TJay
Senior Member
We are building a house and my wife likes the engineered wood flooring. It does look good and comes with a 50 year warranty. I'm thinking I like a hardwood floor. Any of you all out there have experience in either or both?
I installed the laminated flooring in my last house. The wife and I hated it. It has a hollow sound to it when the old hound would walk across it. It looked cheap. It felt cheap. But hey, it is cheap. It is little more than cardboard with a picture of wood glued onto it. If moisture spills on it, you have to wipe it up immediately, because the picture of wood will start to separate from the cardboard. Laminate is comparable to carpet. They both look good for under ten years. It is easy to install and tear out.
The engineered flooring is even worse in my opinion. Because they glue it, and tattoo it to the subfloor. Engineered flooring is just plywood. Water damage, or any damage for that matter, can't be sanded out and refinished. And it is @#$% heck to pay when it comes time to replace the stuff. You tear up your subflooring in removing the engineered flooring.
This is your own custom house. Go with good floors. Hardwood. This engineered/laminated wood in a blender stuff just can't compare. People in this thread talking about the dog scratching hardwood up. All the dog did was scratch the finish. A can of paste wax and a floor buffer erases the scratches. Keeps it shiny and waterproof as well.
I have oak T&G on my first floor of my new house (kudos to Westcobbdawg). The Saturday after closing the loan, my Dad and I applied a can of Johnson's paste wax with a stand up buffer. Probably the first time this floor was waxed in 20 years. We had such a high shine on this floor that it was blinding. Oak T&G will last a lifetime or two. It is one of the few floors that will raise the value of your house.
We went with wood-look porcelain tile: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Style-Sele...-in-x-48-in-Actual-7-72-in-x-47-4-in/50048235
My only complaint is that I didn't install drains in the floor, so I could just hose the living room out when needed.....Durable and beautiful
I too, am partial to real wood. The downstairs in our home has 3/4" T&G oak flooring. It was 11 years old when we moved in. The flooring did not look bad, just a little worn, but we decided to go ahead and have the floor sanded and refinished anyway...it would be our only opportunity to refinish it without having to deal with furniture and whatnot in the way.
It turned out great. And since it's 3/4" thick, we can do it again and again if we wish.
Like someone else said, there is a reason people still use real wood flooring. It has character, looks great, and can be refinished as needed.
Oh...by the way...we have two 50lb inside dogs. Yes, they sometimes scratch the floor surface but they never gouge it. We rub a little paste wax over the area and forget about it. At least for me, the concern of having inside dogs and a real wood floor is way over blown.