If you were to buy a house...

MommyToAshley wrote: I want to redo our flooring in our house, but I would also like to sell the house in a few years. So, just curious what everyone prefers.

blondemom replied: The house I am renting has hardwood in the living room and kitchen with carpet in the bedrooms and tile in the bathrooms.

I like all of it

redchief replied: I voted hardwood throughout, but I prefer a more durable surface in the kitchen and baths such as ceramic or marble tile.

luvmykids replied: I didn't vote because I'm picky about flooring Ideally I'd like carpet in the bedrooms, hardwood in the living/dining areas, and tile in the bathrooms and kitchen. If I ever get my dream house I'm not sure what kind of tile I'd like, I found out the hard way that ceramic tile in the kitchen can crack if you drop a steel pot on it

Our Lil' Family replied: You didn't give my option. While DH really likes carpet in the family room, to get on the floor to play, we will have wood in there in the new house, my choice
We will have ceramic in the wet areas and foyer, and dining and carpet in the bedrooms, wood in the hall.

BabyOwen427 replied: I voted hardwood throughout. Although I wouldn't want wood in my kitchen, bath, or utility rooms. I have stone in my bathroom and ceramic tile in my kitchen. In my dream house I'll have wood in all rooms except for the kitchen, bath, and utility in which I think I'll probably go with a stone look. I really like my bathroom floor. I also prefer wood in the bedrooms. I know people like the feel of carpet under their feet first thing, but you can always lay down a rug. Besides wood is so much easier to take a broom to than to lug out the vaccume for carpets.

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: I didn't vote because although I LOVE hardwood floors, I wouldn't want them throughout. Bathrooms and kitchen should be tile IMO. Bedrooms can be hardwood, if you put a cool rug down, but I do like carpet in some rooms for the kids. They get slippery. I have had hardwood floors before and they are DIRTY. Not like carpet doesn't get dirty, but it's easier to just vacuum and be done. Where mopping and sweeping hardwoods is a PITA. And you always see dust bunnies on hardwood. I like it for a dining room and main living spaces. But that's it. Wow, that's was one long opinion...Sorry!

kimberley replied: harwoods, ceramic for me too. cleaner and reduces allergies. even if people like carpet, they generally don't like other people's carpet, kwim?

sparkys2boys replied:
Same here for me exactly! I am SUPER picky about flooring also.

msoulz replied:
Ditto - the allergy thing is much easier to manage without carpet.

ETA you can always cover hard wood with carpet, then uncover it but not the opposite.

mom21kid2dogs replied: I don't care whats on the floor . . . as long as it's NOT carpet!

~Roo'sMama~ replied: Ok I love hardwood floors, but after living in a house that has hardwood in every room except the bathroom and kitchen, I voted for carpet. I HATE mopping, and it takes forever to mop everywhere! I hate bringing the broom and dustpan upstairs and sweeping all over, and then having to lug the mop and mop bucket upstairs and do that too. I think it would be so much easier to lug the vacuum up... it's only one thing to carry and you don't have to sweep first! I hate sweeping too. And for the downstairs (which gets done way more than the upstairs because I don't like bringing everything up there) it takes a long time to sweep every single room and then mop every single room - living room, dining room, hall, kitchen and bath... I'm always completely worn out when I'm done.

I'd like to have carpet in the living room, and in the bedrooms and hall upstairs, and either hardwood or laminate in the dining room, with tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.

lisar replied: I said hardwood floors. Less germs and dust

Our Lil' Family replied:


Oh Sara, girl you REALLY need a SHARK!!!

Boo&BugsMom replied: I wouldn't mind hardwoods, but I am partial to having carpeting. I don't know. There are pros and cons to both I guess. It would be nice to not have to worry about spills on the carpeting though. If you don't allow shoes to be worn in your home a lot, like me, then you wouldn't have to worry about mopping so much (unless you live on a farm, etc.). I rarely have to mop our tile in the kitchen and dining. I mostly swiffer and spot clean, then mop/wash it once a month. I don't know what I'd do personally. If you go with carpet, at least get a darker color. My MIL has ivory carpeting, and she allows everyone to wear their shoes in her house so it looks pretty dirty and it's not even that old.

gr33n3y3z replied:
What Ed said

bawoodsmall replied:
See I totally agree. I love the way hardwood looks but it seems like it is so much harder to keep up with...especially if you have animals. You can see every dog hair on our hardwood floor.. and every dust bunny. I cant really say what I like. I would do hardwood as much as you can besides the bathroom and kitchen because I think most people like it that way and would upsell the house.

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
Oh I know, I would love one of those! I want the shark steam vacuum thingy too. I could watch that infomercial all day. Unfortunately I am too poor. Maybe someday.

Sam & Abby's Mom replied:
Any way you can keep an extra broom, dustpan and mop on the 2nd floor? That's what I do at our house. I keep an extra vacuum and set of bathroom cleaning supplies on the 2nd floor because its such a pain dragging everything from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor.

luvmykids replied: I meant to add that if I did have to have carpet, I prefer a berber b/c it hides dirt well and because of the tight weave, dirt doesn't sink in so far.

jcc64 replied: Hardwood is a major selling point, Dee Dee. Carpet is considered an inferior choice, at least in terms of resale value.

DVFlyer replied: If you did "REAL" hardwood, I'd be for it. But I have never walked on a good feeling fake hardwood floor, so if that was the plan, I'd go for carpet and tile.

Teesa®© replied: I. NEVER. Want. To. See. Hardwood. Or. Ceramic. Tiles. Again.

Calimama replied: I want hardwood in all the living spaces except the bathrooms and kitchen!

DVFlyer replied:
Why not tile?

Kaitlin'smom replied: you gonna rip up your carpet like we did? LOL

we plan on putting down that laminate hardwood kinda stuff but just in the entry, living and dining rooms. I wont do it though out the entire house, I personally dont like it all over. I will probably re-do the kitchen laminate around then also.

AlexsPajamaMama replied:
I agree with this. Especially with dogs, its easier to vacuum than sweep up dog hair multiple times a day!

My2Beauties replied: I voted hardwood throughout if I had to pick between the two, but I prefer hardwood in living areas and tile or something else in kitchen and bath areas. We have hardwood (real hardwood) in our livingroom and I love it. Sweep it, use the Swiffer Wetjet on it and you're good to go! Don't know that I'd like it as much if it were in every room. I would like to have hardwood in my hallway and maybe my master bedroom. But then I'd probably keep carpet in the kid's rooms and the stairs. I want tile or hardwood in my basement. It has carpet right now and it's soooooooo ugly! It's bright red - LOL! I have linoleum in my kitchen and baths right now and OMG I HATE IT with a PASSION! I will never EVER have linoleum again. ONe of my projects for next year is new flooring.

Teesa®© replied:
When they built our home, the grout in between all the tiles is really deep. Sweeping pushes it into there, mopping pushes it into there and I can never get it really clean.

I bought a new broom, so the bristles are fresh, that helped a LOT in the sweeping department. Mopping, well I do it by hand with a washcloth and since our kitchen is about 30 feet long, it takes a LONG TIME.

Mind you, I do the hardwood floors the same way

Boo&BugsMom replied:
You can go over it with more grout to push the grout up more. You can always add grout if you need to.

Teesa®© replied:
I didn't know you could do that Does it have to be perfectly clean in order for it to stick?

And to fix a typo, the kitchen is 20 feet long

If anyone wants to see what our place looked like before we moved in, I've got them up finally.

luvmykids replied: I'm with Teesa on the tile....our grout wasn't sealed well and now it looks gray instead of white...whoever thought of WHITE grout in the COUNTRY was not thinking right But aside from that issue, it is a royal pain to have ALL tile surfaces...if I swiffered everyday it might not be so bad but we have that quarry tile and it scratches easily and stains too

DVFlyer replied: Yes... I forgot about the grout.

Always get dark grout and ALWAYS seal it. We didn't and I regret it. But, grout can be dug out and redone with a bit of work.

Boo&BugsMom replied: Teesa, it really doesn't matter if it's sealed, clean, dirty...you can regrout over it in a snap. I would just take a vaccum hose over the lines first to get the stuff out that is stuck in there as much as you can.

As far as the light/dark grout...I know several people who have very dark grout and it still discolors from the wear and tear. If you notice, it's usually where the heaviest traffic is. BUT, I have to agree that a darker color does wear better than the light. You don't notice it as much. The grout we got was suppose to be darker than what it turned out to be. Stupid grout. We sealed the heck our of ours though, and I am glad we did. It has saved us from a lot of stains.

Teesa®© replied: Our grout is actually cement and it's darkish grey. I do believe it's sealed. It's a pain to clean because it stains easily. I usually end up dumping bleach on it, letting it sit, and then scrubbing at it with a scrub brush.