Carpet vs hardwood
 

I love having a place to ask for consumer reports;)

House was 3 years old when we bought it and now is almost 9/10 years old. I think the owners/builders chose a cheap end carpet and needs replacing.

Just curious about y'all's experience is replacing carpet in your house. What was the approximately cost??

We would only do it upstairs so that would be about 1400 square feet.

Thinking new carpet throughout or if I could talk hubby into it... carpet for the 3 bedrooms and wood for the living room/dining room (since that's kinda one big off-centered/zig-zagged room. )

Thanks!

:)

I actually have hardwood throughout most of my house. My only complaint is that it gets somewhat cold in the winter - mind you, I do have area rugs on the floor so it really isn't all that bad!

My house is about 67 years old and when I bought it the previous owners put carpet throughout the house (yes, even in the kitchen and bathroom). The floors under the carpet in the living room, dining room, bedroom and upstairs are all the original hardwood so I ripped up the carpet and redid the floors. I'm put tile in the bathroom and will put tile in the kitchen as well.

For resale value, hardwood actually ups the value of the house over carpet. I also think it gives a warm look to houses as well. You also do not have to worry as much about traffic patterns like you do with carpet and wood floors are much easier to clean.

Just my thoughts.

Sarah

I would also vote for hardwood.

The initial price will be greater, but the cost over time is far cheaper (can last for over 50 years with proper care, as opposed to 5-10 years with carpet), and yes, it does up the value for resale.

Plus, easier to clean, better for allergy prone people, et cetera.

I just took most of the carpet out of my house. We put in laminate floors that look like hardwood.



I love them so far!

I vote for hardwood! The house we moved into 2 years ago has it and I love not having to clean carpets. Wood is much easier to clean.

Here's another hardwood vote. My townhouse is about 50 years old, and has gorgeous wood floors. They were covered by ugly carpet by the previous owners - ripping out the carpet and having the floors refinished was the first thing we did to the house!

Hardwood is much easier to keep clean, looks nicer, and is much better for you if you're alergy prone.

I have a mixture of flooring. I have tile and cheap end carpet and bought this house new 1 1/2 yr ago and i am thinking of tiling and hardwood flooring.

My house has a combo of ceramic tile, hardwood and carpet. The tile and hardwood is easier to keep clean. I would prefer hardwood throughout.

Hardwood is absolutely wonderful! It's so much easier to keep clean, and it lasts way longer than carpet...plus, if you redecorate, you don't have to worry whether it'll match the carpet or not. My parents replaced all the carpet in the downstairs of their house with hardwood flooring several years ago, and we all love it. Yeah, it can get a little cold in the winter, but that's where our geo-thermal unit comes in. :)

I'll go a different route than everyone else. Hardwood floors are harder to clean if you have pets (their fur flies everywhere when you sweep, you can never get it all), and it scratches so easily. Granted, I still rent so I don't really care, but I have a new dining room set, and even with those cushiony things on the bottom of the chairs, the floors have scratched. And they are very cold in the winter, I have to agree with Beryana there.

Depending on where you live, I'd go for hardwood, too. My house has all hardwood floors, but my bedroom is directly above the garage, so I have thick carpeting in there - and it's STILL cold!! But most of the other rooms have just the hardwood.

I have saltillo tile and bamboo floors. I have cats and I like the fact that I can vacuum every single piece of hair up, can't do this with carpet.

saltillo downstairs, carpet upstairs.

Woudl like to have hardwood upstairs someday, but theres other things that need taken care of.

Not harder to clean with pets, get a rubber broom, or a swiffer; the static charge in those will attract the fur.

And if your hard wood is scratching, you need to reseal it, or check to make sure they polyurethane-d it. That makes the hard wood wear best.

And to the cold factor- under floor heating! Love it myself.

like everyone else has said, I'd go for hardwood flooring also. Just think, if you spill food, soda or whatnot on the floor it is EXTRA hard to get rid of it on carpet (which is why we got rid of carpet in my room) and so much easier to clean up on hardwood.

Yes, it is an added expense, but in the long run it is much better!!

I love hardwood floors. My apt has them and my parents just replaced carpeting in their house/my grandparent's house with hardwood...they said the new noise of shoes was something to get use to but overall they are happy with he decision to change.

the bedroom I had as a kid had hardwood flooring. I loved it. Sweep, then vaccuum.
Most of the groundfloor of that house had linoleum flooring- pain to wash and wax it every few months, but so much easier to clean messes on than the carpeted areas.

My parents have hardwood for their kitchen, dining room and livingroom, with an area rug in the livingroom. They love it.

My place in the fall has wooden stairs, ceramic/saltillo tile in the bedrooms and bathroom, carpet in the livingroom.
I'm going to enjoy sweeping and swiffering with little vaccuuming.

woo hoo for hardhood.

mr squirrely boy (haha) and i just bought a new house and most of the flooring is hardwood. absolutely love it! we've got three dogs so we have to dust mop a little often (no more than we used to vacuum though) and we keep the dogs' nails trimmed. no problems yet!

- marissa

I prefer carpet. But maybe that's just because I'm clumsy and slip all the time on hardwood floors. :p

I just moved and my major prereq for my new place was that it have hardwood floors. I LOVE THEM. I have horrible allergies and the wood makes such a huge difference. I got a new stick vac and it gets the cat hair off the floor and then I use my swifter/murphy's oil soap to clean. LOVE IT. Like someone else said above you can get every last bit of fur off of the floor. My allergies are so much better than before.

Harwood floors through the whole house......carpet is a waste of time and money. And if you ask me, carpet is just plain tackey. Either its marble tile or hardwood floors.

Actually, my experience is that carpet is worse than hardwood or laminate for pets -- dogs at least. Fur gets in the carpet, and when the pooch has an accident, you may get the surface of the carpet clean, but when you finally do pull the carpet up, you'll wretch at the stains underneath.

Our house has hardwood floors except the bedrooms have carpet -- we plan to get the carpet out and put in wood ASAP. Wood looks better and I feel like carpet is just NEVER really clean.

My job as a child was the vaccuuming...UGH! I promised I would never vaccuum a carpet again when I had my own house.

First thing I did after we closed on our house was pull up every inch of carpeting. We have an 1907 Arts and Crafts house with BEAUTIFUL hardwood through out.

My husband keeps lobbying for carpet. Everytime he does, I say, sweep and tell me you want ALL that crap in our carpet all the time! Whenever a boy (we have all boys at home now) spills their drinks etc, I say "see how easy that is to wipe up." He always concedes you can get the hardwood cleaner than you can a carpet and relents....until the next cold day.

IF you really must, you can vaccuum your hardwood floors once a week or so, so you feel like you are "working", but I prefer a broom and a mop :).

Hardwood, the floors for the lazy housekeeper :)

I have both... sort of. My boyfriend's house has all hardwood floors and I have all carpet in my apartment.

His floors are NICE. They don't have pets so they just take a broom and they're done. I do hate the fact that I walk around barefoot all the time and floors are cold... and if I put on socks I slip. But if you get the gripper socks you should be okay.

But I've always had a carpeted house/apartment. But I've seen how nasty carpet can get... especially in old apartments.