Good afternoon all,

We are purchasing a house, and it currently has a pretty hideous tile through the first floor. We are looking to probably remove and install either wood-look tile, or wood floors throughout the first floor, and looking for some opinions/experience.

It would be ~1500-2000 square feet.

Has anyone priced this out recently for install cost? We've looked at a few different places to get an idea on materials, and seeing ~$3-$4 per square foot for material if we go the tile route, and a little higher if we go wood floors.

We are planning to get a contractor out as soon as we close to get a better estimate, but just trying to get our heads wrapped around what it might cost.

Anyone have an opinion on overall look/maintenance/value between the two?

Thanks!

Wood and tile are two very different materials, I think only you know what you may like better or what will work better in your house. You have tile now, so you should know it's positives/negatives. Have you ever had wood? Tile vs wood has been discussed to no end for decades. I don't think there is any new information on that front so I would just google it.
https://www.flooringstores.com/blog/tile-vs-wood-floor/

Even within those two umbrellas, there are lots of different materials/options.

Price on both can be as cheap and as expensive as you want really; go to a big box store and see what they have and price out what look you like.

Sorry, really not much help maybe, but the question is pretty open ended!

I can't provide comparison but our house is 85% natural wood floors. Only place with tile is in bathrooms, carpet in master closet, brick in laundry room.

We love it. Even with young kids is super easy to clean. We went smooth so some things (goldfish crumbs) do show easy but its also an easy wipe up to clean. We do occasional scrubbing with a cleaner to get those drops of drinks, food, etc that sort of leave a little gunk spot.

The wood is a tad more "sensitive" and we are probably hawks with our young kids right now (dont bang tonka trucks and dry off fully from pool before going in) but in the long run having it will be worth it. We get a ton of compliments.

Can't provide a cost estimate but can offer a comparison as I've owned both. Our old house had wood floors in the main living area. The builder put in the wood so can't offer much as far as what the quality was but I'd wager to say it wasn't the best but also not the worst. We lived there for 8 years and over that time acquired two small dogs (boston terrier) and had 2 young kids. There were spots - mostly near doors - where the wood was worn due to the dogs getting excited when people came over.

Our new house has wood look tile in the main living area and kitchen. We've been here just over a year and love it. I've often commented to my wife how much I prefer it to the real wood floor. There are some drawbacks, it gets much colder than the wood floor did - or at least seems to. Obviously seems much harder so when one of the kids tumbles off the couch there's always a little more concern. I'm always concerned when someone drops something heavy if it will break the title but so far we've been lucky. Not sure how likely that is, but it's certainly an irrational fear that I have.

We put in about 1500 sqft of wood-look tile in our house about 6 months ago. All in (Tile, grout, thinset, labor, taxes) was about $7.70 per sqft, with tile prices being $3.43 per sqft at the time. This is the product we used (Shaw - Wood-look tile), which looks like it's now $4.69 a sqft. We're very happy with the look and durability of the tile. If I had to do it again, I would have picked a slightly darker grout, but I'm not unhappy with what we picked.

Here's a couple photos if interested:




I've had a house with wood and it didn't hold up well with a dog, and now we've got several young kids. Granted, I have no idea what product was installed since it was like that when we bought the house, but based on that experience, I probably won't chance it with wood in the future personally.

Any questions, let me know. Good luck.

Wood-look tile falls into the same "here today, hate it tomorrow" categories as barn doors, tan/yellow wall paint in the early 00's and shag carpet.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I know it was a pretty vague question but mostly was just looking for experience or thoughts in general.

Ben - that looks pretty fantastic. I like how you honestly can't see the grout lines much at all. My wife would totally go for something that looks like that.

Overall I think that's the direction we are likely heading. I know my parents have loved theirs over the last 5 or 6 years. I was a little afraid of what you mentioned Marvin - the trendy factor. But hey, gotta make the wife happy and if it goes out of style, it goes out of style...

I have tile throughout a lot of my house now and I've had wood before. With kids and a dog, the tile is virtually indestructible . Wood varies tremendously. Are you thinking of engineered, pre-finished solid, or on-site finished solid? The biggest downside to engineered is that most of it cannot be refinished. The top, actual wood-layer is too thin. If I ever do wood again, it would be on-site finished solid wood.

I would do LVP before I did wood look tile.

If you go with tile, a few things to look out for when hiring a contractor to install it:

1) If whole house, you really need expansion joints (which can be caulked with a special color matching caulk)

2) The larger the tile plank, the more prone they are to lippage (this can even occur with 6x24 tiles). Lippage occurs because planks aren't always perfectly flat. The proper way to handle this is for the installer to use tile leveling spacers during install and selecting an appropriate layout pattern (see #4).

3) The smaller the grout line, the more lippage can be a problem. See #2

4) Lippage can be minimized (but not really eliminated) by sticking to a 1/3 or less layout offset. 50% offset would give you maximum lippage for any given tile. I like ~1/3 offset in a random pattern for wood look tile.

5) A decoupling membrane is optional on a slab but almost a necessity upstairs. It can be expensive so unless your tile is really pricy don't feel bad about not using one...unless your slab is crap. If you have bad cracks those can be addressed individually with proper treatment before install.

6) Pouring a leveling compound is also recommended, but not required. Again more $$....your choice.

7) Use a good grout - like Mapei Ultracolor Plus


Many "professional" installers will not do 1 or 2. So be sure to ask the right questions when vetting your contractor.

Buy rectified tile. Solves lippage. We have 8"/12"x72" wood look tiles and they were perfectly straight and flat.

We bought porcelain tile with dark wood grain patterns for our remodel a couple of years ago. Did the entire house with this. We love it!

We have wood look tile in my house. I've been a huge fan of it and wouldn't worry about it being trendy.

We have a 1 year old and a 85 pound dog. It's shown to be really durable so it's been worth it for us.

javajaws said:

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If you go with tile, a few things to look out for when hiring a contractor to install it:

1) If whole house, you really need expansion joints (which can be caulked with a special color matching caulk)

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This. We've been in my house 4 years and flippers did a reno 2 years before we bought it. They took down some walls to create an open floor plan in the living/dining/kitchen area and installed wood look tile throughout that area. The tile area is about 1,200 SF and has no expansion joints. I spent yesterday pulling up and replacing about 20 SF of the tile because it had tented. Luckily, they left about 50 extra tiles so I didn't have any issues finding a match and I have plenty more in case it happens again.

After moving in, we replaced all bedroom and hallway carpet with wood. We like the look of both the wood and wood-look tiles. I prefer how the wood feels, but it can be easier to damage. I guess the decision comes down to your lifestyle and how you use the space.

TexAg2001 said:

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Luckily, they left about 50 extra tiles so I didn't have any issues finding a match and I have plenty more in case it happens again.

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This is a big thing no matter what you do. Have plenty of extras. Extra engineered wood planks, extra tile, extra wood and stain (especially if you do real hardwood and they do a stain blend). We have enough stain and wood to re-do probably 1 large room or two smaller rooms should we have an issue. Hopefully wont ever need but its in the garage. In our last house we did engineered hardwood and the line we selected was "discontinued" so we bought decent amount extra and when we sold that house we left it with the house and made sure the new home-owners knew where/what it was.

My understanding is the material costs of wood look tile will be cheaper but installation will be more.

Obviously, you can get vastly different grades of (and priced) wood and tile so not true in every situation.

As for not being able to refinish engineered floors, most engineered hardwoods, at least if you're looking over $4/sq ft, have a thick enough wear layer to be refinished at least once. My understanding is that the bigger issue is when they are prefinished it makes them more durable, which can be harder to sand. We're currently about to redo our floors and the engineered hardwoods we've looked at have wear layers of 2-5 mm

aggiejumper said:

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Buy rectified tile. Solves lippage. We have 8"/12"x72" wood look tiles and they were perfectly straight and flat.

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FYI, rectified tile only involves re-cutting the tile after firing so it has square edges. It doesn't really effect lippage or flatness.

Well put, sounds like you've visited johnbridge.com

Having dealt with both (wood look tile at my parent's place) I prefer actual hardwood. Maybe it's from having set a ton of tile but the pattern the tile is laid in almost always jumps right out at me. Length is always too short compared to the hardwood I've installed. I'm also not a fan of the grout lines, but the same thing applies with the bevel that prefinished hardwood has. It's all a huge dust and grit collector.

Hardwood that's finished on site is my favorite by far. Oil finish has been far more durable than any kind of polyurethane in my experience, and it can be repaired if there's a deep scratch.

Interesting, did not know that. Guess we were lucky and/or bought good quality tile with no lip.

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I would do LVP before I did wood look tile.

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Why LVP over wood-like tile?

Aggietaco said:

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aggiejumper said:

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Buy rectified tile. Solves lippage. We have 8"/12"x72" wood look tiles and they were perfectly straight and flat.

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FYI, rectified tile only involves re-cutting the tile after firing so it has square edges. It doesn't really effect lippage or flatness.

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Exactly. Generally rectified tiles are also better quality tiles, and it's the better quality part that minimizes the lippage problems because those tiles are usually flatter.

Had both. Liked both for different reasons. Tile is indestructible and zero maintenance. Prefer the feel of wood slightly more, but hate scratching it moving furniture, etc.

Biggest gripe at the moment is dark wood and a light haired dog. Shows up all over the place. But that's a different problem / discussion.

biggest issue we had with our hardwoods was how sensitive they were to moisture and the fact that if you have to replace a small section and want it to blend/match perfectly, you pretty much have to sand the entire floor, rescrape & restain. Perhaps some folks can blend, but I've always been told it is very difficult to get a good match - kind of like painting part of a wall years after the original was painted.

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1) If whole house, you really need expansion joints (which can be caulked with a special color matching caulk)

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For those on this thread that got wood-look tile, did you use expansion joints? I've had at least 1/2 dozen companies in for estimates and only 1 mentioned expansion joints.

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5) A decoupling membrane is optional on a slab but almost a necessity upstairs. It can be expensive so unless your tile is really pricy don't feel bad about not using one...unless your slab is crap. If you have bad cracks those can be addressed individually with proper treatment before install.

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As I mentioned above, I've had at least 1/2 dozen companies in for estimates and only 1 mentioned decoupling membrane. All other bids were in the $30-$35K range. The 1 with a decoupling membrane was $70K.

$30-35k for 1500-2000 sq ft?!?!

We're doing 2300 sq ft of engineered hardwood, including solid tread stairs for $20k

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$30-35k for 1500-2000 sq ft?!?!

We're doing 2300 sq ft of engineered hardwood, including solid tread stairs for $20k

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3200 sq. ft.

Engineered hardwood is much less expensive to install.

Gotcha. I confused you for the op. Yes, engineered hardwood is cheaper the install but generally the materials are higher.

Wow that is pretty crazy. I wouldn't have thought it would cost that much!

Definitely appreciate the input though. Maybe we should actually look at engineered hardwood as well. Two of the rooms have wood floors that we were planning to possibly take out since it would be difficult to match.

Hoping to keep it under 18-20k if possible. It is ~1500-2000 square feet.

We had wood like tile in the majority of our last house, everywhere but bedrooms. One of the largest continuous sections covered the kitchen, dining, living, halls mudroom and office. It was a lot. We liked the continuous look and durability of the tile but we had some issues with loose tiles and grout coming up.

Not sure I would do it again but our house has some hardwood and I can tell my kids and some furniture have made some scratches. So there's trade offs.

Marvin_Zindler said:

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Wood-look tile falls into the same "here today, hate it tomorrow" categories as barn doors, tan/yellow wall paint in the early 00's and shag carpet.

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We'll see what happens. If you like it, who cares?

This sounds a lot like "I don't like it so it's going to be a short lived trend".

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This is the product we used (Shaw - Wood-look tile)

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Shaw Hacienda 6x36 is the same product I'm looking at putting in my house.

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Wow that is pretty crazy. I wouldn't have thought it would cost that much!

Definitely appreciate the input though. Maybe we should actually look at engineered hardwood as well. Two of the rooms have wood floors that we were planning to possibly take out since it would be difficult to match.

Hoping to keep it under 18-20k if possible. It is ~1500-2000 square feet.

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The wood-like tile quote I got for $70K was with a uncoupling membrane laid down between the foundation and tile. I'm beginning to think that is unnecessary. I think I'm just going to ask the installer to put in expansion joints where the tile extends beyond 15 feet. 3 meters (15 feet) is the max length of consecutive tile (length or width) before an expansion joint is required/recommended.

We have a 2300 sq ft home. We did the entire house during the remodel with porcelain tile. All in cost for tile and labor was $20,000. That was two years ago though (pre-COVID).

Seems like real wood is out of question and honestly if wood prices are still way up it likely is even further out of the question....however...

Found an invoice from our work in Oct 2019:

$3.85 per sqft for material ($1 per sq foot more for areas where they needed plywood); $4 per sqft install (sand, finish, etc).

Stairs were about $9 each all in.

$21K was final total. This included not only adding wood floor where there was tile/carpet but also re-sand and refinish all previous hardwood.

PlanoAg98 said:

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Wow that is pretty crazy. I wouldn't have thought it would cost that much!

Definitely appreciate the input though. Maybe we should actually look at engineered hardwood as well. Two of the rooms have wood floors that we were planning to possibly take out since it would be difficult to match.

Hoping to keep it under 18-20k if possible. It is ~1500-2000 square feet.

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The wood-like tile quote I got for $70K was with a uncoupling membrane laid down between the foundation and tile. I'm beginning to think that is unnecessary. I think I'm just going to ask the installer to put in expansion joints where the tile extends beyond 15 feet. 3 meters (15 feet) is the max length of consecutive tile (length or width) before an expansion joint is required/recommended.

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Like I said...decoupling membrane you CAN do without. Is it better, yes. But not required. Exception would be if you have a bad foundation. For expansion joints, you CAN get away without them. But again...better if you have them. Especially if you have a room with a large expanse of uncovered glass windows. Sun coming through a wall of glass can rapidly heat up a section of floor and cause tenting without proper expansion joints.

Most important thing (IMO) is use of leveling spacers during install (of any kind...wedge, spiral round ones, etc). Second would be getting a quality tile (not necessarily more expensive).

best of luck to you.


To the other guy...$70k is crazy, even for 3200sq ft. You must live in a million dollar home and all the contractors are trying to get a piece of your pie lol. That's over $21 a sq ft. How much $/sq ft was the tile you picked?