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wittybetty

Laminate vs. Engineered Hardwood?

wittybetty
11 years ago

Hi folks. First post here, and I need help trying to decide between laminate and engineered hardwood.

I'm building a semi-custom tract home in a nice, middle-class, but not high end, neighborhood. The main floor of the house is about 780 sq. feet and is one great big space for kitchen, dining and living room. I love how open it is, but I really think to make the space cohesive and seem larger, it needs one type of flooring with artfully placed area rugs. I live in a dry climate where it's quite hot in the summer and very cold in the winter.

When I went to my "browse appointment" at my builder's design center, I discovered that their pricing for "hardwood" was really just engineered wood until some super high grade of the hardwood pricing that I cannot afford.

I've read many many threads on why folks like or dislike laminate etc. I lean toward the engineered hardwood--so long as it will give off the cozy, warm vibe of wood that I enjoyed in a house I used to have with solid hardwood.

In just my quick browse, I noticed that I didn't like anything, generally, in laminate below my builder's "Grade 5" pricing, which is roughly the same as my builder's Grade 2 engineered hardwood. So I'm trying to decide which I should go with. It's just me and one kiddo--no animals. I'm trying to create a snug sanctuary for me and the kiddo to slow down from our overly busy lives outside the house. So the "feel" of a place is important to me. I intend to keep this house at least until kiddo goes to college (9 or so years). I am considering resale in all of my decisions, naturally, but I really need this house to be a place for us--not a place for some distant future potential purchaser.

Also--random--I'm turning the extra bedroom upstairs into a mini-sewing studio for me. I despise having a sewing room on carpet (ask me how many needs and pins you find in the most painful way possible!). So I was thinking of having whatever I install downstairs in just that one room upstairs with carpet in the hall and bedrooms and tile in the bathrooms upstairs. Thoughts? Will that be too strange for resale?

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