My personal preference is wood throughout the house.

I have a ranch style home and used a combination of wood and tile. I love it. I use area rugs for warmth. Wood is more fragile but creates a timeless and beautiful look

Oops I meant to say that I used wood in all of the bedrooms.

I like the wall to wall carpet in the bedrooms, tile in high traffic areas and where there is water, and laminate in the great room. These decisions were based on aesthetics and ease of care. Trying to clean around and under bedroom furniture was really a challenge with hardwood floors. It seemed like the dust gathered in the most inaccessible places on a hardwood floor. These flooring choices have served us well for almost a year now.

We bought a retirement home several years ago which we have rented out in the interim. I had the bedroom carpeting replaced with solid oak. The first prospective renters grabbed it because she has asthma and wanted a dust-free environment. In that area, hardwood floors are a big plus - always noted in real estate listings. The most bizarre part of the house was the stairs: bottom half oak; top half carpet. I had them changed to all oak.

As noted, you can always add a rug to hardwood. Also, if you don't like the color of wood, you can refinish it, whereas you have to replace carpet if you don't like it.

For me, laminate is a big negative, because I have to add in the cost to replace it.

@jonathan3 helps solidify my point in his comment regarding the "cleaning under furniture"... sure carpet hides "stuff" (some of it bad)... but does that mean because you can't easily SEE it, it isn't there?
I submit that, even in my own residence... when cleaning becomes too much work, I start contemplating how to arrange the furnishings to make it simpler.
I'm not a "minimalist"... but I can tell the difference between easy maintenance and "I'll do that next week"...
Agreed that carpet is definitely a "lazy mans" approach... hell if you're careful, you can avoid cleaning the house for months... haha
After you've been in my biz for awhile and REMOVE some well used carpet, and see what's in & under it... you start thinking... Yikes.

Hardwood floor with area rug(s) is my preference. I would rip out any wall to wall carpeting in a house I was buying, both for allergies and as an aesthetic preference, so I'd have to factor installing hardwood floors into the price of the house if it were carpeted.

We have carpet on the stairs and in the bedrooms for safety (stairs) and warmth. On the first floor we have wood. All of this is because of our two little rugrats. Not only can you slide on wood floors in your socks, spills are easy to clean. The carpeted stairs provided padding when they were learning to climb. Our next house will probably have wood everywhere for allergies sake with area rugs for warmth.

To summarize what others have said: carpet offers more comfort with less expense, but hardwood has more designer appeal. If you have/want hardwood throughout the house and money is no issue, then it might be best to choose that in the bedroom as well. The buyer can always add an area rug.

Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with softening what should be the most comfortable room in the house, especially if you have carpet in other areas. I will note briefly that the only allergens in carpet are the allergens you put into it; carpet does not "generate" dust, though it can trap and accumulate it if not properly maintained.

I'm 50/50 on wood vs carpet The more expensive the house the higher chance its' owner will go wood. For comfort I personally would go carpet, but only with a double 1/2" Pad. This is achieved by adding a 1/2 thick x 1" wide plywood edging at the base board to avoid the bulge in and wider leg pads to avoid punch through. Nothing like it for end of the day relaxing.

I have always had carpet in my bedroom until this last house. Will never go back. The main reason is that once you have hardwoods, you see all the dust and dirt that goes into carpet. Just because I never saw the dust, does not mean it wasn't there. We use an area rug around the bed, but we are able to take it outside periodically and shake it in addition to vacuuming. By the way, we are over 50. Carpet doesn't make much difference in softness if your foundation is poured concrete like they do it down south. If you live in a place where you have a crawl space then maybe carpet would make a difference. :)

I can tell you from experience when I walk on hardwood for a long time my joints ache. And I can tell you many others have made the same comment. A friend of mine complains constantly about her joints and acknowledges that when she lived in a house with carpeting her joints did not ache as badly. Her sister, under her advice, removed all the carpeting in her house and replaced it with hardwood. A month later the sister was unable to walk. You will notice in almost any exercise center there are thick black cushion pads on the floor. Guess why? I am well aware that carpet generates much more dust than hardwood, but as I said I can deal with that much better than the crippling of my joints. I am as far south as one can go. Anytime I have carpet laid it is with a pad underneath, irrespective of whether there is concrete or a crawl space underneath. So pick your poison - a runny nose from the dust of carpets or joints that ache so badly that you are limited in your activities. I like my activities.

I choose carpet for our bedrooms and would like to point out one disadvantage: bedrooms are where people go to recover from an illness. So far we have had three years in a row when we had to have carpet cleaners come on an emergency basis. Once was in the summer so we had to run the dehumidifier to speed up the drying. This is so disruptive when someone is sick, or even worse in the hospital and the family has to deal with carpet cleaning as well as has the hospitalization. Next time I will use hard flooring and perhaps room-size rugs that can be removed for cleaning.

Oddly, I find our old hardwood floors pretty nice on my joints. Taking out the carpet didn't make much difference. The cheap laminate over concrete in the kitchen on the other hand... Ouch.

Hardwood floors with area rugs offer the best of both, plus they can be taken out and cleaned regularly, if needed for allergy purposes.

I put carpet in the living room only, because it's great for acoustics. It's a very low commercial type that's easy to vacuum clean. PS: Big dogs will scratch up hardwood.

I like the comfort of carpet in my bedrooms and feel it's easy to keep clean.

I encourage clients to select wood floors for bedrooms, and then use area rugs if needed.

Was that wall to wall or area?

I love the look of hardwood floors with area rugs. Wall to all carpet is a dust magnet and bad for allergies.

Wood floors add value to your home !

The hype over carpet and allergies, in particular asthma, has been largely fabricated. In 2002, a major international survey of over 19,000 people in 18 countries showed categorically that people who have carpet in their home, especially in the bedroom, have less incidence of asthma. So if you like carpet then go for it, it will actually help your asthma.

Carpeting has a great aesthetic and feel, but in truth there needs to be a give and take relationship between hardwood floors and rugs. That's why area rugs in proper proportion to the space and need are important.

We tore out our Capet in our home and put in laminate. It's pretty and I have pretty rugs but the dogs slide on it an it is hard to keep clean. First you must vacuum then you must mop. You have to chase the dust around which is annoying. In our retirement home which is a manufactured home in florida we just went with new carpet. I vacume frequently and just love how much easier it is to keep clean. Just get a good vacuume. My husband and I have allergy triggered asthma. It is better in the carpeted home than in the laminate with rugs home. I am picky about clean floors.

Carpet me for please (in bedrooms) ...... Hardwood in all other rooms

Hardwood is a fad that will fade with time. I chuckle when I see homes that lay an area rugs on floors to get the warmth and comfort of carpet. I have hardwood in my house in the high traffic areas, ceramic tile in the kitchen and carpet everwhere else. For those who say hardwood is less maintenance I'm calling BS. Unless your hardwood floor is covered with a rug, you had better take care of the surface 3-4 times a year.

We DIY removal of bedroom carpeting, less than 5yrs old, in our last house. No knowing anything, we didn't "suit up " properly. I got a bad fungal infection! 5yr old carpet! There's a reason many of the big box store contractor refuse to do carpet removal when replacing the flooring. I'll never have carpet again, and only rugs that I can send out to be cleaned.

I'm always baffled when people say wood/tile is easier to clean, and then in the next sentence suggest putting an area rug dow. So then I have to vacuum, sweep AND mop? Not to mention struggling with the vacuum sucking up the edges of the rug and shredding it. No thanks. Wood is beautiful but not great for every inch of the house.

Read this and stop telling people carpet makes allergies/asthma worse.

http://www.unitedallergyservices.com/the-surprising-truth-about-carpet/

Well I am about to buy a house which has a combination of tile, carpet and wood. Florida home on the bay. This discussion did nothing to help me decide what to do because most of the comments seemed to be strictly opinions. I think carpet in the bedrooms makes sense. I didn't hear anyone mention that tile and wood will cause your house to echo and be extremely noisy. I have a great room 3 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms one study. I am planning to leave the bathrooms in tile, kitchen is in tile but all bedrooms are carpet as is the great room. Having had all 3 products I have no strong preference but I do have to have area rugs over the wood and the tile in my other home which makes no sense. As mentioned before then you get to clean using a vacuum, a mop and a duster. I plan to get some professional advice since this is an expensive home so that I don't make a mis-step in decisions...

'the trouble' with wall to wall carpeting is the paths that get matted down across the middle, around the bed, up the stairs, wherever. people should sign a pledge that they will rip it all out again in 4 years and replace it.

A all hardwood house reminds me of a airplane hanger or a warehouse. Carpet in the bedrooms for me, wood floors in high traffic areas, Oh and an occasional vacuum could go a long way for those dusty carpets. One other thing, shoes left off unless it's a social occasion.

My husband and I recently purchased an older home, 4400 square feet, which is almost entirely hard wood, with the exception of two full bathrooms being tiled. The 1/2 bath on the main floor is also hard wood, which would not be my preference for a bathroom. I really do prefer tile in bathrooms. My husband and I really struggled with the hard wood versus carpet dilemma for the bedrooms. This home is located in an upscale southern New Hampshire community, so read cold winters. In doing our home renovation, we refinished most of the hardwood throughout the home and added 90 ounce carpeting in the bedrooms, upstairs office and gym for the same reasons I've read above - warmth, sound reduction and comfort. We still ended up putting wool area rugs in the rooms with the hard wood, and approximately 2500 square feet of hard wood is still visible. The way we look at it, we can always pull up the carpet and refinish the floors that are currently covered prior to selling the home, but for resale value, the hard wood floors are still there. We just want to be comfortable in our home and are very happy with the decision. For what it's worth; I find hard wood floors get dusty an hour after being cleaned. We did stain them a darker color with a low luster finish, so they look beautiful.

I'm sure that carpet is a better idea for the bedroom)
Just because it's warmer)
On the other hand, carpets require more sophisticated care so wooden flooring is more practical. If you are not afraid to deal with carpet it will be a better choice in my opinion. By the way, here is a link to my carpet cleaning company if someone is interested :)
http://smile-carpet-cleaning.com/co

I have been having a really difficult time making up my mind about whether or not to put carpeting in our master bedroom. I was extremely against the idea at first. Then I saw some selections of 100% wool carpeting- kind of a game-changer. Its quite lovely looking and very soft and warm. We had our bedroom sound proofed to a degree and this will help it be even quieter. Every other room (including the other bedrooms, because they were already there... ((we did an addition)) have hardwood except the bathrooms which have tile) The carpeting fit our budget as we blew most of the flooring budget on solid hickory wide plank floors for downstairs. And as my husband said, We can always rip it up in 5 years if we decide its awful. My inlaws had carpet in all of their bedrooms and it was very nice. I actually had to think back and remember that many of the homes I love had carpeting in bedrooms and I never noticed or thought it was a negative. I was just biased because I grew up in a home with 100% wood flooring.

If you can do hard woods

the problem is if you dont replace it in 5 years. i've just seen too many real estate photos of carpeted bedrooms with worn paths from the door to the closet, to the bathroom... and all i can think is some sort of spell comes over the home owner so they don't notice the carpet doesnt look new any more.

Full disclosure, I have very strong opinions about wall to wall carpeting. As a foreigner living in US, I simply don't understand the love towards carpeting everywhere. Especially when removing shoes as soon as entering is culturally not a tradition. Not only is carpet aesthetically displeasing (just ugly, let's be honest), it is a source of dust, collector of dust and extremely difficult to maintain. Fine dust settles into the fibers underneath the bed which cannot be accessed with a vacuum cleaner unless you move the bed. And how easy is it to move any type of large furniture on carpet? Any liquid spills leaves some sort of stain. Cleaning with steam means moving all furniture and then waiting an eternity for it to dry. If it were up to me I would outlaw wall to wall carpeting :D. We moved to a house recently that had carpeting throughout except bathrooms and kitchen. My first rooms to switch to hardwood were bedrooms. If one cannot afford solid hardwood, opt for engineered, if not engineered, have laminate, if not laminate, go with vinyl or tile or whatever but not wall to wall carpeting. I sincerely hope it is something that will eventually go away as more affordable options become available. I am all for area rugs though.

My wife and I purchased our home about a year ago. A split level ranch less than 20 years old, solid, New roof. Previous owners had pets and kids, as we do as well. 10 year old carpet is being torn up and replaced with laminate throughout the house except for the basement. Have kids? Tell me how wonderful carpet is when they dump red kool-aid all over it. Have pets? Tell me how great carpet full of urine is. Tell me how wonderful carpet is whenever I empty the vacuum and it's full of dust, dirt, and crud. And in my area laminate or hardwood is a huge plus when selling, as I live in a nice, reasonable (200-300 price range) area, not some pretentious area near L.A.. Trust me, you got kids or pets you need to rip that carpet up now.

https://www.thespruce.com/could-carpet-improve-asthma-allergy-symptoms-2908837

I have a carpet in my bedroom at home, it is simply
wonderful. Thick, made of leather and fur, made to oder at ArtRelief. I’ve had
it for almost 4 years and it looks like new.

I used to sell real estate on the Massachusetts/New Hampshire boarder and we have a lot of older homes that sellers would always say "have hardwood under the bedroom carpets" and buyers would all be happy. But years later when they were selling, they would say the same thing. If they took the carpet up, a lot of times it went back down. Cold, creaky floors or warm, quiet carpet. I have a newer home and while I love my hardwood floors everywhere, not the bedroom. There I have thick padded lightly piled carpet. I think it's cozy.

I don't want to chase dust bunnies under the bed, the carpet stops them and the vacuum sucks them up.

Thank you for your honesty. Go with what you want and makes you happy! Its ok to get someone opinion. But the choice is yours in the end.

Everyone is saying that hardwood has less allergens, but I’ve read that allergens are caught by the carpet and can then be easily vacuumed up, where the allergens stay more airborne with hardwood. Now I’m just more confused.

Either can be right as we all have different allergies and hey they increase as we age. Electro static air cleaners and certified hepa filters on cleaning is the best choice which ever way you want to go with floors

Lux vinyl only sends off gas for a few weeks. Not forever.

I dont think the dust travel as much on carpet than hardwood floor. That's why i choose carpet in my room and leaving room. Vacuuming once a week is the key. And a bigger machine once every 3 month if necessary. Cheers.

There are low VOC carpets, including Mohawk Smart Silk Strand, as well as wool carpeting, which lasts forever, with proper care.

hardwood. no contest. if the buyers want carpet, they will be picky about the color and style. it's such a waste if they choose to rip out what's there, which will likely end up in the landfill.

besides, most people understand that it's so much easier and less costly to buy an area rug and clean or replace it if something really gross happens.

@User-I've known buyers to walk out of homes on the market with hardwoods, either due to the color being wrong or the potential for scuff/scratch marks. Area rugs aren't always an option if all your furnitures front legs don't fit symmetrically (think pianos beside antique bookcases, etc). In older homes in the Northeast/Midwest, winters are sufficiently cold as to make the case for carpeting. Not everyone will destroy custom plaster work to install insulation and drywall, nor can all home owners afford top quality plasterers to replicate the original walls. So, some are stuck with carpeting... choosing a neutral color in a harder wearing, low VOC is what's advised in many areas.

In my area, clients rarely want carpet anymore. The trend is Luxury Vinyl Plank. It has the look of hardwood, the care of laminate, but has a bit more give than hardwood. Carpet does harbor allergens that are released when you vacuum, and even walk on it. And in my area, dust mites are a huge issue. They live in carpets, and can cause severe allergies to some people. I'll never have a carpeted home for myself, again. I've been staying in a condo this winter that is carpeted, and it's like having a 3-month cold, because I'm one of the unlucky ones who are allergic to dust mites. Carpet does feel great under the feet, but with dogs, water, dust, it just doesn't make sense for me or many of my clients.