We still have lots to do to our house.

My husband ins't that creative. I would have been very surprised as well.

confused!!!!!!1
 

i swear, everytime my mind is made up, I see your beautiful tile. I love it and I bet it is about the same price as wood. The problem I have is my hubby is good at building dog houses and runs but can't even screw a bulb in here in the house so we have to pay installation on everything and that's where they get ya. We are going this week to pickout something and I am sure going to take a close look at the big block ceramic tile.

I have Pre finished harwood floors in the living room and bedrooms and then ceramic tile in the kitchen My significant other ..and I installed it ,he use to be a flooring installer hes retired from that now .I love it for easy clean up and it pretty ..doesnt get much better than that ! :thumbup: here is a couple pics of miss mini showing you her floors haha

When we were looking at model houses one had congoleum (sp) in it. It looked like hardwood floors but it was lenoleum. It looked really good just like wood floors.

congoleum
 

Congoleum is pretty but it stains really bad and dents if you drop something heavy on it. My parents had that and every little spill stained it. I dropped an ashtray on it once and made a dent so I don't want that. But, it is pretty.

I have laminated floors - and gave up my carpet and got this flooring because I have pets. I do have a lot of area rugs and scatter rugs throughout my house also.

Laminated flooring is similar to and much harder and stronger than the formica on your counter tops. And - you know your dogs would have a hard time doing any damage to formica -- and even more so with laminated flooring.

My pets have never done any damage to my flooring - which I have had for over five years now. It's great!

Carol Jean

googled it!!!!!!!!
 

i googled and then went to the Lowe's website which is probably where we will go. They advertise several kinds of laminated wood flooring. The best says it is "snap and lock", moisture resistant and edges that are pretreated ith sealant. I am assuming this would be better that the kind that does not have the presealant on the edges. Looks like that would work as a moisture barrier and prevent the buckling? Any thoughts?

My daughters mother in law just remodeled her kitchen and put in pergo. One of the pads came off a leg of a barstool and scratched it already, less than 1 month old. These are not careless people either. She also dislikes it because it is hard to clean without streaking and etc. If you are looking into laminate, take a piece home and put it to your test. Drop a pliers counter heighth on it and see if it chips. Then pour some water on it and see what it does. It is not the best choice IMO, but maybe look into a new stip flooring that is vinyl. I am not sure of the company, but our reputable floor business in our small town have been using alot if it in homes and people are loving it. It is also something you could put down, same as laminate. Hope this helps.

We have laminated floors.

Kep in mind: Ceramic tile may be great for durability and clean up, BUT, the grout that holds it down, and is located between each tile is absorbant - meaning a sponge for the pee.

ANY hard flooring (especially slippery) can be dangerous.

I'm talking impact! Our 17 week old fell/slipped off the couch, landed on her back, and was laying there looking up at me, and me freaking out cause her tongue was sticking out, she wasn't moving, and was breathing extremely hard.

A trip to the Pet ER, 2.5 days in the hospital, a LARGE bill, and she is fine.

We now have padding near the couch as she grows up and learns, but I'm not sure I will ever feel compfortable with her jumping onto the flooring because of the lack of grip (like a carpet).

Kep in mind: Ceramic tile may be great for durability and clean up, BUT, the grout that holds it down, and is located between each tile is absorbant - meaning a sponge for the pee.

But it won't do this if you have a clear coat put over it if I understood Villette right.

Finally got my husband to send me these pics to me at work so I can show you our kitchen with laminate....

I DO have one spot in front of the fridge that obviously a spot of water didn't get wiped up (probably overnight). It left a small round white mark. Drives me nuts because I always see it. No one else seems to notice it though until I point it out. Other than that, I've had no problems. If Tatum has an accident, it's always on the rug by the door and may not get noticed for a while. I know it goes all the way through the rug but hasn't marked the floor. We have felt pads on every piece of furniture - chairs, couch, recliner - and have been lucky to not have any major scratches. I use the Hoover FloorMate to clean the floors. It is a bit time consuming but does a wonderful job. Just mopping it would leave streaks. Hope some of that helps you make your decision.

that is correct - you can seal the grout and the tile too. My Rowdy decided to pee on the tile in my bathroom a while back and it all was just in a little puddle - in the grout and on the tile too - nothing soaked in, no stains. That was my sealant test, I guess! :)

We just finished completly gutting the house we brought 2 years ago I had hardwood floors installed in my entire house, however I had carpetinstalled over in the bedrooms, my office and family room. I also had wood installed in the kitchen. This is my fouth kitchen redo, I have had lino, ceramic tile (hated cleaning the grout), and stone (hated cleaning the grout and the stone stained, chipped it was travertine). The wood is the best choice I have made. Our pool is off the back of the kitchen no matter how many rugs are down and the order to dry off before coming in the house I still have the wet foot prints. They wipe them up and I have had no problems. My floor guy comes once a year and maintains my finish. He uses a water base sealer which can be walked on in 2 hours, furniture replaced in less than 8. The sealer does not smell the way oil base does and I think it has a better finish. I use murphy's wood floor cleaner and it works wonderful. The dogs do slide when running at full speed, but I think the slide is intentional becuase they seems to enjoy doing it way to much and it doesn't happen all the time. I have attached some pics of the kitchen floor. He used 3/4" oak flooring in 3 4 and 5" widths run on the diagonal.

Wilsonart
 

I have the Wilsonart Laminate. We don't have any pads on our furniture and I change my den around at least once every 2 months, never had any scratches. Like I said before, I've never had any damage from water or pet accidents. Don't know if the brand I have is any stronger, but I swear I have never had any of the problems others have mentioned. With 3 boys and pets I had to have something durable because we are very rough on flooring and this is what I ended up with after research. My parents had the Pergo in 1991 when it was new and their floor was very loud, but mine is not. I have dropped cans from the cabinets and they did not do damage, although I had a lot of cuts in my linoleum from dropping cans!

One question I do have, does anyone here have laminate on their stairs? I want to do my stairs and upstairs hall/bathroom, but wasn't sure if they made laminate that would go on stairs. That is my next project, because Bonnie and my cat have found a place upstairs that they use the bathroom :mad: I would love to have it all over my house, but don't want to move the bedroom furniture downstairs, so I will probably leave carpet in the bedrooms.

Very nice! I love hardwood floors......


Francie