Oklahoma Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Laminate floors?
We are wanting to do wood floors for part of our house (study, living room, dining room, entry). We went to the flooring store and we ended up liking a laminate instead. I had a hard time scratching it; the wood floor was easy to scratch. It had a slight scraped texture to it and looked really good. I don't want a dramatic hand scraped floor.
The floor guy said he liked the wood floors better because they outperform laminate after 10-15 years. I guess because you can refinish wood.
To get a good wood floor would be a lot more vs a very good laminate. Laminate has such a negative connotation as well.
What do you think of laminate? I wasn't a fan at first, but after seeing a good laminate in person, I'm considering it.
Re: Laminate floors?
We put laminate in one room of our house, and plan to extend it down the hallway, into another bedroom, and the entryway. It's durable, I have yet to notice any wear (and we have 3 cats and a dog and I drop things) and it was easily installed.
You have to also think about resale, unless you plan for this to be your last home. If we put wood floors in our house, we would never see the same amount in return because no houses in our neighborhood have hardwood floors. It's all tile, carpet, and laminate. (and yes, I have been in several homes and given the price points, no hardwood) We picked a lovely laminate that has a nice pattern and texture to it (not totally smooth) and honestly, except for the sound when you walk on it, you wouldn't even know it wasn't hardwood.
We had hand scraped hardwood installed all throughout our house last January. To date, it was our most costly home improvement but I really, really love them. They are very easy to clean and I don't think they scratch easily at all (keeping in mind, we did things a bit backwards - installed the floors, then started redoing the walls, etc - we have had subcontractors in and out of our house all year and they still look perfect). We get more compliments on our floors than anything - they are gorgeous.
It is your house so what matters is that you love your choices. However, I do think you should seriously consider resale and laminate, in your price point, is not a very desirable choice for buyers. Again, all that matters is that you love your choices and if you aren't concerned about resale, so be it!
Do you think our price point for the house would drive people to expect hardwood? I would expect that for over $300K. I don't want people to walk into the house and think 'eww, laminate' and hurt us when we go to resale.
we went with a cherry-ish laminate in our living area and down the hallway instead of carpet when we built (it didn't cost any extra to put in). With a 140lb dog and young children we wanted something durable and didn't scratch. I really like the laminate and wish we had used it in our play room/den.
Although if we are talking over $300k, then heck yeah I would expect hardwood. In fact I would expect it throughout the house.
IMO, it all depends on the area. We live in a neighborhood with older homes and hardwood is what you will find in all of the homes. Not having hardwood would really hurt our resale. In your pricepoint (I am guessing over $200k?), brand new neighborhood, especially in your area, buyers are going to expect hardwood as well (and granite, even though, IMO, granite is way overrated - gag).
I truly think, in the long run, you will be glad you installed the hardwood. The hubs and I nearly died when we were getting estimates - and of all the things we have done to our house - the comment made most often is about those stupid floors. It has been surprisingly durable.
That is what I was going to say. We looked at a house in Mesta Park that said hardwood throughout and when we got there it had laminate. I felt that was a misrepresentation.
Have you looked into engineered floors? Those have been my favorite so far because they are real wood on top and can be refinished once or twice. Plus, they don't have that sound that laminate floors make when you walk on them.
I think the handscraped engineered floors are a good choice and most likely, that is what you will find in most newer homes these days. I have been in very few homes that have actual hardwood, unless the homes are older. A buyer will not notice the difference between hardwood-hardwood and engineered hardwood especially given that the engineered hardwood can be redone, if necessary.