JasonD2005 said:
Just bought my wife a house - great floors downstairs, all carpet upstairs. I'd like to get rid of the carpet but we don't have any money because, you know, we just bought a house.
I could use some suggestions or I'm drinking fatty natty's and not replacing my pants for 10 years. Thanks.
Are you sure you want something besides carpet upstairs? You're just going to hear every last movement. I would rule out luxury vinyl planks (the floppy version) as they will one day sink into every imperfection in your wooden subfloor. Eventually, the beams will show through. I would recommend looking at a solution that has a rigid core (LVP-Rigid Core, Wood Plastic Composite (WPC), Stone Plastic Composite (SPC)).
For me, after months of searching here is the best brand I found for wood look, click lock, rigid core flooring.
https://www.republicfloor.com/copy-of-glacier-point-1Republic Flooring makes the best product. Their images and surface texture are unmatched. I just installed the SPCMax across my whole downstairs. I would recommend putting down an underlayment of WhisperStep (its a green, rubberized mat) to reduce the sounds of kids running around. Republic Flooring's distribution warehouse in Houston is off of I-10 and Beltway-8 off of Brittmore. I would recommend going and giving them a visit to see all of their products. You can't buy there, but you can see everything.
If you really are interested in it, I can tell you which distributor is the cheapest as my wife and I called them all in the Houston area. Paid about $2.25 a sq ft for an incredible product that most other places were selling it for $3.99-$4.50.
But again, I would recommend on carpet upstairs. We can't stand the carpet upstairs because it is old. We will replace it soon enough once kids come into the picture and start living up there.
