we're in the beginning of a remodel and have been debating our flooring; I'm curious of your thoughts.

real wood: timeless, not as cold, softer to walk on; prone to scratches

ceramic: could be a fad, harder/colder; won't scratch (we have young kids and will likely have another dog at some point)

tia

My next home will have the ceramic wood tile. They sell it in up to 8ft planks now.

Went areas? Yes.
Rent houses? Maybe (perhaps laminate instead).
Lake house? Probably.
My home? Other than above, no. BUT, I haven't seen any installs I actually like. If that ever changes, I'd consider it.

We just did our entire house with porcelain tile. Love it!

I'd do wood look tile in a heart beat. There are some that look better than others and the install has to be done right, but that's true for any flooring.

We replaced the carpet in the bedrooms a couple years ago with engineered hardwoods (matched the living room) and I hate worrying all the time about scratches. Kids and dogs are hell on floors. I wanted the WL tile, but it wouldn't have looked right with our existing flooring.

That said, real wood flooring is timeless and you'll never have to worry about it going out of style.

wood look tile, no contest. Did the whole house in it a couple years ago. Smartest money I've ever spent.

Not to hijack the discussion, but what are y'alls thoughts on luxury vinyl plank? We're eventually going to have to replace the floors in our house with something more durable for kids and animals and LVP and WLT both seemed like good options. And the prices for both are pretty comparable.

Josepi said:

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Do yall really worry about scratches on wood floors? I have reclaimed pine floors throughout our house, 3 kids, and a dog. The floors are scratched to hell, but I like the way it looks. It gives it character. And no, the floors aren't destroyed. You can barely see the scratches when you are standing up

I would never put in wood tile, but that's just me. I would also never purchase a house that had ceramic wood tile. Wood floors will never go out of style and they look great if done right. The only rooms we don't have wood are the bathrooms.

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My engineered hardwoods are 15 years old, light honey oak, scratched to hell and they look bad. It depends on your floors imo.

Boats and Hose said:

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Not to hijack the discussion, but what are y'alls thoughts on luxury vinyl plank? We're eventually going to have to replace the floors in our house with something more durable for kids and animals and LVP and WLT both seemed like good options. And the prices for both are pretty comparable.

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My whole house is LVP except for my 2 boys' bedrooms.

I love it. I would definitely recommend going with an underlayment. It's worth the extra $0.99 per sf

I wouldn't do wood look tile, but we're on a crawlspace and you'd have a whole bunch of extra steps involved with the underlayment and all. It'd also probably get colder than wood in winter.

irish pete ag06 said:

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Boats and Hose said:

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Not to hijack the discussion, but what are y'alls thoughts on luxury vinyl plank? We're eventually going to have to replace the floors in our house with something more durable for kids and animals and LVP and WLT both seemed like good options. And the prices for both are pretty comparable.

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My whole house is LVP except for my 2 boys' bedrooms.

I love it. I would definitely recommend going with an underlayment. It's worth the extra $0.99 per sf

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My house is all LVP outside of the tile that is the kitchen and bathrooms.

I love it. It looks good and walks soft, yet its tough and its water resistance is only beat by tile really. Kids and pets are going to have a tough time tearing it up.

Don't bother with the LVP from Lowes/HD. They look cheap compared to other similarly priced stuff.

we have engineered hardwood. it cannot stand up to dogs at all. totally sucks. if i had to do it again, i'd have done the tile.

We have 13 lb, 40 lb and 65 lb dogs running hard on dark hickory engineered wood floors for just over a year. I have one plank that has scratches and that's it. The dogs have decent sized nails because they all fight trimming so badly, and the floors have not taken the beating I thought they would. My neighbor across the street has an 85 lb lab running on the exact same floors for 2+ years and his look great as well. It seems it is very hit and miss with engineered wood from all those I have talked to and seen. I hadn't seen any tile applications that I liked in person, so we opted to go with the engineered over tile and real and have been very happy.

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Do yall really worry about scratches on wood floors? I have reclaimed pine floors throughout our house, 3 kids, and a dog. The floors are scratched to hell, but I like the way it looks. It gives it character. And no, the floors aren't destroyed. You can barely see the scratches when you are standing up.

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This is our experience as well. I don't recall the type of wood, but we have a darker color with a hand scrapped texture. The only time you can see scratches from our two labs is when the early morning sun shines through the windows. Even then, you have to look fairly closely to see them. Also agree with it adding character.

I like the wood tile a lot as well. I'm just not totally convinced that I'll like it in 5 years.

Yeah, our wood floors are scratched to hell but you can't really tell unless you're looking for it and even then you need the glare of a light to see the scratches. The house is 15+ years old, and for that they look great. We'll probably refinish them when we go to sell, but not sure if even that is complete necessary.

I don't think wood is any less "hard" on your feet than tile

I wouldn't hesitate to put the wood look tile in every house I live in the rest of my life.

They are resiliant vs the kids and dogs and I don't have to worry about water damage....I've had a washing machine leak and a water filtration system leak over the last 8 years and it was nice not having to tear out any floors.

Replaced my natural wood with porcelain wood look tile about a month ago. I liked the real wood, but was showing some damage and my wife preferred the tile. Now that it is down, I like it fine.

We had scratches on our wood before we had kids and no dogs.

It's distressed wood though, so not a huge deal. We just touch up any large noticeable scratches with a touch up marker.

Wood is hickory

Our hickory engineered hardwoods are tough as hell. Been in for nearly 3 years and I've only managed to find one tiny scratch. That said, we only have a 30lb dog vs. 80 lb dog. But also mix in 2 kids that are always dropping crap like backpacks with metal attachments, etc. on them.

Another vote for luxury vinyl plank. If you are thinking about wood floors then you should be able to afford better quality stuff then what you would find at one of the box stores. We have had ours for 2 years now and could not be happier. Cheaper on the install as well as compared to wood or tile.

Ours had a corked backing and is 100% water proof with a lifetime warranty against defect. We have two dogs and it has held up with absolutely no problems. Unless we told you, you would not even be able to tell it is not wood.