[SookeyJo]

Since hardwood floors seem to be all the rage now, I am wondering if any of you homeowners have it and whether you would recommend that or carpet down there. Please tell me your experiences with both. We are planning a move down to TV (will build) in the next year or so. Thanks! Sue in Ohio

[chuckinca]

Don't like carpet in Fla. The humidity makes it loose and it has to be stretched back to flat every few years. Never seen that happen in the midwest or Calif.


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[KathieI]

Originally Posted by SookeyJo

Since hardwood floors seem to be all the rage now, I am wondering if any of you homeowners have it and whether you would recommend that or carpet down there. Please tell me your experiences with both. We are planning a move down to TV (will build) in the next year or so. Thanks! Sue in Ohio

Hi Sookey, I moved into Hadley a year ago and since I was used to caring for wood floors, I immediately picked up the carpeting and put down real wood. Down here, its called engineered wood, so its a little different in thickness. But the quality is excellent and its very easy to keep up, esp with my 3 dogs. The rugs were just too much trouble and I break my back vacuuming them, so now I just run the mop over the floors. Very easy.

[BogeyBoy]

We pulled up the carpet in our home in Naples and put down all tile. It was great and we did the same when we built our first house here.

The second house here got wood everywhere except the kitchen, hall, and baths - tile in those. Then we moved in and the dog start to walk/run/slide around. Everywhere he traveled we heard the click-clack of his nails. And he couldn't seem to get any traction, so when he was on his schnoodle runs he would slide into the wall.

Needless to say the third house here has (almost) all tile again and we are quite happy. This time we put carpet in the master bedroom so when Bogey leaps off the bed he doesn't break his legs. We put in a high end berber type which seems to be holding up well, doesn't need stretching yet.

[kittylecroix]

KathieI,
Was the wood expensive? I have hardwood floors here in NY and I researched having them in FL and what I found is that t should be engineered hardwood, as you said. We will be buying a preowned or new house in TV in the next few months and I would love to have wood floors.

[jdsl1998]

Dear kittylecroix, We built our home in TV and put in carpit/tile combo. We only did this because in the long run we are moving some walls around and from what we hear tile is very dirty to remove. We are planning on putting down wood floors at that time. My family had an all tile home in Tucson and it hurt the knees after a bit so they changed parts of it to wood and put down rugs in the kitchen by the sink. SO, I'd say come on down, live with what you get for a bit and see what you like for the long run.

[ijusluvit]

Click on 'search' and enter 'hardwood floors'. Lots of good reading. I love hardwood floors. It's engineered flooring in Fla because it's glued or floats on the slab. Floating floors are cheaper to install but because of the nevenness of the concrete, they move underfoot in some places and are tight in others. Glue down makes them uniformly solid and they feel great to walk on. (unless you're an active schnoodle). There's a big difference in price with the combined material and labor between the specialty flooring shops and a place like Lowes. We did it both ways, insisted on quality gluedown and are very pleased with the results. But we paid lots less at Lowes. Live and learn!

[graciegirl]

I run barefoot all of the time and the tile in my Camellia is just too hard. I am glad we still have plush carpet too as well. The tile hurts my feet....I guess I COULD wear shoes.

Wouldn't wood over concrete be just as hard on your feet?

[kittylecroix]

Thanks for the responses. I think we will just go with what is there in the house we eventually buy for awhile as suggested. We rented in Caroline last Nov. and the house was great, but did notice the carpet needed stretching and had some dark spots that I think were from the sand there. The owners replaced it with some kind of wood floor that looked nice, but I couldn't tell exactly what it was(pergo, engineered hardwood).

[SookeyJo]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. Think we will probably go with the engineered wood and throw some decorative rugs around. Sue in Ohio

[swrinfla]

I went for wood everywhere except kitchen and baths. Not because of any feeling for "softer" flooring or any such thing. Solely because I have never lived in a house which wasn't hardwood floors, with the occasional rug around! As I was growing up, my parents had wood in each of the four homes I remember living in. My late wife's experience was the same, so when we found our first apartment, we made sure it had wood, and of course our first (and only) house did, too!

The only time we lived with out wood was during the couple of years when I was at Fort Bliss, Texas. Our tiny apartment in El Paso was linoleum, throughout! Ghastly place!

SWR