I frickin' HATE carpet. Particularly cleaning it

I danced with one of those damn Rug Doctors all day today. While the carpets look MUCH better, I kept mumbling to myself that the next chez Jensen WILL have hardwood floors. That's important enough to be a deal killer.

What says the gang here? Carpet or hardwood?

I hate carpet. My house is full of it.

My house had shag carpeting when I bought it. There's currently none whatsoever, other than a couple of tiny throw rugs. It's way easier on asthma and allergies, and easier to clean wood floors.

I like wooden floor if it's nice wood...

I had wood floors in my childhood home, I hate wood floors.

There is something comforting about walking around barefoot on carpet.

When I own a home someday I want hardwood with some Gabbeh rugs. My favorite Oriental style. I used to work in an oriental rug shop and these are amazing.

An example of the style. Nomadic, traditional designs.

Jensenman wrote: I danced with one of those damn Rug Doctors all day today. While the carpets look MUCH better, I kept mumbling to myself that the next chez Jensen WILL have hardwood floors. That's important enough to be a deal killer. What says the gang here? Carpet or hardwood?

with all my wonderful allergies, hardwood/lineoleum/cork whatever is better for me.

I hate W2W carpet. I like rugs. You can wash a rug. You can only vaccum "some" of the mung out of a carpet.

All hardwood here. I'll never own a house with permanently installed carpeting.

The kiddo has allergies and eczema, she spent ~5 weeks at Gramma's (hardwood floored) house this summer and man did her feet clear up. Back home, problems again. After dumping black water out of that Rug Doctor all day, I can see why.

I grew up with carpet, I have had two houses with hardwood and liked it much better (for instance it's hard to do the Tom Cruise slide on carpet! ).

i'm in the flooring business so i don't care what you get as long as you buy it from me.

i like wood for living room with an area rug, wood or tile for kitchen, tile for bathrooms, and carpet for bedrooms. i am not a fan of people who carpet the whole house. i think the most disgusting thing ever is when people have carpet in the bathroom or kitchen.

Hardwood rocks- I was lucky that I was able to rip out the carpet to re-finish all the hardwood in my old house. All but one room, though- the PO had a lot of cats... and they liked one room. A lot.

But two days with pros- and it was done, done, done.

We do have some area rugs, but not too much. And I like the sweepers that don't need brushes.

My girl friend just read the post and said those Rug Doctors are crap. She cleans carpets for a living working at her families business. Nice thing about that is our carpets are cleaned fairly regularly for free with the big truck mount setups they use at work, great deal considering how many dogs we have.

patgizz can't agree more about the nastiness of carpet in the kitchen and bathroom. This place has it but not really worth replacing as we will tear the place down in awhile and put up something better.

That rug really tied the room together

Holy cow. Why would anyone even consider carpeting a bathroom or kitchen?

Many moons ago, I tried to sand a hardwood floor for a GF. Rented the machine etc, after one pass I looked back at the floor. I know when I'm in over my head. The sander immediately went back to the rental place and we hired a pro.

Our house came with carpet/carpet -- we are going to do some hardwood ourselves to replace this carpet.

I stopped in at a seminar at our local home improvement (Menards) store and learned a few tips the night of the elections.

In the house we're redoing now, we have plans for all three. Tile in the bathrooms and 1/2 of the foyer just inside of the front door. Real hardwood in the kitchen and dining room. Carpet in the LR,2nd 1/2 of foyer and the bedrooms.

We have the fake hardwood in nearly the whole house. The kitchen and bathrooms are both linoleum. The bedrooms are carpet, and we hate it. Throw rugs are so much easier to keep clean.

We did Bamboo floors throughout our main living areas. Very light, no stains, can't see scrapes & scratches.

And for whatever reason, feels warmer than traditional hardwood floors in the winter

Bamboo is a much softer wood than traditional woods so it doesn't hold up as well long term. You definitely will see the scrapes and scratches much more. I'm very surprised you didn't notice them within days of the install. Builders have all but quit putting them in the condos here because by the time the buyers get to the closing table they are complaining about the dents and wanting the builder to replace it.

Wood has it's benefits and it's downsides. Carpet does too. I chose to use stained concrete instead. The first home I just pulled up the carpet and used different color wood stains on the concrete applied with steel wool and then used poly sealer on it. It was colorful, cheap and lasted for 7 years with no signs of wear - at which time I sold the house and moved.

My new house I did wet textured and stained concrete. You work the stain into the concrete as it is poured and then you use a huge heavy roller across the surface to give it the texture. This is not the overlay technique you see advertises so much. That doesn't last as it pops off the surface later.

I used 4 different colors to give it quite a deep look. The whole floor resembles the color of an old saddle or what I call Arizona sandstone. Surprisingly the sealer for this is more work than the poly I used on the other floor.

I also used the "proper" acid etch stain for our utility room and it hasn't held up nearly as well as the wood stains I used at my old home. I recently gave up using the concrete sealers on the UR floor and have just done the poly again. So far so good and I wouldn't expect less because that's what I've used before.

I'm mixed, I love the look of hardwood/nice rug combo.............I DESPISE not being able to walk around the house without socks because of cold floors.

They put new tile in the kitchen/bathroom and new carpet throughout the rest of the house right before we bought it last year, so I'm in no hurry to change it.

@carguy

From we found when looking, it really depends on the type of bamboo. I have 3 young kids (Twin 5yo and 7 yo). We've had them for over a year and still look new. Ours is 5/8" thick T&G. The laminate bamboo seems to go to crap really quick.

There is also a huge difference between vertical strand, horizontal strand, and cross stranded. The cross stranded is stronger then oak.

i think radiant heated floors and wood is a good combo... but also hate walking around on hard floors barefoot... that being said i've been on hard floors for most of the last few years... i miss being able to randomly lay on the floor comfortably also :(...

i've read that side note... i've been in the floor cleaning biz myself... people tend to not clean near frequently enough... and i've read that for allergies regularly cleaned (ever 6 months) floors are better then hard surfaces... the carpet acts as a filter... but all filters need cleaned out (and if you've ever seen what comes out of a GOOD carpet cleaner (ie truck mount "steam cleaner") you'd be amazed at what comes out...

that being said... i like hard in all high traffic areas, kitchen, and bath, and carpet in "living" rooms... bedrooms, living room, places you spend time in... area rugs will do the trick also... but seems silly to spend so much on flooring then cover it up...

Surprisingly concrete floors aren't cold. They maintain the temps of the room. For those of you who hate cold wood floors I'm betting that you have a pier and beam foundation instead of a slab (or possibly even a basement). Of course the would be cold, or at least colder than wood over concrete or plain concrete/tile floors.

I looked into radiant heat floors, especially for the shop but found that unless your temps stay cold for a long while it's not the best heating source. It takes so long for the floors to heat up and cool down that unless you can leave it on for long periods of time you're either always cold while you're waiting for it to heat up or you're hot while you're waiting for it to cool down.

So basically it's a viable source north of the Mason Dixon line.

Datsun1500 wrote:

z31maniac wrote: I'm mixed, I love the look of hardwood/nice rug combo.............I DESPISE not being able to walk around the house without socks because of cold floors.

That is why I have heated hardwood in the entire house except the bathrooms which are tile

I don't have heated hardwood, but that's why we have area rugs. If I can't roll it up and carry it out the door to either be cleaned or tossed in the dumpster, I don't want it. It also makes it much easier to change color of walls etc. Rugs in rooms here typically cover all but the last foot or two of the perimeter, so cold feet or being able to randomly lie on the floor comfortably isn't a problem.

All hardwoods on the main floor (ranch), carpet in the finished basement--lots and lots of carpet. It needs a professional cleaning, but I've been putting it off.

One of my doofus cats must be bulemic, because she pukes on it at least once a week. My Bissel Little Green Machine is always getting a workout.