Oh we just were talking about this last night with our builder. I keep going back and forth on engineered hardwood or tile. Our builder told us he just put in $28,000 in hardwood in a home he did and a few months later the owners did not like it!! I am so afraid this will happen with me. Our builder thinks we really should go with tile and if we really want floors to get a laminate because of our dog AND our child! LOL! So, now I am back to tile. The floor so far as been the hardest thing for me. I think I will wait for the cabinets and then hit it again. I really would LOVE hardwood floors though. My sister is an insurance adjuster and she keeps showing me all these water losses she has and how the wood floors are ruined. ARGH! She wants me to go with tile for the sake of up keep. I do not know what to do. As of right now I think I am back with tile, yep I am. I think......

When you decide let me know! LOL!

Oh, and one more question.

If you have stairs, what will you use? Wood with/without a runner, wood on the outsides and carpet in the middle, etc?

jennymana-

We have both hardwood (oiled and stained larch in LR and DR) and engineered wood (oiled and stained white oak in kitchen, den and entry) and after 2 months living in it the engineered wood shows a tiny bit of wear, however it's in the kitchen and entryway (vs LR and DR for the larch), so it gets more traffic. However, I would not have tile throughout the house, too hard and cold for me, and wood was the only thing we considered (we do have tile in the mudroom and bathrooms). It must also be said that the sandyponder household is supremely disinterested in cleaning, is not easy on stuff, has a kid and 2 dogs and an active lifestyle centered on outside activities that often bring a mess into the house (where it doesn't get promptly cleaned up). For those reasons we chose oiled floors vs poly'd floors. Oiling is fixable, forgiving and is not shiny, all attributes we needed. And truthfully, we like patina and want our home to look as if it's been there for 50+ years. The patina look is not for everyone, some of our friends are bemused at our "unfitted" house, but we're bemused at their "matchy-matchy" homes and in the end it's about personal preferences.

Our stairs are now just oiled and stained white oak, but we may put a runner on them, we're going to wait and live thru a winter and see how cold they are on the tootsies (we're in NNY).

sandyponder

We chose Ipe (brazilian walnut) for the hardwoods in kitchen, pantry, living room, dining room, foyer, and downstairs hallway, and brazilian cherry for my husband's library. Elsewhere: mudroom, laundry, w/i closet and powder room we chose slate, we put tile in the basement bar area and all bathrooms, and carpet in bedrooms and on the entire second floor. Little something for everyone there!! Good luck....

Oh, and the stairs are all wood. Up the front staircase I didn't put a runner, but the back stairs into the kitchen and the stairs into the basement I will have them put a runner down the middle. I was more concerned with little socked feet slipping and falling than temperature.

Amy

Our floors are just getting started so I can't post pics. We went with mostly laminate. (tile in the baths and sunroom and vinyl in the laundry.) I went with laminate b/c of the kids and dog. My BIL/SIL have wonderful maple floors on the main level and laminate in the basement. The only problem I see with the hardwood is the risk of scatches if you have dogs or kids. They are constantly trying to protect their floor. Another friend with dogs has hardwood stairs and she has reported numerous nicks and acratches. I think it's a matter of what you want to maintain vs. the look you desire. For me, knowing the floor could take a beating (and withstand magic markers) means more than having the beautiful real wood look. For others, there's no substitute for real wood.

Colorthrough porcelain, 18" square, throughout the house. I've lived on it for 10 years now. I was REAL dubious at first, but neither of us would ever have anything else. And the next house will be our last. Good to know we'll have a lifetime floor that requires no refinishing.

We have hardwood (hickory) floors in our house now and when we build next year we will have hardwood throughout most of the house; except for bathrooms, laundry. We are sold on hardwood since we live on riverfront property, lots of rain, dirt, and we just had our dog put to sleep last Nov. and the floors look great! We may carpet the bedrooms though; carpet in the living areas are definately too much work with stains and grit. I wish I could post a pic but I don't know how :(

We went with Continental Slate, Egyptian Beige 18" tile throughout our entries & kitchen. Formal sitting & dining was EW, Bruce Turlington Maple 5" plank in Caramel.

Our 2nd story stairs are also Maple with a ginger stain, open riser, that matches the hardwood and compliments the tile.

Here's a pic of our tile:

The hardwood that abuts the tile:

And complimentary stairs:

We went with Maple as a wood because it is VERY hard, and with 2 VERY active kitties, scratches were a real possibility. We've been home a month, kitties have played to their hearts content and not one scratch in the finish so far.

HTH.

We went with American Walnut hardwoods in living, study, dining, kitchen, master bed & bath (risky!), stair treads, upstairs landing, and pool table room. Slate in laundry/mudroom and powder bath. Ceramic tile in upstairs baths. And, carpet in the two bedrooms upstairs.
I never considered laminate or engineered wood. Prior to this build, we've lived in homes with original hardwoods dating from the 20's and 40's and they were in wonderful shape 60-80 years later. And, I fell in love with the grain of the American Walnut. They finally get finished next week. I can't wait to see them sanded and oiled to their beautiful perfection.

loralee, cool stairs!!

Amy

Flooring....
Engineered 8" wide plank plain Siberian oak tung oil (no stain).....LOVE IT!

Stairs....
Knotty alder with carpet insets

If all floors showed damage and wear exactly the same, I'd have nothing but distressed/reclaimed/wirebrushed wood.

But I have dogs, hydronic heat, and I'm lazy: I want a floor in my public rooms that's fuss free, wears like iron, hides dirt and looks great with as little maintenence as possible-- they are going to be porcelain.

Finished basement ended up without a thermal barrier due to miscomunication, and no radiant heat because it's only occasional use space: that will be getting carpet.

For the second floor, I want something hydronic compatible, but less fussy than wood and softer than tile. Leaning towards cork...

Basement stairs will be carpeted. Stairs to the second floor will probably have a carpet runner with cork edges.

Loralee -- GORGEOUS stairs and what a darling Kitty!! That staircase is exactly what I want. Was it custom built on-site? Did it come from a company (hopefully with an on-line presence)?
Love love LOVE it!!

------------ Trilby

I tried to figure out the HTML tags, but I couldn't get pics to show. So I'll just have to post links....

We bought reclaimed planking that had been salvaged from an old warehouse to mill into flooring. The planks are 16 ft long, 8 in wide, and 3 in thick. We'll mill it into 3/4" planks ourselves, and we'll end up with wide-plank reclaimed antique heart pine flooring at less than $1.25 a sq foot (plus a ton of sweat equity).

We've already put some of it into a friend's house in exchange for putting us up during construction; it came out beautifully. Their floor is a concrete slab, so they used the planks "as is" with no milling -- they wanted the whole 3" of wood in between their feet and the concrete! They wanted a more rustic look than we do, so they're using a darker finish than we're going to, but their floors came out a gorgeous warm gold, with a few odd-colored planks here and there.

http://www.pbase.com/lisaj/heart_pine_lumber_

The cat is MacGuire, and she and Sosa (not pictured) have finally forgiven us for the disruption the flooring caused in their lives. ;-)

------------- Trilby

Wow! There's some beautiful floors! Thanks for all the pictures, too.

This thread has been very helpful so far. Hope more people will chime in!

We have ceramic or porcelain tile in the kitchen and breakfast room, family room, baths and laundry. There is a wood/slate tile combo in the gallery (foyer) and dining room and travertine in the master bath. The sitting room, study, bedrooms and 2nd floor hallways are engineered mahogany. The stairs are Brazilian cherry, with no carpet.

The tile works beautifully in the hard working areas and as we are in Florida the cool, hard surfaces are ideal. We love the slate/wood 'gallery'. No carpet anywhere for us, though we do have area rugs to 'soften' certain areas.

Thanks Amy & Trilby! We moved at night on a Thurs, & the picture of my cat was taken the next afternoon....considering he hid for 3 days when we moved out, I took that picture as *proof* that even HE knew we were HOME. He & his twin sister have a blast playing on the stairs. They love to 'hide out' and wait for one of us to walk underneath the stairs so they can whap us in the head. Brats.

Trilby these were made on site mostly. The stringers were made off-site, but then they had to be re-formed on-site for the precise fit. Sorry no online link for our stair builders, in fact, they don't advertise at all - not even a phone number in the phone book lol - all of their work is via referral/word of mouth after 30 years in the business.

This is what they looked like while they were building them:

{{gwi:1505628}}

I can include the link where I got my balusters from though. On the upper right corner, click on 'Online Store' to see all of them & the pricing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Balusters

Kats - I LOVE LOVE LOVE your floors! If I was going with wood your floors is what I would want! Do you mind if I ask what color your walls are??? I love the color!

Kelly

We had a huge debate about the floors in our house. Over the last 22 years of marriage, we've moved alot. We've had Vinyl, porcelain tile, travertine and wood. Hubby loved the travertine the best and was really pushing for it on the new house. I did like it alot but it was always so cold (physically as well as mentally) I insisted on hardwoods. We had Red Oak in a previous house and Maple. The maple was when our kids were first born. It held up really well with 2 kids and 2 cats over 5 years.

This time around our builder gave us the idea of Brazilian Teak. (solid) I researched it, saw some beautiful pictures from other Gardenweb members and I was sold. We've only been in 7 weeks but so far so good. I love the warmth of hardwood and I think the upkeep is pretty easy too. My only regret is not doing the Great Room in hardwood because everyone is telling me I still need a rug to anchor the furniture together in the room.

I am not a fan of hardwood on the stairs however unless you put a runner down. We carpeted ours.

Good Luck with your decision!

Lindy

So, does anyone have stair treads with different wood than your floors? I am thinking of putting in hardwood on my first floor, but I have two open flights of stairs and a landing. I believe the treads are oak, but only got a quick look several year ago when carpet installers restapled one flight for me.

Matching them would add a lot of cost and I would rather not leave them carpeted.

bonelady, your stairs do not have to match your hardwoods. In fact, you can really get some dramatic effect if they don't. If you look at Kats pictures above, her stairs & hardwoods don't match but they're stunning because they still compliment each other beautifully. (The only difference, hers has a runner which it sounds like you don't want).

Bonelady, mine don't match either. The bannister, treads and skirt are Alder with a Chestnut stain. The floors are Teak. See pic above

bonelady, my stairs are oak, which I had stained very dark (jacobean). My floors are Ipe, which has a lot of variation in color. I think it will be beautiful when it is done. I will post pictures (I will figure out how, I know I can do it, I know I can...) probably next week. We get carpet next Tuesday, so by Wednesday or so they should have the runners on the back stairs.

Amy

We simply did stained concrete throughout the house, we'll do a bunch of throw rugs.

We picked Bruce 1/2" thick 3 sandings possible engineered wood. However it hasn't been installed yet. They are still waiting for the order to come in. We choose Red Oak natural with a matte finish. Has 25 year warranty. Is almost a perfect match to our current Robbins wood (same company and factory as what we have now). I would have gotten the same, but they no longer have the color I want with a square edge and matte finish.

Here is our current floor (Kitchen is laminate in the background):

{{gwi:1505634}}

We are using porcelain tiles in the baths, closet (entered from bath), laundry, and entry.

Here is the tile.
{{gwi:1505636}}

Jeannekay, I'd love to see pictures (and details) of your stained concrete floors.

BigTrees