| MandoMan |
03-17-2020 05:55 AM |
I’ve lived in a lot of houses with hardwood flooring in my life, and I like the look, generally—though primarily when it’s partly covered by carpets. To me, laminated and pre-finished hardwood looks fake, like the finishes on lots of furniture that is sprayed with little dots of paint so it will look like better wood than it is. Even the best vinyl fake-wood strips look fake to me, and it doesn’t necessarily wear much better than carpet. It is quieter than tile, though.
There is tile that is very attractive, but what I tend to see in houses for sale in TV is mostly big white tiles, or something similar. Tile floors are great for wheelchairs or to avoid tripping. However, I have also walked barefoot on tiles that were fine when my feet were dry but very dangerous when my feet were wet. Pulling up and replacing those tiles was not cheap. A white tile floor can add a lot of light to a room. That can be nice. However, tile also echoes a lot, so your quiet living room sounds like a bus station waiting room when you are conversing with friends. Not very intimate. A lot of people solve that problem by putting down throw rugs or Chinese carpets, but that defeats the ease of use when walking or using a wheelchair.
It’s true that carpet collects sand, dust, dander, and more. It has to be vacuumed and cleaned on occasion. But those things still occur with tile floors, too. With tile, though, that stuff needs to be swept up, sometimes several times a week. Then comes the dry mop throughout the house to get the dust. Then the wet mop to remove the dirt, especially when the tile is light colored. In my experience, tile demands more work in cleaning than carpet if you don’t want it to feel gritty underfoot or see dust bunnies scampering across the floor. That sand underfoot can also scratch some tiles. If you have your windows open, sand will blow in.
One good thing about tile in Florida is that on a hot summer day when your air conditioning is set at 74°, if you are barefoot, the tile will feel cold unless there is heating underneath it, and that will help you feel cooler. By contrast, carpeting will not chill your feet and make your arthritis flare up.
When I bought a house in TV, I found myself put off by all the houses with tile floors—I came nowhere near choosing any of them—and I chose a house with nice wall-to-wall carpet (except in the bathrooms and kitchen, of course). Not everyone agrees with me, but some would. I would say that if you can’t stand your carpet anymore and want to replace it, use tile if you like, but I would suggest the kind that is light grey and looks like three foot long planks of barn wood. It’s less likely to show the dust. I put 800 square feet of dark grey Italian porcelain tile in one house I built, along with light grey industrial carpet in the rest of the house, and I always loved it. (Industrial carpet was sturdy, didn’t trip people, and was only about $5 a yard. It had a very clean look, as it was low pile.)
My dad is 91, and his carpeting will need to be replaced when he goes. He asks me if he should replace it now, though he is happy with it. I tell him no, because the old carpet will be taken into account in the price, and whoever buys the house can put in the carpet they want instead of offering a lower price because they don’t like the new carpet he chooses.
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