Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 09, 2017 6:58 am Hello People, Just wondering which one you prefer for flooring in living and family and why? Please share your ideas and experience. I would like to go with Porcelain tiles but came across lovely timber look lamimate flooring and stuck. Which one add more value to the property and don't date soon. Thanks Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 2May 09, 2017 8:26 am We are only in the very early stages of signing with a builder, but I'm a bit of an OCD freak and I'm already trying to get all my selections organised well in advance. I'm also stuck between tiles and laminate flooring. Cost isn't really a factor for us, because the laminate flooring we are looking at is actually just as expensive as the 600x600 porc tiles we like. We are looking at a good quality German brand that's up around the $90sqm (incl labour). Regardless we will be having laminate timber look flooring at the entrance to our house, but can't decide whether to continue it throughout the entire ground floor, or go tiles for the rest. This is the look we are going for: I think the timber/laminate gives the house a very warm feeling and is easier on the feet, but I think nice porcelain tiles give a very opulent look. One of the biggest factors for us is we have dogs that live inside and love to take a big drink from their water bowls and then drip water all over the floor. From previous experience with tiles, they are much harder to keep clean and can leave water marks after mopping. We also plan to have a pool, so no doubt wet foot prints will be an issue. In our current house we have hardwood timber flooring and I just find it much easier to keep clean. A quick vacuum for the dogs hair and a light mop with timber floor cleaner and they come up nice and shiny with very little effort. I'm leaning more towards the laminate flooring at the moment and I figure if 10 years down the track I decide I want a change, well it's a pretty easy DIY job to pull them up, however if you go tiles and decide down the track you want to change, well it's a very big and messy job to remove tiles. Instagram blog: https://www.instagram.com/ourforevertonhome/ Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 3May 09, 2017 9:24 am It's a tricky one but I'd say keep the laminate the whole way through....I tossed up between tiles or wood flooring and ended up going 600x600 porcelain throughout - cost a fortune but I really like it. Note though the shiny tiles are HIGH maintenance and it's hard for them to look clean all the time. I think the laminate will be better from that perspective and a lot say it's warmer and more inviting. Good luck, J My Phoenix by Metricon in Melbourne viewtopic.php?f=31&t=83584&p=1570829&hilit=my+phoenix+by+metricon+in+melbourne#p1570829 Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 4May 09, 2017 9:51 am I went with tiles throughout. Can't really explain why. I mostly just didn't want tiles in wet areas, and carpet in hallway/lounge. I have 600x600 porcelain tiles in a matt finish. I really like them. I like the natural feel of them. I thought laminate would look cheap, but I could not have afforded hardwood floors. I haven't lived with tiles or laminate floors before, so don't know if I will still end up liking tiles. I also thought they would be low maintenance and last a long time.. since I have a lot of pets. If I had to go with smaller tiles I probably wouldn't have gone with tiles at all. We have hard wood floors, they are old and not well looked after and they look horrible.. water spills and pet claws have done a lot of damage. I will end up putting down rugs anyways. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here they are. Not cleaned yet. This is kitchen, dining and living. Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 6May 09, 2017 10:42 am There's different quality of laminate flooring though, and unfortunately most people only get to see the cheap offerings from volume builders. We are going to do ours post handover using a german brand called Balterio. I've searched high and low and looked at so many different brands and this was the one that actually looked and felt like timber. Unfortunately, there's not many places in Australia you can get it, I just happened to have gotten lucky when searching the web and found a bloke who's just moved to Australia to setup his new business distributing this particular brand. He also sells engineered oak flooring, and holding them side by side, it was hard to tell which were laminate. This is 3 we shortlisted when we stopped in for a quick visit, though no doubt we will change our minds at least another half dozen times. I'm leaning towards the far left at the moment as we will be going for that hamptons white/grey theme inside and I really liked the caramel tones. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Instagram blog: https://www.instagram.com/ourforevertonhome/ Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 7May 09, 2017 12:39 pm What is the cost differential between laminate and real timber flooring? Trouble with laminate is that it is (how to put this gently) not genuine. Therefore, I think I would prefer tiles. If you want it to have a "warmer" feel, you could go for more naturally-finished tiles rather than glazed - terracotta comes to mind. Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 8May 09, 2017 1:07 pm arcadelt What is the cost differential between laminate and real timber flooring? Trouble with laminate is that it is (how to put this gently) not genuine. Therefore, I think I would prefer tiles. If you want it to have a "warmer" feel, you could go for more naturally-finished tiles rather than glazed - terracotta comes to mind. Well it depends on the the quality. I've seen laminate flooring costs from $12sqm to $110sqm. I've also seen timber oak flooring from as low as $50sqm right up to $250sqm. All costs being equal, real timber flooring won't be an option for us due to pets. They can scratch/dent quite easily and can warp from water damage. They usually only have a few millimeters of wear too, meaning they can only be sanded back so many times. I've got hard wood flooring now and have had them refinished twice in 5 years and they've already got plenty of scratches and marks from seats/couches being moved, dogs running around etc. I think timber flooring definitely looks the best, but for us it's just not practical, so it's tiles or a good quality laminate. I'll be honest with you, I didn't think much of laminate flooring because previously all I had ever really seen close up was what you see in bunnings, but after seeing these, I've changed my mind. Instagram blog: https://www.instagram.com/ourforevertonhome/ Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 9May 09, 2017 1:33 pm We had the same issue initially we thought we would go with tiles this build until we moved into our rental with bit white porc. tiles - I hate them! I'm OCD about keeping the house nice and clean and they are impossible we are always vaccuming and mopping also have a 2 yr old and I find crumbs etc stuck in the little grout lines We have lam in our first house and have gone for an engineered timber oak this time around just made sure we got a good quality flooring as the first lam we bought was quite expensize but was very dark and have this "smooth" texture to it that showed all the dust and dog scratches ! SO this time found something good quality and price with a nice timber feel to it! Think it is all personal preference really but I find the tiles too high maintenance and slippery Current Build with Gall3ry Living https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=87680 First Build Thread : Our Mt Barker Build @ The Grove Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 10May 09, 2017 1:56 pm Wood floors should be tested by buyers before buying, there is a huge difference between softer hardwoods and a Brazilian cherry hardwood which is extremely durable and really hard wearing, I personally tested several bamboo floors by hitting them with a hammer, submerged in water over night, keyed the boards, result was a extreme hard strand woven bamboo that after 2 1/2 years with heavy regular traffic has maybe only two almost unseeable light scratches in over 220 square metres of flooring. Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 11May 09, 2017 2:28 pm I wanted real wood but reality of high heels, two kids, two big dogs and less stress of upkeep made us go for vinyl plank. Don't think 70s roll out vinyl. This is thick planks that are glued down. Not slippy after the pool, the kids can play on it, tins can drop on it, water can sit on it, dogs can run on it, sand all over it, furniture can drag over it, no grout to clean - in other words you can properly LIVE with it. I love it. So much choice in colours and wood types, plank widths, textures and it looks like timber. Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 12May 09, 2017 3:44 pm Sparkie Hello People, Just wondering which one you prefer for flooring in living and family and why? Please share your ideas and experience. I would like to go with Porcelain tiles but came across lovely timber look lamimate flooring and stuck. Which one add more value to the property and don't date soon. Thanks We went for laminate in the end after a lengthy discussion with a knowledgeable staff member at Choice Flooring. Porcelain tiles look amazing but they are cold, if you drop a mug on it the tile and/or the mug would likely break, they need regular mopping to stay looking good and they will get scratched. We have a dog and also when kids come along the laminate is much more practical being scratch resistant. They offer a warmer feel and things are less likely to break when dropped. Plus the quality of the laminate now is much better than a decade ago and it really gives a realistic wood look it is often hard to tell the difference between that and real wooden floorboards. Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 13May 09, 2017 3:58 pm Waldorf_Grange_Build Sparkie Hello People, Just wondering which one you prefer for flooring in living and family and why? Please share your ideas and experience. I would like to go with Porcelain tiles but came across lovely timber look lamimate flooring and stuck. Which one add more value to the property and don't date soon. Thanks We went for laminate in the end after a lengthy discussion with a knowledgeable staff member at Choice Flooring. Porcelain tiles look amazing but they are cold, if you drop a mug on it the tile and/or the mug would likely break, they need regular mopping to stay looking good and they will get scratched. We have a dog and also when kids come along the laminate is much more practical being scratch resistant. They offer a warmer feel and things are less likely to break when dropped. Plus the quality of the laminate now is much better than a decade ago and it really gives a realistic wood look it is often hard to tell the difference between that and real wooden floorboards. Agreed. Those samples I posted above actually sounded like wood when you tapped on them and felt like wood to touch. These ones weren't completely smooth to touch like some of the other laminates we looked at. They actually has a very light wood grain texture and what we really liked was the pronounced grooves at the joins which made it look more like real timber floorboards. Instagram blog: https://www.instagram.com/ourforevertonhome/ Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 14May 09, 2017 4:02 pm Instagram blog: https://www.instagram.com/ourforevertonhome/ Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 15May 09, 2017 6:29 pm So sad to hear so many people say they wanted timber but felt they had to compromise because of modern life. The homes we have owned have all had real timber floors, with build years from 1890 to 1995. We have no kids, but in every one of those homes, except one, have had two kelpies - energetic in their early years, but ageing gracefully now. Yes, the floors suffered a little, but IMHO that is about living in a home. We are building now, and based on our years of experience, we are installing re-milled timber everywhere except for the bedrooms, which have carpet, and the bathrooms, which have tiles. If the timber floors get marked, so be it - at least they will then match the recycled brick feature wall and the structural recycled timber posts. Please don't discount real timber just because of concerns about wear. I promise you they will beautify with the patina of YOUR life. Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 16May 09, 2017 8:17 pm arcadelt So sad to hear so many people say they wanted timber but felt they had to compromise because of modern life. The homes we have owned have all had real timber floors, with build years from 1890 to 1995. We have no kids, but in every one of those homes, except one, have had two kelpies - energetic in their early years, but ageing gracefully now. Yes, the floors suffered a little, but IMHO that is about living in a home. We are building now, and based on our years of experience, we are installing re-milled timber everywhere except for the bedrooms, which have carpet, and the bathrooms, which have tiles. If the timber floors get marked, so be it - at least they will then match the recycled brick feature wall and the structural recycled timber posts. Please don't discount real timber just because of concerns about wear. I promise you they will beautify with the patina of YOUR life. We also didn't get real timber because it was a costly upgrade. The laminate was a standard inclusion. I have timber floors in my current home and have high heel marks through it from when my sister lived with me. It looks terrible. I love natural finishes and products but also don't like seeing the marks all through the living areas. There are lots of other ways I can introduce timber into the home with furniture etc. Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 17May 09, 2017 8:41 pm I have always lived with tiles. I'm currently renting in a house with laminate wood flooring (brand new) and with my 2 mostly indoor dogs it's a NIGHTMARE! I hate it! It's hard to clean, the hair sticks to it like crazy and I can never get the water marks off. Tiles were so much better. The worst thing though is the noise. I keep their nails clipped short but the dogs feet make the most annoying sound in the world. As does people walking around. My builder offered laminate and I ran the other way. Previously I thought it looked amazing and wanted to get it. Everyone's opinions are different, but for me with pets I couldn't live with the laminAte. Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 18May 09, 2017 10:41 pm bank We went tiles because we don't like the sound of laminate. Solid hardwood is my ultimate dream. Same here, love the look but after going through numerous displays with laminate I hated the sound! Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 19May 10, 2017 6:33 pm No excuses in getting wrong flooring for your particular needs, test, test test, homework, has for someone walking continually on a wooden floor knowing their marking it with high heels, one word, arrogant or don't care, it's not mine, DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Re: Laminate vs Tiles, pros and cons 20May 10, 2017 7:10 pm In our build we're using tiles downstairs and laminate upstairs. I would of ideally used laminate downstairs as well but I am an avid fishkeeper and if something goes wrong and a slow leak happens or a tank breaks, I'd prefer knowing the flooring not be destroyed. Also we have kids and dogs so we wanted something hard wearing. I'm not looking forward to the grout cleaning but am looking into vacuums that can scrub grout to maybe make life easier, will see how we go with that lol. Having grown up with hardwood floors and having lived a few years in a rental with hardwood I wouldn't personally use them. Scratches, dents, water damage - they look fantastic but IMHO good laminate looks and feels just as good without all the hassle. Customised Burbank Indigo/Hawthorn in Officer VIC https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... 2#p1680752 Standard uninsulated double brick has an R value of around 0.7. An insulated standard 90mm stud timber frame can have an R value of around 2.7. Even if you insulate a… 17 12069 Just about completed a renovation project and hit a small issue that we didn’t see We have laminate floors now where we had tiles before (turned out it was actually 2… 0 4935 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair At a bit of a loss on this one - we're thinking the original owners never removed the protective laminate covers from their kitchen cabinets after installation and in the… 0 6335 |