Wood v Carpet for bedrooms

[NOYFB]

I vote for hardwood. I hate carpet and agree that it's disgusting and holds all kinds of allergens. I've had hardwood floors for 14 years and my feet have never felt cold walking on them (I live in Chicago). I DO wear socks or slippers in the wintertime, but honestly, that's because the ceramic tile in my kitchen/bath is cold, not because of the wood floors.

Besides, wearing socks on wood floors allows you to "slide" across the floor ala Risky Business! LOL

 

[PinkTower]

I had Pergo once in some bedrooms. We liked that it could be installed quickly. One upgrade we got was an underlayer of something. The flooring people can tell you what it is called. Anyway, it eliminates the annoying clatter that laminate has. If you have ever walked on Pergo that does not have the underlayer, you know that it is very noisy.

 

[packrat]

Ooooh more replies, thanks you guys! I think I'm pretty convinced to do away w/the carpets in the bedrooms. They've already been stained, tho it's a sculptured berber w/flecks of color so you can't really tell except in the high traffic areas like in the living room. Even the hard to reach places under dressers, rather than moving them all the time (which is a two person job), I think I can slide a swiffer thing under to get most of the dust.

I did some googling this afternoon about Pergo and wood. I read that the engineered hardwood is actually quite nice, stronger than laminate and Pergo, so maybe that's something to look into. Also, I read that the engineered is available in a click together kind. Looked at Lumber Liquidators and they have some nice looking choices. Anyone have any insights into the engineered?

My only concern is sound. Carpet seems to muffle noises-will the house seem loud w/out it?

Oh, and we'll definitely be getting the things for under the furniture!

 

[Cind11]

About two years ago we ripped up our carpet in the master bedroom and put hardwood down. I LOVE it. We should have done it a long time ago.It is so much eaier to take care of than the carpet was. I can vacuum under the bed so much easier than when we had carpet. We debated about putting a rug down on each side of the bed for our feet but decided not to because the wood is so pretty we did not want to cover it up. Really it is not cold at night even padding to the bathroom. We have cats and for some reason they like to throw up on the bedroom floor (tmi I know) and it is so much easier to clean up than when we had carpet. My DH's allergies also seem better. We don't have much carpet left in the entire house and eventually I will get rid of ALL of it. Carpet is evil haha!

 

[luv2sparkle]

You guys are awesome, I always wondered about that. I thought, if I am vacuuming regularly I am sucking up all the dust. I do
clean my carpets a couple times a year. My bed is so heavy it takes two of us to move it with sliders underneath. So I know
a fair amount of dust collects behind it. If I get it on my carpet it sticks, so it would just float around more with wood?

We have been talking about replacing the upstairs with Bellawood. I use a hoover floor machine to clean my tile and I think I can
use it on a sealed hardwood. It just seems like a wood floor is harder to clean than vacuuming a carpet. Do you think that is
true. I don't want to spend any more time cleaning than I have to. I don't care what anyone says but washing a floor is an
aerobic activity. I am not fond of aerobics. Clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy is my motto.
That said, with my last new bottle of antigen, the bottle that included dust gave me a marble size welt on my arm.
So I may have to re-adjust my attitude about floor cleaning.

Our downstairs is pretty much all tile, due to a pool in the backyard. So it is just the upstairs.

 

[atroop711]

Ooooh more replies, thanks you guys! I think I'm pretty convinced to do away w/the carpets in the bedrooms. They've already been stained, tho it's a sculptured berber w/flecks of color so you can't really tell except in the high traffic areas like in the living room. Even the hard to reach places under dressers, rather than moving them all the time (which is a two person job), I think I can slide a swiffer thing under to get most of the dust.

I did some googling this afternoon about Pergo and wood. I read that the engineered hardwood is actually quite nice, stronger than laminate and Pergo, so maybe that's something to look into. Also, I read that the engineered is available in a click together kind. Looked at Lumber Liquidators and they have some nice looking choices. Anyone have any insights into the engineered?

My only concern is sound. Carpet seems to muffle noises-will the house seem loud w/out it?

Oh, and we'll definitely be getting the things for under the furniture!

packrat check out this link http://www.simplefloors.com/products/Laminate-Flooring/Genva-Loc-Acoustic/collection31.aspx

I did TONS of research when we were looking for new floors. This is a laminate flooring with an acoustical liner attached. This is great to drown out the sound. Now one word of advice..not all Laminate is made equal. Some look like real wood..while others look like they're cheap plastic. I did buy my bamboo floors from Lumbar Liquidators but this company Simple Floors can send you samples of the flooring..so you can see the look in person.

GL and hope this helps

 

[packrat]

Thanks Atroop! Yeah, I definitely don't want anything that looks like cheap plastic! That's why I'd thought about doing the engineered instead of the laminate. Still checking out the link tho-never know what will end up being right for us! I saw a few that I liked right off the bat.

 

[Scorpioanne]

We just ripped up our coarpet in our living room and master bedroom and had prefinished hardwood installed. We had to have a subfloor installed too. I have allergies and a cat so the wood floors are fabulous! I love them, they are so easy to clean and yes, they are a bit cold when I get up in the middle of the night but it is not a big deal at all. One time, shortly after they were installed I got up to pee and had forgotten that we had wood floors and it was a bit shocking! We don't have area rugs and I love the look of the bare floors and the richness. It makes the house look like a totally different house!

 

[elrohwen]

You guys are awesome, I always wondered about that. I thought, if I am vacuuming regularly I am sucking up all the dust. I do
clean my carpets a couple times a year. My bed is so heavy it takes two of us to move it with sliders underneath. So I know
a fair amount of dust collects behind it. If I get it on my carpet it sticks, so it would just float around more with wood?

We have been talking about replacing the upstairs with Bellawood. I use a hoover floor machine to clean my tile and I think I can
use it on a sealed hardwood. It just seems like a wood floor is harder to clean than vacuuming a carpet. Do you think that is
true. I don't want to spend any more time cleaning than I have to. I don't care what anyone says but washing a floor is an
aerobic activity. I am not fond of aerobics. Clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy is my motto.
That said, with my last new bottle of antigen, the bottle that included dust gave me a marble size welt on my arm.
So I may have to re-adjust my attitude about floor cleaning.

Our downstairs is pretty much all tile, due to a pool in the backyard. So it is just the upstairs.

I find hardwood as easy or easier to clean than carpet. I just vaccum my hardwoods - no washing necessary. I do use a wet swiffer thing or something similar in the kitchen and down the basement stairs (high traffic areas), but otherwise I just vacuum up the dust and bunny hair and call it a day. I use the vacuum hose for hard to reach areas (areas of our living room are blocked for the rabbits, so it creates pockets of dust) and it picks things right up. With carpet I would have to remove all of the barriers and really get in there to clean.

 

[atroop711]

Thanks Atroop! Yeah, I definitely don't want anything that looks like cheap plastic! That's why I'd thought about doing the engineered instead of the laminate. Still checking out the link tho-never know what will end up being right for us! I saw a few that I liked right off the bat.

You're welcome! I loved when I was in the research mode for the floors. It's exciting..I love home projects like these.

 

[monarch64]

another opinion: I would NEVER AGAIN have hardwood or laminate floors in my bedroom and HERE'S WHY;

Unless you install flooring that is TOTALLY QUIET, meaning you can't hear anyone walking across it, KEEP YOUR CARPETED FLOORS IN THE BEDROOM. I've done hardwoods as well as laminate flooring as well as carpeting in the master br, and my opinion is that once you rip up that carpet, you will never go back. You will also realize that every creak, every groan, every little noise your partner makes getting up in the middle of the night WILL BE HEARD by you.

That's all I have to say. Wood floors (no matter what they're made of) are beautiful, but the soundproofness of carpeting really cannot be beat. You will thank me later, I swear.

 

[Gypsy]

I love any excuse to need an area rug. Plus with pets it's a much friendlier option. You can throw out a rug or take it outside and hose it down if you need to. Carpet is nasty. I unfortunately am stuck with it. But I cover it with a few rugs in high traffic areas. But I also make sure I don't spend too much on the rugs.

 

[Gypsy]

another opinion: I would NEVER AGAIN have hardwood or laminate floors in my bedroom and HERE'S WHY;

Unless you install flooring that is TOTALLY QUIET, meaning you can't hear anyone walking across it, KEEP YOUR CARPETED FLOORS IN THE BEDROOM. I've done hardwoods as well as laminate flooring as well as carpeting in the master br, and my opinion is that once you rip up that carpet, you will never go back. You will also realize that every creak, every groan, every little noise your partner makes getting up in the middle of the night WILL BE HEARD by you.

That's all I have to say. Wood floors (no matter what they're made of) are beautiful, but the soundproofness of carpeting really cannot be beat. You will thank me later, I swear.

Monarch are you a light sleeper? We've had hard wood floors in our bedroom and it never bothered me at all. But then...

Unless I one of my cats is in actual danger you'd have to hose me down to wake me up in the middle of the night. With all the nocturnal chasing playing, running around like their tales are on fire my cats do, I can pretty much sleep through anything. Plus we used to live by the train tracks when we lived in DC and I just got used to it. I think John could hire a marching band and unless they stepped on a cat, I'd would just mumble and turn over.

Funny thing is... if any of my cats makes a pain noise... even the wrong kind of sneeze, I'm up, awake and alert. John calls it my maternal instinct.

 

[packrat]

No Monnie! Don't say that! Actually, JD wouldn't hear a thing. Before we got married he was a light sleeper but now..no. I on the other hand, used to pull the stem out of my watch before bed b/c I could hear the ticking and it drove me bonkers. We sleep w/a fan on for white noise, so hopefully it would be ok. There's no room in our room for rugs, we've got just wide enough on both sides and the front of the bed for walking. The kids' rooms could handle maybe..3x5 size.



Even w/the fan on, my ears are just..I guess you could say they're always cocked to the goings on in the house. Generally I hear the thump when Trapper jumps out of bed and know when he's crawling in w/us, I hear when they're coughing/crying/getting sick in the middle of the night etc. The only one I'd be concerned about hearing everything is me, and I *think* the fan will help w/that.

I'm curious about the accoustic stuff Atroop linked to and about putting down some sort of sound absorbing something if we did engineered instead. I found a couple in the accoustic and several in the engineered that I liked so I'm going to get some samples and see how they look. The price is certainly good for the accoustic laminate. Anyone know how sturdy that stuff is? Like if something was dropped on it, would it chip? I read about some laminates that if you drop something and it happens to hit on the parts where the boards click/lock together it won't specifically chip, it will dent/smash.

 

[Cind11]

another opinion: I would NEVER AGAIN have hardwood or laminate floors in my bedroom and HERE'S WHY;

Unless you install flooring that is TOTALLY QUIET, meaning you can't hear anyone walking across it, KEEP YOUR CARPETED FLOORS IN THE BEDROOM. I've done hardwoods as well as laminate flooring as well as carpeting in the master br, and my opinion is that once you rip up that carpet, you will never go back. You will also realize that every creak, every groan, every little noise your partner makes getting up in the middle of the night WILL BE HEARD by you.

That's all I have to say. Wood floors (no matter what they're made of) are beautiful, but the soundproofness of carpeting really cannot be beat. You will thank me later, I swear.

Hmm, not to be argumentative haha but I don't find our hardwood to be noisy at all. If anything would wake me up it would be my DH shutting the bathroom door (he does not do it quietly) not walking across the floor. But we have what is called a "silent floor" meaning it has extra reinforcements under the floor. So maybe that is why?

 

[Allison D.]

After six years in our house, we just ripped all the carpet on the second floor and went with wood. I initially thought carpet would feel much "cozier", but it didn't hold up as I expected and this comes from someone with no kids. We do have pets, and I felt like a constant slave to the carpeting.

The wood has been down for three weeks now, and I'm in HEAVEN. We haven't even put down area rugs, and I don't know that I will either. It's just SO easy to keep up! What used to be over an hour to thoroughly vac the upstairs has turned into 15-20 minutes to microfiber dust and then wipe with windex and a microclean pad. I could kick myself for us having waited this long to do it!

For what it's worth, we haven't encountered any noise issues since the switch either but I will say that hub and I are pretty solid sleepers. While I do think it is a bit easier to upstairs movement when I'm downstairs now, it's not offensively loud or even really markedly noticeable.

 

[partgypsy]

When we finished our bedroom we put in marmoleum and love it. It is "softer" feeling than wood but just as easy to clean.
We have an area rug near the bed for our feet.

When my parents designed their house, the only places they had carpet was in the living room (which was basically never used), on the stair runners, the upstairs hallway, and master bedroom. Even the kitchen and kid's bedrooms had wood floors. Their rationale was they didn't want people slipping in the hallway/stairs, people expected the living room to be carpeted, and no one but my parents ever went into their bedroom so it kept clean.

 

[Aoife]

I've had two houses with hardwood floors. I loved the look, and enjoyed being able to just do a quick pass with the vacuum to pick up dust, but.....

Hardwood in the bedroom areas can be much noisier than carpet, especially if you have children. It echoes, you hear footsteps, anything that drops on the floor makes a noise. Even the cats jumping off the bed were enough to wake me up.

Also, be careful where you install it, and read the care directions carefully before you buy. If you are in a part of the country with wet and slushy winters, most hardwood does not like standing water and salt. You will have to be diligent about getting puddles up. I also don't recommend it in kitchens for the same reason. Beautiful, but such a PITA.

 

[Gailey]

My new house has hardwood and tile throughout. No carpet, unlike my previous house. Observations so far - well my feet were so cold in the first week, I ordered new slippers. Now we are still un-packing so maybe there is extra debris and dust flying about, but I have had to vaccum a lot more than I did my carpets.

Oh and as for the dancing beds, I solved that problem yesterday. I cut up pieces of rug underlay/gripper and put them under the wheels of the bedframe. Now they don't move.

If I had a choice - I'd have carpet in my bedrooms, but then I neither have pets or children. Just Mr Gailey who thunders about like an elephant.

 

[artdecogirl]

When we built our house we put a Bruce prefinished wood floor in the kitch/dining area and the entry, it looked beautiful but the finish started coming off almost right away, with 3 kids, dog and cat traffic Now the kids are all gone so we ripped up all the carpet and put a Bruce laminate in the entire house except the stairs. I love it! We used the pad underneath and I do not think it is noisy at all exept the dogs nails would click when they got too long but thats just a reminder for some grooming I have a bit of a obsession with vintage area rugs so we have them everywhere, the only neg I can see is with the kids and dogs when they run around the house the floor is a little slippery and it takes them a little bit to get used to it after a few wipeouts. We have had it for 3 years now and not a chip, even in the entry with all the salt this winter, My cleaning habits are a bit lax now so it had been a while and I cleaned the other day and I thought for sure all that grit would have scratched the floor but it looked perfect, I will try to post some pics in the daylight. I think it is beautiful!

 

[monarch64]

An aside: if you really love hardwoods/pergo/laminates in bedrooms, get yourself a gigantic area rug or a fan that is noisy enough to drown out the sounds of comings and goings...

I was just posting about my own experiences. Please do what you will in the realm of making yourself comfortable! I just personally take issue with any creakiness or noise caused by flooring that isn't muffled somehow whether by area rugs or otherwise...just me. I'm sure you all will make the right choice based on personal preference!

ETA: I don't think of myself as a "light sleeper" but apparently I am? In recent years, I've noticed that I require some sort of white noise i.e. fan/humidifier/etc. in the bedroom so that I don't hear the little things...

 

[Missy]

I have had both hardwood throughout the house and before that hardwood everywhere except the bedrooms upstairs and here's my take on the differences. I prefer the look of hardwood everywhere. Nothing beats the look IMO. And it is much preferable for allergies. But in practicality (independent of allergy issues) carpeting the bedroom can be a good idea.

Hardwood floors actually (in my experience) require more frequent cleaning because every bit of dust/dirt/pet hair shows. And I mean every bit. Ofc we have 4 cats but I find myself vacuuming our entire home every day to keep it looking clean. In contrast, carpeting hides the dust/cat hair much much better. But if you have allergies that is not a good thing but something to think about if that isn't a problem. With carpet you can get away with vacuuming once a week and it all looks good the whole week.

Then there is the comfort/sound issue of having hardwood in the bedrooms vs carpeting. I would never want carpet in the main areas of the home because I much prefer the hardwood appearance but the bedrooms are a different story for us. Right now we have hardwood throughout but if we move I am going to keep the bedrooms upstairs carpeted for comfort and ease of cleaning frequency.

It is a happy compromise for us b/w form and function to keep hardwood in most of the house and carpeting in the bedrooms.

 

[packrat]

Parts of our floors are creaky anyway, even with carpet. We have a box fan in our room for when we're sleeping, but the kids sleep fine-I go into their rooms at night to put laundry away and they don't make a peep. I think if I could get in to clean easily, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to keep the carpet in the bedrooms, but they're so small that it's impossible. One thing that will need to be done is a different front door. It's so low to the floor that you have to shove it open and push hard to shut it, so we can't put a rug on the floor to wipe feet on..it has to be far enough back so the door can open fully, which means you're tracking in on the floor until you can get on the mat. It's one thing for all the rubbing on the linoleum from the bottom of the door, but I don't want that on the new floor, and I don't want all the tracking on it either.

Would be nice to be able to use our taxes for it this year but I don't know.

 

[packrat]

Ordered 3 laminate samples-of the acoustic ones-from the place Atroop linked and they'll be here later this week. My brother's floors are in and they look really nice. His kitchen cupboards are really close in color and JD and I like how that looks, so hopefully one of the samples will be close to the cupboard color for us!

 

[atroop711]

Ordered 3 laminate samples-of the acoustic ones-from the place Atroop linked and they'll be here later this week. My brother's floors are in and they look really nice. His kitchen cupboards are really close in color and JD and I like how that looks, so hopefully one of the samples will be close to the cupboard color for us!

I hope when you get the samples, you like them!