Flooring for Retirement Home in Mountains

9 years ago

Our retirement home is under construction in Western Colorado and we cannot decide on flooring. It is a true mountain style home - open floorplan with two story great room open to kitchen and dining, with master and a guest bed downstairs, and big loft and two bedrooms upstairs.

My DH, like all men, is only concerned with what flooring is going to cost. I, like all women, am worried not only about how it is going to look, but how easy it will be to keep clean. We are going to be on acreage in a country setting, with multiple ponds and several field golden retrievers.

We currently have a mix of hardwood and carpet (tile in bathrooms & laundry room) in our current house, and I HATE my Brazilian cherry hardwood and carpet with a passion. I know dark hardwoods show scratches and dirt much more than light to medium hardwoods, but any hardwood is still prone to scratching, especially with dogs and dirt which will inherently come in from a country setting. Carpet is a mixed bag for me - I like the warmth of it on a cold Colorado morning, but I hate the dust and dog hair, not to mention the nightmare of cleaning up after a sick dog.

All of that being said, we had a beautiful laminate floor in the previous house. It was easy to clean and took the wear and tear of the dogs. I'm seriously leaning toward a handscraped laminate in the retirement house, but my only worry is how well it might hold up at the entries of the house with snow in the winter months. My thought is to put laminate throughout the first floor with the exception of the bathrooms and utility rooms, but DH really wants carpet in the bedrooms - our dogs sleep in our bedroom and he doesn't want to hear them moving around at night. I am more concerned about keeping a clean floor in the bedroom, since we will have French doors and a deck coming into the bedroom.

Thinking of continuing the laminate (or matching hardwood) for the stairs (no landing) and then carpeting the entire upstairs. We will pretty much live on the first floor and I can live with carpet on the second floor.

Any thoughts? I know I keep hearing LVT popping out on these forums - I currently have them in my basement bathroom, and while they look good in the basement, I just can't see them through the first floor of my house. Would engineered hardwood be a worthy rival in this scenario? Again, cost will be a driving factor with DH, so if a suitable engineered hardwood would come in at about the same cost as doing laminate, I'm all ears.

Sorry for long post...up early thinking about all the decisions that need to be made in next few days...

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Comments (4)

steve_o
9 years ago
There's no law that says whatever flooring you choose has to suffer the indignities of the environment alone. If you really like laminate (I don't; horses for courses), you could add better walk-off mats (not just throw rugs) )at entrances or make sure the laminate you install in at least those locations is water-resistant (or water-proof if such an animal exists).

These could even be seasonal: we have a carpet runner we put near our back door in winter because people are tracking in snow and slush before they can sit down and take off their footwear. The runner gets put away in the spring.
PRO
Uptown Floors
9 years ago
Laminate for the stairs? You're likely to regret it due to the overlap nosing that's used with practically all laminate products. Somebody correct me if there's different. Maybe you're okay with that. Did you have laminate stairs in the other house?

How about a natural Hickory? That works well to conceal a lot of things. It's also provides a popular rustic look. Ideal for many folks in your region. Sounds like a gorgeous setting!

Ken Fisher
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PRO
Carpet Direct
9 years ago
I live in the mountains of Colorado, and Colorado is my territory for flooring sales. You are asking great questions.

First, a traditional laminate floor is going to fail you at some point. Snow, moisture, mud, and dirt will come into your home. I never recommend putting a hard surface on stairs for safety reasons, but hardwood insets around a durable stair carpet "runner" is a lovely and practical solution. My installation partners will not install laminate, LVT or engineered hardwood on stairs, because they have to warranty their work and know that the customer is not likely to be satisfied with it for long.

For a wood look, my clients install solid hardwood, engineered hardwood, wood-look porcelain tile, or Floorte by Shaw Floors for their mountain hard surfaces. I tell my clients that Floorte is a "waterproof laminate" because it is the perfect solution for someone who needs it. Floorte is a waterproof Enhanced Luxury Vinyl that comes in planks and looks like wood. We sell a tremendous amount of all four of these products to very satisfied customers.

Engineered hardwood, porcelain tile and Floorte can be installed over radiant heat. I can attest that the radiant heat makes these floors very cozy on cold winter mornings. I use carpet to make very affordable rugs for any decor, and they help make the room inviting and even more comfortable.

Carpet remains very popular in Colorado for bedrooms and hallways, but most living areas have a hard surface. A shorter pile carpet will hold less dirt, and is always my recommendation when someone wants carpet. I think you would be very happy with carpet on your upstairs floor, and it can match or coordinate with your stair carpeting.

Please call me if I can help you in any way. My contact information is on my Houzz profile. Welcome to Colorado!
Fran Blumenfeld
3 years ago
What about bamboo in high elevations? Does it work?