Hardwood or carpet in loft area of second floor?

11 years ago

What are the pros & cons for each?

The first floor will be all wood (save the mudroom, bathrooms, & master closet, which incl. laundry). The stairs will be wood (I may have a runner put in while the kids are young). The second floor will be a mix of carpet & tile in the bedrooms, bathrooms, & laundry room & possibly cork in the exercise room.

I feel carpet will be the most practical in the loft area, but wood will look a lot nicer. Obviously carpet is the more affordable route at $26/yard vs. 4x's as much for wood. The loft will not really serve any function, except there will be a linen closet out there & a small little crafting area that I doubt will be used too often. No one will ever be sitting in that area or hanging out there.

Thanks for any feedback!

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Comments (5)

pbx2_gw
11 years ago
We had similar decision with our loft area & chosed to go hardwood...but carpet in the secondary upstairs bedrooms.

Reasons being:
1) Secondary bedrooms get rarely used so carpet wont get worn so quickly. Loft is an open common area so it needs some tough flooring.

2) With kid(s) on the way, makes the bedrooms warmer & safer than wood

3) Ended up using wood ordered for 2 secondary bedrooms in loft area & still got carpet for the bedrooms without addl expense.

Summary - carpet is good for us because of warmth & safety in non common areas.

Hope that helps some in your decision making.
booboo60
11 years ago
You could always put in wood and use area rugs, then you would have the best of both :) It may make it more quiet, however, if you put in carpet.....but if it will hardly be used; gosh, you wouldn't want me to make decisions for you, lol!
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kirkhall
11 years ago
I'd probably choose carpet. If all the other surfaces upstairs are carpet or tile, I wouldn't add another flooring. UNLESS, you see this space being a non-private space. But, it sounds like your second floor will be all/mostly private space.

The other UNLESS would be, if the flooring was visible from the first floor--as in, it was an open loft with open railing, or...
Beth Parsons
11 years ago
Same situation as you - all hardwood down including the master bedroom & stairs with tile in wet areas and carpet only in secondary bedrooms. We originally spec'd carpet for the upstairs loft mostly due to cost but we ended up having quite a bit of hardwood left over and decided to lay it instead. So glad we did - I like having carpet only in the kids' rooms and the loft looks so much better with the hardwood. Plus, this is where I intend to have the kids do their craft/school projects and it's so much easier to keep clean than carpet.
wishiwasinoz
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks friends!

Parsonse, that's a great idea! Bet we will have enough left over to fill in the loft area.

Twotogo - lol! I definitely have days like this! :-)

Pbx2 - thanks!

Kirkhall - the space isn't private, per we, but it's also not visible from the first floor. I will keep carpet there for now & see how much wood is left.