After nineteen years, every single floor in my home is now tile. Soon it will be 100% porcelain tile as our glazed ceramic is junk. My only regret is not planning for this outcome from the very get-go.

Except for the one iron-clad rule of tile (No glass will ever again bounce), there are no drawbacks for us. I can mop my entire house with a commercial string mop and wringer bucket in fifteen minutes! Spills clean right up. Just about any area rug will fit-in just about anywhere. Mud: who cares! Paint proof! Glue proof! Kid proof! Dog proof! Sink overflow proof!

(edited: can't spell to save my life!)

This post was edited by cold_weather_is_evil on Mon, Mar 31, 14 at 1:47

In your zone, I would be leaning toward wood. I had old wood floors in our MO house and loved them, but I like patina. If scratches or wearing concerns made me rethink it, then I'd choose a product that was more rustic.

I have tile in our main living area, entry, kitchen and will be putting in our bedroom and bath, soon. I live in TX, now, and it's a readily accepted flooring choice in our area. It's even considered more high end, especially so with slab foundation homes that often use laminate.

I have a client whose entire first floor of her HUGE house is tile. I think it is awful. We're in Zone 7 (New England) where it is also cold in the winter and fall. I think the tile is harsh and cold and sterile looking. Rugs look terrible on tile floors, whereas the wood floor itself is warm and rugs look great on them and protect them.

Tile can crack if you drop something heavy on them. Nothing is 100%, (and anything that is usually looks terrible because of the properties that make it 100%).

I have a bathroom with a wood floor, and I much prefer it over the bathroom and kitchen with tile. Indeed, the bathroom floor is in better condition. I'm going to put three or four coats of Waterlox on the floor this week, in fact. No sanding needed, including between coats.

In the end, of course, it's all about personal opinion. But in a cold climate, tileâ¦brrrrrâ¦..

We struggled with flooring in our house and we went with luxury vinyl tile....looks like wood in the main areas, like stone in the kitchen and foyer areas. We are very pleased with the result. Most don't even know it is anything but wood or stone. But it is soft under foot, it is very easy to clean, and it is warm (we're zone 5 too).

The other nice thing is, as it's all the same material, no problem with transitions from wood to tile or whatever like there is with other material variations.

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Mon, Mar 31, 14 at 9:41

I have wood throughout the house, including kitchen, hallway, powder room, with Bona commercial finish. Natural oak, no stain. It has held up beautifully despite dogs, kids on tricycles, and bikes being wheeled through the house on a daily basis (don't ask).

I had wood in my foyer and FR and last year put wood in my LR/DR. The kitchen, poweder room and laundry room have tile. The tile is way easier. The wood floor in the LR/DR especially gets very dusty and I find it is a two-step process---vacuum to get the bits/dirt up, then dust mop to get the dust. If you miss a spot you can see it, especially around table and furniture legs. I just don't want to move all the furnitre everytime I do the floors. I love the look of wood, but it is more upkeep.

There are some fabulous wood-look tiles these days you should look into before deciding....best of both worlds? And if you keep the grout lines as thin as possible and the same color as the tile, I don't see why a rug wouldn't look just fine.

I have and have had hardwood kitchen floors in my last 3 homes and grew up with hardwood floors in the kitchen.

However, my stress level with a cat that has seizures, a 75-pound dog that gallops like a goat through the house, a husband with dementia as stroke residual, a young granddaughter just crawling who spits up and a 15YO large grandson who has autism, is about as high as can be without developing my own form of neurologic condition, and therefore, I wish I had tile floors throughout. Hardwood floors are not for the former perfectionist.

We thought about extending our hardwood in the kitchen to the whole main living area. I'm SO glad we didn't. Like joanie, I'm not a fan of the two-step, vacuum then mop, process. I'm also in Zone 5. It looks so good when it's clean but it goes from good to bad in no time. I mean like a matter of an hour or two when the kids, dogs and husband track in dirt and mud.

My sister has this flooring that is amazing .... it does have a modern look to it. I wish I had known about it a few years ago!

Here is a link that might be useful: Tile that looks like wood

Thanks for all your responses!

I'm really torn both ways. I'm tired of the upkeep of wood, along with having to be so many precautions to prevent scratching. I recall having to put cushions under all the sofas to ensure no gouges, along with making sure the felt tips were on all my chairs. Then there is the thing about asking that everyone remove their shoes, lest another scratch shows up.

That said, their is an undeniable beauty of wood flooring. It's mostly just my DH and I (son finishing college) and a very small dog, so the daily wear and tear isn't much. We do have a lot of family get togethers though.

Another issue for the hardwood is the hardness in the living room. In the house with the hardwood in the family, no one hardly ever sat on the floor (even with the padded area rug). The previous house to that and now this house which had/have carpet, I am often on the floor/carpet. I think if I were to go hardwood in the main areas, I would omit the living room for this reason alone. I LOVE getting down on the floor with the grandkids. Plus with the hardwood, I had to lay a protector under the rug, to protect the hardwood, still had problems though with fading. With tile though, I'm not sure I could use enough padding to make it as comfortable as I like (though I wouldn't have to worry about protecting the darn wood floors).

The case against tile, is the cold factor. I saw where it costs about $10/sq foot for heated floors. Too pricey for me. I love some of the light color marble looking porcelain tiles. Bright, pretty and elegant.

Tile goes so far away from what is mainstream in this area though scares me. Perhaps, I should get a box of tiles and spread them out and see it that way. I need new flooring so bad (crappy carpeting is pulling away at the seams even), so I shouldn't put this decision off too long.

We have oak flooring (and orientals) throughout our single level 2900 sq ft home; tile in baths and back hallway. The wood still looks great after 13 years. It has a medium-dark, low-gloss poly finish. We have no thresholds and 36" wide doorways. This is extremely easy to keep up.

Unless you'd be laying the floor directly on concrete, a wood floor has 'give'. There is nothing colder than concrete and tile, but you might consider under-floor heating -- either hot water tubing or electric underlayment.

Our last home had *waxed* wood flooring. That WAS a chore.

Our Maui condo has tile throughout. We have to wear shoes indoors or our joints ache.

BTW, unless you like the 'patchwork' effect, tell your floor installer to throw out all the short boards and just lay the longer ones.

I'm house hunting, and have seen a couple of all tile homes in the real estate photos. I skip over them.

It's not so much the upkeep for wood that is tough, it's the prevention. When we got our wood floors refinished, we had a no shoe policy in the house. That helps a lot but sometimes, I like to just come in with my shoes on anyway. I feel compelled though, if I ask others to take their shoes off, I need to be willing to do it myself. Had to make sure sofa and chair legs weren't touching.

Though the wood floors were/are pretty, both houses the wood took on orange gym floor look. I could stain, but don't want to get the house darker then it already is (have mainly North windows). I wouldn't want a super light stain that could be quite distasteful to some.

I went over to my DD house today where she has various tiles. In her laundry and bathroom the tile is over concrete. It was very cold barefoot, but fine with socks (my preference around the house). I went upstairs where where she had travertine. It was almost as warm as linoleum which I was very surprised. I don't know what was creating the warmth more, having a floor below it or the stone itself. We have a full basement, so the underlayment would be 60+ degrees all the time.

When nighttime comes around, I tend to like the wood, during the day, I prefer the tile. Ahhhh, this isn't an easy decision (I don't think any of them are, at least not for me).

Pretty much everybody likes hard wood floors. Even if they don't like the color, it can be refinished and restained. HW won't go out of style. With tile, that's different, no tto mention what a pain to remove it.
I personally would be ok with tile in an entry/hallway and kitchen but not main living area. Briefly lived in a house with all tiled floor in a cool climate and hated it. It was and looked uncomfortable and cold.

I like hardwood floors too.

Thanks for the feedback about after having actually lived with tile. The areas we're talking about are basically all the areas most would be OK with tile (I'll add the dining room too since everyone sits in a seat there)

The living room is the only area that is in question. For us, no matter what we put, tile or hardwood, I would need a VERY comfy rug/carpet layed. With the real dilemma being just one very important room, we should keep focus on that.