What kind of Flooring

[kittylecroix]

Can anyone tell me why they like wood, tile or carpeting better and the reasons? My husband and I like the houses with tile in the main living areas but someone told me that it will cause back problems because the surface is so hard. We have hard wood in our home in central NY, but I don't see many Villages homes with it. Is their a reason? Is it overly expensive? I have a feeling that the carpet which is most of the homes will get dirty pretty quick because of the sandy soil. Any thoughts/advice?

[babbs455]

tile is great down here easily cleaned up but then you have to worry about those grout lines gettind dirty throughout the years...i do have back problems and tile flooring kills my back... I can not wait to rip out the tile and lay down real wood...in the rest of my house.
wood is great to keep up with low to maintain a great looking floor and it is easier on your back for sure...i much prefer real wood as to laminates as with laminate you feel like you click clack when you walk on it..i personally do not like laminate but that is my preference..i love ther real thing....the look is outstanding and a great reseller if you sell your home...and years of wear
as for carpet...if you have allergies you will find that all that dust and dirt trapped in the carpets will eventually work on your sences...especially if you have pets...and if you are moving into an home that has carpeting throughout...you are getting everyone elses dirt as well...
holler when you are ready for floors you will find our ad on the homepage,,,rick will be more than happy to come to you and discuss the differences in flooring and give you a free estimate.

[Army Guy]

In Florida, we have learned from research, that tile is the way to go. That is why we are tearing up the carpet & lino. in our brand new CYV and putting all tile.
It is easy to keep clean, the sandy-loam soil will not sink in and "eat" the carpet fiber no matter how often you vaccum. We have found out the average carpet life in FL is 7-10 years. The soil also can make keeping wood floors a real chore do to it's grittyness.
So, tile it is with area rugs. When those get bad, just throw out and get new. It is alot cheaper then redoing the whole house.

Army Guy

[F16 1UB]

Sorry but have to laugh about tile causing back problems. Not to mention, asphalt, concrete, berber, linoleum, marble, wood....

We had the new carpet removed from the LR and installed tile that matched our kitchen. We have 2 dogs. Easier to clean? NO! Paw prints, fuzz balls, whatever.... We're used to it an vacuum daily. Did the same thing in our previous home. There we had purgo flooring. No carpet in LR.

One thing for sure, if you remove the carpet, the acoustics do change dramatically.

Also if your home is new, the company that installed your carpet may give you credit towards installing tile. We had Floormasters, who originally install our carpet, credit us upon installation of the tile.

[graciegirl]

I like our Camellia with tile throughout kitchen and entry path, and baths but keeping it clean is a chore because of the dirt that comes in somehow. ( I find that things get dusty much faster than anywhere I have lived and I have lived in construction neighborhoods before.

There seems to be available in the houses that are already built just two choices of carpet: a cut shag and a plush. We have the plush and I like it. It gives some resilency to your feet.

I think that wood laid on top of cement would have no give. The wood floors in our Cincy home are laid on plywood that gives with each step. I imagine the reason that real wood is avoided is because of termites. ( I don't understand this, the house itself has an inner construction of wood) People are always warning you not to put down wood mulch etc.

If you shop carefully you can have your entire carpet cleaned in an average TV house for about $150. which I do frequently here and will do in TV. When you call several places for cost , do the math and say traffic patterns only and move things for easy access.......or not. I like to save money. Also go to Sams and buy an 8 pack of Spot Shot. It cleans any stains out of light carpet.

Get a Shark cleaner for tile. Works great. AND you will need to use it often. Saves your carpet too by not tracking that gritty grime onto it. Using it is fun and good exercise.

Latest news report from Miss know it all, Suzy Homemaker. I am so annoying.

[hdh1470]

With moisture problems between slab and wood floor have seen a lot of warped floors.I would never consider wood.My 2 cents for what its worth

[rdhdleo]

We finally a few years ago ripped out our carpeting and put tile in the bathroom, the great room and hallways and laundry room. The bedrooms now have wood laminate. All this is very easy to clean especially with our 2 pooches :) I have back problems and the tile has been no problem. The laminate if installed right does not click clack when when walked on and has a nice soft, warm feel for the bedrooms. We love it. I personally would never have carpeting in Florida. One side note, yes it is dusty here and I am always chasing dust bunnies since they have no carpeting to hide in, but I feel my house is cleaner now instead of all that imbedding in the carpet, eeeewww.
We bought a heavy duty steam cleaner for the tile it's easy and sanitizes great!
For the laminate we got a great tip from our flooring guy up north! We bought one of those wood floor mops you can wash the cover for it, and use windex or some such glass cleaner! No streaks, cleans great and oh so easy, the floors look beautiful.

[Russ_Boston]

How much walking are you guys doing that it hurts when you walk in the house:) I would assume that you also can't walk outside on the asphalt and concrete if your back is that bad.

But I can't see this being a reason to choose a flooring for the vast majority of people. How to clean, looks, colors, texture, longevity and personal choice would be the reasons to favor one over the other IMHO.

Personally I like the tile and or real wood choice for living and entry areas. I'm OK with the bedrooms keeping the rugs.

[ijusluvit]

Absolutely nothing like good wood floor with area rugs in the main living areas and bedrooms!
For Florida, engineered flooring PROPERLY glued to the slab gives a solid but soft walking feel. Easy to clean and looks great. Tile is fine in foyers and baths.

[starflyte1]

We have 2200 sq ft of tile in our home in South Florida. I said that I would never have tile in a home again because the grout was too hard to keep clean. Then, I bought a commercial steam cleaner and it cleaned all the grout, so when we move to TV, I will have tile installed in the entire house. It just seems sooo very clean when it is clean. We have a home for sale in TV, and it has wood laminate floors that are easy to keep clean, but I prefer the look of tile.

[babbs455]

[QUOTE=Russ_Boston;211641]How much walking are you guys doing that it hurts when you walk in the house:)

Actually I was in a head on car crash and have sever back problems..Myself I can see a hugh difference whether I walk daily on the wood floors vs the ceramic tile.
I did not say that walking on the tile floors cause back problems.. and yeah I do do alot of walking in my house taking care of a 94 yo sister inlaw It:pepper2: definately requires ALOT of walking in my house.

[batman911]

Maybe you should try Hawaiian Style and leave the shoes (and dirt) outside. I have not seen anyone that lives in Hawaii wear their dirty shoes inside the house. It would be considered bad manners. One of the good things about Hawaii that off sets the high cost of living here.

[Halle]

Maybe you should try Hawaiian Style and leave the shoes (and dirt) outside. I have not seen anyone that lives in Hawaii wear their dirty shoes inside the house. It would be considered bad manners. One of the good things about Hawaii that off sets the high cost of living here.

We do the same thing in Alaska, but due to the snow and mud. We also remove our shoes when at our house in TV.


:pepper2:
:pepper2:

[Mikitv]

I am not in TV yet, just a wannabee, but I do live in the south where it is extremely hot and humid. When we built out house this was our first slab but we went with a combination of tile, wood and some carpet. We have had no problem with the wood warping on the slab in 8 yrs here. We did leave carpet in our media room because of very tall ceilings and tile there would bounce the noise around more. I think for TV we will do a combination of tile and wood. Easy to take care of and for long periods of standing in kitchen can always get rubber mat to stand on.

[katezbox]

In Florida, we have learned from research, that tile is the way to go. That is why we are tearing up the carpet & lino. in our brand new CYV and putting all tile.
It is easy to keep clean, the sandy-loam soil will not sink in and "eat" the carpet fiber no matter how often you vaccum. We have found out the average carpet life in FL is 7-10 years. The soil also can make keeping wood floors a real chore do to it's grittyness.
So, tile it is with area rugs. When those get bad, just throw out and get new. It is alot cheaper then redoing the whole house.

Army Guy

We did the same as the AG family. We also had the w-w carpet pulled out and bound to use initially as area rugs as we didn't have any.

Kate

[senior citizen]

I like our Camellia with tile throughout kitchen and entry path, and baths but keeping it clean is a chore because of the dirt that comes in somehow. ( I find that things get dusty much faster than anywhere I have lived and I have lived in construction neighborhoods before.

There seems to be available in the houses that are already built just two choices of carpet: a cut shag and a plush. We have the plush and I like it. It gives some resilency to your feet.

I think that wood laid on top of cement would have no give. The wood floors in our Cincy home are laid on plywood that gives with each step. I imagine the reason that real wood is avoided is because of termites. ( I don't understand this, the house itself has an inner construction of wood) People are always warning you not to put down wood mulch etc.

If you shop carefully you can have your entire carpet cleaned in an average TV house for about $150. which I do frequently here and will do in TV. When you call several places for cost , do the math and say traffic patterns only and move things for easy access.......or not. I like to save money. Also go to Sams and buy an 8 pack of Spot Shot. It cleans any stains out of light carpet.

Get a Shark cleaner for tile. Works great. AND you will need to use it often. Saves your carpet too by not tracking that gritty grime onto it. Using it is fun and good exercise.

Latest news report from Miss know it all, Suzy Homemaker. I am so annoying.

Gracie,
As usual I do agree with everything you just wrote. Plus the tile remains cool for your feet. In a hot climate, cool floors are welcoming.

The steamcleaners you mentioned, no matter which brand, are GREAT as they can even clean with straight water. Leave no sticky residue like a Swiffer or other mop and detergent. Yes, the grout, especially in a kitchen like we have it up here in Vermont.......is the dilemma in certain parts of the kitchen such as near the dishwasher or from the coffeepot area to the trashcan.........other parts of the grout remain clean. One would drive themselves crazy trying to clean every bit of grout, so get the darkest you can get. Our kitchen tile is an adobe tan with similar color grout. The bathroom tile floors are shinier tile and for some reason the grout doesn't get dirty at all.

Wood floors nowadays are much easier to keep nice than the old ones of years ago..........but to me carpeting is still the easiest. Vacuuming is much easier than cleaning other type flooring. We remodeled a condo in Florida and I put in a pale oatmeal berber thinking it would stay clean as it was on the beach...........but it did get dirtier than even I would imagine. We put tile in the foyer and kitchen and bathrooms which was nice and cool to walk on. Plus tile on the balcony.

I think tile is great for Florida......but get one of those steam cleaners.

Also, I'm not saying there are "bugs" in The Villages, but another time we rented a house for one year in Florida on the East Coast near Patrick Air Force Base and it had beautiful plush carpeting but at night there were roaches that would "run out". Never saw them in the daytime. I assume they were UNDER the carpeting. I doubt if they could hide under a tile floor.
Nor under a wood floor...........but don't know about termites at all in Fla.

[graciegirl]

OH no. I would never have thought of that........and now that I have.........

[TrudyM]

Has anyone tried bamboo?? Does it dent?? I noticed it in the unit we rented when we went home to Hawaii and it was so warm on the feet. We always take our shoes off, as is the habit for Hawaiians.

Keeping grout clean. I got one of those grout sealer applicator things at the tile store and have added a coat of sealer to the grout in the kitchen and high traffic areas every 18 months or so. It is time consuming but saves trying to clean the mold black out after the fact. I also have a steam cleaner and love it.

Wood on slab. I was told that the only time it was bad to put wood down on slab was if it was newer than 6 months as it continues to cure and release moisture for awhile. I don’t know if this is correct or not.

A Marble disaster. I had a terrible experience with marble tile in one of the stores I managed. Over time it cracked and chipped along the natural fissures I don’t know why. The areas of the store that had ceramic and those with granite stood up fine.

[Russ_Boston]

[quote=Russ_Boston;211641]How much walking are you guys doing that it hurts when you walk in the house:)

Actually I was in a head on car crash and have sever back problems..Myself I can see a hugh difference whether I walk daily on the wood floors vs the ceramic tile.
I did not say that walking on the tile floors cause back problems.. and yeah I do do alot of walking in my house taking care of a 94 yo sister inlaw It:pepper2: definately requires ALOT of walking in my house.

Sorry I didn't mean to put you down. I think my point, badly made as it was, was that for the majority of people I don't think the floor hardness was an issue.

My apologies - Russ

[Russ_Boston]

Feel free to call me a slob but am I the only one who doesn't really care that the grout becomes discolored after some time? We steam clean it and yes our grout has become darker as time has elapsed but I don't lose any sleep over it or feel the need to reseal etc. Not an issue big enough to not chose tile if we wished.

[senior citizen]

OH no. I would never have thought of that........and now that I have.........

Well, not to worry.......I'm sure your new home doesn't have any.

We were on the east coast in a fairly new home owned by the widow of an Air Force General. After he passed, she moved to a condo on the beach.
She was in her 80's but did have the home "sprayed" frequently.

We would only see them at night if we we watching t.v. and the lights were out.

When we'd put the lights on, the roaches would scurry out and run across the floor. My husband pulled back some of the carpeting and pad...and they were under it. Circa 1970's. I've never read about them being seen in TV at all.

[Julie]

Feel free to call me a slob but am I the only one who doesn't really care that the grout becomes discolored after some time? We steam clean it and yes our grout has become darker as time has elapsed but I don't lose any sleep over it or feel the need to reseal etc. Not an issue big enough to not chose tile if we wished.

I'm with you on this one. For some reason the TV builders put lighter colored grout between the tiles. I'm thinking that when we finally have our house built that I'm going to stain the grout so it already looks dirty. That way I won't stress out about trying to keep it spotless.;)

[Army Guy]

Ya'all gave us something to consider. We are picking our grout color on Wednesday morning, so we will consider the darker color, that is a great point!

Russ, we don't think you are a slob! A house over time does get lived in! Heck, I don't want to put up velvet ropes up to keep people out!!

Army Guy

[santiagobob]

We have been in our home for 10 years and have tile in the foyer and kitchin with linolem in the baths and carpet in all the other rooms. We replaced the original (low grade) carpet 6 years ago with a upgraded carpet and it looks like new. We never walk into the house with our shoes on, we have a shoe rack in the garage and they stay there so we do not track in any outside dirt. If we tire of the carpeting, we will go with wood laminate as friends have it and they like the looks and ease of cleaning. The big mistake we made was to put tile in the shower. After 10 years there is no good way to clean the grout on the floor and remove the mold. We have a large shower and to replace the tile with solid surface materials will cost $7,000 - 9,000 dollars so we are puting that project on hold.

[F16 1UB]

Ya'all gave us something to consider. We are picking our grout color on Wednesday morning, so we will consider the darker color, that is a great point!

Army Guy



So what color grout did you choose???

[Bob S]

Today in construction the big buzzword is sustainable design - maximizing local materials and minimizing landfill costs. It is a shame that The Villages does not allow more choice in floor coverings on new builds. I cringe every time I hear that people are forced to tear out new materials to install what they want. It would be great if there was some way to convince the developer to change this policy.

[Muncle]

Don't know what the current policy is, but 3 friends have recently built designers and all chose all their flooring. Don't know how much choice you want, but these folks were satisfied with their options.

[F16 1UB]

I cringe every time I hear that people are forced to tear out new materials to install what they want. It would be great if there was some way to convince the developer to change this policy.


Bob,

We had our carpet removed before moving in. The carpet & padding were to be installed in another new home with a similar floor plan. We received a small credit also.

[JohnN]

We have some tile in our current house and our old dog often enough slips and falls on it. When it's wet, so do I .. *LOL*... I like tile but I'm unsure.

Wood may scratch with the sand? hadn't thought of that.
the bamboo sounds interesting.

I dunno.

sure TV gives you choices on designers, but there are lots of us buying the patios and ranches too. they ought to just give a choice period, it's a shame to waste new carpet (or nearly new)

[Army Guy]

We picked camel colored grout, which is dark and just about matches the tile we are using. It was funny, thought that camel would be more of alight tan but it is really very much darker. It is actually the same as HD uses in their display for our tile.

Army Guy

[graciegirl]

I still say that I would think long and hard before removing carpet. Walking on that tile hurts my feet. When I have been in the kitchen for awhile I can't wait to sink my bare feet into the nice plush carpeting.

I always am barefoot in the house. Maybe if I wore shoes?

[Army Guy]

Gracie, you make me laugh! You are just as bad as my wife.

Army Guy