Flooring recommendations

[fan-of-fans]

The berber patterned carpeting in the bedrooms is going to need replacing. It's about 17 years old and worn.

I'm considering carpet, tile, or laminate floors. I myself prefer carpet in the bedroom, makes it quieter and warmer in the winter. It's also nice to stand on when it's cold versus a cold tile floor.

But laminate is probably easier to keep clean and likely better for allergies for a sleeping environment. My issue with that though, is the house already has so much wood, and I don't know that introducing more would be a good idea. All of the trim in the house is stained and I don't know if stained trim would look right with more wood flooring. And I'm definitely not going to paint the trim white, because I want it to match through the house.

Lastly I considered tile. However, the hallways and other parts of the house already have light colored tile. And the bedrooms meet with it, and having two different kinds of tile to me would just look strange. But another option I thought of is the newer tile that is shaped like wood planks. I think this could look nice and wouldn't look mismatched next to the regular 12x12 tile. But again, will it clash with the wood baseboards?

Anyone have any ideas, or other options?

 

[combo52]

Floor Covering For Bedrooms

I would stay with W To W carpeting, Carpeting in a bedroom should never really ware out or get dirty, you are very correct about using too many different woods in a home, to many people are putting wood floors in kitchens with wood cabinets, it looks terrible, a home should be made up of pleasing contrasts.

 

John

 

[earthling177]

I agree with John, and would like to add that I've heard of way too many cases where a kid (or adult) got their allergies going full speed ahead and after many doctor visits, the doctor finally asks since when it has gotten worse and they say "since they removed the carpets".

There is a very fine line on what you can get away with. It's true that carpets hold a lot of dirt, but well, carpets *hold* a lot of dirt. If you are the kind that vacuums/dry mops every day, a hard floor is easier to keep clean and it might be better for allergies by not providing a living environment for stuff like dust mites. On the other hand, if you are not keeping up with it, every time you walk around, or any air movement will bring *all* the light dust and dust mites from the hard floors into the air you breath. If you go *too* far into that (never vacuum or vacuum less than once a week) the carpets will start getting worse than the hard floors again.

But think about how you live your life and how you want to live your life and adjust accordingly.

On the aesthetics front: I like laminate, and I like carpets. Personally, I don't much care for the trend of putting wood or tile everywhere and then tossing rugs all over the place with abandon, if carpets are bad for allergies, rugs should not be safe either. I don't mind one room having one floor type and another having a different one, and I can understand moving to one home with hardwood and wanting some rugs, what I don't get is the friends I have who strip the carpets from the home all over and then put several rugs per room.

Also, about stuff that look like hardwood: I've been to many homes with laminate floors and they look good, but make sure you have a good underlayment system, including a good resilient layer, otherwise you will get a noisy floor which you can hear every step (particularly high heels). The wood-look tiles look good in general too.

There is a big "however": wood-look stuff looks good in isolation. Just like a good marble-look quartz countertop can look good in isolation. Nothing looks more fake than marble-look quartz *right* next to real marble, or wood-look anything (tile, laminate, vinyl or linoleum) right next to real wood.

Good luck!