We had ALOT of damage due to Hurricane IKE! We have to make a flooring decision by tomorrow.

We currently have light color carpet that has been so babied! I would like to maybe replace it with wood floors so I do not have to stress everytime someone comes in that they are dragging in dirt, etc. If we go wood, I want to go with true hardwood so if it got to a point where there were some scraches and stuff, we could refinish it. Dh would consider Engineered. I however, am not so convinced on Engineered wood because maybe they can be refinished once. So I would once again have to baby another floor.

Do you have Engineered or True Harwood Floors? What do you like or dislike about it? Is your floor nstalled as ia floating floor, glued down, nailed down, etc? What do you like or dislike about how it was applied to your subfloor? What type of wood do you have? How durable is it?

Has anyone used Lumber Liquidators? If so what do you think of them? How are their products?

TIA

Personally I truly only like Rugs for the bedrooms, where is there much less traffic. Honestly if I had my way i would only have wood floors, they are so much easier to clean and see the dirt. I was always complaining about our beige run, even though we had it cleaned so many times. The salesman at the rug store said Ms, the only way to truly clean a beige rug is to purchase another one.. If you go with a light colored rug, you will see everything, if you go with a dark colored rug, you will see all the dirt, but at least you can vacumn it away. So I have both rugs and wood floors, but we do have a policy of no shoes worn in the house and whether it be rugs or wood floors, it totally makes a difference in the up keep. Peace and good luck... Catherine

We have hard wood in all the bedrooms and foyer. I love it. They are beautiful and very easy to maintain.

Love my hardwood. It's hickory. I would never get engineered wood. It looks pretty but it's not the same as "real" hardwood. I have a friend who *thought * she loved it until her dogs tore it up (scratches and such) when they broke out of their kennel during the day. She couldn't refinish them and ended up replacing them with real hardwood so she *could* refinish if she needed too.

You will need rugs to help knock the echo's down. Much easier than carpet to care for. I microfiber mop them with water and spot wash in between weekly moppings.

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Thank you all for your responses! I suspected that about that engineered wood Sexysmurf. To me, why spend the extra $ for something that can not be refinished and that will look bad over time. Catherine, we do have a no shoes policy however, the dirty feet/socks drag in the dirt

Has anyone used lumber liquidators? They are so much more resonably priced than any other store we have been to.

I am so exhausted dealing with the aftermath of IKE, your responses and personal experiences with wood are helping alot! THANK YOU! Keep them coming!

We have 3/4 inch Bolivian Rosewood and I love it!! It is so much cleaner!We did go through Lumber Liquidators.I will say not to put much worth in their guarantee. We had some cracks in our wood and we took pictures and talked to them. You had to pay $200 to have someone inspect it and if they decided it was their problem and not the way it was installed then they would refund the money. In general though you can't beat the price.

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To me, the laminates look like plastic. I have hardwood in my dining room and absolutely love it. the oak is beautiful and fairly easy to maintain.

I am another who likes carpet in the bedroom, though. Don't stress over it and try real hardwood. I did pu thte felt pads under the furniture so when moved, no scratches. It moves easier too!

dl

We have light laminate floors they do NOT look like plastic they look like real wood. It depends on the brand you get. We love our floors!
And when you see the carpet removed you will be convinced! There is so much dirt and other grossness that is lurking deep inside your carpet. I don't care how often you vacuum it just pushes a lot of the dirt deeper into the rug.

With floors the dirt sits on the surface it's easy to clean. Also a microfiber cloth on a Swiffer cloth cleans it with Orange Glo wood cleaner.

It loos greats and is easy to clean. I would recommend it to anyone.

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We rented a house from my parents, there was carpet everywhere but while we lived there they had the carpet downstairs pulled up and a vinyl that looked like wood was put down. I loved it! I didn't have to worry about my kids or dog scratching up wood or spilling water on the floor and warping it. I haven't had anything more than small areas of laminate, and never had hardwood besides while living at my parents house... but I really did like the vinyl.

I really dislike carpet. We have some in our living room and bedroom. It looks awful and in about a year I hope to replace it.

The other rooms have laminate flooring. We purchased them at different times, money allowing. As a result, we have two different types of flooring. Also, being new to buying it, we were a bit naive and knowing what we know now would have made a different choice.

We are thrilled with the flooring in the family room, second dining/computer area and sons' rooms. The floor in there looks rich and is incredibly easy to maintain. It has a nice top "gloss" to it. I don't think it looks plastic-y, but maybe to others it might. To us, it looks great.

In the hallway, entry way and main dining area is another type. I don't like it. It has a more "dull" top coat. Right now it serves it's purpose and is MUCH easier to maintain than the carpet but possibly down the road we may redo it. My only hesitation would be that my husband did an absolutely fantastic job on the baseboard (the cuts were tricky and quite introcate) and I would hate for him to have to redo that portion.

All in all and despite the dissatisfaction with the certain areas I mentioned above, we like the laminate overall. I don't think anything compares to the real thing, though.
If we could do it again and had the money at the time, we would gone with the real hardwood.

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We have the real hardwood floors too. When we bought the house they were stained a raelly dark redish color, but we refinished them and had the shalacked (?) and they are beautiful! Everyone comments on them and they are so easy to keep clean. They look brand new and now they are 3 years old.

I personally don't like laminates either, they don't look like real wood to me, but maybe that's because we have real wood?

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We were trying to decide between hardwood and laminate flooring this past Spring. We have 3 large dogs and everyone we talked to suggested the laminate because it doesn't scratch easily. We ended up going the laminate root and love our floors. They look like real wood floors. We've had many compliments on them.
Judy

We have hardwood in all the bed rooms they are nail down and we love them,I really want them in the kitchen but the dh said no I love mind easy to clean

We just bought cork floors. They have a wood look to them kinda. But don't stain or scratch. They are waterproof, mold proof, good for people with allergies and bad joints as they are like natural shock absorbers. They are warm to walk on as they don't get cold like tile and wood.

We just had ours delivered today I can't wait until they install them tomorrow.