Flooring? Engineered Hardwood vs Others?

[Lerrooy]

Hey, just from Lethbridge and looking for opinions on flooring. I was considering laminate, but it looks cheap and resale value isn't as good compared to a hardwood. It floats and isn't actually secured down which sort of seems weird. Water damage your screwed too. Solid hardwood will warp and be affected by humidity more as well. Vinyl flooring I'm not overall sure on at all. I figure engineered should be the way to go. Looking at spending maybe max of 4$ per square foot. To be put in the master bedroom. Living room, kitchen, hallway, stairs and dining area.

Just looking for opinions, experiences. Prices and ease of installation, durability, resale. Etc

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Blastoff]

With a $4.00 budget per square you will likely only get laminate, real hardwood has to be at least in the $8.00 range, I paid $7.00 back in 2008 for hardwood installed price.

[I_forget]

I did hardwood in my house a few years ago. $3.50 ish a square foot. 3/4" think. It's easy to install. The floor nailer was $120 to rent from Home Depot for 5 days. So I just bought one for $420. No regrets.

[bobalong]

I put laminate in our house, on all of the main floor. I don't remember the cost but it was pretty easy to install. It has been a couple of years now and it has held up pretty well, but water will bubble it if left on the floor.

We had a fridge screw up, and leaked maybe a gallon or two of water on the floor, but it was under the fridge and we did not see it right away, and it ended up bubbling some of the floor in the open area as well. You can not really see it clearly but when we redo the kitchen cupboards this spring I will have to lift about 5 rows out to replace the bubbled stuff.

I was reluctant to put laminate in the kitchen, but I liked the look of it, so went ahead with it, but if it bubbles again, it will be coming out and vinyl going in.

[Bowie]

$4 budget will get you budget stuff. Sorry to say it. But I do hardwood for a living and I can't even buy a decent product for that cheap. ( hardwood or engineered) laminate is a different story. But if that is for both material and I steal I would suggest saving a bit longer to increase that amount. You don't want to spend that money only to have to do it again in a couple years.

[Bowie]

Install not I steal

[blackmamba]

[QUOTE=Bowie;2715535]$4 budget will get you budget stuff. Sorry to say it. But I do hardwood for a living and I can't even buy a decent product for that cheap. ( hardwood or engineered) laminate is a different story. But if that is for both material and I steal I would suggest saving a bit longer to increase that amount. You don't want to spend that money only to have to do it again in a coupleQUOTE]

$4 a sqft like bowie says is a definately a budget type product . typically with lower end products ( chinese) you will run into milling issues ( over , or underwood) and the quality of the product compared to a product even a doller or two higher is huge , the fit n finish is significant .. Remember this is something your going to have too look at daily ... I say this as an installer of 15 years ... if I can give you one bit of advice , do your do diligence and do your home work .. goto a reputible store ( not home depot or lowes , costco) and ask a ton of questions in regards to the products your looking at ..ask to see the $-8-10-12 products vs the $4 products and you will see the difference between the two.

Mamba

[JustBen]

$4/sq ft will get you a decent laminate. I went with a "light commercial" grade when I did my floors. I was a bit worried, but even our two dogs have yet to put a scratch or mark into it yet. You can still tell it's laminate, but it looks pretty good. I really don't understand everyone's hate for laminate flooring.

[Andrzej]

Just doing tile and hardwood in my house. Hardwood alone was 4.89 per sq foot and tile 3 $ per sq foot. About 8$ per sq foot installed + extra for stairs.

If you are concerned with price you should consider vinyl 6 mm click tile.
2.99 + GST per sq. foot. It is advertised as 100% waterproof, 30 y warranty. Easy click installation, no glue required, can go over any solid surface. No need to remove linoleum.

[Silverado04]

$4/sqft gets you some good laminate. I'm just finishing installing about 900 sq ft into our house. It's definitely the most scratch resistant and everyone that comes over thinks its hardwood. I'll take it.

Scratch resistance was our deciding factor though with a big dog.

Try your car keys on some of the sample blocks if you want an indication of durability. Made my decision for me. Most of the hardwoods I saw I felt I could almost mar it with my fingernail.

[RedLabel]

$4 budget will get you budget stuff. Sorry to say it. But I do hardwood for a living and I can't even buy a decent product for that cheap. ( hardwood or engineered) laminate is a different story. But if that is for both material and I steal I would suggest saving a bit longer to increase that amount. You don't want to spend that money only to have to do it again in a couple years.

This ^

Also, do you have a suitable humidistat in the home? as this is crucial if you go for hardwood

[Lerrooy]

I was looking at vinyl as well. The only thing was at the store he suggested I put in a subfloor everywhere. So that's another 900 sq ft of ten test to put down as well. The one for that price was like 1/8" 3/16" thick and square edges. Has to be glued down. For 3$ plus the cost of the 10 test and the work in that doesn't seem worth it?
I can get a humidistat for the house as well. That's not a problem.
I'll be doing all the work myself so install cost is zero. (To some degree) lol
I guess I could suck it up and go with a bit more for around 5$ ? 900 sq ft around 4500 I suppose
Ugh I hate making decisions. Was easier when I was doing carpentry and just had to install lol