I would not count on $.88/ft laminate with no underlayment looking nice in 2-3 years when you go to sell. When you go to sell you want something that will look like new or as close as possible.

The choices I've made are based on:

Buying the best quality material I can afford at the best price.

In other words, don't cheap out if you can afford better quality; but don't go into debt over upgrades either, especially if you're only staying for 2-3 years. That it not long.

Of our remo, we only made one decision based on potential resale and that was to keep the closet in the third bedroom which we really use as a computer room/library.

I know we will be moving in a few years however I don't have the same issues you have with overimproving. I am updating my house right now to make DH and myself happy. I want to live with and enjoy my updates now while I'm still in my home.

I can't answer about whether or not to go with 88 cent laminate vs $2.50, but I can say that you will have to walk on it every day for a few years. I don't know anything about laminate but I presume the cheapest won't be pleasant to walk on, may show wear when it comes time to sell and may have other problems? There probably is a compromise in there and I hope you both can find it.

Sky

If you've taken a job 5 hours away from family/friends and have NO intention of staying in this city after the 2 year job finishes, then, by all means, do just what needs to be done to live in the house. But if you are just thinking that someday you may want something else, need more space, want to move across town, may move back to Georgia, etc., then, work on your home with a view to living there, to keeping it. You don't have to go 'whole hog' but why not make it as livable and nice as you can to enjoy while you live there?
In this housing market, people who intended to be in homes for the long haul have gone into foreclosure. People who have bought with a view to investment and sale in two years have decided to just sit on it and hope for a better market somewhere down the line. And this home that may feel like a "starter" home to you now, may still have your name on the deed in 2014. We bought a mobile home in 1982 that was just for the transition of a job. We bought it so it could easily be moved to El Paso Texas when my DH went to work at the new shop his boss wanted to build there. In 1992, we finally sold the mobile. We had raised 3 children there and the job moved never materialized. I spent 3 years in that home without pounding a single nail into the wall, hanging a picture or a mirror. I didn't want to hurt it for resale.

I will never think like that again.

Red

It's also really impossible to say what you should spend without knowing how much your home is worth now...well, not now exactly, since so many markets have tanked. I just mean generally, what it is worth. (No, I am not asking...) If you live in a house that is worth $149K, you spend differently than if you lived in a house worth $850K.

I am now selling what I thought would be my forever home (pine box, and all that...) We simply had a change of heart and now we are living with the fact that we overbuilt. I figured I could amortize the cost of my fancy kitchen over the next coupla decades. Wrong-o.

Would I do anything differently? No, probably not. I love what I did and it has been a pleasure to live here all the while. Even though we could have made more investing in mutual funds, we will probably not lose money on this house, but rather come out even. It will certainly sell more easily given our improvements, if you take into consideration the changes in the market. (DOM adjusted for market going to he!! in a handbasket)

I learned a lot too, and plan to apply my experience to the next place. Will I over build there? Probably, but less so, I imagine. I have learned never to say never....I hope.

To me, $.88 flooring and laminate is actually under improving. If you're going to redo the flooring, do hardwood and do something nice. It's a major selling point. I wouldn't even consider a laminate floor when buying -- unless I wanted my own 'special' floors, so then, that would be an opportunity to rip and upgrade for my own tastes. But as far making an offer -- no floors.

Disclaimer: I have a strong aversion to plastic. (Unless we're talking contemporary : )

Depending on the value of your home, you could be doing it an injustice by installing laminate. Hardwoods would be an improvement worth the money depending on the price range of the home. If you do the laminate, I would put the better quality flooring in, because like someone mentioned, you want it to hold up and look good for now and in the future. Many times we all hear the saying....you get what you paid for....and too often its TRUE.

You don't specify which floors so I assume you mean the majority of the house and not just the kitchen or bathroom. If this is the case I definitely agree that laminate floors of any sort will not help sell your home. Cheap laminate would be a major turn off to me and I would probably infer that the rest of the house was of cheap quality and not even consider the house. i would wonder where else you had cut corners that I might not readily be able to see i.e. electrical or plumbing repairs etc. A nice quality laminate in a kitchen or bathroom can be ok, but not anything more than that, and even then I would still plan on replacing it if I bought it. Go for a wood laminate or at least carpet in most of the rooms if can't afford the wood. There are even some new flooring materials you might want to look into. Stained sealed concrete can look really cool.

I haven't bothered to read anything after your question.

For one reason: the home I live in is MINE. We did not build it with an "eye" to future market trends. We built it for US. Certainly, present trends could work "against" us, but I don't frankly give a -uck. Our home is in a choice "neighborhood" and it's solidly built (easy to "renovate"). We've never looked at our home as anything BUT the sort of place we'd like to live in and, ultimately DIE in. If I never live anywhere else in my life I'll die a happy person!

So, yeah! I absolutely think the general public "over improves"! I equate it with upholstered furniture... . -uck the the "upholstery"! (no one gives a -hit). Whatever YOU'VE chosen means diddle... the person buying the piece/property has a completely different "vision".

Remember that! it's important information.

Thank you for all of your help! The reason we are looking into something OTHER than carpet is because two of our children have horrific allergies. I can't see replacing bad carpet with more carpet that will harbor more germs, pollens, etc. We also have a big yellow lab, so I would worry about the durability of real wood flooring more than I would a higher quality laminate. On top of that, we have no basement. We're just on a slab, so we're going over concrete. It would be pretty much the entire house we'd be reflooring.

I'm looking at a nice handscraped hickory laminate that has a wider board than most other laminates. Something like this in a real wood version would cost WAY more. Are there any wood floors that are more affordable?? I want something nicer than what we have and for health reasons we need to ditch the carpet. Do you really think a nice laminate will turn people away?? Is fake wood that bad??

Hi Citymomof3. I think there are two camps: people who love carpeting and people who love hardwood floors. I'm a person who loves hardwood and so laminate would not sway me into buying a house. Instead of buying cheap laminate - I would be really concerned about how well it would hold up after a few years - how about deep cleaning or replacing the carpets instead?

Well, people do seem to be using them. Not sure of the style of homes they are going into though. I think I worked on your house color a way back (rainbow :) ? I really can't see putting anything but hardwood in there, as far as non-carpet flooring goes. Definitely ditch the carpet with the allergies though. Even if you have to do $.88 flooring. The next owner can do whatever else they want. It just won't do your house justice or help your market appeal and resale value. But function and health concerns trump. Hmmm... have you researched the off-gassing from those type floors?

Maybe you could tile the foyer, kitchen, family room and then hardwood the more formal areas. ??? Then you can even wash the darn floors : )

No one has even addressed what sort of price point your home is at, that could make a difference. Regardless of what your home may sell for, I think you might be under-improving if you go with a cheap laminate.
We live in a solidly middle class neighborhood in a military town and have redone our home in Wilsonart laminate. It is probably the highest quality wood laminate you can get. We wouldn't have gone any other way because we are very hard on our flooring (and have a dog) and the floor is nearly indestructable. So, while we spent a good chunk of money initially, I feel that it was necessary because we will be selling our home to move to the next assignment and the floor is pristine. Even if someone wouldn't choose a laminate, I think they will prefer a laminate in good shape over another kind of flooring that hasn't held up well.

We have moved around a fair amount to different parts of the country. We've always just decided to go ahead and make our house a place we want to be and have pretty much found that the improvements added value to the house and it was always reflected in the sale. Just another 2 cents worth. :)

oops sorry.. we have touched on prices! missed a few messages there somehow! :-)

I'd never go with the .88 laminate, no matter what price point. It's garbage, looks bad, sounds bad, wears bad.

If price is a factor, then there are lots of alternatives...tile is a big one for most of the rooms. Since you've got a concrete slab, why not have a stamped/stained concrete floor?

You could go with a less expensive laminate, if you're in a mid-priced home area. In my neighborhood prices are between 190-225, but on the other side of the river the same house would be 350-450. You might be able to get away with laminate on my side, but over on the other side, it's hardwood only. My house is 50 years old, so it's got the original hardwood, but new construction is carpet & tile. You could do laminate in this price point, but to replace with hardwood would be over improving. Location-location-location you know.

I'd much prefer a tile to laminate, and it's become much more common these days. Esp with pets too -- occasional accidents? spilled water bowls? The laminate seams may not hold up well to liquids. Plus, what's going to seep under there, even if it doesn't buckle the composite layers???

Also a consideration -- very possibly whatever you would put down would be carpeted over quite a bit by a new owner.

Good point on the 'sounds bad.' Definitely not a good thing to be listening to.

Our house is worth about $225 in a normal market. I am actually looking into some of these vinyl plank flooring posts right now and am intrigued. Might head to HD tomorrow and look into it. Right now our kitchen area has the glue version of wood look vinyl. It's pretty! Check out the link to see what I'm looking into now...

Looks like there may be some issues with this flooring, so we might try it out in a smaller area first. We'll see! I'm a ways away from making a decision!!

Here is a link that might be useful: vinyl flooring

Higher quality laminate looks great and wears even better. I would buy a house with better grade laminate flooring in a heartbeat. But 88 cent laminate is probably not going to make you or a future buyer happy.

I would agree with others and say $2.50 sq/ft is not over improving.

My concern would be; kids and a dog with a house full of laminate would be the noisest house you could imagine. Plan on noise mitigation if you go this route, area rugs, runners, valium, etc. For some reason, laminate seems to be the noisest of all the hard flooring choices (wood, tile, vinyl, stone, etc).

Good luck

CityMom, I'd love to post a pic of your house so people could see (regardless of locale resale values). I'm afraid you might object though. Would it be alright?

Sure, squirrel! I was going to post the pic myself, but I can't find the one I had of the outside! We've recently added more decorative molding around the exterior of the front door and above the exterior first floor windows. So it doesn't look quite the same... but, yes you can totally post the pic if you still have it!!

I would see any type of laminate as a turn off for purchasing. I'd rather have you buy lower grade oak at Home despot and put that in, which is nice and hard, and can alway be refinished to the next person's taste (I'm changing our red oak to a dark walnut finish). Laminate, vinyl, etc., it's all plastic to me and along with lanolium is a HUGE turn off in a home. Have you priced wood? Lumber liquidators gives fabulous deals on wood by the palate...you could do oak for $2.50 or less and have a floor that would be a much better seller on down the road, even with the dog and kids (we have cats and kids and a dog visits regularly...our floors were lovely still after 20 years).

I agree with the others that 88 cent laminate is definitely not the way to go. Is there a reason why you must replace the floors right now. Can it wait till you've figured out when and if you're moving.

My husband and I want to replace the carpets upstairs too and we're in Florida, where the market is as bad as can be.

But we've decided to hold off for a while.

Since you're on a concrete slab you could look at engineered wood which will cost you at least $2.50/sq ft but last a lot longer than laminate

Here it is. This is the last virtual that I'd done on it while painting. This is not a plastic-flooring house : ) I will say, though, if you can't do a wood or tile, fitting for the house itself (not the market), do what's best for everyone's health -- even if it means those $.88 planks. No brainer.

I wouldn't put .88 laminate in any house for any period of time. That has to be trash. Sam's has laminate for $1.60 or something close to that and it is very pretty and durable. Do you have a Sam's in your area? Check it out.

Not everyone is turned off by laminate. My friend the realtor, told me people love laminate because it's so durable and stands up to kids and pets.

My husband does general contracting and in 20 years has only had 2 customers ask for hardwood floors. All the others wanted laminate or ceramic tile. He works in medium to very high end homes, so the value of the home didn't matter when it came to the flooring choices. People are realizing that these 2 products are the easiest to maintain and the most durable and today that's what people want in their fast paced lives.

With any improvements you do, unless you're independently wealthy, you need to consider resell in helping you decide whether youÂre "overimproving" even when you build your dream home. I know too many people including myself, who have built and later sold their dream homes, so you want your home to fit in with others in your neighborhood with regard to price. If it's already near or above the top of the line---keep your improvements to a minimum unless you don't mind eating the cost yourself. Otherwise, if itÂs just mid or low range, you can usually do more and recoup the cost if you stick with neutral materials, and they wear well.

If I were you with the allergies, I'd use DIY tile in some areas because itÂs cheapest and has great durability, and a decent engineered wood in the rest. Very nice tile can be purchased for $1/sq ft at HD or LoweÂs if you watch for a few weeks, and they have free classes on installation (which should be fairly easy going over concrete). You can use large tiles and narrow grout lines if you prefer less grout. If you spend a bit of time on layout (which is half the battle and extremely important), itÂll look very professional and youÂll definitely have something that will last and still look good. Choose neutral colors, preferably that look sort of Italian, and grout that blends or is slightly darker than the tileÂnone of this white grout!

ThenÂsorry but I love hardwood, so am surprised about brutuses DHÂs experience with so few requesting it. If you want wood, you could DIY. My DD and SIL have put down their own engineered wood floors on concrete slab and say itÂs even easier than tile. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Sometimes we DIYÂers forget to place a value on time, so even though the out-of-pocket costs are low, the real cost is more than we realize. But if you enjoy completing a project, then you also get to enjoy the benefit of having it nicer while youÂre in it, plus you get a decent price at resale. OK, now IÂm climbing down off my boxÂ.LOL

You guys are so awesome. You have no idea how much I appreciate all of your posts. The fact that you've taken time to respond from your own experience and feelings really means a lot to me!! Dh and I are total DIYers. High school sweethearts who have three great kids and bought this empty, sad-looking foreclosure house and made it into our HOME. ;) Okay, now I'm getting smushy!

We're going to check out a variety of flooring today and really take a good look at everything. No idea when exactly we'll start on the flooring, but I am going to give it lots of thought before we make any decisions! Thank you again for all of your replies!!

Not laminate country around here either :) I DIY'd a 3/8" veneered/engineered wood floor on my slab downstairs, with adhesive. Very doable, but I'd recommend a solid wood for pets (esp cats and their puking). It's ok and ok for me but not really a great product. It has its place. I'm doing solid wood 3/4" upstairs. DIY : )

Someone here just posted a pic of their $1/sf wood floor from Lumber Liquidators -- under the 'does this look cheap' wood floor thread. Was it Aktillery? It looked very nice but was inexpensive. No-Green-Thumb also just finished a groutless DIY tile in her bathroom. Duraceramic or something (in a current thread).

In your situation, I'd do tile with wood for the formal lower level spaces and sleeping areas. It doesn't have to be handscraped walnut : )

and following Squirrel's post, I think it is important to assess your personal situation and figure out what will work for you, and what is the best for your situation. When we decided to replace the bathroom floor, we had a height consideration. We had already put in a new subfloor and the bathroom floor was already higher than the hallway. The threshhold covered well, but still we didn't want to go any higher. DH had put in that subfloor and probably used a zillion nails (or more). He refused to take it out, which we would have had to do in order to put in a backerboard, then ceramic, which is what I wanted. That would have raised the floor to almost a step up.
I did not want vinyl in any way, shape or form although we had looked at that as well. The duraceramic was absolutely the perfect solution. I chose to do it without grout, as I was going for a very plain, subtle look and did not want to see grout seams. It was about $8 /sq. ft. DIY which is a lot, but we are so happy with the results.
So different things fit different situations, but I always buy the best I can afford. This is the third floor I have put in that bathroom and I think this is it for awhile :):)

I have to wonder if the people who frequent this board represent the average buyer. In my house over the past 17-years I have had carpeting, linoneum, tile, laminent, and hardwood. The first two I don't care for and the last three were all acceptable. My favorite is hardwood with the exception of the bathrooms and entry where I prefer a tile/stone floor. I dislike tile anywhere else because it is too cold and hard on the feet. I found laminent to be an acceptable solution for many years when my kids were young. It solved the allergy problem, was easy to clean, near indestructable and did not get scratches. The technology for laminents have only improved in the past 10 years since I had first installed it in my home--as have some of the engineered wood flooring. When we ripped out our laminent after 10 years as part of our remodel, it looked almost as good as the day we put it in; but I always longed for hardwood and am thrilled to have it in my home. However, the most important thing here is to keep to your budget and get something you like and something that is good quality.

Had no idea the Duraceramic was $8/sf ! That would be outta the pic fast, lol. I was just thinking about the grout and its cleaning problems, esp with pets and kids and all they might tracking around at times.

That's about what it came to. Remember I ranted about the $60 shipping charge to the store a while back???
The quart of glue was $25, the sealer was $25, so it all added up, BUT we are happy with the results and based on the fact that unless we used linoleum or stick-um tiles, because of the height of the floor, there wasn't much left. I don't like stick-um tiles at all. My son put them in the kitchens in his rental, and they are cheap, cheap. It is really a nice product.

That's why it's so great to be able to do some of this stuff yourself. Can you imagine if you'd had to hire out? It really gets nuts.

citymom, Several years ago I pulled up all the carpet in the downstairs of our old house. What a job!!!!!! Carpet is NASTY. My oldest has horrible allergies and it made such a difference. A friend of mine owns a flooring company and he told me to go with Quick Step laminate flooring for the durability. We didn't want to spend the money to get real hardwood, it would have cost about $8,000 versus about $1,800 or $2,000. I ended up buying about 1,800 sq ft of the stuff. I bought it off the internet and got a great price. The stuff is very durable and really I don't think it affected the resale. We sold the house in November of 2006. I think that I bought it from fastfloors.com. I will have to look and find the exact website. I LOVED the laminate, just don't go cheap.

Squirrel, I cannot imagine having to hire out some of the things that we do. They just would not get done! We do hire out anything we think we are not capable of (like when we had all of the hardwood floors redone) - some things that we have had done I could have done better myself! I don't know that someone would have taken the time we did to lay out the tiles in the best way possible.
I know when we did ceramic in our sunroom, I spend a very, very long time laying out patterns and making sure it was optimal. I understand that people you hire are "on the clock" and maybe just don't have the time to give to all of the details. Anyway, we try to do as much as we can ourselves. Sometimes we screw up, but most of the time it turns out well. It took DH a long time to lay that tile. He made sure each piece was perfectly level and sanded the subfloor when needed - and the stuff goes down over a glue that you put down and then let dry for about an hour until it gets like a contact cement. I don't know how a pro would do it - but I would think they would not want to sit around watching glue dry --- or maybe they would, but then that would be in the cost as well.

My grown step-daughter has laminate floors, I think, the kind that snap together? She has three kids under the age of 10, and a dog. She has not had any problems with noise or water getting under the seams, and they look great!

Hardwoods would be much more expensive to install and upkeep. I know, because I have some, they scratch easily and have to be wiped up right away if you spill. They're great looking though, and do add to resale value, if that is an over-riding concern.

BTW, in my market, even peel-and-stick tile has it's place. Looks better than doing nothing. And linoleum is making a comeback.

2 years ago we installed 99cent Quick-step laminate wood flooring in our oldest son's room - he has bad allergies. That floor has held up very well!! Our 3 boys play in there all the time, plus dog & cat. It's taken all sorts of abuse but you'd never know it.

The laminate was on sale because they were running out of stock - still it wasn't an expensive type to begin with, maybe $1.49sf. It had great ratings for moisture and wear - cheaper price because of limited patterns.

Whatever you buy, do your research on ratings - some of the expensive well known brands are pretty poor quality.