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carpet or hardwood?

I did my whole house with laminate (Pergo). The sales guy handed me a screwdriver and said try to scratch it. Couldn't scratch it. "That's the one for me!" Got a nice cherry finish. Did the whole house. What they neglected to tell me, was, having dogs, that when it gets wet, it has the consistency of graham crackers. At a year and a half in, more or less, I've got swelling at joints all over the place, and the living room needs to be replaced, I'll probably go with a bamboo product, they are supposedly much more moisture resistant and much more durable. Or hardwood, but still susceptible to moisture issues.
 
SM610 said:
We are debating the merits of the two, as our rental unit needs something, we will live in it for a year before renting it out. What say you? Have you done either recently? How much per sq. ft.? One better for tenants?
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Laminate.
 
corndog67 said:
I did my whole house with laminate (Pergo). The sales guy handed me a screwdriver and said try to scratch it. Couldn't scratch it. "That's the one for me!" Got a nice cherry finish. Did the whole house. What they neglected to tell me, was, having dogs, that when it gets wet, it has the consistency of graham crackers. At a year and a half in, more or less, I've got swelling at joints all over the place, and the living room needs to be replaced,
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Must be different type of Pergo than mine, because mine has been tinkied on way too many times (grrr) in the past 10 years and still looks brand new.

The only bad spot is where the fridge was leaking in the back and I didn't know it, so water collected there for months. Even so, all it did was kinda bow up a little bit, the Pergo still looks pretty good.

I'd prefer to have the house and walls tiled, and have the floor tiles set so the lowest part of the floor is the center of the room, with a drain in the center of every room. Bring in the garden house to "clean house." :laughing

(actually I'm not joking, I have often wondered about floor tiles with a drain)
 
corndog67 said:
I did my whole house with laminate (Pergo). The sales guy handed me a screwdriver and said try to scratch it. Couldn't scratch it. "That's the one for me!" Got a nice cherry finish. Did the whole house. What they neglected to tell me, was, having dogs, that when it gets wet, it has the consistency of graham crackers. At a year and a half in, more or less, I've got swelling at joints all over the place, and the living room needs to be replaced, I'll probably go with a bamboo product, they are supposedly much more moisture resistant and much more durable. Or hardwood, but still susceptible to moisture issues.
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Nothing beats solid wood flooring-period.

You can listen to carpet store guys and their sales rap all day long.
If you pencil out ALL option costs,carpet vs laminate vs solid 5/8 or 3/4.Real hardwood is the best value.

Steer clear of Bamboo.

Been doing this game for 15 years now-
 

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Pergo. Period. Water will damage all wood, laminate or otherwise. As far as scratching, not a scratch anywhere and I have a dog.

The key is don't get "laminate". Get pergo. The real, quality, thick shit. Not a knockoff.
 
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Yup, exactly.

Nice quality hardwood is the best, but dogs will scratch it. You can refinish it though. Anyhow, for my money, quality name brand "Pergo" that was thick with the backing already applied under is what I went with in the entire house.
 

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Later today I will be on my knees with a drill and caulking gun squirting glue beneath my hardwood floor that buckled because my dishwasher overflowed onto the slab. If this doesn't work it's really going to suck to be around me for a couple weeks.

Mock my first world problem all you want, if I had Pergo I'd be at the beach today instead.
 
Yeah, in one rental we have lino in the kitchen and bathrooms and heavy duty laminate in the living room and carpet throughout the bedrooms, (the carpet in the living room had been destroyed by pets when we bought the house). So far so good but the tenant is fastidious even though they have a little dog.

In another we have tile in the kitchen and bathroom and heavy duty laminate throughout the rest of the house.

Again, so far so good after a few years.

The most recent one we bought in January has lino in the kitchen and bathroom and the original hardwood from the 50's in the rest of the house and I don't expect any problems as the tenant in that gorgeous little jewel of a house has a gardener, a house cleaner and a dog walker! :laughing

Mind you she's a politician so is in Sacramento a lot of the time as well.

Our secret is to rent to tenants we've known for years, but most don't have that luxury so I'd go lino or tile in the kitchen and bathrooms and heavy duty laminate in the rest of the house.

Laminate looks better to prospective tenants than cheap carpet in an empty house IMHO.
 
what everyone is forgetting about, is that install costs for carpet vs. pergo/hardwood are dramatically different. You can get cheap carpet at $2.50-$3 sq foot installed. Pergo and hardwood require subfloor prep to make it level, and then you click lock it together; expect to pay around $2.50 per sq foot for installation, so roughly twice as expensive overall.

On the plus side, the pergo will probably get damage mostly in the form of dings and dents, so not only will it last longer but with a little bit of extra material (a few boxes?) you can probably make repairs to fix the most egregious damage and have it looking mostly like new, for a long time.
 
RRR70 said:
I Get Hardwood with nicely trimmed carpet.
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Fixed :teeth

I'd do carpet also if its going to be a rental. Hardwood is great, can be refinished BUT will get scratched especially with pets even if you opt for the pricey hardstuff.

Laminate (pergo) doesnt do well with water. It's highly compressed cardboard thats all. Something spills like a 5gal water jug or something leaks and not cleaned up in time, the laminate soaks up the water and joints start to pop as it expands.

Engineered flooring isn't bad, has a small wear layer of real wood, but again it's wood and will ding and scratch.
 
ILOAD2 said:
Nothing beats solid wood flooring-period.

You can listen to carpet store guys and their sales rap all day long.
If you pencil out ALL option costs,carpet vs laminate vs solid 5/8 or 3/4.Real hardwood is the best value.

Steer clear of Bamboo.

Been doing this game for 15 years now-
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Gotta agree with this. Before I got into designing cabinetry, I managed and did all the sales for a flooring company. 3/4" hardwood is beautiful, and if you go with pre-finished, you won't walk through the aluminum oxide finish. Even the cheap engineered flooring will have a 7 year warranty on it. Something nice from Robbins came with a 25 year warranty (if I recall correctly).

And for the people complaining about dings and dents in hardwood... it's supposed to do that. It's a patina... it's the history of the people in that house played out on the flooring... to me, it's one of the things that makes a hardwood floor in an old house so beautiful. I personally don't like a sand-and-finish in place... it's not as durable (you'll walk through high traffic areas in 2-3 years), and it looks like a roller rink. :2cents

Antarius said:
Pergo. Period. Water will damage all wood, laminate or otherwise. As far as scratching, not a scratch anywhere and I have a dog.

The key is don't get "laminate". Get pergo. The real, quality, thick shit. Not a knockoff.
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Pergo? They must have really improved the quality of their product over the years... when I was in flooring, they were one of the most problematic, and I steered clients away from it.

mercurial said:
what everyone is forgetting about, is that install costs for carpet vs. pergo/hardwood are dramatically different. You can get cheap carpet at $2.50-$3 sq foot installed. Pergo and hardwood require subfloor prep to make it level, and then you click lock it together; expect to pay around $2.50 per sq foot for installation, so roughly twice as expensive overall.

On the plus side, the pergo will probably get damage mostly in the form of dings and dents, so not only will it last longer but with a little bit of extra material (a few boxes?) you can probably make repairs to fix the most egregious damage and have it looking mostly like new, for a long time.
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This. Whatever hard surface flooring you go with, be sure to buy several extra boxes. Store it someplace flat, dry and out of the way... dishwasher leaks, or a refer (or a fish tank) leaking, a flooring contractor can come in and replace the damaged portion.

And whoever suggested tile, that wouldn't be the best idea.... less expensive ceramic tiles are surprisingly easy to crack. Porcelin tiles will hold up much better... but you're still looking at grout getting stained/damaged, and needing to replace tiles at some point. So if you go that route, buy extra tiles AND a box of grout. Store 'em in a rubbermaid container, where the grout will stay dry and nothing will drop on the tiles.
 
mercurial said:
what everyone is forgetting about, is that install costs for carpet vs. pergo/hardwood are dramatically different. You can get cheap carpet at $2.50-$3 sq foot installed. Pergo and hardwood require subfloor prep to make it level, and then you click lock it together; expect to pay around $2.50 per sq foot for installation, so roughly twice as expensive overall.

On the plus side, the pergo will probably get damage mostly in the form of dings and dents, so not only will it last longer but with a little bit of extra material (a few boxes?) you can probably make repairs to fix the most egregious damage and have it looking mostly like new, for a long time.
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I know guys that will install for a buck a foot for a decent amount of straight lay. Subloor prep is usually very minimal for a floating floor. You should be able to get laminate installed complete for $3 a foot no problem if you're not too picky on product color.
 
mercurial said:
what everyone is forgetting about, is that install costs for carpet vs. pergo/hardwood are dramatically different. You can get cheap carpet at $2.50-$3 sq foot installed. Pergo and hardwood require subfloor prep to make it level, and then you click lock it together; expect to pay around $2.50 per sq foot for installation, so roughly twice as expensive overall.
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I thought that too, and then I looked at padding for +/-$1.25 sq ft and the numbers got pretty close.

I'm still interested in why I should avoid bamboo. It was then only one that was entirely made of the surface product. The others were either a "picture" of wood (I know you love those), or a 16th inch sliver of the wood (I know you're used to that).
 
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