Hardwood floors chime in!

[Jake7]

So if don't already know, my wife and I are planning on buying a house in 2013 when I get out of the corps - it'll be our first once, and we're sort of picking out/planning some things in advance.

One thing we agree on is that we both love hardwood floors, and will probably end up doing all the entire house in it, minus bathrooms, utility rooms, the obvious things.

What I'm somewhat confused with is "Engineered hardwood" and just "Solid hardwood." I understand the general concept, but can someone give me a clear-cut picture of why I'd choose one or the other?

Also, with laminate, if you go up to 12mm (the thickest you can go), the price gets right around what you can just get some hardwood for. So, once again, is laminate skimping it, or is it smarter for some reason I don't see?

I'm including a poll to see what everyone's got -- thanks guys!

Oh and pics are welcome!

[havasu]

You failed to mention the ceramic wood planks. Very popular around these parts.

[Cap'n Crunch Killa]

The last house I lived in and the one I now live in have real hard wood floors. The last house had them throughout and the current one has them about 1/3 of the house. I have been in houses with the laminate and they do not feel the same. They look pretty good and I would have them if I was on a budget, but if I could afford real, I'd go real. They might be more work but the feel, for me, is worth it.

[Jake7]

Originally Posted by havasu

You failed to mention the ceramic wood planks. Very popular around these parts.

That's what the other is for! I read about it, and I don't really think I'd be interested in it for the area I'm going to.

Originally Posted by Cap'n Crunch Killa

The last house I lived in and the one I now live in have real hard wood floors. The last house had them throughout and the current one has them about 1/3 of the house. I have been in houses with the laminate and they do not feel the same. They look pretty good and I would have them if I was on a budget, but if I could afford real, I'd go real. They might be more work but the feel, for me, is worth it.

I agree. I'm kind of an all-the-way guy, so I've been leaning towards real full wood the entire time. However, I figured I'd get your guys' input about it, because I'll probably be doing it to the house myself - unless we get lucky and find one that's already got it. But flooring is on the bottom of my list for the criteria of buying a house.

[CoconutPete]

We have hardwood in 90% of our house and love it.

Just put down around 500 sq feet of laminate in my parents condo a few months ago, cool stuff, very easy to work with but it's obviously not wood.....

You need to go "walk around" on both I think.... My wife wanted to do hardwood in the kitchen also, but I finally convinced her to do tile there, I think when we redo our den we will do laminate just because it'll double as a kid playroom and laminate is nice and "springy" because of the foam you mount it on.

[Jake7]

Yeah - I think I may do that. Now I wonder if there's a showroom around here with all that stuff laid down.

We've got laminate right now - but I just live in a government rent-a-house type thing (I'm in the military) - so pretty much the government builds everything the cheapest way possible with the cheapest possible parts and labor.

To downtown Honolulu's showrooms I go...

[Mumblewood]

I have all 3, hardwood in the living room and kitchen, laminate up stairs in the bedrooms and engineered in the addition. (we bought the house like this).


I prefer the hardwood since it looks way better than the laminate but the up keep is a bit harder. To be fair I may like the engineered better if it had been installed correctly but it was not and now I have to tear it up and start over.

[Jake7]

How was it not installed correctly, to cause you to have to totally tear it up?

[Mumblewood]

There was no gap left around the walls when they installed it so sometimes if its really humid it swells and starts to buckle

[Jake7]

Ew. Gotchya.