Agree with above.

Hardwood floors are great. Mine don't get babied either.

Hardwood requires far less maintenance and looks good for far longer than carpet - at least in my experience.

I had wood installed everywhere but bedroom and kitchen/bath areas. I installed carpet in bedroom. I didn't baby either of them to be honest. The wood floor looked great - the carpet showed wear and tear far sooner.

Carpet in a bedroom is nice in terms of being cozy and in generally isn't a high traffic area.

Is it a family area which is actually the living room or is it the old fashioned kind of family room which is just used by the family - some older split levels had family rooms that were not part of an open floor plan.

Jolene

Can you tell me what the tile is on your fireplace hearth? It would look good in my house.

Wood floors need furniture pads under tables and chairs to prevent scratching and gouging the wood. That seems delicate to me.

The "family room" is a combo living/dining area that the open concept kitchen overlooks.

The only furniture that is moved that frequently so that scratching is a factor in normal use would be dining room chairs and that's a fairly simple fix if one deems necessary. Sofas, easy chairs, beds, dining room tables, coffee tables generally aren't pushed across the floor surface.

There are stick-on pads on our dining room chairs, but there is no protection on the rest of our furniture, and we have hardwood everywhere except the bathroom. Its been here since 1940, and seems to be holding up very well. The 1st floor was refinished when we did a kitchen renovation in 2013 (they refinished floors on the entire 1st floor), but I believe all the upstairs hardwood is original finish from 1940. It can be damaged, but its far from delicate.

Bruce

OK, I will consider hardwood as an option. Some of the extra money spent on hardwood installation may come back in resale value.

However, I don't plan on selling anytime soon if ever, so I want what works best for me, not something to please future buyers.

If I were to look at hardwood, what types hold up best to traffic and are generally most resistant to wear and tear?

Instead of sheet vinyl look into brand name marmoleum. It may be more if what you are looking for, and comes in beautiful patterns.

Any thoughts on strand bamboo?

Would SPC flooring be a good choice?

Strand bamboo is similar to wood. There are very specific requirements for humidity, as it’s prone to cupping. Vinyl plank and SPC are similar though SPC does not require as many transitions, and has a wider temperature range in which it can be installed. It won’t bring the value that hardwood will

Oak floors are breeze, and tough. My floors were installed 17 years ago, and even with walking in with wet (and salty in the winter snows) shoes, they are a shiny as ever. And care? A vacuum once in a while and a barely damp sponge mop after the salt water dries and I notice it.

We like our wood floors, a dream to maintain.

One caution about hardwood, though. Dogs can damage the floors IF their nails aren’t maintained or if they have accidents. I can testify to the effect of dog urine on stained (but not polyurethaned) floors. When we bought our home, the living room floors had huge dark stains from dog urine...the sellers disclosed that, surprisingly, although there was no lingering odor and they looked like water spots to me.

. I love dogs but we had to completely sand off the stain, go down to the bare wood, restain and poly the floors. They’ve been easy care since the. By the way, the floor refinishers would guarantee the durability of their finish except when it came to pet claws. And it has indeed been very very durable.

In my last house and present house I have high end laminate floors in my kitchen. I live in a cold area so I have carpet in living and dining room. Laminate is a work horse (heard LVP is also) no scratches, dents, and you can really clean it with cleaner and a mop. Not just a damp cloth that only gives you an appearance of clean. I have a movable island with chairs and move it all the time without any damage or having to put cushions under it. If I ever am going to replace the floor again I will look into LVP. I heard that stuff is good also, but would have to research. My son moved into a older house four years ago with newly refinished hardwood floors. With a toddler and two dogs the floor is really showing wear. When he moved in he thought it was wonderful that it had hardwood floors, now he says he would never have it again.

I thought strand bamboo flooring was supposed to be much more durable than hardwood or and more water resistant than standard bamboo floors.

I have had oak hardwood floors in my last three homes. For our lifestyle, they are not low maintenance.

Strand bamboo is harder. It still has to have good humidity levels, or it will cup. Hardwood also needs the right humidity, but it's not usually as picky as bamboo. I had bamboo in our last house, no cupping, and it was good with my kids. But I didn't choose to put it in our new house.

We looked at doing bamboo floors for our new build, but because of the humidity levels & the risk of cupping, we chose to go with an engineered acacia hardwood instead. In our last home we had red oak hardwood, with a satin finish & after 26 years of wear & tear they did not look too bad.

If you are afraid of wood, then stay away from wood. It is a personal choice which should be respected. Bamboo will have all the same concerns as wood. The FINISH on bamboo is IDENTICAL to what is on hardwood. And it is the FINISH that takes the abuse (scratches, needs cleaning, needs felt pads on the bottom of chairs, etc).

The floor that has everything you want = porcelain tile. Even STONE has maintenance. And only a HIGH END epoxy finish on concrete is as low-maintenance as porcelain tile.

Everything else....and I mean EVERYTHING ELSE...has maintenance. If you want cushion then carpet, cork or linoleum are what you need to look at. All of them have maintenance. All of them have the same care/precautions as wood.

Wood floor will scratch and dent and fade, etc and will require some basic maintenance.

Terrazzo is STUNNING and VERY expensive and maintenance FREE. But it is also as hard as concrete/stone/tile.

At this point in time, you will need to decide on the qualities you are MOST interested in. In you post, your title indicates that low maintenance is the MOST significant requirement. That means we are down to a few options:

#1. Porcelain tile

#2. Terrazzo

#3. Epoxy finished Concrete floors

#4. Stone (like slate)

The options are ranked in "least" maintenance to most maintenance. Please note they are ALL hard floors (hard as rock...because they are made of rock).

Anything other than these options will have more maintenance and MORE "babying". Only you can decide how much "more" you will accept so that you have a 'softer' floor.

What about waterproof LVP? It isn't as hard as a rock like porcelain, yet hard enough to not be easily scratched by shoes and chairs and can be wet mopped without damage.

I have LVP, it's very durable but you will still need pads on the bottom of chairs. It absolutely can scratch but you have to put some effort into it. Moving a chair back and forth daily, would do it! Go get a sample board and put it through its paces!

I can get chair pads since that's a one time thing if that's the only issue. I don't want floors where you are recommended to remove your shoes to prevent damage.

I'm not a pro but I think most hard surface floors can withstand regular shoes wear and tear short of stomping around in stilettos.

What's advised if you plan on heated floors?

With porcelain tile, are there any types of grout that can be used that clean as easily as the tile surface itself?