Bedroom flooring

What is your bedroom floor? Carpet? Laminate? Hardwood? What are you using? Do you like it? If you were renovating your bedroom at this point, what would you pick?

The room is painted and the crown moulding is now up and all we have to do is caulk around the nail holes. It really does look nice. 

And now we're at a standstill because we still haven't agreed on flooring. The installer is waiting on us to decide on something. The only thing I've really liked thus far is a true hardwood that I saw and fell in love with. The problem is that the first time the cats puke on it (and if I'm at work and don't see it right away), it will wreck the floor. We're really considering laminate for that very reason. We have a laminate in the computer room and it handles cat puke quite well overall. But I can't find a laminate that I really like.

I even asked Rick if he'd consider vinyl tiles like we have in the kitchen....did not go over well. I refuse to even consider new carpet, just not going there.

We have to decide on something. The floor should be installed before we finish anything else at this point.

Ideas please.....

Thank you.

I love hardwood floor but very expensive so my bedroom floor is laminated. I like it because even Macha play rough running, no scratch.  Even she puke I could clean easily. Carpet not very good mostly if we have animals, it stinks and you will end up cleaning all the time. Toilets floor and kitchen floor I prefer tiles, it's easy to clean. LOL I go with easier is better.

If possible, go for the hardwood floors, really cat puke is not a problem. We have new oiled hardwood floors in the bedrooms, and I've cleaned up half-a-dozen pukes on them since we moved in four months ago. Most of the time they have been under our bed (wish Tophel wouldn't do that) which we discovered when doing the weekly cleaning, and had been there for several days. One was almost completely hard so we must have missed cleaning there for a couple of weeks.  I just wiped up what I could, and used water to clean off the dried areas, super easy, everything washed off, no staining, no problems.

The painter who touched up the baseboards before we moved in left a white paint drip on the floor of the closet then wiped it up while it was still wet. But you could still see the white paint down in the grains of the wood, and it was an obvious smear. When the flooring person came for the last time, he showed me how to do a light sanding by hand over the problem area, then reapply the oil. The floor was like new, the wood goes all the way through so a light sanding is nothing, but the oil really does keep things from soaking in.

If the hardwoods have a plastic coating over them, maybe then it's a problem? I don't know. Personally, I would stay away from laminate in the bedroom, since it probably covers a large area and we breathe in the bedroom air for 1/3 of our lives.

Now, could you help us decide what flooring for our offices / laundry room? There's a washer, a bathroom, and hot water heater, so we need something that could survive water on the floor if there's a leak, but looks nice for the offices. No laminate… we are in the same boat as you and can't decide, lol.

Good luck and let us know what you go with.

Hardwood (bamboo) floor. It was originally an off-white carpet but I had all the carpet replaced with hardwood before I moved in. It's impossible to fully remove pet stains and messes from carpet. I've come home to hairballs and dried  vomit on the hardwood floor. It's easily cleaned up with Nature's Miracle hardwood floor cleaner.

We have builder grade gray carpet in our bedroom.  The cats dont go in there much; so its not an issue there.  Unfortunately we also have that carpet in our dining area.  Light gray carpet and 2 small children and 2 cats.  You can imagine why I dislike it so much.  I told DH that if we get a good tax return this year; I want new flooring in there.  I don't care if it's not hardwood.  I just can't stand it.  We want hardwoods in all the main areas (except the kitchen) eventually; but not while the kids are young enough to be making stains and sitting on the floor to play.  Area rugs just aren't as comfy.  The foyer is a wood-look laminate.  It cleans up well and looks nicer than the carpet; but its not a big room.  I'm not sure I'd like the look of it in the living room or a bedroom.  

I personally don't mind carpet in the bedroom.  It's nicer on the feet in the morning.  The worst flooring I ever had was in one of the base houses we lived in.  It was wood parquet.  Cold and hard!  Although we had vinyl tile in another base house and that was pretty bad too.  

 I have carpeting throughout my mobile home and hate it.  I would choose the laminate esp. because of the cats.  Light or dark color, that would be your choice to make.  I agree Pam, anything but more carpeting. 

We have hardwood nearly throughout our home other than the kitchen, bathrooms and downstairs hallway.  It's pretty indestructible.  Ours isn't in great condition, it needs refinishing but it's been low on the things to renovate list.  I had a wood look laminate in my other home in the kitchen, I actually liked it. It wore incredibly well and looked almost like real wood.  They even have ceramic tiling now which looks like wood planks and I LOVE these.  Wish they had been around when I was initially fixing up the house I'm in now. 

I hate carpet although I do like area rugs.  Unfortunately, so do the cats for throwing up on.  If we lived in a warmer area I'd get rid of them for sure or get smaller ones which didn't cover as much space.

I really love the ceramic tile for high traffic areas.  We have a porcelain Italian slate tile in the kitchen/hallway.  Easy clean, never looks bad even when dirty.  

We spent some time last night at a local carpet/floor dealer. I didn't find much that I really liked. And as Dear Richard keeps saying, "We're going to have to look at the floor for a long time." And then to Lowes where there was a Bamboo floor that I kind of liked.

We had gone to Lumber Liquidators a couple weeks ago (yes, I know about the formaldehyde issue), just wanted to look. I really like a couple of their hardwoords Not expensive, at least not for hardwood. We can probably get by with about $2,000, plus the installation. We have somebody coming in to install it, so we don't have to deal with their installers. One of their woods would have been close to $4,000 and, I refuse to spend that, not with six cats in the house (between the puke and the clawing, I don't want to spend a lot of money).

Either this, Cumaru:  http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/c/Cumaru-BELLAWOOD-BWBT5SV/10034345

Or this, Select Red Cumaru:  http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/c/Select-Red-Cumaru-BELLAWOOD-BWRC5SV/10034493

I couldn't find much at all at our local floor dealer last night. Rick said he thinks that's because I'd already decided on one of the Cumaru woods, so I'm not really looking (even though we're still looking, if that makes any sense). There were a couple samples that he liked, but he also said that when I say, "That's fine, dear." he knows that's so NOT fine.   According to him, you don't stay married for almost 45 years without learning something along the way.

I can't wait to start remodeling the bathroom. At that point, I'm completely out of any decision-making. The bathroom is all his (and I'm fine with that....at least for right now. But we've already started to argue over the pros and cons of a glass shower door. He wants one....I hate them with a passion. Remodeling the bathroom is going to be interesting!)

Those are both beautiful floors.  I just have a real issue with Lumber Liquidators after seeing the 60 minutes report about their laminate flooring from China.  I don't think anything has been proven about that to a standard to go to court.  While looking up info about that I found where they were just fined $13 million for environmental infractions unrelated to the laminate flooring, this is for hardwood flooring.  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lumber-liquidators-plea-20151022-story.html   They were buying cheap lumber that was plundered from the last bit of habitat left for the highly  endangered Siberian Tiger.  The flooring was manufactured in China.  The court ruled that there was enough red flags that the company should have known that it was illegally sourced.

I know......I have read everything I can find on Lumber Liquidators, including tons and tons of reviews and data.

I rent so I do not know how much help I can be.

We have laminate floors in the great room and carpeting in the bedroom. 

I grew up with wood flooring throughout. 

While I like the feel and warmth of carpeting in the bedroom, it is not practical for cats. 

I have absolutely no issue with the laminate.

I know there are remodeling some of the apartments here and using bamboo. I talked to the installer about it. He said it is very durable; and perfect for heavy use.

So that is his opinion. I would go with the bamboo or laminate. So much easier to clean. 

I really like the idea of bamboo, I don't know anything about it though.

Ooo those floors look very nice! I like the red especially, but I'm a sucker for red wood. Please post pics when you have them.

We have terracotta tiles in the kitchen and dining room, and those things are very hard to stand on. I didn't really think there would be much of a difference spending time on those as opposed to the wood floors, but I was wrong. The wooden floors feel almost soft in comparison. I'm putting a rug in the dining room and think that will help add some cushiness. I was thinking of getting one of those comfort mats for the kitchen but they are full of toxic gel foam, so no. Ugh.

SwampWitch said:

 
Now, could you help us decide what flooring for our offices / laundry room? There's a washer, a bathroom, and hot water heater, so we need something that could survive water on the floor if there's a leak, but looks nice for the offices. No laminate… we are in the same boat as you and can't decide, lol.

Good luck and let us know what you go with.

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Go with luxury vinyl tiles that are groutable. You won't be sorry. They are supposed to survive water, although *knock on wood* we've not had a major water problem in the kitchen yet.. We put them down in our kitchen and I love the tiles. I am very happy with them. I couldn't do ceramic or porcelain tiles in the kitchen; they would have killed my legs. There's no way I could have gone that route.

When we start the bathroom reno, Rick wants to go with a heated ceramic or porcelain floor. 

I love the red hardwood, too....it's really pretty. My problem is going with Lumber Liquidators to get the floor.

I have original hardwood in my bedroom. it was carpeted when I moved in. Pulled it off to see beautiful hardwood! With some polish its like new.

I have a small area rug next to the bed

I would never do wall-to-wall carpeting with cats, in any room.

Winchester said:

 
Go with luxury vinyl tiles that are groutable. You won't be sorry. They are supposed to survive water, although *knock on wood* we've not had a major water problem in the kitchen yet.. We put them down in our kitchen and I love the tiles. I am very happy with them. I couldn't do ceramic or porcelain tiles in the kitchen; they would have killed my legs. There's no way I could have gone that route.

When we start the bathroom reno, Rick wants to go with a heated ceramic or porcelain floor. 

I love the red hardwood, too....it's really pretty. My problem is going with Lumber Liquidators to get the floor.

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Are Lumber Liquidators not a good company? At least you won't have to deal with them to have the floors installed.

I've seen some beautiful vinyl tiles, but I just can't risk having them exasperate my asthma. I can't even be in flooring stores for more than a few minutes. 

What do you think of radiant flooring?

We've been looking at porcelain tiles that look like slate (so pretty!), and our contractor suggested heated floors which would be really comfortable since it's usually chilly here. It sounds nice but the porcelain floors would be so hard, I know. We would definitely need some thick throw rugs but does anyone know can you even put those on heated floors? 

Go with the natural hardwood and seal it with a polyurethane. MinWax makes a great  oil-based finish, specially formulated for hardwood floors. It provides superior durability with a faster recoat time, does not require sanding between coats, and has an advanced anti-settling formula. They also have durable topcoat that provides exceptional levels of floor durability in a crystal clear finish. It dries quickly and requires no sanding between coats. And there is a water based oil-modified polyurethane available that will not 'amber' afterward. You might want to check into some of those.

I live in an apartment with carpet which I totally detest! Vinyl tiles in the kitchen and bath. But I recently refinished my dining room table and used a stain that has polyuerthane already in it. I don't have problems with water stains (I tend to leave my glass of iced-tea sitting on the table) and I am very happy with it.

My suggestion is to call around to several flooring companies, express your concerns and see what they recommend. If 8 out of 10 say, "go with the hardwood - we've got a solution", then your problem is solved. The only reason I might consider laminate is if I had several large dogs that would scratch it up regardless of a protective coating. But if you're just worried about cat puke stains, polyurethane it!

I personally think they are a shady company.  The story on 60 Minutes had to do with laminate flooring having unacceptably high formaldehyde levels.  The show sent people over to China to talk to people working in the factory with no warning so they couldn't be given a script.  They have two processes.  One is a cheaper process that creates the higher formaldehyde levels that they use for Lumber Liquidators, the other process they use for everyone else.  California has strict testing so they make sure that flooring sold there meets acceptable standards, the cheaper made product is sent to other states that don't watch things as closely.

I  just found the thing about knowingly accepting hardwood flooring from illegally sourced wood.  

From what I read, Lowes has a kind of laminate that is also very high in formaldehyde. It's not just Lumber Liquidators, although they were notorious for their chemical levels.

I've got tiles (marble?) In the whole house.