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[violet120]

try the tile that looks like wood.  

[jaxs mom]

Personally I'd never put laminate in. If I was going to put wood floors in I'd go with solid wood not laminate. I've had hardwoods floors, tile, carpet and I'm sure there was laminate in one house we lived in. 

[Nomore]

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@patticakes wrote:

We are needing to replace a good portion of the floor covering in our house and I'm having a hard time deciding which would be better.  Currently we have berber which is about 13-14 years old and has seen it's better days.  We would be doing about 2000 sq. ft.  We also have to consider that we have two dogs and two grandchildren living with us so the area gets a lot of use and wear and tear.  The laminate I looked at was a high end lamiante and it looks beautiful and they say it's very durable.  I've not looked at much carpet yet because I really would favor a hard surface, maybe with some area rugs in living room and under dining table, since we all have allergies.  I'd love some input from those of you with experience what you would recommend.  And, if you have a product name, that would be extremely helpful.  Cost would be a concern, too.

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We were in the same situation as you, less grandchildren and pets, when we needed to replace the 14 yr old Berber over the whole house last year.  Almost the same square footage as you and I didn't want to spend a lot of money for something to last 5 years and then need to change it out once again. Limited budget is us. We went with laminate and my husband installed it himself. He's pretty handy but it took him months to complete because of his work schedule. He placed the laminate on three levels including three sets of stairs. Stairs were the hardest because of the edging but it was completely solved by layering twice to make the edge level with the stair step. The flooring store said that the stair edge would be different height if they installed it for us. 

What at we haven't done yet is replace carpeting in three bedrooms.  We want to have carpet in the bedrooms to keep the noise level soft upstairs. We just haven't started looking for the carpeting, haven't had the time due to other problems, like severe hail damage, so we are going to wait and get the carpeting done probably after the holidays. I can live with the Berber that's left until then.

The laminate is so much easier to keep clean than all that Berber.

[evelyner]

We just installed tiles that look just like a wood floor.  Easy to maintain.  I  think you should look into this.  People are amazed when I tell them it is a tile.

[Citrine1]

Another thing to keep in mind, as silly as it may sound or seem........ I've had dogs who refuse to walk on anything but carpet.  When I got laminate in my kitchen, my last two dogs would no longer come in it.  (That actually worked out well)  My current dog does come in the kitchen but he won't go up or down nearby steps which are also laminated.  This may not be an issue with your dogs, but just wanted to bring it to your attention!  Good luck with whatever you decide.

[software]

We have big dogs & chose tile.   Tile comes in all kinds of colors & patterns, some even looks like hardwood.

We've had it for years, still happy with our decision, it's perfect for our lifestyle.

[ID2]

Absolutely no carpeting! I lived my entire life in homes with wall-to-wall carpeting and just thought it was me that always was sneezing and had a continuous runny nose. Until we moved into our house now that I opted to get all hardwood. What a huge difference! I've never felt so good! And I love just running my dyson over the floors daily and knowing that they are clean just by looking at them. 

[RedTop]

Due to allergies and COPD issues for 3 family members, we got rid of all carpet and went with high end laminate.   Absolutely no regrets, and I would never want carpet on my floors again.   I have 2 small rugs at the front door, and a rug on each side of our bed.   Laminate flooring is a great option.   

[Fressa]

I have a variety of floor surfaces from ceramic tile, marble, carpet, hardwood and laminate in our semi open floor plan. If I had to do all over again, I would eliminate the carpet totally. I have Royal Palace area rugs in the rooms with the laminate and hardwoord mainly for the dogs and my husband. I have grandchildren,etc. and it seems that I'm always scrubbing the carpet for some reason. I think the laminate is so much easier to maintain. I have a Hahn steam mop and a Don Astlett  dust mop and a Dyson. When it's time to replace the carpet in the lower level then I'm going with laminate for then entire space.

[SahmIam]

I've had it all and I prefer real wood with area rugs.

However... a house built on a slab gets REALLY COLD with hardwood or laminate.. even carpeting is cold unless you have some great padding and thick carpet. I prefer carpet on a slab base.

Laminate looks like wood and is easy to maintain but it will buckle if it gets wet, it will rip, it will wear out and you can't sand it down like real wood. 

It's a tough choice. I currently have carpet throughout my TH with ceramic in the kitchen, foyer and all baths. Not my choice but the house came that way. The carpet, after 2 years, looks BAD... really bad but to replace with wood would run around $25,000 and I'm not doing that so... carpet again.

I don't think I was much help, lol. Good luck!!