Putting wood floors in our home?? Need opinions please

[Tadswife]

Since the day we bought our house 3 years ago...I have wanted to remove our linolium flooring and put in wood floors. I have a walk way when you walk into my home the goes directly to the 1/2 bath, my kitchen and my upstairs bathroom I would like done in wood flooring. Do any of you girls have wood flooring in your bathroom? While discussing putting the wood floors in my bathroom w/ my BIL he mentioned it not being a real ideal thing because of the larger chance of water getting under the wood flooring and ruining it. That totally bumbed me out. I guess my point is.. do you think I should just put the wood floors in my kitchen and walkway into my house and leave the bathroom alone
Or put the wood flooring in the bathroom, walkway and kichen?
Of course more questions for those who have wood flooring, is it hard to take care of and if you had wood flooring put in your home how long did it take and was it terriably expensive??
I sure hope this all makes sense

[WebLady]

We have tile floors in our bathrooms and laminate wood floors in the other rooms. It looks like wood, but is far more durable. Although I am still not sure this would be ok for kitchens and bathrooms.

[Kfancii]

Check out Adura Flooring by Mannington -

http://www.mannington.com/residential/adura/new.aspx?type=('15','16')

This is a vinyl flooring product, but it is done in planks just like wood flooring or laminate. This is what we will be using to replace the horrible carpet in our bedroom. Our 4 dogs have destroyed the carpet and because we have 2 that like to "mark" the walls and floor, the flooring specialist we talked to suggested that we didn't do laminate or wood because of moisture getting under it. I would think that in a bath, you would be taking a big chance of having your flooring ruined by water.

ETA - The Ashford Walnut is our first choice in color for our room. I love how it looks like a weathered wooden floor.

[gwenshack]

I have had several problems with water damage in my condo, and lots of leaks in the bathroom, so I would definitely say don't put hardwood in the bathroom. You'd probably instantly regret it. You're not even supposed to clean hardwood with water so every time you got out of the shower you'd be risking ruining the floor.
I do not have hardwood in the bathroom, but I have it in the hallway, which shares a wall with my bathroom. When my shower leaked, it leaked through that wall and ruined my hardwood floors that aren't even in the same room! :( I can't afford to have them fixed or replaced right now so I just glare at the floor (and the shower) every time I see it!

[FFC]

What about wood laminate? It's water safe from what I've heard....?

[WebLady]

What about wood laminate? It's water safe from what I've heard....?
This is what we have :)

It won't ding and is ok with minor water exposure (way better than real wood floors), but may not be the best for bathrooms. It might be ok for kitchens though.

[MrsDM]

We have laminate throughout our entryway, kitchen, laundry room and master bath.

Pros - Its cleans up well. I got paint on it and just scraped it off.

Cons - if you get a lot of water on it, enough for it to seep inbetween the boards, it will buckle up.

Case in point - about 1 month ago, I was doing laundry. FH had put a rag on the faucet of our washtub next to the washer and the water must of hit the rag, and knocked it down plugging the drain. Water went EVERYWHERE! Even though it was sitting for about 5 minutes, certain boards are starting to come to a slight "v". Its not too noticable, in fact, I just put a rug over it and I forget about it!

As far as the wood in the master bath, I do get water sometimes on it from the shower, and it doesn't seem to do much, although it is just a little bit, not like a whole washload!

The only thing I would be concered about with the natural wood is its tolerance to moisture. Also, it is a lot softer than laminate and it scratches easier.

Unfortunately, I don't have a clue about the cost.

[firespirit]

In our old house we has wood in the kitchen, or some sort of fake wood, I don't really know what it was.

It was definitely NOT good with water. Drove me nuts. If you dropped ice cubes and missed picking one up, you saw it on the edge of the planks.

Our new house has vinyl in the kitchen and carpet in the dining area.

I plan on replacing those with tile.


After the old house it will only ever be tile or vinyl in bathrooms and kitchens from now on for us.