Looking at flooring options for entire 1st floor, which includes kitchen, dining, family, and den. I feel like solid hardwood is the ‘default’ and what realtors would say is best for resale - but what about alternatives?
Luxury Vinyl Plank - LVP has come a long way on style, and offers the best water protection. But it might feel obviously not-solid, and I hear it scratches easily.
Laminate - And here I mean the fancy stuff, commercial rated coating and water resistant. Feels pretty solid, very resistant to scratches. “Dreamhome” line from LL Flooring, or similar.
Solid hardwood - not only the most expensive by a decent margin, but water resistant is limited, and I know it scratches. Plus sides are you can sand/refinish, and resale value. But I’m not too keen on making a choice just because selling it later.
Thoughts? Experience? Are there other major properties to consider?
Edit: I should have mentioned we have 4 kids, as far as wear & tear. Currently dog-free after both passed, but we’ll eventually get small/medium-sized dogs again.
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I know most people don’t think about this, but you may give some consideration to how much and how long the material you choose will off-gas. Off-gassing depends on the type and age of the material and even stuff like the adhesives.
My main floor has real hardwood (oak, I guess?). It’s OK, but as I look at replacing the carpets in other parts of the house, I’m leaning heavily toward bamboo. The oak (or whatever it is) floor hasn’t been a good value for what we spent on it. I like to go barefoot at home, and I’ve never felt a synthetic floor that didn’t make my skin crawl. Bamboo seems to be much sturdier than regular hardwood, and the samples I’ve touched have felt pleasant against my bare feet. The only thing holding me back is choosing a color that’ll transition well to the existing floor.
I have no expertise, but I would recommend balancing aesthetics with utility. We have an engineered hardwood in our house and our Golden has more or less destroyed it over 6 years just from normal use. My parents have this tile flooring that looks like hardwood and it’s SO robust. They have four dogs and their floors still look perfect. If I was going to do it all over again, I’d get the stylized tile.
If you can, walk on samples without your shoes on. LVP seems to be the material of choice for all the new developments in my area. I hate how it feels on my bare feet. Solid oak or maple feels much better.
Tile is nice in entryways where there is a lot of wear from dirty shoes.
I’ve heard of people doing polished concrete. Could be an appealing option if you live in a hot place and want cool floors. Or maybe combine concrete with a heated floor if you’re in a cold climate.
I installed naildown prefinished hardwood in the majority of my house. It was the first major project we did, so therefore the one we would live with the longest, and I wanted to love it and really improve the character of the house. Installing it really wasn’t that much worse than cheaper click lock floors.
If you don’t feel that strongly about it, LVP has gotten much better.
We have hardwood floors in most of our house, but LVP in our kitchen. I love the vinyl, it looks good and is super easy to install and we haven’t had issues with scratching so far. It doesn’t really look like hardwood, though, so I think some people still get snooty about it, lol.
When I bought my house, we bought surplus unfinished engineered oak flooring. It was a great deal and saved us over 50% vs buying from a flooring supplier directly. We stained it our preferred shade (a warm orange) and when the sun sets our rooms glow with the colors of a warm sunset. I honestly wouldn’t trade the floor for anything else. It has a warm, vibrant and rich feeling throughout the house.
Granted, the flooring is starting to show signs of wear and tear. We have a small dog and no kids so the damage is minimal but its something to consider. But in our case, we appreciate the minor weathering look. It makes our house have character and feel lived in.
If you have kids, pets/animals and/or lots of foot traffic, it may make sense to have something more sturdy. Personally, our home is our sanctuary so we keep it pretty tip-top and we’ve never had more than 4 guests over at a time.
You can’t really beat the look of hardwood flooring, but its durability may not be great for your needs. For us its plenty durable. Something also to consider it that you can restore hardwood flooring back to its original glory pretty easily whereas other flooring may require a complete replacement.
Good luck! Renovating a home can at times be challenging but making it truly your own is very rewarding.
