I hate hardwood floors

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Other than the fact that they look nice and give you the illusion the floor is clean when it isn’t, they suck on just about every other level. They’re hard. They’re cold. Every footstep or item that is dropped on them can be heard throughout the entire house. They amplify and echo music and the TV throughout the entire house.

And something new I just figured out. Our kitchen has a white tiled floor. Whenever I do a substantial amount of dishes the end result is muddy shoe prints on the floor. That never happened at my former apartment that also had a white linoleum floor. So what’s the difference? The difference was at the apartment there was also a substantial amount of carpet that removed whatever minimal amount of dust or dirt that was on the bottom of my shoes instead of now when it only gets removed when it comes into contact with water. Yeah, I get that over time that makes the carpet dirty but needing to clean it is nowhere near as often as having to wipe up or mop the floor every time I do the dishes, which honestly could be daily.

And to note I mostly just wear a pair of slippers in the house (because as mentioned, the floor is hard and cold) and even those purely indoor footwear creates mud cakes when doing the dishes.

So FU hardwood floors and being the current popular trend again.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Other than the fact that they look nice and give you the illusion the floor is clean when it isn’t, they suck on just about every other level. They’re hard. They’re cold. Every footstep or item that is dropped on them can be heard throughout the entire house. They amplify and echo music and the TV throughout the entire house.

And something new I just figured out. Our kitchen has a white tiled floor. Whenever I do a substantial amount of dishes the end result is muddy shoe prints on the floor. That never happened at my former apartment that also had a white linoleum floor. So what’s the difference? The difference was at the apartment there was also a substantial amount of carpet that removed whatever minimal amount of dust or dirt that was on the bottom of my shoes instead of now when it only gets removed when it comes into contact with water. Yeah, I get that over time that makes the carpet dirty but needing to clean it is nowhere near as often as having to wipe up or mop the floor every time I do the dishes, which honestly could be daily.

And to note I mostly just wear a pair of slippers in the house (because as mentioned, the floor is hard and cold) and even those purely indoor footwear creates mud cakes when doing the dishes.

So FU hardwood floors and being the current popular trend again.

We have underfloor heating. Tilled throughout. Love it. Warm in winter. Cool in summer. We don’t wear outside shoes in the house.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

We have underfloor heating. Tilled throughout. Love it. Warm in winter. Cool in summer. We don’t wear outside shoes in the house.

I could probably go with a no-shoes indoors concept but I don't trust my housemates to reliably go along and that is kind of an all-or-nothing scenario and unfortunately, there really isn't space in the entrance hallway to put shoes which also serves as a reminder. You see shoes on the floor and it clicks. You don't see them and you just keep on walking.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I could probably go with a no-shoes indoors concept but I don't trust my housemates to reliably go along and that is kind of an all-or-nothing scenario and unfortunately, there really isn't space in the entrance hallway to put shoes which also serves as a reminder. You see shoes on the floor and it clicks. You don't see them and you just keep on walking.

We have a shoe rack by the front door. A shoe mat by the back.

 

[Herdfan]

Other than the fact that they look nice and give you the illusion the floor is clean when it isn’t, they suck on just about every other level. They’re hard. They’re cold. Every footstep or item that is dropped on them can be heard throughout the entire house. They amplify and echo music and the TV throughout the entire house.

And something new I just figured out. Our kitchen has a white tiled floor.

We have wood throughout the main floor except the bedrooms. Considered removing the wood in the kitchen when we remodeled it several years ago, but we didn't. Figured if you drop a plate or glass on wood, it has a chance. Drop it on tile, just go get the vacuum.

Now I am adamantly against wood in bedrooms. You can say area rug all you want, but I want wall-to-wall carpet in my bedroom.

We have underfloor heating. Tilled throughout.

The just redid the powder room and used the Schluter system floor heater. It works fine and is probably the best retrofit solution out there. Will put it in the master when we redo it this spring.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

We have wood throughout the main floor except the bedrooms. Considered removing the wood in the kitchen when we remodeled it several years ago, but we didn't. Figured if you drop a plate or glass on wood, it has a chance. Drop it on tile, just go get the vacuum.

Now I am adamantly against wood in bedrooms. You can say area rug all you want, but I want wall-to-wall carpet in my bedroom.



The just redid the powder room and used the Schluter system floor heater. It works fine and is probably the best retrofit solution out there. Will put it in the master when we redo it this spring.

The only carpet in our entire house is an area rug in my bedroom. I also agree wall-to-wall carpet is a must in bedrooms. Bedrooms without carpet to me feels like the contractor forgot to finish the job. It should be warm and cozy, hardwood is not.

I'll also almost say in the living room mostly because of the sound absorption properties, anywhere that it is likely people are going to be making a lot of noise for an extended period of time. You need that shit muffled, not amplified.

 

[DT]

We’re thinking about converting the upstairs landing area to hardwood

We have hardwood in two rooms downstairs, tile in the entrance though to the rear glass doors and kitchen, downstairs bathroom, both upstairs bathrooms.

WTW is OK for the bedrooms.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Personally, I love hardwood floors, but I will readily concede that one needs adequate heat, and a great many rugs for it to work.

 

[Huntn]

Other than the fact that they look nice and give you the illusion the floor is clean when it isn’t, they suck on just about every other level. They’re hard. They’re cold. Every footstep or item that is dropped on them can be heard throughout the entire house. They amplify and echo music and the TV throughout the entire house.

And something new I just figured out. Our kitchen has a white tiled floor. Whenever I do a substantial amount of dishes the end result is muddy shoe prints on the floor. That never happened at my former apartment that also had a white linoleum floor. So what’s the difference? The difference was at the apartment there was also a substantial amount of carpet that removed whatever minimal amount of dust or dirt that was on the bottom of my shoes instead of now when it only gets removed when it comes into contact with water. Yeah, I get that over time that makes the carpet dirty but needing to clean it is nowhere near as often as having to wipe up or mop the floor every time I do the dishes, which honestly could be daily.

And to note I mostly just wear a pair of slippers in the house (because as mentioned, the floor is hard and cold) and even those purely indoor footwear creates mud cakes when doing the dishes.

So FU hardwood floors and being the current popular trend again.

Hard wood floors are sublime. But I would not build a house that is all hardwood floors. One of our biggest treats was purchasing a house in 1986 that still had 1970s decorating orange shag wall to wall carpets, orange, yellow and gold wall paper, it all had to go. But when I pulled up the carpets, there it was beautiful oak flooring, in the living room. The bedrooms and family room were carpeted.

Wall to wall carpeting came into existence in the 1950s (I think) and off and on, is in and out. It is elegant and refined. My suggestion is enjoy the appearance of hard wood floors, but to get the carpet you crave, put in a room size carpet sized so that you can see the wood 2 or 3 feet of it around the edge of the room.

In out last house in Minnesota, we had built, there was a large central hall, from the front door to the kitchen. We installed an oak hardwood floor stained deep red, from the front door, down the hall to include the kitchen. We put carpet runners in the hallway. The dining and living room off to the right was carpeted. The family room off to the left 3 steps down started as carpeted, but I later changed it to rosewood flooring, including the hall to the garage. Or at a minimum, just leave any hallways as hard wood with carpet runners. Imo there is not a more refined look.

 

[Edd]

We have underfloor heating. Tilled throughout. Love it. Warm in winter. Cool in summer. We don’t wear outside shoes in the house.

We have the same kind of household but our floors are polished concrete; so cozy (with an area rug in each room). We’ve rented this place for 10 years and it’s very hard to leave. I’d like to setup my next domicile with heated floors and that narrows my options. I’ll probably have to have the place built.

My parents raised me on no street shoes in the house and I never stopped. Had to convert my wife. Japan is right, also bowing > shaking hands.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

And another thing, I'm constantly worried about damaging or scratching the floor with anything that weighs more than a hamster. We put felt pads on literally every piece of furniture. And you don't realize how many times you might need to lean something against a wall or piece of furniture until you have a hardword floor which means you aren't going to do it out of fear that it's just going to slide down with a smash.

 

[Alli]

We currently have hardwood throughout, except in the bathrooms and den. Den has fake wood laminate that I put down. I have an area rug under the bed for just in case I hit the floor before I find my slippers. We never go barefoot, but that’s only because we have cats and don’t want to step in a hairball. We’re in the process of house-hunting, and I don’t care if the next house has wood, tile, carpet, or some combination.

 

[Herdfan]

We never go barefoot, but that’s only because we have cats and don’t want to step in a hairball.

Oh come now. Stepping on a cold, wet hairball in the middle of the night is every cat owner's dream.

 

[lizkat]

Oh come now. Stepping on a cold, wet hairball in the middle of the night is every cat owner's dream.

Second only to having a kitty start hawking one up while standing on your bed. Yuck. I've been known to offer a crash course in Basic Flight Training when that happens. I tried to be gentle but yeah cats can fly.

EDIT: I like hardwood floors. I don't mind their battle scars either.

 

[Huntn]

And another thing, I'm constantly worried about damaging or scratching the floor with anything that weighs more than a hamster. We put felt pads on literally every piece of furniture. And you don't realize how many times you might need to lean something against a wall or piece of furniture until you have a hardword floor which means you aren't going to do it out of fear that it's just going to slide down with a smash.

You are overly worried. The house we are currently in has a concrete foundation/slab, so we put engineered wood in the bedroom, and laminate in the family room and dining room. The laminate looks that good these days. I admit there can be an issue of scratching the wood, but I don’t worry, and also acknowledge there is a huge difference between engineered wood flooring (for concrete) and old fashioned solid wood flooring usually put down on plywood over joists. You do have to be more careful with the engineered floor because the tolerances, the actual thickness of the portion of engineered wood flooring that is actually wood is thin.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

You are overly worried. The house we are currently in has a concrete foundation/slab, so we put engineered wood in the bedroom, and laminate in the family room and dining room. The laminate looks that good these days. I admit there can be an issue of scratching the wood, but I don’t worry, and also acknowledge there is a huge difference between engineered wood flooring (for concrete) and old fashioned solid wood flooring usually put down on plywood over joists. You do have to be more careful with the engineered floor because the tolerances, the actual thickness of the portion of engineered wood flooring that is actually wood is thin.

We’re renting the house so it’s less about unfortunate blemishes and more about “Well, I guess that’s coming out of our deposit.”

As an example I got a screen for our projector that is about 11’ wide. The stand for it is permanently attached and it’s quite unwieldy to set up. Just about every part that could possibly hit the ground is metal. Basically imagine setting up a portable seesaw that has sharp metal caps on each end. This would be of no concern with carpet. On hardwood it’s like a high tension Cirque du Soleil performance.

 

[Huntn]

We’re renting the house so it’s less about unfortunate blemishes and more about “Well, I guess that’s coming out of our deposit.”

As an example I got a screen for our projector that is about 11’ wide. The stand for it is permanently attached and it’s quite unwieldy to set up. Just about every part that could possibly hit the ground is metal. Basically imagine setting up a portable seesaw that has sharp metal caps on each end. This would be of no concern with carpet. On hardwood it’s like a high tension Cirque du Soleil performance.

What about those sticky pads you put under furniture legs?

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

My lounge floor is solid oak and I find it warm to be fair. There was a cheap laminate down when we moved in and that was really cold. The rest of my downstairs is porcelain tiled and that’s rather cold to the touch.