.

We have the Brazillian Cherry from Lumber Liquidators. It doesn't look that dark in the store, but I HATE it! It's in our kitchen and the new living room. All you have to do is walk on it with bare feet after cleaning it, and it leaves marks. Never again.

julieanne912 · November 2015

I have birch floors, and they show everything too, even though they're light. They are the prefinished kind so the sheen they have on them is just awful. We have 2 shedding dogs as well.

If I could do it over again I'd just do regular red oak... we had a natural stained version of that in our old house, and it hides everything.

ETA: Also birch scratches easily... I researched and thought we'd be OK but our house isn't even a year old and we already have some decent scratches.

cbee817 · November 2015

We have old oak floors (original to the house) with poly and I love them. They hide a lot, they're in great shape (entire house was refinished in 2007 before we bought it) and they're easy to keep clean. We have area rugs in every room to add warmth and comfort. Hardwood floors throughout (including kitchen and 2nd floor) are my first requirement in a house. If they don't have them, they have to be installed before we move in.

dragonstarjk · November 2015

Ours are old oak floors too. They actually really need refinished, which is one of our down the road projects. But I love that they are original to our 1937 house, and the color really is right in between light and dark and hides a lot.

cbee817 · November 2015

dragonstarjk said:

Ours are old oak floors too. They actually really need refinished, which is one of our down the road projects. But I love that they are original to our 1937 house, and the color really is right in between light and dark and hides a lot.

Our house was built in 1936! Great floors (molding, fireplace mantel, and doors) then- can't get much better.

DH wants a bigger house (ours is just under 1,600 sq ft) in a better school district and the ones we looked at were built in the 1980's and 1990's. The carpet, cheap doors, and dinky molding make my heart hurt- I'm such a snob about stuff like that.

short+sassy · November 2015

I have done a lot of shopping for floors. A LOT. "Lumber Liquidators" and "Floor and Décor" (if they have them in your area) are your best bets for low cost hardwood flooring. With "low cost" being a relative term .

Installation will run you $3-$4/ft. to install plus the cost of flooring. Possibly cheaper than that, but that's a good guesstimate.

JoanE2012 · November 2015

We have hardwood floors throughout the entire house (except the bathroom). It was originally 3 different colors throughout the house, so the first thing we did when we moved in was had them refinished and stained a cherry color. It's not too light, not too dark. We keep a swiffer dust mop on both floors and we also have a Shark rotator vacuum that has a dust head - love it!

Sometimes I do yearn for plush carpeting, especially in the bedroom and especially in the winter, but we've tried to warm up the rooms with area rugs. I would never go back to all carpeting again.

formerlyGDaisy09 · November 2015

we've got hard floors throughout the house, and area rugs in most rooms...I never want wall-to-wall carpeting again!

our upstairs is gray porcelain tile and oak hardwood floors, they're great, sometimes I don't notice they're dirty until I walk across them barefoot. downstairs we've got pergo and trafficmaster laminate, haven't lived with that long enough to have an opinion.

vlagrl29 · November 2015

I'm going to call this week to get appts lined up for quotes. Probably Saturday DH and I will go to the bank and apply for a HELOC - our house is paid off and I think we can get a great interest rate. After that we will go get samples at Liquid Lumber. Obviously I want a wood that won't show everything because I feel that would annoy me as much as carpet ya know?

vlagrl29 · November 2015

BTW after running the steam vac over the stain 3 times and rubbing with resolve many times I was able to get most of the ketchup stain out - probably going to do it again for good measure. THEN late last night DD ended up puking on her carpet - luckily most of it got on her rug so it was really easy to clean up - yesterday was a pain!

abrewer5 · November 2015

We have a laminate hardwood look in our kitchen and foyer/half bath on the main floor of our house (you can see it a little in my picture of my dog). You can see dust and dog hair, but we vacuum every week and I Swiffer a good a bit. Usually I just vacuum it, wet Swiffer for dirt and then dry Swiffer to get rid of the streaks. I like it A LOT better than carpet.

We actually want to replace our living room carpet with the same laminate to cover the whole first floor but my poor dog would hate it.

If this were our "forever home" I would get real hardwood versus laminate.

vlagrl29 · November 2015

abrewer5 said:

We have a laminate hardwood look in our kitchen and foyer/half bath on the main floor of our house (you can see it a little in my picture of my dog). You can see dust and dog hair, but we vacuum every week and I Swiffer a good a bit. Usually I just vacuum it, wet Swiffer for dirt and then dry Swiffer to get rid of the streaks. I like it A LOT better than carpet.
We actually want to replace our living room carpet with the same laminate to cover the whole first floor but my poor dog would hate it.
If this were our "forever home" I would get real hardwood versus laminate.

I don't see it as being our forever home BUT while we are here I want to enjoy it and at one point I thought I could live with the carpet until we moved but that won't be happening for awhile.

brij2006 · November 2015

Just a tip, too. You can probably get a better rate on a regular mortgage rather than taking out a HELOC, since your home is paid for.

BlueBirdMB · November 2015

When we moved into our house, it was all a fairly light colored wood. I liked that it was wood and I've grown to like the color more, but I always wanted dark hard wood. Glad to know it shows dirt! Now I like my lighter floors even better!

vlagrl29 · November 2015

brij2006 said:

Just a tip, too. You can probably get a better rate on a regular mortgage rather than taking out a HELOC, since your home is paid for.

Good to know - I will ask about that as well. As far as the line of credit - last time I check at our credit union it was to be around 2.5%

short+sassy · November 2015

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

Just a tip, too. You can probably get a better rate on a regular mortgage rather than taking out a HELOC, since your home is paid for.

Good to know - I will ask about that as well. As far as the line of credit - last time I check at our credit union it was to be around 2.5%

Always good to look at different options. Also look at the fees in addition to the interest. I'm assuming you will need to pay for an appraisal for either type of line. At least that is what is usually required, but it might be different when you own your house outright. GL!

vlagrl29 · November 2015

short+sassy said:

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

Just a tip, too. You can probably get a better rate on a regular mortgage rather than taking out a HELOC, since your home is paid for.

Good to know - I will ask about that as well. As far as the line of credit - last time I check at our credit union it was to be around 2.5%

Always good to look at different options. Also look at the fees in addition to the interest. I'm assuming you will need to pay for an appraisal for either type of line. At least that is what is usually required, but it might be different when you own your house outright. GL!

Last time I applied at my old bank they didn't require appraisal

I'm officially done with carpet

Re: I'm officially done with carpet

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

I'm officially done with carpet

Re: I&#039;m officially done with carpet

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Re: I'm officially done with carpet