Wooden floors. What do you wish someone had said?

[TomNook]

My qs:
How much to spend
What colour you wish you’d had
How do they do doorways
What happens with skirting boards

If you live in an upstairs flat, please don't inflict noisy wooden floors on the neighbours below.

Why do carpet haters always assume that carpets are filthy?

We don't wear shoes in the house, DD is 19 and doesn't makes messes on the carpet, it gets vacuumed weekly and properly cleaned with a carpet cleaner regularly.

We had dark wood floors when we first moved in to our house. Looked great but every scratch showed. Now have engineered oak which is much more forgiving.
Like it downstairs and its uninterrupted, eg runs through doorways. Fitters will tell you best way to lay it.
Would never have it in bedrooms or on stairs . Noisy, cold and looks awful.

Love my natural mid toned floorboards. We have carpet in the bedrooms, however - my previous house had boards in the bedrooms and all the fluff ended up in the beds.

We've got laminate (sorry) in every room except the kitchen (wood) and DC's bedroom (carpet). The kitchen wood is a darkish oak. All other rooms have the same dark walnut laminate, which I love. We have some thick, snuggly rugs around, like at the sides of our bed and in front of the living room sofas. They are so easy to keep clean, too. We also have no carpet on the stairs - they're varnished to match the walnut.

I wish someone had told me that hard floors are not good if you have a dog. The dog's claws go tap tap tap tap tap everytime she walks, and it is really annoying. Also, she slips like a cartoon animal if she gets excited and tries to run.

So even though you might think carpet and dog is not a good mix, honestly it is better than hard floor. imo.

I was initially concerned about the skirting board...I was told they could slit along the board and slide the floor boards underneath but the person who fitted them said that wasn’t necessary and simply laid the floor and put a very narrow neat bead of sealant round the edge, you wouldn’t notice it.
I’ve not read the full thread so this may have been mentioned but if you have pets the slippery surface can cause problems with the animals walking and potentially hurt their hips apparently

Also came on here to mention dogs. Wood/laminate floors are really bad for old dogs. If they slip they can really hurt themselves. We had to cover our hard floors for our old Labrador to make sure she didn't slip. V

I wish I’d known that dog claws on wooden floors upstairs and in hallway are so loud! Especially when I had newborns. Aside from that, I am so glad I never had to potty train with carpet.

I think a good tradesman can make cheap boards look a lot better than a poor tradesman would make even expensive boards look rubbish. It's not even about the price they charge you, get recommendations from friends, word of mouth is worth so much with tradesmen.

I think I’m just tired but I’ve read this several times and still can’t work out what I’m being told here.

We have solid wood floors through our house (original to the house, built in 1922 I think). I'm in the US and there seems to be a definite city/suburban split - older city houses are typically wood floors, newer suburban houses have carpet. I think carpet is pretty rank, tbh

I love mine. The skirting board sits on top of the floor.

My dh fitted ours and tbh I wasn't happy with some of it (although never said anything about it), we had a water leak about 18 months later and needed new flooring, the insurance company supplied and fitted the new floor and my god what a difference. It's awesome

So my advice is, get a professional to fit it even it if costs.

Buy a handheld dyson as you do get more fluff and dust (I've got dogs) a quick once around for 5 mins per day is all that's needed

Have you considered tiles that look like wood? The scratches, water damage, etc doesn't occur.

We don't wear shoes in the house, DD is 19 and doesn't makes messes on the carpet, it gets vacuumed weekly and properly cleaned with a carpet cleaner regularly.

Because I am 45 and have carpets in my bedrooms until 5 years ago when I moved into the current house. The previous owners have laminated flooring throughout the house. That's 20 years of myself vaccuming carpets. I have lots and lots of experience with it. I have thick dark hair and I can see my hair entagled in the carpet. I can't vaccum the darn thing out. I have to get on my knees and pull them out by hand. I've had dysons and mieles.

None of this problem with hard flooring. It's quick to vaccum to get rid of the hair and dust. I do it twice a week and like others say you can use a cordless vaccuum. I am very particular about dust and hair on flooring though.

@PurBal I love tiles but they cost more. A friend of mine has tiles in her entrance area and it's amazing looking.

We had the cheapest possible engineered oak put in our last flat, with the best sound/thermal sheeting underneath. It still looked good 10y later when we moved out and didnt bother our downstairs neighbours - had got a few dings but never needed sanding. We had needed to patch a couple of m2 after floods so were glad we had a pack of spare boards left over, and we left them for our buyer.

In our new place there’s a mix of tile (freezing), good laminate (fine), original pine boards (fine), and wall to wall carpet (not good for allergies)

I have a dog and young kids and have/had laminate, engineered wood, Karndean and original floor boards. By far may favourites are the floorboards and Karndean.

With laminate you get that awful noise when dogs walk on it (it is also too slippy for them) and our engineered wood flooring was all scratched off the dog (we could have sanded it but you can only do that so many times). Karndean is pretty much indestructible and is great with underfloor heating. I live in a 30s semi and we had the original boards sanded back, they look lovely and although the hallway is now quite scratched off the dog it's easy and not very expensive to have them done again (it's over 5 years since they were done). The only issue with the original boards is draughts and it would be a quite a big job to lift them and insulate under.

Same as @pallisers. We have the original wooden floors everywhere in our house except the bathroom, which has the original tiles and WC, which has vinyl tiles.

We have a large rug in the living room and some bedrooms.

When my DD bought her first flat, one of the first things she did during the renovation was to take up the carpets and have the floor boards sanded. Once you have lived with the look, hygiene and easy of cleaning of wood it’s hard to go back.

Guys thank you. 😌. Lots of good tips.

Nb I’m getting it - you lots saying you don’t like it isn’t really relevant but thanks 🤨

We strupped and stained the original boards in the front 2 reception rooms in our Edwardian house.

We were warned by neighbours that they can be draughty so had insulation laid underneath.

They are anazing.. warm to walk in, suoer easy to keep clean and look beautiful 😊

😍

Just stick rugs down. I kept having to move them back, so now, the long carpets over high use areas are actually stuck down using that sticky velcro (so I can still take them up when I want to hoover properly/shake stuff out.

I've had all kinds from floorboards to B&Q laminate, and, if you have kids, I'd go with a medium priced laminate - and assume that you'll just replace it once the children are old enough not to be ruining it (could just be my lax housework and kids).

Don't do exposed floorboards. They're just not meant for it, they were expected to be covered with carpet.

Real wood will dent/scratch and you just have to live with it until it's dented/scratched enough to look lived in rather than damaged!

Also do the foam plastic underlay, not the fibre boards if laminate - the fibre boards are so itchy to lay, and if any water gets under then they just swell. At least with the plastic underlay you stand a chance of getting away with it (the laminate can also swell, but in our case, it was the underlay that really caused the issues).

Our bathroom, waterproof, slate-look laminate is fantastic (and warmer than the normal kind).

If you're laying yourself, get a laminate cutter - like a massive shearing knife. Made the whole experience much faster and easier (and has been borrowed by rest of family since) compared to jigsaw/hand saw (dust everywhere)

I love the solid oak wood floor we laid in the kitchen diner. It's been down for 12 years now and still looks great.
It's survived the kids and dogs just fine, the scratches just kind of fade and look natural.

I’d love nice wooden floor, oak and then a nice colourful rug over the top

That would be my dream

But ££££

So we still have the previous owner’s carpet instead

No. My kids all over 17