Wooden flooring in lounge / dinning room

[cream]

we have a large lounge / dinning room in one and currently it's all carpeted - considering getting wooden flooring but am worried it'll make the room seem cold casue it's such a big room - anyone else got wooden flooring in there main room

advantages ?
disadvantages?

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easy to keep clean when dd is sick all over it.

noisy- toys banging etc

get a large rug / or few rugs

Do you mean wood flooring or laminate?

I do, with a nice rug in front of the fire

Pros
Looks great
Easy to keep clean

Cons
Can be drafty, especially if like us, you have a big basement.

However we have just had a new central heating boiler installed plus an additional radiator in the room (it's a large room and the existing radiator was pitifully small) and now it's cosy and wonderful. I live in Glasgow so can't say we get too many tropical days.

it'll be laminate as it's a concerate floor underneath

We have parquet (sp?) in living room and a big rug in the middle of the room. Good for cleaning although sick does go down through the gaps sometimes.......
(Also v. expensive - laminate is a good alternative. Excellent in the dining room)

we've got 2 heater in the room so normally that's ok - was worried about haveing a rug cause of dd tripping as she has walking problems

We have a big front room with wooden floor. I wouldn't have carpet in the living room or dining area.

Advantages: - cleaning up is easier, you don't really mind spills

• better for racing cars, many other activities

Disadvantages: - hard to crawl on

• bit less comfortable to lie on or sit on

Rugs are a good solution, although I generally can't be bothered with them these days.

has anyone put underfloor heating or insulation under their laminate as im worried its going to be too cold as well. weve had carpet put in our sitting room but i regret the decision whether it shoould have been laminate but its hard to sit on without the big rugs ..

I just asked architect about underfloor heating and he said they'd have to dig down 6 inches to insulate (very high ceilings) so that heat comes upwards .. sounds expensive

IME laminate is no noisier than carpet - because it has that foam padding underneath so is raised off the floorboards, and with concrete it would make no difference either - and not particularly cold. We have cheapo green laminate in our dining room (have old IKEA wallpaper with blue/green morning glory design) and it's lovely, esp compared to the disgusting carpet we had before. I think all ground floors should have wood or laminate!

Agree about sitting/lying on it but kids doing that makes the place look untidy anyway!

We've got laminate in the dining room and living room ... it's great. We've had it for about 6 years now and as others have said - it's an absolute godsend. We put a couple of rugs down in the living room for the winter, mainly because of the cellar underneath making the floor feel colder than the dining room (concrete underneath). But neither is particularly cold. GS loves the floors and refuses to wear socks...running around barefoot most of the time. Just be careful of spills...lethal.

Woood floor is quite warm - warmer than laminate. We have wood in the lounge & laminate in conservatory. Wood does mark easily (thrown metal cars for example !) but I suppose it adds to the 'ageing' process ! We've got one of those big road playmat things for DS. Advantages is that spilt things clean up easily ! Another disadvantage is that rugs do slip - so you need anti slip underlay stuff & hard to fall on for little ones !

We have laminate throught out all of our open plan kitchen/dining/living area. Don't foind it cold, but myaybe as we are on 5th floor - so get other's heating rising. Love it and it is so practical with little children, espeically in the dining area.

i need a new floor in the lounge, my laminate is totally knackered. i was thinking about ripping it up, sanding and varnishing the floorboards but im undecided. floorboards always look so nice on tv but im thinking it may look crap in my house. would you go for laminate, or maybe lay new boards over the old ones? what do you think? (sorry for hyjack)

I'd do the floorboards PROPERLY - we just slapped a coat of varnish on ours (living room) & they're knackered. Now planning to get them sanded & done in a less half arsed fashion!

I'm not a laminate fan - the lady I bought the house from had done the kitchen in cheap laminate. It's not survived a year of daily mopping! So the current plan is just to sand & varnish the whole ground floor...suspect it will be a bit of a 'mare but ultimately worth it.

We've got wood flooring in the lounge and it's lovely and warm, a layer of something goes underneath it which presumably keeps any drafts out. If it's fitted properly it won't be any colder than carpet. But we've had our floorboards sanded and varnished in our dining room and that is a bit chilly, you can really notice the difference. Looks nice though!