Thread: anyone here have hardwood floors in living room?

i am getting terrca cotta tile in my living room and hallway and bath and laminate flooring in the dinning room. There are pros and cons to laminate and wood flooring and we went with the laminate as that room is not used that much and cheaper. Hubby also felt like he liked it better. With real wood you can sand it down not laminate. It will be put in wed, thursday and friday. I did pull up the carpet and tac strip as they wanted a $1.00 a square foot to rip it up and i saved $450.00 doing it myself..lol

We have hardwood floors in our living room, dining room, hallway, and all three bedrooms. Our house had carpet throughout when we bought it, but we hated it--off white shag in one bedroom and green shag everywhere else. ICK!! We took the carpet up ourselves, which saved some money. And we also put down the baseboards, too. Two of the bedrooms were in good shape. We just cleaned them ourselves and I waxed them. The living room, dining room, and hallway had never been finished. We had professionals finish those rooms for us, and they look great. It was $750. We're very pleased.

Our bathroom did have it, but we replaced it with vinyl flooring when we did some repair work. There had been some water damage because the previous owners didn't fix a small leak near the shower. We've not sure what's under the vinyl in the kitchen, but I doubt it's wood.

My in laws have laminate. They're already starting to see peeling with theirs. You've got to be very careful walking around barefoot because of the splintering of the laminate!

A few months after we had out floors finished, one of my aquariums fell and broke while we were out of town. By the time we got home, the water had damaged the wood (warped it) in the office and part of the hallway. We had to have the office and entire hallway refinished. It was $500 that time because they had to strip off the other finish and blend it into the living room. We can't tell we had any repairs.

Hubby and I both have allergy trouble, and it's been better since the carpet is gone. Now we only have carpet in our den. We have rugs here and there to soften things up.

Here are a couple of photos. . .

We have laminate in the kitchen, hallway, bathroom and carpet in the dining room/living room. I HATE the carpet!! It's only been in 5 1/2 years and is never clean. We live on a farm and I can't believe the dirt! Our old carpet was in 17 years and was really nasty when we replaced it. I'd love hardwood, but am going with laminate (Wilsonart) once I save enough money. We've had no problems with the stuff we already have. I'm glad to see how nice the floor looks. Hubby's afraid it won't look "homey", but yours does! Karen

I have hardwood floors in my living room, dining area, hallway and three bedrooms.

The hall and bedrooms are covered with carpet, but the living and dining area aren't, and the floors are beautiful.
They're easy to keep clean - a "swiffer" mop every now & then takes care of most things.

My den, kitchen, office and one of the baths had an assortment of really U*G*L*Y flooring on them. After we had some flood damage, we put down 12" almond colored ceramic tile. It's gorgeous too. And just as esy to keep clean.

I want to pull up the carpet over the rest of the floors this summer. Everyone I know who has done this has found beautiful floors underneath the carpet.

Thanks for all the information and the pictures (beautiful!).

I know the wood under the carpet won't be ok to finish because we installed it 30 yrs ago when we built the house (we did most of the work ourselves). We were 19 and 21 and had no idea what we wanted. I've changed the carpet since then, of course, but it's time again.

I like the look; I'm not sure of the cost yet and I'm not sure a swiffer will be enough for the dust we get from the road around here-even with the windows sealed! I can swiffer the wooden steps, but then I'm wiping them down and pick up even more dust...makes me wonder whats in the carpet!

About cleaning the floors - I "swiffer" them every couple days to keep the dust down.
Once a week I use a sponge mop and Pledge for wood floors to really keep them clean & shiny.

Yeah, I don't want to know what's in my carpets. That's part of the reason I want to pull them up this summer.

Originally Posted by mouse

I can swiffer the wooden steps, but then I'm wiping them down and pick up even more dust...makes me wonder whats in the carpet!

When we tore out our carpet, I was sick for over a week with allergies. I even got a rash on my arms and hands. There was DIRT on the floor and the stains on the back of the rugs were horrible. And to think, I walked BAREFOOT on those rugs. EEWWWW!!!

Hubby swiffers every day and uses the clorox ready mop a couple of times a week. . . sometimes more often in the high traffic areas.