My DD clients use them all the time and they love them. Hold up very well here at the beach. Would you like me to ask her what are some good brands to go with? They are really, really pretty too!!!

I looked at these for my old FL house. I ended up going w/ real wood, which scratched terribly and looked like cr*p after a year and had to be redone before I sold the house. I was left wishing I had gone w/ the "fake" wood.

(By "Fake" wood, I'm assuming you mean the wood look tiles, and not the wood laminate from stores like Home Depot?)

mtn., I'm getting my porcelain tile from Mediterranea-usa. I'm getting the Chicago brick style, but they also have wood.

They take photographs of the actual material, i.e.: sandalwood, brick, stone...then transfer the photos to the porcelain tile. It's pretty amazing.

Here is a pic of their Tumbleweed under Wood looks, which sounds like what you're describing. If you peruse their site, be sure to click on the pdf links at the bottom of the pages to get more views of each style.

We put wood laminate (special order from Floors and Decor) in our daughter's house. It's beautiful. The secret is to get a scraped plank and really good under padding. The under padding is gives the floor the right sound and feel.

I did a Farmhouse style rustic faux wood tile in my bathroom, and love it!

Do you have anything against generic oak strip flooring site finished in the color you want?, as opposed to Carlyle or laminate, which are sort of opposite ends of the spectrum in a number of ways.

I think you want the floors in a guest house next to a 100 year old house to wear...

They take photographs of the actual material, i.e.: sandalwood, brick,
stone...then transfer the photos to the porcelain tile. It's pretty
amazing.

That's how laminate flooring is made. It begins with a photograph of "real wood". The decorative layer is a photograph.

Rebecca, the toilet bolts need covered. :)

Maybe Rebecca has a dog like mine......she keeps stealing the little covers so we had to remove them!

I don't have any of the faux floors but we're in the process of researching the product now for an upcoming project. I've seen some that look very realistic.

Thanks so much for all of your help everyone.

Maire, that is so funny about your dog stealing the toilet bolt covers!

Yes, I have seen wonderful faux tiles.

But here is my thought process.

I thought I liked this Hickory floor by Carlisle ... although maybe it is a little pink now that i look at it again, IDK. I like the pic Tibb shows above better.

But I don't particularly love Carlisle as a company (we have random width wide plank EWP from them) and then I started thinking ... maybe I should finally make this a place that can withstand a tiny bit more wear and tear. I have seen gorgeous tiles, but Maine can be chilly and tile is lovely in Florida but not so much in Maine in the shoulder season IMHO, esp. over garage space.

I also recall, when I was looking at Marmoleum, being shocked at how nice the faux wood floors looked (I guess it was laminate) at the flooring dealer (don't recall the brand since we weren't looking for anything but checkerboard kitchen flooring).

So, I think I am talking about the latter.

Pal,

So can oak be "finished" to look like driftwood?

Yes.

We have laminate in our living room, dining room and kitchen. It's light colored - Bavarian or Siberian birch, I think. We installed it ourselves ten years ago and it's survived cats tearing around like ninnies and us, and still looks very good!

Donna

For me, the real issue with laminate floor is how it feels when you walk on it. I might think it looks real but I can always tell the difference when I walk on it.

My problem with laminate....(and I have had 2 different kinds, one expensive, and one inexpensive) is that it is particle board underneath. If there is a spill that is not immediately wiped up, it seeps in a swells the edges. The edges chip if something heavy is dropped on it. It has enough give that the object doesn't always break.

We had a beautiful full board antique pine look in our den. Loved the look.

My problem with laminate....(and I have had 2 different kinds, one expensive, and one inexpensive) is that it is particle board underneath.

Yes, this. I would not use laminate in a beach house, esp. where guests are going to be staying.

ahh, okay, enough said

So , Pal, educate me.

Why Oak? Because its so hard? Or inexpensive? Or a tradeoff between price and cost? Or a good tone to start with if you want it to look driftwood-ish?

If you go with hardwood you might want to look into flooring that has been smoked. It is a process that burns the wood to look grey. It is very pretty.

Production Methods

Whatever you get, it can't hurt to pick up a couple of indoor/outdoor rugs to put down for the colder seasons to soften and warm the place up a bit. My porcelain tile is going in my kitchen starting next Monday, and I'm going to get the Bellehaven rug from Plow & Hearth to put down in the colder seasons. They're so lightweight, just pick them up, shake the sand out, roll them up, and put them away when you want to do so.

Same thing if/when I have a sick dog with me or one that has a tendency to have accidents. Rug will come up, and the porcelain tile can handle whatever comes its way! However, I always default to real wood where I can (i.e.: I'm having wood countertops put in).

One issue with real wood and beach houses is sand. If sand is an issue where you are, give that some thought because sand can really scratch wood.

I love Pal's idea- I'm assuming you would use the regular little 2 inch wide flooring? It would seem to be what might have been used as the flooring if the room was original to the house?

We just saw a store where they used skinny oak stained light? or just a natural finish and LOVED it! Even my DH said he wished we had that floor. It didn't look like gym floor because the finish was very matte and light. You could even have it installed in a herringbone or angled...

I have an extra attic room I will be finishing and we will be just painting the floor white and that might be another option for you.

I've never seen a laminate that I like at any price point. Sometimes the better quality ends up pricing over a nice wood. I don't mind laminate in certain styles, maybe ultra modern where it is not trying to look like wood. But for your Maine house I would do wood. I have even seen some of the glue down vinyl strips that look like wood actually look better than the laminate. And really inexpensive.

They make tile now with that exact same look. Since its a beach house and sand will most likely be an issue, you may want to check out some of the tiles. You will get the look of distressed weathered wood in a tile that is easy to clean.

Oak is easily obtained so not expensive and is durable. I would use character white oak (instead of red oak) stained a driftwood color. Lots of knots and dark spots, perfect for a casual beach house.

I'm with kswl2. I'm a native Mainer and have been in many, many older coastal homes and 2 1/4" white oak is very traditional and wears well, especially if you choose a matte finish. I just saw some 3 1/4" white oak stained a pale grayish white and it was gorgeous -- made me wish I'd seen it before the maple I just installed.

Wait a second. I have cheap but good looking laminate in our beach house which gets sand, sand and more sand. No renters but family, friends use it. Nobody babies it. It has two scratches in a 4 bedroom, huge open main floor (living, sleeping and eating) plan. Only two scratches since 2002. Looks great. Love it.

We have original, 1960, hardwood everywhere in our Chicagoland house except baths and new maple in the kitchen. Oak. Love it.

We have a new to us house, for snowbirding, in sw desert, Tucson, and while I so wanted hardwood, I was frightened by negatives on the internet re lack of humidity/termites. I used Pergo brand laminate in the master, and, get this, Costco laminate in 3 bedrooms. Since our good luck with laminate in the beach house, I am a laminate convert for those areas where hardwood isn't recommended. Gorgeous. Costco brand is flatter and better than the Pergo. Our fancypants installer loves it. I love it.

Laminate is so tough it can take all the name calling one can dish out! Fake, phony, faux, so what.

That said, Mtn, most, most of the sand will be off by the time anyone gets upstairs so I do think, too, that gray stained hardwood is most fitting for Maine. Hardwood can be repaired with not much difficulty, if need be. I don't think I would mind that much if a scratch happened: it might make a guest feel more comfy, less perfect. And a rug near the entrance for wiping works well. We have a large, indoor/outdoor rug near our beach house entrance and it works.

We have not noticed any negative re the feel or bounce with our laminates at all. Depends, I suppose, on the substrate.

Does a hardwood have to be bleached first, in the manufacturing process, to accept a gray stain? Dunno. Would that weaken the wood fibers?

Love gray stained hardwood. I seriously entertained that for our new kitchen.

For easy maintenance at the beach, I'd use tile that looks like driftwood. And in Maine on the second floor of a garage, I'd have the floor heated.

That's funny you mention heated floors. We went through a lot of discussion and expense about the best way to heat wide plank old growth pine floors in our house here, and did so throughout much of the house. This is our fourth winter here and I forgot I have them, and no longer recall even how to turn them on.

I think I will talk with my GC about price diff between Oak and Forbo Marmoleum, which I've always wanted to use. Tile is just too unpleasant for the climate i think.

Thanks everyone!

Our master bathroom is over the garage, and I would love to have heated tile floors! I think you can put them on a timer. It's first on my list of things to do if we ever remodel the bathroom. Even if the thermostat is set pretty warm, like 70, the tile is still freezing. We have oak hardwood in the bedroom, and it is still cold, IMO. I do have "feetsicles" as my DH says, though.

But this wasn't a problem at all in our old house, where the MBR/MBA was over the breakfast room and laundry room, so I know the cold floors are a function of being over the garage. I would reconsider the heated floors if I were you and if people are going to be using it during the colder months in Maine over an unheated space, even if you don't use it in your current house. Personally, I'd do the (heated) wood-look tile.

Well, I also don't like the hardness of tile and the noise. And I forget why, but I think we will have to heat the lower level of the garage. I seem to recall that. Lastly, not sure how much we will use it off season (it is overflow guest space after all).

where is Anniedaughnaugh? Her Amtico LVP is beautiful and a very practical choice. In fact, I am surprising myself by exploring LVP for the new house. Not beach, but with six months of snow and several large dogs make it the most practical and comfortable choice for us. We've been thinking about wood-look porcelain and with in floor hydronic heat it wouldn't be cold, but standing on such a hard surface is so hard on my back when I go into a cooking frenzy.

We have luxury vinyl plank - installed it myself 3 years ago when we bought our townhouse and we are very happy with it. It is extremely low maintenance and looks brand new. It looks better than many laminates, and is much tougher and hold up to wet spills -although "waterproof" is something you really only get with sheet vinyl sealed at the edges, this flooring is not harmed by water.

The floors have no marks or scratches from dining chairs (no rug there) or other wear. I used to wince when my husband would drag furniture around but it never hurt this floor. They are also very easy to clean, our roomba keeps it swept and we use just a steam mop or damp microfiber mop once in a while, It never looks dirty, we have a medium chestnut color - after having dark wood floors previously which I loved but showed every speck of dust if not dusted daily wherever the roomba couldn't get!

We are very happy with our amtico flooring and it does come in a gray wood look...there are several to choose from. Very durable, easy maintenance, slightly cushioned so it's easy under foot, warmer and softer than stone or tile, but it doesn't clatter like laminated floors can. And people don't know it's vinyl until we tell them. But it's not cheap. Our architect told us it was double what hardwood would've cost us. We didn't look at other manufacturers at the time as there really weren't any. Since then, a lot of other flooring companies have started making similar products so the price may have come down.

Oh I like some of those colors. Is there a showroom? So why do people chose Amtico? And do you recall per sq ft? because the "cost of hardwood" goes from like x, to 10x! So comparing it to hardwood per se doesn't mean much IYKWIM. I don't think any product I chose will be a bargain. My number one concern (after the look) is durability, then comfort, then price.

In looking at various brands of LVP so far what I am seeing tends to vary from around $2 to around $7 per square feet for the materials. Some may be lower and some higher. One important factor I am picking up on is the thickness of the wear layer. The thicker, the better and, the better and more expensive.

Vinyl plank flooring must be durable. My nephew moved into a brand-new swanky dorm when he went off to college. When speaking of dorms, "swanky" is relative, but you know it had to be durable! I helped him move out at the end of the year. The floor still looked new.

The vinyl planks have come a long way and IMO are a real contender for your upstairs room if you are not going the skinny oak look. A friend had it installed in her swanky stone Bucks County farmhouse kitchen due to her dogs and WOW you literally had to get down and touch it with your hand to tell it wasn't wood. Very quiet too. And cushiony to walk on. Some of the ones Annie posted are beautiful!

Amtico originally was made in Europe and has been used there since the 1960s IIRC, so it's got a proven track record. They also have a US factory now.

There is a local guy who does a lot of flips (very profitable ones even in bad times) He did two houses on moms street. We walked through one and loved how the old floors came out right up to the point we walked in to the kitchen and realized...it was sheet vinyl the whole time. For the buyer, it is such easy maint with a big dog it is really nice. But not what I would have thought of in the living room.

If you should decide to go with tile I would love you to look at Florim USA. They have a very elaborate collection of high quality tile and they just opened a new store on Madison Ave. NY if you ever go to the big apple. I have bought from them and can say I am very pleased with their product.

If you recall a ways back, Home Depot had an upscale outlet called Expo. We went there and they used amtico in the store aisles...if you are standing up to that kind of traffic including driving tow motors over it, we figured it could take whatever we dish out. As I mentioned, at that time, there really weren't any competitors for amtico. The landscape has since changed, so I'd shop around. I honestly don't recall the cost, but I remember the architect saying that he could get us good quality solid oak wood floor for half the price. But as I said, with competition, the price may have come down.

I also went with amtico because I specifically fell in love with both their compass rose which we installed in our foyer, and the brass inlay look in our enfilade. They do custom, so they made our vinyl strips double the width of their standard product as it fit our needs. At the time we were looking they did a lot of custom stuff.

You can find pics of our flooring in this old thread.

Also, one thing that added to the cost of the flooring is the underlayment must be smooth...finished like drywall. Any screw dents or divots or bumps would show through the vinyl as it has some flexibility to it.

We went with Amtico LVP due to recommendations here. It seemed like the perfect material for a lake house with a dog and a sandy beach. It's been down for a little over a year and I love it for all the reasons everyone else stated. And it's true, when guests visit our home for the first time sometimes they do not believe it's vinyl until the bend down to touch it. Having said that, mtn, you've always seemed like an authentic kind of gal to me. While this stuff looks close to wood, and even feels close to wood, I'm not sure you'd really be happy with something that was trying to look like something else. Why not just a nice, cheery pattern of solid Marmoeum?

am considering porcelain tile for health and cleanliness reasons, instead of carpet-- just in my bedroom for now. Install expense (just the install, not the tile) is $3.50 per square foot -- yikes!