I bought an older home and removed the old carpet. There are wood floors underneath. At first I was excited about refinishing them and getting rugs (or bound remnants). I do not like the color of the floors and there are a lot of holes from the nails and staples. Two floor guys said they do not advise staining the floors because it will look 'off' next to the living room/dining room (these areas have finished hardwood that are fine). Now i just want to buy berber carpet for the bedrooms (both my husband and i like the idea of the kids having soft floors). I need to decide today (hopefully) because the floors are holding up our move. I feel like finishing the wood is a lot of money and i still will have 1970's looking wood that is glossy instead of dull. Other people complain that carpet hold in dirt and they think it is gross.
update: the whole house has hardwood. All the bedrooms and hall have the 'ugly' wood that needs attention. the quote to refinish is between $3500-$5000 (no color change and no filling holes) then i will need rugs for all 4 bedrooms and a hall runner (cheap est is $2000). This is the last thing and we are over budget which is why i am leaning towards carpet. I am happy to read some people had floors turn out beautiful. The carpet quotes are between $2500 and $4300.
Really you need to decide if you can handle the mis-matched wood or not. If so, then redo the existing floors. If not, do carpet. Since we can't see it, it's hard to say.
I would refinish the hardwood, absolutely. If the flooring guys are any good at all, they will be able to get a decent match on the finish to any other floors in your house, if that's what you want. Also, you don't have to have a super-shiny finish.
If you like the idea of a soft floor in the bedrooms, then get a throw rug and put it over the hardwood floor. Carpet, no matter how often you vacuum, gets really dirty really fast. With wood floors, you KNOW they are clean, and can remove throw rugs to have them cleaned, so you'll KNOW they are clean too.
Getting the wood floors re-done properly will take time, be expensive and labor intensive but value building.
Getting carpet will be quick, and relatively inexpensive but won't build value.
Depends on what you like. If there are allergies involved, I'd get the wood done.
But generally, flooring guys will tell you that the upstairs carpets stay cleaner because by the time you get through the house & upstairs, your shoes/feet are cleaner, drier, etc.
I personally don't like carpet. I don't like the allergens they hold and I don't like the mold that can grow under them when something gets spilled on them.
You can hire a professional and get it done right. They should be able to match the wood in the other rooms. I would go to Angieslist.com and check out a floor refinisher in your area.
GO FOR IT!!! REFINISH!!!
We got a drum sander and refinished our wood floors ourselves AND were able to match the rest of the house. any good floor guy should be able to do the same :)
Oviously I am pro-hard surfaces - ha! Go for it. If it looks bad, still can throw a carpet or rug over it to disguise the mis-match.
Good luck!!
I personally prefer wood, but if the rest of the house is wood and the floors won't match, then one room with carpet won't hurt.
Also, there is some amazing carpet out there. Spend the money and get some gorgeous carpeting, if that's what you decide.
We own a rental property and the upstairs apartment has hardwood floors. We had them redone a number of years ago by a professional and they came out amazing. They sanded them down completely and then stained and clear-coated them. If you prefer carpet in the kids rooms than get carpeting, but you could be surprised what some good floor guys can do - I would think they could as light or as dark a stain as you need to match the rest of the house.
My family has allergies, so this would be a no-brainer for me. Go with the hardwood.
We just had wood floors redone. It is a hassle - the amount of dust is unbelieveable. You definitely want to do that before you move, and clean really well afterwards - the entire house. That said, it looks amazing, and I'm so glad I did it.
As for the not-matching... It is hard to match stains exactly. Our floor guy suggested a complementary stain. That way it doesn't look 'off' because it's obvious that you weren't trying to match it. So if your current stain is a warm shade, but light in color, go with a warm dark stain. If it's a dark, cool, shade, go with a light cool shade. Or whatever, as long as you are always going warm/warm or cool/cool.
We have all tile downstairs and the entire upstairs is carpet. Love having our "nest" area soft and inviting. We don't wear shoes in the house so after three years the carpet is still beautiful. It's vacuumed twice a week and shampoo'd twice a year. We got a really plush, waterproof carpet pad to go under the carpet so it's like walking on a cloud, and if anything spills upstairs it won't soak into the padding and reach the sub-floor. A good carpet cleaner can sanitize and suck the wetness up before it does any damage.
It's amazing how clean you can keep a floor just by removing your shoes at the entryway of your house and exchanging them for house shoes. (Shoes only worn in the house, never outside. Slippers are perfect.)
Go with the carpet. I have HW throughout the house and it's okay, but I think it would be nice to have carpet in the bedrooms. Unless, any of you have alergy issues. If so go with the HW. You can control dust, etc. better with the wood.
Huge hardwood fan and we had out 1920s floors redone when we lived in an old Tudor. The main rooms were hardwood with the bedrooms being carpeted. When we removed the carpet, we brought in experts and they matched the stain on the rest of the floors to perfection. I'd take hardwood over carpet any day. Better resale value, too.
