Real Wood or Laminated Wood Flooring

[KAHLUA]

We are getting ready to re-floor our family room.  The room is 260 sq feet.  Right now it's carpeted and it's taken a beating since we've had Kahlua and the addition of Paxton.  Of all the rooms in the house, we use this room 100 times more than any other room.  This room is connected to the kitchen/eating area (which is tiled).  Oh we also have a pool, so this room will sometimes get wet from the pool when the grandbabies come in and "forget" to dry off.    I would say that most people will enter the door in the family room and walk through this room to get to the rest of the house.  My point is this room takes a lot of wear and tear. 

I want to put laminated wood flooring in this room.  Main reason is the price compared to real wood.  My husband said that real wood would be better.  But I've talked to people and they said with animals and traffice that comes through it would be better to go with the laminate flooring. 

As you all know, my daily routine is to look at the newly posted pictures every day.  I see so many homes with some type of wood flooring.  So I thought I should see what the general concenus is amongst fellow doodle owners. 

Let me know what you think.  My hubby says he will be "open" to listening about the pros and cons from other doodle owners and will take all info into consideration. 

What do you think?  Real wood for laminated wood flooring?

[Jane Smith]

We don't have wood floors, but I hope to have real wood one day.  For what it's worth.....My friends had their entire kitchten and familyroom done in Laminate.  They were sorry after.  She said that the sound it makes when walking on it with shoes, is a cheap hollow sound, unlike real wood, and the dogs nails were even worse sounding.

 

Is there somewhere you can go to actually walk on both and get a real feel? 

[Cindy M, Zachary & the Frenchies]

I have pergo in my "dog room" and a spare room and I love it. It is a bit noisy - it doesn't aborb sound the way wood does - but it is pretty impervious to damage - accidents, water, staines (grape juice!!)  pretty much everthing just mops up. The floor in the dog room is 6 years old and has been subjected to an enormous amount of abuse and is in great shape. The type I got looks "woody" some are more wood looking than others - but no one is going to be tricked into thinking it is real hardwood. For the area and the application, I am thrilled with it. I would suggest it for a high use area that is likely to get wet and take a lot of wear and tear. Look at a lot of brands and samples before making your choice since the look varies. 

[Heather & Brinkley]

We have real wood in the entire house except the kitchen... not by choice but the home owners put the laminate in the kitchen when they redid the kitchen.  I guess there wasn't real wood in the kitchen ever.  I'm a fan of real wood... however, I will say that I've noticed some scratches and high heal marks in my real wood b/c it's softer than the laminate.  I think either is fine though.

[Donna K & Quincy]

We have both wood and laminate floors, I vote wood. A scratch on your wood floor is character, a scratch on your laminate, that's just damage. I don't like the sound in rooms with laminate flooring they sound cold and hollow. I also find the real wood easier to clean, even just walking on laminate in bare feet leaves marks behind. The real plus is that you can resand wood floors and start over with a clean slate after a few years if you wish. Price wise, really good laminate is just as expensive as real wood. BTW any damage to our wood floors has not been caused by the doodle. We installed our wood floors about 12 years ago and they are still in amazingly good shape even in the kitchen area.

[ClarkP]

I agree that the sound of dogs on laminate is something I really dislike.  I think it has to do with the thickness of the board... but I'm not an expert.

 

I've been thinking about replacement flooring and have looked into this a bit.  One thing to consider is the "hardness" of the flooring material.  The harder it is the more durable it will be.  Check out woven bamboo flooring.  It's my current favorite material.  It is very hard and looks great (although I'm not yet a fan of the "zebra" finish variation).  Basically, it has a wide variety of looks and finishes that look very natural.

 

Good luck!

[Adina P]

We have real wood floors and they DO take a beating with dogs.  Pretty scratched up, but I don't mind it terribly.  I honestly mind my awful lawn more than my beat up floors.  Probably since a messed up lawn means more dirt comes in.

[Arron (Shadow)]

We have laminate floors and I highly recommend them.  Shadow's nails do not scratch it at all, she leaves no marks and that is with her running around with her two boys chasing her or her chasing them.  Also, they are much better if you are going to have any moisture around so if you have little ones coming in from the pool the laminate will stand up much better than the wood.

Like most things though, don't cheap out on the laminate because you will get what you pay for.  That said, the most expensive laminate is the same price as a middle of the road wood floor.

I really don't notice any additional, annoying sound.  My avatar is Shadow in her bed on the laminate floor.  Most people think our laminate is real wood, but it is laminate.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I have laminate in my kitchen and a hallway off of it. It has held up well in general and I don't mind the sound of the dog's nails. But, and this is a big but, the laminate is big tiles and when water has gotten on the seams, the seams swell and never return to normal. I have this in a few places. My living room and dining room floors are wood with an area rug. The wood does have scratch marks and little things here and there but basically I think it looks fine.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

If this were me and I had this room coming in off of the pool & patio I would be giving some serious thought to tile vs either wood or laminate.  My concern with either the wood or the laminate would be its getting wet.  Sometimes these don't mix.  We just spent 10 years in FL with a pool and many of the houses there are tiled in all of the living areas.  Some have wood in the formal LR/DR areas but a lot of kit/breakfast nook/family rooms are tiled.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I agree. Something impervious in this area sounds good.

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

I can't speak to laminate flooring as we're all carpet, tile, or hardwood.  Pre-Sedona, we always removed our shoes before entering the house so we wouldn't track dirt onto the carpet or scratch the wood with gravel stuck in the treads of our shoes.  Post-Sedona - HA HA HA!!!  Even though she's house trained, she's tough on the carpets (bringing in rocks, leaves, sticks, etc. from outside and occasional throwing up) and the finish of the hardwood is scratched by sliding across the floor after her squeaky ball.  In days gone by, one scratch would have sent me over the edge, but we love Sedona so much, we take the scratches and stains in stride.  Besides, it was good preparation for having my granddaughter crawl across the wood floor pushing a key ring out in front of her.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

I have real wood throughout and it is fine though I have nothing to compare it with.  I prefer the wood as it ages in a natural way.  Personally I'm just not a fan of laminates.