You guys are so bossy about our floor choices. And some of you think that we haven’t done our research. Must be because our books are usually haphazardly slapped together without any background. 😉
Let’s run through some options here.
Bamboo.
No. Jessie Mihalik has bamboo floors in her house. They are very comfortable. They are also so soft that when even a small dog walks on the planks, there are gouges.
Laminate.
No. We have a “luxury” laminate upstairs. If there is any amount of standing water for a brief time, it bubbles up. We had a minor leak from AC, and even though we caught it within a couple of hours, the damage was done. It is also loud and slick.
Vinyl.
How to put it tactfully: it’s an expensive house. We are not going to put cheap vinyl on the floor, because if we do end up selling it once the kids are out of college, the floor would need to be redone. It is also inconsistent with a general look and feel of the house. Even if we got a luxury vinyl that mimics wood or stone, it’s still plastic at the end and it would drag the value of the house down. If the house cost half of what it does, maybe, but it’s a substantial investment and, if we stay, I don’t want to replace the floors in 15 years either, because that’s about how long vinyl lasts.
Solid Hardwood.
Four dogs. No.
Engineered Hardwood.
They need to engineer it a bit better, because it lasts only as long as the veneer on top.
Tile.
That’s probably our most affordable option. Tile can mimic wood or natural stone, it looks attractive, and dogs love it in Texas, because it’s cold. It is hard as hell and it does crack if you drop something on it, but we’ve lived in this house for 5 years with the downstairs tiled, and so far we haven’t cracked anything. Would I like a softer floor? Yes. But I also need a floor that’s scratch resistant, can be easily cleaned, and is water proof with the right sealing. With TLC, it can last for the life of the house.
Natural stone.
If we had all the money in the world, that’s what I would do throughout the downstairs. So cards on the table, if an actual French person saw what passes for “French Country” or “French Provincial” houses in US, they would laugh. It’s more like Disney world version of French. And guess what, I love our future – hopefully – Disney-French kitchen, but to be able to balance all of the wood flourishes, we need to make the rest of the house restrained and rustic. Traditional French country houses have limestone or brick floors. Sometimes old wood, but mostly stone.
Not an awesome picture, but looks like limestone might have been pillow-cut. Below is a modern, hideously expensive imported-from-France version of the same style floor from Houzz.
This costs an arm and a leg, and we can’t afford it. But we may be able to afford a cheaper version of that from Floor King or some other floor retailer.
Concrete.
The house has stamped concrete now. It is durable, but sooner or later it cracks and it’s uncomfortable to walk on. It’s cold and kind of lifeless.
So in conclusion, there is a reason everyone is referring to this property as “unique.” It’s an unusual house and it requires careful consideration in updating.
In case you are wondering what typical Texas houses look like in the area, I have a quintessential Texas Hill Country house for you here.
Yeah, but the outdoor area on that last one was nice, Too remote and too TX for me though.
It looks like it’s about a mile from the Randolph AFB runways, which means you’d have take offs and landings of fighter jets pretty much ALL DAY long, so besides the too TX (Even on the doors? Really? I do like TX, but that is a bit much…) it’s probably pretty noisy for the money.
What about terrazzo? There are some really nice pattern mixes out there. Prices for terrazzo range from cheap to wickedly expensive. I have it, and it’s great if you have little beasties. I have 3 dogs and 3 cats.
Not sure how to properly post comment on a blog ?, but if this is any use to you … we have 2.5 cm (1 inch) solid oak plank wooden floors downstairs. They are in excellent order. They are sealed but not polyurethaned. They look great. We have solid reclaimed (from a two hundred year old convent – it’s Ireland, we got old stuff all over the place) solid parquet oak floors in our formal sitting room and bathroom. Upstairs is oatmealish white carpet except the bathroom, which has porcelain tiles. We live on a dairy farm and have 2 really dirty dogs. Solid wood is great. After twenty years we aim to have some of the floors sanded and refinished, but the small scrapes and marks are cool, as they follow the stories of our lives as my brother (three boys, one dog, refinished his floors after 15 years) says – ‘when there are scratches in wood floors, you know it’s the real deal!’ The bestest thing about the real wood floors though is they look so lovely that you can get away with putting cheaper plain area rugs inside the front and back entrances.
That listing you linked as an example is on Woman Hollering Rd? What a wonderfully crazy street name.
East Woman Hollering. Next to a Buddhist temple. 🙂
That is an epic street name.
What about terrazzo? There are some really nice pattern mixes out there. Prices for terrazzo range from cheap to wickedly expensive. I have it, and it’s great if you have little beasties. I have 3 dogs and 3 cats.
Is there a West Woman Hollering? Do they cross over Not Paying Attention Man Lane? 😉
LOLOLOLOL!
I can see this in a next Hidden Legacy novel, and all the possible jokes that could go with it. 😀
I love the look of tile. Also think it’s hard to walk on, but sensible for pets. The grayish wood-looking style would be beautiful.
Some years back, I had my whole house (except bedrooms where we went with fake hardwood) tiled. I absolutely love it. My allergies are much better. And the best part is the clean up. I have a robot that does the vacuuming and a hard floor scrubber that cleans up the dirt the robot can’t raise. The bad part is that pets can cause some of the most amazing dust bunnies under the couch if you don’t run the robot often enough.
Is that…a Texas lone star range hood? Oh wow there’s one on the outside too. Wow.
We rented a house in Hill Country. There were lone star light sconces in both the master bath and kitchen, as well as carved into the front door. And honestly, that was kind of tame by community standards. The Texas star is EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING. I’m from/back in Wisconsin, and I thought our ability to put a Packer or Badger logo on everything was impressive. Texas leaves us in the dust.
The BDH can be pushy. The only answer is “Kate 10!”
Btw – did you know they make wood look tile? I’ve got 3 big dogs, so I understand your pain. ?
Be aware that thanks to us lovely Harvey flooded people some of the wood look porcelain tile is on back order around Texas. At least the one I picked here in Houston is and when I looked all around Texas for the same tile it was out. The closest I found was Arizona. I’m hearing this is only going to get more widespread as Houston rebuilds.
We have gone though the exact same thought/research processes as you and we’ve arrived at porcelain wood look tile flooring. I’ll throw down rugs if it’s too hard. If it floods again I do not want to rip out my floors if I don’t have to. Hopefully it won’t flood but you never know.
I know you said, “No hardwood” because of the dogs, but we put in Hickory in our new house 3 years ago and it is holding up really well. We are down to one dog, but had two most of the time we have been here. My husband is a bit of a wood fanatic and did a lot of research on on how to finish them which has probably made a difference.
I put in maple floors, did them myself but they still cost a lot. I love the way they look when they get scratched and beat up as they get old.
We’re changing our floors in the near future and dogs are the main factor in deciding what to put in. What we have is ridiculous. It was here when we moved in and dents, scratches and shows terrible water damage from almost nothing.
What kind of wood did you get and what’s the dog-resistant finish?
Does Woman Hollering Rd go anywhere near Woman Hollering Creek? I’ve seen that sign on I-10 going West.
I have tile in my very typical ranch house that’s similar to the ‘limestone looking pillow cut’ photo. I’ve never regretted installing it. We have tile and wood. No carpet.
I think you should listen to yourselves on your choices. No one else.
I just got tile that looks like weathered wooden planks and I love it! It’s an inexpensive, relatively, option and looks amazing! You’ll be very happy and so will the dogs ??
If you’re going with tile, think about installing under floor heating when you do it… I reno’d my house a few years back and put this into the bathrooms which is great (get up in the morning to warm floors!). My regret is that I didn’t bother with the kitchen, and it’s too late now 🙁
Also porcelain (and some concrete) tiles have the colour all the way through, so if you chip them, it doesn’t show as badly as ceramic (which just has an exterior glazing)
I was about to suggest the same thing. It’s not nearly as expensive as it used to be, and it feels so nice on your feet. I love being able to keep the house cooler in the winter, bundle up and still go barefoot.
Meant to say, do the tile or whatever makes you happy. It’s your home and you don’t have to satisfy anyone else. Which of course, you already know. 😉
Oh, and we have tile and love it, it’s great with dogs and we have big ones! My only recommendation would be to go with minimal grout lines. Cleaning that grout is a PITA, of course you can always have Gordon do it :o)
Used grey grout on the advice of the tile store owner. As he said, it always looks the same with no color variation over time.
Love how everyone wants to tell you what to do, how to do it, etc… And here’s MY opinion! Go with what you like and can afford! I hope you can enjoy the decisions and the move.
Hahaha!
I have vinyl plank flooring and love it for the dog and kiddo imperviousness factor. Plus it can be pulled up a single plank at a time to be replaced if needed. That said I completely understand keeping things in the style of the home and in Texas, stone totally works. Plus you can put in floor heating under it if you want for those weird chilly Texas mornings that end up as hot sunny 80+ degree days. Like we’re having right now!!!! I wore three layers this morning to go out and have peeled them off until I’m now sitting in the sun in shorts and t-shirt! Oh Central Texas, never change.
We re-did the flooring in our Houston home last January.: engineered wood in the living rooms and bedroom and tile in kitchen and bath. I wish we had tiled the whole house. I spend hours barefoot in the kitchen and it doesn’t bother me and it is easy to care for but the wood is much harder to keep clean and it scars. Go with tile or stone! I love the look of slate but let someone scare me away from it. A mistake, I think.
I highly recommend putting a heated tile floor in the bathroom. Makes those chilly winter days so much nicer, without having to heat the whole house up to what I want when I take a bath or shower. It is really very easy to do – I only had to have an electrician wire it, and the thermostat for it. I learned how to put in tile floors – and what I did was better than the guys who reconstructed the back part of my house, even though I was turning 60!
And kitchen! I forgot to say I put a heated tile floor in the kitchen! makes a cold morning easier while I make the coffee!
You know, radiant floor heating is much easier to install and could easily take the chill out of that tile in the winter. ?
It’s also pretty expensive…slippers may be a better option…
I like this layout of flooring options for a multitude of reasons, the main one being the fact that we’re also considering replacing the floors in our abode. We’d considered getting stained concrete floors, to look like redwood, with radiant heating beneath the concrete to keep them from feeling cold/lifeless. The cracking issue with concrete is a definite drawback; Might be worthwhile to go back to the drawing board and more seriously reconsider tile, since it can also mimic wood and have the radiant heating underneath. Hope whatever you pick ends up making your new Chateau feel even cozier and lasts well. 🙂
Love the tile idea….my parents have ceramic tile and it’s pretty damn durable…and in the 15 years since they got it there was no breakage. The only concern they had was the grout and ensuring it didn’t stain when things were inevitably dropped on it…so they picked a darker color. I’m sure whatever u choose would be awesome. I’d ask if you can show us the finished product but I’m worried about people saying how they would do it differently/better so i’ll leave that decision up to you…
Well, this is giving me lots of ideas for future house floors (and I completely agree about the lovely-but-pricey stone option).
We have wood like tile downstairs in our house in Austin. Looks great and WOW, so easy to clean, especially with dogs. We don’t worry about it at all.
If you have a good contractor who will work with what you want to use – or if you are comfortable with doing it yourself – I would suggest you check out the tile on Wayfair.com. I bought the tile that I put on the walls at the back entrance of our house from there. They offer free shipping, and none of my tile arrived broken. They will send you samples, too. Much less time-consuming that going tile-shopping!
Have you looked into cork flooring? That’s what we have, and we’ve been very happy with it. There are some nice patterns out there, and you can seal it once installed to protect it. We did the glueless/floating plank type as we have radiant heat and couldn’t do the glue down, and it has been super durable. And too, one of the bonuses with cork is that even if dog nails do scratch it a bit (we didn’t seal ours to begin with), with the pattern, you can’t tell. 🙂
We’re going through the painful flooring search for our condo in Florida. Wood is out because Florida. I don’t need the upkeep hassles. Tile would be okay, but my problem is that I HATE GROUT. I hate the look of it, I hate the feel of it and I hate the whole process of removing old GROUT and regrouting. HATE IT.
But a quick piece of advice from our remodeler, unless you’re going with tumbled stone, select RECTIFIED TILE so that your grout lines can be straighter and thinner.
Good luck with your move-in madness!
As a tile flooring and installation professional of 24+ years here is my advice: Do what you wish to do and let everyone else make their own choices for their own home!!
I have personally really started liking the wood look porcelain tile. I have done one of my showers with it and will also be doing my master shower with a selection as well. I do not know of Floor King but we have a couple of stores in Phoenix within the national chain of Floor & Decor company which has good selection, service, and pricing.
Good luck!
Why do other people think they know what you want better than you do ? If I’m in the market for something new, my mother and my sister start every conversation about it with, “what you want is… “ and then go on to say exactly what they want me to get!! Back off people – Ilona and Gordon are adults grown, they know what they want, or, they will do when they see it ?xxx
What about marble tiles? They keep the place cool, come in a ton of colours, are easy to clean up and are resistant to dog nails crashing all over the place (Personal experience). The only worry would be, what everyone said earlier – grout lines. And they get REALLY slippery when wet – which can be funny when a dog goes slip-sliding everywhere… but not when you fall down yourself. -.-”
But it’s really you and your family’s choice. Choose something that you can live with (doesn’t break the bank while you’re at it) and don’t stress yourself out doing it!. Hope everything goes well!
Hi, are you sure your friend had Bamboo? I’ve got it with two cats and it is just fine. My friends who had
~cork~ floors, on the other hand, also had two dogs and it was very torn up when they replaced it with Red Maple.
I used to feel the same about vinyl, because it evokes those images of cheap 50s kitchen floors. But modern quality vinyl flooring is neither cheap nor cheap looking (when I looked into it, on average it cost about twice as much as laminate). I like tiles myself, but especially with pets (I have cats) you have the problem with the grouting, because that’s usually where any mess ends up, certainly not in the middle of the tile. And grout cleaning is no fun.
Here is some vinyl inspiration: https://www.pinterest.ch/search/pins/?q=vinyl-b%C3%B6den-k%C3%BCche
I think the herringbone brick vinyl flooring looks quite good: https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/322851867021583043/
Not telling you what to do, just my experience (if it’s at all helpful).
I have porcelain tile that looks like wood in my bathroom and porcelain tile that looks like pale grey-cream-beige slate in my kitchen/dining room. And if I’d had more money I might have just gone for tile that looked like wood throughout the back of the house but it was quite a bit more expensive…but looks so nice! All our tiles are a bit more textured so you don’t slip but it makes cleaning up sometimes harder. We also had a leak under our floor and had to dig big holes in it. Tile way easier to replace than wood.
Lived in Asia for a bit, had marble floor which was fine BUT it stains if it gets liquid on it that you don’t wipe up in time. Natural stone pretty and classy but requires more upkeep.
Summary: Porcelain tiles can mimic lots of things really well and are durable and fairly maintenance free. Also, darker than white grout is your friend.
It’s nice all your readers have opinions and suggestions to share, but it’s your house not theirs to live in and enjoy. Do what you want (as you are) and don’t let anyone bug you!
Totally unrelated, but today’s kindle deal seems right up your alley!
https://smile.amazon.com/Bear-Nightingale-Novel-Winternight-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00X2FDZKW?_encoding=UTF8&imprToken=6VxZ3GfjSbnwl8UNqGsb4w&linkCode=w61&ref_=as_at&slotNum=0&tag=trashybooks-20
I don’t read Russian-themed stories by Western authors because they tend to have too many inconsistencies or are chock-full of Russian references at every other word, because the author wants you to know they’ve done their research. 🙂
OK, I’ve always had one fear about tile floors – how slippery are they when wet? I’m a KLUTZ, so the fear of falling on something as hard as a tile of floor at my age terrifies me. Yes, I’m only 52, but these hips and bones ain’t getting any younger, and a tile floor would be a long-term investment.
actual floor tiles (not wall tiles that are put on the floor) have requirements about how “not smooth” they need to be so that’s not a problem. they are pretty hard though. you might be happier with hard wood and carpet or just carpet?
We ended up loving dark granite with an off-beat finish, but just the downstairs is (literally) two tons of floor. Upstairs is bamboo solid wood laminate, which is so hard we couldn’t nail the (also bamboo) plinths in – my floor edges are held down with double-sided tape that occasionally needs to be re-stuck…
Even with re-taping duties, we have no regrets because we went with what clicked when we saw it. Love at first sight is possible with flooring, even if it takes you in unexpected directions. Good luck!
When we remodeled and did the floor part the floor guy left us a partial and a full box of flooring. He told me if there ever any problems we have some matching flooring to replace, as companies change styles, colors. So my piece of advice is to get some extra tiles in case of problems down the road.
I’m with you. I hate my laminate flooring. I love my travertine, but we’re renovating and doing one room at a time, rather than an entire house. It is fairly expensive. While we are renovating, we try to keep other things in mind, as well. Our sunroom, so-called because it has lots of windows, has dark colored porcelain tile. In the winter, we open all the blinds and the dark colored porcelain absorbs the heat during the day. It helps to keep our house warmer. In the summer we just angle the blinds to the ceiling. In the room with the pellet stove we have travertine. Same thing. Even when the stove is off, the floor radiates warmth. As others have mentioned above, I really like the porcelain tile that looks like wood planks. I’ve read that porcelain doesn’t chip as easily as ceramic, so we don’t use ceramic tile, except the laundry room… and guess what? Chipped within a week. :0( Consider dark grout unless you enjoy scrubbing it.
Sorry about the pic. I thought it would show up by my name. Forgot to say that I really like tile floors with flat edges rather than beveled. People who lay tile don’t like it much because each tile has to be exactly even, but for cleaning it’s so much easier. You can use a swiffer or little electric sweeper on it and clean the grout lines. If they’re recessed, a swiffer, and sometimes an electric sweeper, won’t clean them.
Have you looked at metallic epoxy for the concrete? Google image search for “metallic epoxy floor”. We’re considering it for our office and it can look really nice.
Since part of your floor is concrete, a cheap option is paint. Just plain paint on concrete scuffs and looks bad almost instantly. However, there is a three part process that works well. First, an adhesive covers the floor. This is strong enough to pull the shoes off your feet, and remove the skin off the same feet. Painfully experience. Then cover with the paint. Then sealer. Near as I can figure, the glue never dries, and literally glues the underside of the paint to the surface of the concrete. Once the sealer is in place, the floor is a whole lot warmer, and doesn’t shed concrete dust. Any sort of pattern can be added after the first layer of paint goes down. I’ve done fake tile patterns on a couple of floors, and faux stone on one. Not perfect, but a decent way to deal with a floor while waiting to put down real stone or tile.
Just because i am a guy and have the magic ability to say the wrong thing at the right time…. i could point the ongoing cover joke… but please understand i am trying to make levity of the situation i do not wish to enter the doghouse like gordon as i cannot whisk you away to bed & bath to get back into your good graces
I am In Dallas and the foundations are notorious for shifting here. My fake wood floors have buckled. My tile floor is just fine. Get what you want and good luck!
I love my almost 100 yr old red oak floors but there are no aminals or children in the picture. Perhaps you should go to the France (after Kate 10 of course) and check the options out in person!
I love wood but unfortunately it does scratch and dent easily. You don’t see it on the lighter colors but dark wood shows all the scratches. Dark also shows all the dust. Literally, you can vacuum and then two seconds later there is another layer of dust. My mom really regrets that choice.
I have tile everywhere in my house and I really miss my carpet. Eventually I will get more carpets to cover the tile areas. Floor rugs are just so freaking expensive.
I can barely tolerate decorating my own home let alone offer an opinion on anyone else’s. Hope you find what makes you happy!
I hope you love what ever you choose!
We had similar concerns in our house. I love our wood plank tile floor. It’s rustic, durable, easy to clean and is dog and cat proof. We are slowly updating our house, removing carpet and installing the tile. As much as I love wood floors, in my humble opinion, it’s the most economical and maintenance free option that will last. The style of the house and your discussions on how to decorate it and the feel of it sounds wonderful. I confident that you’ll find just the right style at the right price!
These are only suggestions. These are like a poll. See what style is on top, if that’s a style you like, go for it. This is all your choice, your house, do what you want. All we are doing is giving info. With everything else going on, kate10, selling old house, buying new house, moving etc. So have a little fun and pick what you like
We’re just your fans and we care.
We have been deliberating between wooden floors or carpet for over a year. Living in the UK the tradition has been carpeting for years but alternatives are becoming very popular.
Concrete not for me,
vinyl lovely in the bathroom,
tiles too cold,
quarry tiles again too cold…..
The list of preferences is endless and confusing.
So our solution is we are having a new posh front door ??
The debate for flooring for the living room is on hold!
Alona & Gordon go with what you love and is within you budget.
Hope you new house will become your new home very soon – best of luck with all your decisions ?
Marmoleum? Tho it may not be resilient enough….
I don’t have pets so that isn’t a consideration personally, but I suppose I should consider it from a potential resale perspective. Along with the underfloor heating that someone mentioned above.
I love our bamboo floors, but I agree they would be a terrible choice for you with your doggos. And the wood-look tile you linked to before looks awesome! Most excited for you!
We have a lovely old traditional Chicago octagon bungalow. And all the flooring will need replacing soon, so your run down is helpful. Currently we have carpets in all rooms but the kitchen and bathroom. And an allergy sufferer. This will need to change. I always thought wood for everything but the kitchen and bath, but maybe not. That tile thing sounds interesting. I planned to use throw rugs as necessary for the cold months anyway.
Though I’m pretty sure most of the solid wood flooring under the carpet is in very good shape, so we may just take up the carpet and call it a day. No pets and kids currently.
Adding my worm to the can: I love your wood-look tiles, but since you mentioned that your first choice would be stone, have you looked at slate tiles? They are natural stone and can be sealed to look dry (as opposed to the shiny wet look). Ours was comparable in price to ceramic tile and when sealed, the colors are beautiful. Stood up to our very active boxer’s claws. I also second everyone who recommended dark grout.
What’s great in a kitchen is linoleum – the real thing, not vinyl. And it’s green. 🙂
Its also soft. I love ours, but when the rubber caps on our chair legs wore through, our floor got gouges. No dog damage to date, but we don’t have a dog, just dog visitors.
The old linoleum in our lab has taken a ridiculous amount of damage. I really should put a work order in for it to get fixed… (but we kind of live in fear that that will involve solvents or something that will mess up our experiments. There was a whole period when I first came out here where the floors weren’t getting mopped because no one believed that you could negotiate with the janitorial staff, who we all know pretty well, to just mop with water. I really don’t know.)
Are you sure you had linoleum? Damage as you describe it is a vinyl thing… Linoleum is pretty indestructible. We had a house with fifty year old linoleum in the kitchen…
We live on our farm (almonds) and have raised/homeschooled 6 children in this house. We have always had indoor large dogs. We have solid wood floors. They are over 100 years old. First thing we did when we moved here was to sand and urethane them. They are awesome. 9 children and umpteen dogs have been potty trained in this house. We dye eggs for Easter straight on the floor and just wipe it up. We juice pomegranates for many pints of jelly every year. Great stuff.
I, too, have hardwood floors that have completely ignored the presence of two German shepherds: one that weighed in at 130 lbs, the other a small guy at merely 90. Genuine hardwood can take the punishment.
That being said, stone and tile are much easier to care for. I’m a north Florida woman, living in a 1953 home with a 1960’s-era addition, and I have both the original oak floors and some gorgeous travertine tile. I love them both, but I must say the stone tile is easier to maintain and I worry less about, um, spills. Especially the spills that come out of dogs, if you get my drift.
You can also use area rugs to soften the tile. One of my (many) sisters has a carpet dealer cut and bind pieces of carpet to create custom-sized area rugs that fit her space needs beautifully.
You do you!
It’s your house, do what works for you guys, functionally, aesthetically and financially.
I am personally a fan of telling people “I love that idea as long as you’re paying” if it’s a choice I like but cannot afford. That usually stops them. 🙂
Good luck with the house. We’ve bought 2 and the process has been frustrating and painful both times, but we were happy with both decisions, so there’s that.
I rebuilt after Katrina with wood-look porcelain tile. It’s gorgeous and it’s 12 years later and only a few of them have shown wear or cracked. Easy to clean. A bit too slick so it taught the dogs not to run in the house.
That said, and obviously I’m all for it, I wondered if you considered brick pavers or other outside treatments only using them inside? We got pretty creative here after we got wiped out. Lots of people tried stuff that normally would be outside, like concrete board siding but used inside as if it’s wood planking. Takes a beating and looks exactly like wood but it’s concrete blend. Or brick pavers. Stuff like that. We found that what works outside turns out to work well inside too. Just something to think about. They’d fit in your rustic look well.
We looked at a similar tile. As we often have family visitors with balance issues (and lanky dogs who like to have the occasional mad 5 minutes in the house….usually just after a nice long walk!), the slipperiness of porcelain tiles was a concern. We found that there are some such tiles designed for indoor and outdoor use (admittedly, these were usually plain and not the wood-effect ones): these were much better. In our case, my husband was pretty opposed to porcelain tile as being too cold (we live in the UK, so that is not so advantageous for us, and, for various reasons underfloor heating was ruled out). We ended up with a good engineered wood. It looks nice, but does get scratched a bit by the aforementioned lanky dogs (greyhounds).
It is funny, isn’t it, when Ilona and Gordon CLEARLY need absolutely no help on this flooring issue, that the BDH have weighed in regardless (guilty, as charged). I suppose that we just want to help. Or maybe it is that choosing a floor is always a pain in the a**, and, we are all venting our traumas?
Choosing a flooring is nerve-wracking because it is expensive and you can get stuck with a look you hate. In one of my rehab homes I had to repaint after the tile went in because the color of the tile was very different when installed than it appeared under the fluorescent lights of the store where I bought it. Another time I got lots of feedback from various people, including my real estate agent and a local artist, concerning the exterior color of a home. With a little help from our friends (lol) we settled on a lovely warm brown, but when we applied it to the house it was purple. We called that house the Great Grape. Nothing to be done about it but apply trim paint and hope it toned the purple down a bit (it did, but not enough). Fortunately, the folks who bought that one love purple!
So, yeah, the BDH is probably venting a few traumas here, but we/they also have a genuine desire to help. Even though it isn’t needed!
This is the housebarge where I used to live (completely with my recumbent bike, but before I planted the container garden.)
The colors were chosen by the partner of one of my former Chen students. While they weren’t what I would have chosen, I always enjoyed it – the place is tiny, so it wasn’t overwhelming, and Seattle has a lot of cold and grey moments. But I seem to recall T saying she hadn’t thought it would come out so pink. (And the picture here is in muted light, so you don’t get the full effect.)
Ok, it’s your house, you’ll pick something gorgeous.
But: who could turn down stickers: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=284243465389432&id=221487301665049
Couldn’t even get that out with a straight face.
https://thefashionbooth.com/products/3d-space-sticker
You are braver than I am–I would have gone ahead and then presented the results to the peanut gallery.
May you luck into the perfect tile that will compliment the house!
I like the idea of title. However, I would also add in floor heating in some rooms. Bathrooms and bedrooms. Maybe even family room area. While the initial out lay is expensive I understand that it will cutback on your electric bill.
*waves hand* I have a question!!! Since you’re doing research–Does tile these days need grout sealing every year or whatever? Potential refloorer is wondering.
https://www.thespruce.com/grout-sealer-definition-1821387
LOL isnt it lovely when people assume you’re stupid? Bless their hearts. I’m loving the wood grained tiles myself. The look of wood with out the obnoxious upkeep! Sign me up! And if I want soft floors that’s like God invented area rugs, that are much cheaper, easier to clean, and cheaper/easier to change out when I want to update the look too. *nods*
This is pretty but maybe the colors aren’t right?
https://www.flooranddecor.com/stone-decoratives/multicolor-brick-slate-mosaic-100192947.html#prefn1=productType&prefv1=Limestone%7CGranite%7CSlate&start=13
Whatever you chose will be fine – it’s your house after all! But can you please explain to me why hardwood is a no go because of the dogs? We have hardwood floors throughout the apartment and our dog has very long claws (even with regular maintenance) – there have been no problems at all?
A numbers of problems. Depending on the claws and weight of the dog, a lot of hardwood becomes severely damaged by claws. Also, if you have an older incontinent dog or a young puppy, the floor suffers a lot of water damage. http://www.a-zfloorsanding.com/pets_stains_.html
Oh! Thank you for explaining – so we have basically been uber lucky that our dog is clever / considerate enough to have her (very few) accidents in the bathroom on a tiled floor 🙂
I’m curious about the damage by the claws, will have to read up on that for a bit – our first dog was around 45 kg (around 99 pounds) and he also possessed quite strong and long claws. Our floors don’t show any sign of him (except the slightly lighter spot where his huge bed used to be).
Personally I think tiles are absolutely fine – if I could I would make my whole apartment power-washable 😉
Are you going to name your house?
Authorlord Manor?
Horde Headquarters?
Ilona’s Yarn Barn?
If the house is French inspired it should be Hotel d’Andrews. Or it could be the actual inspiration for Gertrude Hunt. 🙂
Shouldn’t it be Chateau de Andrews?
“Mas” if it’s Provencal although Texas might be too close to Mexico for that to actually work, lol
Either one.
Thanks for the info!! I’ll be looking at flooring for my place soon and was looking at the bamboo but won’t bother now. I didn’t realize it was so soft and damaged so easily.
Tile floors are gorgeous! I’m excited to see pictures of the finished rooms!
Ugh. I can’t believe people are trying to tell you what to do. I mean I can see them offering information of what has worked for them but still. smh You do what you choose. Anne
I think people are offering opinions because that’s obviously what this post was about. If they didn’t want to know what other people thought, they wouldn’t have posted it. ?
There is a new product that looks like wood but is a ceramic composite. Supposed to be waterproof (I have two big dogs that get water everywhere) and scratch proof. Just a thought. It’s available at lumber liquidators.
Hm… we are redoing the floor upstairs next year that will encompass the kitchen, living room and hallway. We have four cats (no declawing), no dogs. We’ve picked out some preliminary laminate flooring… now I’m wondering if we should rethink that…
Yeah, laminate, no matter how expensive, just isn’t very durable :/ We have it, dog claws, water bubbles and peeling, etc.
Try rabbits . It never recovers.
Oh jeebz, I’m going through this now with the home we just bought. It’s a terrible balance of what looks best, is affordable, and will last with minimal damage/up keep. In our case the home is an old 1920’s Timber home which is currently fully carpeted with an old dusty blue carpet. I want to expose the wood floors and use area rugs as the house is full of timber trim and sweeping up cat fur will be easier. Thing is here in NZ Borer are a big pest problem and the house already has a fair amount of damage, so I’m worried about what will happen when we lose the protection of the carpet. Now we ask, do we paint our trim and re-cover losing the exposed wood… And that’s just one thing that needs doing. I’ve been thinking about this soo much, it’s all very stressful.
Haha, sorry for ranting in your comments. I wanted to express that I can relate… x.x
Good luck with your floors!
My opinion (for what it’s worth)? Do what looks good for you, the house, and what you can afford.
I live in a townhouse (that was built in the 1950s or 1960s on a pier and beam system) with laminate flooring everywhere but the stairs and bedrooms. Those have carpeting. I hate laminate flooring. When there is a leak (which happened in my kitchen area when I moved in) the laminate becomes either a bubble or a crater. As the building moves, the padding the laminate sits on shifts but the laminate flooring is a bubble. Also, if heavy furniture sits on the laminate without a rug underneath the furniture, there are markings on the flooring. It’s horrible. I can see why laminate flooring has the cheapest cost for materials.
Lol, I think you might have a LOT of readers in recent flood areas, so flooring options are very much in a LOT of people’s minds. Especially the solid through luxury vinyls. Down here, the people who switched to that after the last flooding are about the only ones who haven’t had to do complete gut floor jobs.
This is all good information. Several condos for sale in my neighborhood so I’ve been checking them out. To get top dollar on resale my son wants to put down tile in a wood look. Personally, I am not a fan of tile, too hard and cold, so I was checking out vinyl planks. It is supposed to deal well with water and pets too. I will probably end up with the tile as I won’t actually have to live with it and this downstairs carpet is pretty worn. We updated both bathrooms with tile and I use rugs to keep my feet warm. Definitely will do heated floors under tile next time, really hate cold feet.
Test post, because the one I just submitted covering the various options (from personal experience) seems to have disappeared 🙁
Well, thanks. This is a pile of information on floors. Much as I would love to offer suggestions, mostly I’m learning a lot. My own floors are 18 to 20 inch wide hemlock boards. they were cut on the property and are quite lovely, but we’d better be darned ready to appreciate the dog claw marks as “adding character.” My own bete noir is carpet. I hate the stuff. Oh, and that is a typical Texas hill country house??? Holy hill country! How very lovely. Wrap it up I’ll take it. don’t care what the floors are. They look jes’ fine to me.
I know that you seem dead set against vinyl, but can you get Amtico flooring in the USA? Custom design, warm, durable and can be beautiful. I’ve seen it in a number of expensive houses in the UK.
I have no clue about floors, but you made it fascinating to read about them, so thanks for that!
Slate tiles… I have them.. they don’t show dirt, dogs love them on hot days and they look good.
One word: Pergo.
I only have experience with a few flooring types cause I like carpet (living in the NE of the US, i like the soft fuzzy NOT cold flooring in the winter)
My mother-in-law has bamboo on the floor of her bathroom. It is wonderfully soft feeling, looks great, and so far (5 years) no water damage. But she doesn’t have dogs so no idea on the scratches from claws.
My husband and I went with cork flooring in our kitchen and dining room. Also much love to that type of flooring, so soft, so durable. However, we had a water line burst in the kitchen about 6 years ago and the water sat for 4-5 hours in a giant puddle. This caused warping at the seams of the cork planks. Much sadness. We replaced that floor with more cork, and still love it, but I get that it’s not for everyone. We also don’t have dogs, so not sure on the durability vs claws.
I love my tile. I’ve managed one crack in 10 years, and that was a dropped cast iron skillet. I’m lucky it didn’t shatter. It’s easy to warm up with rugs and you can change the look and feel of the room by rotating rugs. Definitely want thick pads in the kitchen if you do much food prep, tile can be hard on the feet.
Congrats!
I have a 70 lb. German Shorthaired Pointer. He is a maniac, and constantly skidding across my floors to chase a ball or play. I cannot overstate how bananas he is (although I do adore him).
We have handscraped hardwood floors in our entire house, and you cannot really see any gouges or scrapes from his nails.
It’s pretty unique. We even have a parquet pattern in the living room. It works well for us, and we only dremmel his nails about once every two months if we are really on top of things.
Durable flooring? Drag heavy wooden furniture accross the floor and the tiles are unscathed?
As in a hundred years old and still serving the household?
We call them Vigan tiles here. Hand made terracotta tiles. There might also be something similar available in your country.
Those look like what we call Saltillo tiles in New Mexico. Texas is right next door, probably the same there. The ones here usually come from Mexico, and I’ve heard they’re quite a bit softer than ceramic and porcelain. Ceramic and porcelain are fired under pressure, so that makes them harder. I love the look, though.
It is amazing what they’ve come up with in tile — some very beautiful designs.
Wait, is tiling it yourself with pennies definitely out? Sea glass or pebble mosaic? Just want to make sure you’ve really considered ALL your flooring options!
“French country” style here cracks me up. When I think of a house in the French countryside, it’s tile throughout and no unnecessary anything because you’ve got people and dogs tromping in with cow and/or pig shit on their feet all day long.
We did a wood look tile in our master bed, bath, and closet with self-sealed grout….it’s gorgeous and super easy to clean up when the cat is sick on it (she’s old and has food intolerances but is also still very fast and sneaky like a ninja when trying to steal whatever the kids manage to drop on the floor). We did a mix of 5″ planks and 7″ planks, in alternating rows, so that it didn’t look too uniform. Easiest floor we’ve ever owned and we’re planning on replacing the rest of the carpet in the house with porcelain. Didn’t chip when I accidentally dropped a hand weight from chest height.
Good luck with the decision making! I’m sure whatever you pick will be lovely 🙂
Thanks for the info. I need to replace my floors eventually. Good to know about the bamboo. I’m sure it’s a fortune but I do have friends that have under the tile heating in their bathrooms. It’s really nice.
Funny, I’m a fulltime author too and after years of looking for a new house, we’ve just decided to completely renovate our current house, have also been going through financing hell, and are now making decisions about floors, etc. I always swore I wouldn’t get tile because I didn’t like the way it looked, it’s cold and hard, etc.
But that new wood-look tile is AMAZING. We’ve just decided to choose it too. Here in Europe, it’s very expensive, almost as expensive as you can get except for top of the line marble and stone like that. We have hardwood now and it’s been destroyed by our cats and kids. I’d never get it again. Our neighbors have the same floor and dogs and kids and their floor still looks new, but in the weekends, they clean and repaint and polish while we’re out riding rollercoasters or I’m sweating over my computer.
I need something I can put down and forget about. Most of the time, I can’t worry about the house, the writing career takes every bit of my time and energy. Also, the cats are temperamental and will pee on stuff if the sky changes color, the kids are rambunctious, and we’re clumsy, wine-spilling types so the floor needs to be very, very tough.
Indeed, we don’t want to lower the value of the house so flooring choices are limited and wood-look tile has such a warm look to it, you’d never know it wasn’t real, and it’s basically indestructible. It’s a big upcoming trend here in Europe, esp. because it’s great in combination with floor heating.
My editor just asked how revisions were going and I said, just great… oh boy. I don’t know how I’m going to manage the house, the financing and the writing at the same time. We’re staying in the house during renovations too, plus most of our stuff will need to go into storage, so it’s like a move with the hell of living in the same house as renovations.
We put down woodlike tiles about 5 years ago in our house in France. Most people take a few minutes to realize they’re tile and not wood. Don’t remember what we paid for them, but it wasn’t outrageous, it was mid-range in what was available locally.
Solid hardwood works for dogs but the choice of the clear is critical. There is a company in Oshkosh, wisconsin called A.P. Nonweiler {920-231-0850}who sells a clear I believe is called MP21, this stuff is awesome. It is a moisture cured urethane, single component that you apply after sanding and cleaning the laid wood. It is almost scratch proof after a couple of days. We did a natural maple real 3/4″ hardwood floor and used this over it, Extra character was obtained by never having sanded a wood floor before, thus leaving differing sized sanding scratches in the maple. We cleared this twice and sanded the clear to remove the scratches in the clear surface before the second application leaving a smooth finish yet having the look of mill run sanding marks in the wood. It has UV protection in it so it should last a good long time. Our dogs have long claws and they don’t scratch it, the chairs haven’t and dragging boxes have not either. If the only reason you were avoiding real hardwood was the scratches, this solves that problem. It was also inexpensive at I think 40 a gallon. As for the time test, It has been over a year now and looks as good as the day it was finished.
We are having the same problem with flooring we have an older wood constuction house in hawaii. We also have four small older dogs ( brussles Griffon shitzu mix.. cute as ewoks) anywhoo between stuborn puppies and a second floor that is … shall we say. “flexible” we are having to choose between a carpet that will indoubtedly be stained in a week , laminate, vinyl or bamboo. Carpet is out vinyl fades with too much sun and laminate would bubble and hold pup accidents. Sooo … we are going with the pet friendly bamboo. It also amazes me that every person i know has a hard core opinion on which flooring i should use in my house! Emphasis on MY. lol good luck to you both in this endeavor!
I learned a lot from this. Looking at replacing a kitchen floor in the near future. Everyone has different needs in a house, thankfully there’s lots to choose from.
I love the name of the road that house in the link is on: Woman Hollering, one really has to speculate on the story behind that!
See, to a Brit’s eyes, what’s strange with that house is that there are no carpets. We love our wall-to-wall carpeting. But then we live in a cold country and it keeps the heat in, something I imagine in Texas would not be a good thing! Though, having thought about that, do Scandinavian countries do carpeting?
I hadn’t really processed how strange our love of carpeting was, until an American guest kept exclaiming “I can’t believe all your floors are covered in carpets!” Is it really not done in the US?
It was common 30 years ago in our area, but we’re in Nebraska, we have hot summers and cold winters both, so you want carpet, but not everywhere! The part of Texas they are in is hot quite a bit of the year, but can be cool in winter and can get a lot of rain in short spurts. We stuck with carpet in the basement and on the stairs (Good traction) but our three entry areas, we went with a pretty wood-look vinyl for easy cleanup for rain or snow tracking feet before they get to the carpet!
The big decision for us now is for the kitchen, living room and hallway. I want good traction, not foot-freezing, easy care, but have to take into account that the kitchen can be subject to water spills and leaks in the future.
It all sounds amazing – go with your gut feeling, u have to live with it not the rest of us!
I prefer light coloured units in a kitchen bringing in warmth in the work top or floor – the wood effect tile sounds good as does the slate – it has such a variation of colours within it
All the best
I like your thought process. Sounds like a stone floor of some sort is perfect. You can always soften the look with rugs.
I renovated my old Victorian house about 25 years ago, In the kitchen, there was a solid flagstone floor, which all had to be lifted as there was no damp proof course in the house. The workmen were all set to throw them into the skip, until I stood in the doorway and refused to let them past. I insisted that they relaid the flagstones and it was the best decision ever! Over the years, we’ve had several floods (leaking washing machine/dishwasher/etc) as well as many sick cat accidents, but the floor just shrugs them all off and still looks great
I’ve had problems with bamboo floors as well. In addition to being soft they change color with sunlight over time. If you have an area rug in the same spot then move it a year or two later you will see a shadow of it on the floor.
You handled that very gracefully – if people were giving me unsolicited floor advice I’d be a lot snippier. 😉 You know where you live, how you live, and what’s best for your situation – best of luck in finding the right tile at the right price! Hubs and I are under contract on a house and facing similar decisions – it’s exciting but also stressful; I can’t imagine trying to do it all AND meet a writing deadline AND respond civilly to everyone’s opinions about how it should be done!
Do what ever fits your taste and the house for flooring! We’re looking at redoing some of our floors and I’m not looking forward to it.
Admittedly I am behind on reading through the comments, so if this has come up before please forgive me.
Terrazzo is making a comeback now in marvelous new ways. It is infinitely flexible in appearance and more durable even than tile. It is expensive, but if it had been available in my area when I laid my stone flooring I’d have terrazzo instead!
Name your house, Choose your floors, what look you’re going for.
Dogs, claws, piddle puddles, heat, water, isn’t there a cat . . .
Expenses, mortgages, paint & furnish. Ooh Ooh & Live your life
Raise . . . guide your kids, College, significant others(kids) and
Ooh Ooh meet deadlines, so you can do the above
god keep & bless, be well
Don’t forget Landscape . . . for another time
“Anybody want a peanut?” …lol, sorry I couldn’t help myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The “house” I’m about to remodel is a school bus – we are in the process of converting a 35′ school bus to a mobile residence. So my floors are currently steel. That will be covered with a rubberized paint (on top and under the bus (our basement)) to keep them water-tight, then insulation, plywood and …well, we’ve gotten that far in the decision making. I have hard-wood cypress planks available, and it is only 220 sq feet of floor space, but do we want to go to the trouble of sanding, sealing etc, not to mention the extra weight? I really like the look of bamboo, but again, it is soft. One “hallway” down the middle will get the most travel and wear. The tile planks look great, and would probably work, especially if I can talk my husband into putting in under-floor heating (relatively easy to do on a bus according to the skoolie network forum). On the other hand, a very nice vinyl is water-proof, light-weight and we can cover it with a runner-type carpet, which will be tacked down. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Are you going to raise the roof like these guys? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7X2nOtwdUM
Next step in our process as a matter of fact. We’ll go up 18″. I’m also building out basement boxes for additional storage, and moving the door from the traditional front of the bus to just in front of the rear wheels, so the two of us can sit side by side when on the road. I have 2 cats and an elderly dog (who may not still be around in the next year-and-a-half to two-years it will take to complete my build), and I want to be able to work from home. I’m an accountant and most of my work is now online even when I come into the office to do it, so it is certainly a feasible option. We’ve the layout for a shower/tub combo, a stackable washer/dryer unit, a composting toilet and a queen-size bed. The couch will fold out for guests, and not be so comfortable those guests stay a long time. LOL. If you want to see a great bus build, including the roof raise – I recommend https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS9vU1bj94nubgsjXBhHCYA.
I will leave the bus life to you. 🙂 I grew up in a very small house, then I lived in the dorm for 2 years, then I lived in another very small house and then in an even smaller house. Our Georgia house was 1,134 sq feet and I viewed it as an upgrade. So no. I worked very hard, and I want a nice big place with room for everyone.
Me too, in a few years after we move into the bus- this will be a home we’ll live in for 2-3 years while my husband, a professional contractor, builds our bigger, dream house. But I raised 4 kids in about a 1,000 square foot double-wide, so having an empty nest pre-bus seems luxurious on its own.
I can hack a couple of years in a bus and will look at it as an adventure. Once I move into my REAL house, the bus will either go to one of the kids or be used as a travel RV. I may hate the thing by then.
My real adventure now is in the build.
Where we are in Europe, the average house is about 1300 square ft and attached on both sides. I dream of having a detached, large American-style house but to go up to say, 2000 square ft, detached, with front, back and side gardens (nowhere near an acre, you’re still very close to the next house) would cost us between 1.5 to 2 million USD. For about 1.2 million USD, I could get a 2000 square ft house that was attached on one side to another house.
Of course, we live in the green, expensive suburbs of the most populated area. If we were to move way further out, we’d be able to get a detached house for much less but land is just so much more expensive here than in the U.S. And my husband has a job, and I don’t want to move somewhere they’ve never seen a foreigner before, plus the kids are happy in school, etc.
Your house, your choice. The only way I could have a say in what you put on the floor is if there is a safety issue for a member of my family. Since we don’t live in the same time zone, that isn’t an issue.
Next step in our process as a matter of fact. We’ll go up 18″. I’m also building out basement boxes for additional storage, and moving the door from the traditional front of the bus to just in front of the rear wheels, so the two of us can sit side by side when on the road. I have 2 cats and an elderly dog (who may not still be around in the next year-and-a-half to two-years it will take to complete my build), and I want to be able to work from home. I’m an accountant and most of my work is now online even when I come into the office to do it, so it is certainly a feasible option. We’ve the layout for a shower/tub combo, a stackable washer/dryer unit, a composting toilet and a queen-size bed. The couch will fold out for guests, and not be so comfortable those guests stay a long time. LOL. If you want to see a great bus build, including the roof raise – I recommend https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS9vU1bj94nubgsjXBhHCYA.
sorry for the confusion – trying to reply to a reply here…
I’ll echo the “your house your choice” deal above. As an owner of bamboo floors, yes. They gouge.
Also, I’ll say this: when we were redoing our flooring, we found that some tile and some natural stone were approximately equivalent in cost – but the tile was much more durable than stone at the same price point. Good hard stone is not only expensive to get and install, it’s also something that requires continual maintenance.
Good luck!
I lived in Houston for 12 years, I have dogs. Dogs occasionally have accidents (vomiting, etc).
TILE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The ONLY affordable way to go in Texas. It stays cool in the summer, and
you can always get a throw rug if needed.And it is easy to clean. Wall to wall carpet looks pretty
but does not do well with the Texas humidity and it holds heat. Wood floor not practical in Texas,
plus doggy nails can gouge it.
I vote affordable Tile.
I just love it that the sample house is on Woman Hollering Road. Gawd, I miss Texas sometimes.
LOL! I did not notice that first time around.
Just an idea: hydraulic tiles. In Catalan they are called “rajoles hidràuliques”. They are Modernist hydraulic tiles, very typical in Mediterranean homes. You can put a few as a decorative detail and they will make your “French Provincial” look warmer and more traditional.
Whatever you end up using, I’m sure it will be lovely. And I will definitely echo the “your house, your choice”. I’m excited for you guys as you get to move (yes, I know moving itself sucks) to your new home!
It’s obvious from your post that you haven’t given this any time, serious thought, or done any research. Apparently we will have to continue to give you our opinions and advice every step of the way for your new house! LOL!! Sorry – couldn’t help it!!
Congratulations on a beautiful new home and all the adventure that goes with it! I hope it brings you and your family much comfort and joy for many years.
Yeah. It doesn’t matter what kind of floor I fall on. It all hurts.
Do what works. The End. <3
I also have zero understanding on why your flooring choices are a big deal?
I mean…WTF?
Enjoy the new house. Be happy. The property looks amazing and peaceful. Bask in it. Nothing else matters.
We are in the process of looking for a home in the SW Austin/Dripping Springs/Driftwood area and I already have a massive headache just looking at houses. Our realtor has to force us to keep looking, because we have a soon to be 1 year old and we just need the space. I can’t imagine yet the bigger headache of picking out details.
On a better note, we actually agree that we like “modern” French country interiors so your post was pretty helpful. 🙂 I agree with the tile assessment. I’ve been seeing that ceramic-tile-that-looks-like-wood everywhere lately.
I have the best realtor if you ever need a recommendation. She is mostly Spicewood but she will go with you wherever.
Thank you! A recommendation would be great – we’re having quite a hard time settling on a location that we’re expanding the search a bit more north.
My husband works in San Marcos, but is willing to drive for the right house and great ISD. :/
We have considered all sorts of floor coverings, and, like you, we have ended up with tiles. My problem is with grout. There are several brands that promise tiling without grout, but these are false. Tiles have to have grout, even if it narrow. Sigh!
http://floorelf.com/can-i-install-tile-without-grout
I had the most beautiful tile in my kitchen. It was everything I ever wanted. And, the beauty did offset the pain when I stood in the kitchen baking and cooking our meals and Holliday dinners.
After about 5 years I had a couple of cracked tiles and having gotten older I made sure I had a soft mat where I stood the longest and I always wore good running shoes with a lot of support. Still, my feet and lower back did not love the beautiful hard surface as much as I did. When we built our house, I was so darn lucky. My husband let me do pretty much whatever I wanted to. So, I put in oak hardwoods. It looked great, for 10 years and then we moved. I had two Irishwolfhounds but they didn’t tear around the house. Since then I have fallen in love with Brazilian koa wood. I even think it’s harder and it glows. If you don’t cook much, the newer tile is beautiful and would last as long. Just be sure to buy extra tile so you get the same dye lot in case you have to replace a tile?
If you do go with tiles in the kitchen, there is a kind of industrial mat that you can get for areas that you stand a lot at. Easy to put down, easy to take up.
I have been watching a lot of home renovation shows. There are so many options out there. One person even put metal down as flooring. But her house was modern style.
Reminds me of my former neighbors front walkway. A flipper decided to put slate tile down 20 years ago. When I saw it I told my mom that it wouldn’t be practical in our area in the winter. The flipper sold the house in late summer.
Amazing how the design esthetic changed from “what lovely tile” to “we are putting down rubberized floor mats” after the first few rainstorms.
Tile is hard on joints but Ilona and Gordon are pretty young and it should be a couple of decades before it bothers them. But older animals (big dogs) start getting arthritic and its hard on them too.
You didn’t honestly think that your fans wouldn’t be bossy did you?
Prepare for more opinionated commentary.
First of all: that Texas house. ARGH MY EYES UUURRRGGGGHHHHH. Is that teak?! What happened there?
Secondly: Oooohhhhh, those two pics of tiles looked very promising. Pretty tiles.
Finally: Not to be a creeper, but I hope we eventually get a decent photo-tour of the new house. You’ve been talking it up and it sounds gorgeous. I’m getting emotionally invested in this house.
I think your post is a perfect example of why home decorating, renovation and realty shows are so popular on HGTV and DIY. Everyone has an opinion and it’s not even their house.
I live in a house that was build in the 1950’s and has a blend of flooring that all needs to be updated at some point. About a year ago, we redid the tiny bathroom and opted for wood-look tiles. It turned out beautifully.
I’ve seen some encaustic cement tiles that I really liked. Some are a little busy, but it seems like a really good product. I’m considering a few designs for a future kitchen backsplash. http://www.cementtileshop.com/
I hope everything goes well the house purchase.
It is so funny to read your post and feel like you are inside my head. We have 3 big dogs and hardwood floors. They do not last and they are slippery for the older dogs. When we sell, we will have to move the dogs out and refinish the floors. Your list of flooring and the only possible choice is exactly what we have decided.
A popular choice in Japan, while I don’t know if it would fit your esthetic tastes: CORK.
It’s warm during the winter, cool during the summer. Cuts down on broken dishes/glasses, etc. if you happen to be the type of person who drops things (I am). And it’s wonderfully kind to your feet and knees and other weight-bearing parts if you stand around in the kitchen a lot.
Check out some of the new click-fit vinyl laminates that are truly water proof…easy to install (took me about 1/2 a day to do the bedroom…mostly because I was learning how to do it) and have held up to three 100+ pound dogs and their nails. A friend of mine put it throughout her vet clinic 3 years ago and hasn’t had to replace a tile yet….no matter WHAT was vomited/peedon/bled/mopped/spilled on it. There is enough texture that the dogs don’t slip unless they are racing through the house, and it comes in both wood-look and tile-look. I got mine at Home Depot.
I’m looking at those now! The selection is gorgeous and they have a lifetime residential guarantee!
Depending on your tile options, the pattern it is laid out in can make a huge!! difference. When you look at French tile patterns, the Versailles pattern can be done if they make the tiles in the correct sizes. You need the big tile and little tile. The long pieces are the big ones cut in half. If you have a tile saw, you are good(deaf,but good). Also there is glazing/sealers. This can change the shine.
I am 100% that since this is an older post, you have a pretty good idea of your choices but…
We have 1 teenager boy and 2 big dogs and 3 cats that all drink out of the same dish and like to splash and spill water all over the place. We even bought one of the water jugs you dump over so the “bowl” refills itself. That ended up with all the water spilling out the back for a whole day without me noticing (at work).
That being said, we have water proof laminate wood style floors in our house. The noise is reduced from our last home, which was laminate. We also have no issue with bubbles after water has been spilt, or other various animal and kid mishaps. The only issue we had was when the piano was being moved in, there’s a scuff I can’t seem to get off. Otherwise it’s held up and easy to maintain. Hope that little bit helps if you are still in the market.
Can you do one room at a time, exactly how you want it? Stone with radiant heat?
So, you get tile and add area rugs wherever you really want something softer to stand on – easy to replace, adds color, and you can get anything from a cheap Home Depot special to a hand-knotted Persian one, depending on cost and what kind of use the room gets. We had tile floors when we lived in Arizona and loved them in that climate. (Currently we have wood in one house, which I love but you have to not mind dings and gouges, and laminate in the other, which is terrible and whoever told the builder to put it in the kitchen should have their designer license revoked.)
We bought a wood look tile from lowes (don’t know if they have lowes in texas?) and installed it a couple years ago. People come in and think it’s actually wood until they touch it. It’s Style Selection Natural Timber Ash (grey). They have a smaller whitewash look tile we will be putting in the upstairs bathroom. It’s surprisingly warm in the winter, and cool in the summer. We love it so much, we’re talking about putting it in the new house when we build it in a few years.