Hi guys
I have got a old house (80s build ) with some areas which have squeaky floors. Currently it has really old carpet and we are looking to replace it.
Would it be difficult to have hybrid floor installed as I have heard that hybrid floor is less forgiving than the carpet.
Please provide your input and share experiences
Fix the "squeak" then put in what ever you like. Carpet and hard floors are a totally different experience so you need to be happy to go from carpet to a cold hard floor (especially in bedrooms).
Hybrid floors or any other click fit flooring will require a fairly level subfloor - something you probably wont know until you pull up all the carpet. New flooring wont mask any squeaking, but it can be fixed once the carpet and underlay are pulled up. We have engineered timber in the living room/kitchen and carpet in the bedrooms. Seems to work well.
Do you have a double storey house? If not, is the transition from hard floor to carpet a bit weird?
I think timber flooring in the kitchen could be a good idea. Does it absorb oils/smells from the kitchen? Does it dent if pots/pans/plates are dropped? Or are you not as clumsy as I am?
I have timber in my kitchen - its hardwood not engineered so perhaps a bit more delicate. Yes, if you drop something hard or edgy it will dent or get a little hole; but it doesn't happen that often; 16+ years in and hardly anything (with one resanding having been done, which gets rid of the minor stuff). An empty saucepan probably wont do any damage.
The biggest risk is scratching the wood when you drag your fridge in after the flooring is laid… however minor scratches you can fix. The benefit of wood over tiles is that if you drop a plate or cup, it won't always smash - quite often it just bounces (somethings will break of course; but its not automatic death). Not to mention wood just looks much better.
It doesn't absorb smells at all. i guess if you left a big oil spill for a few hours it might stain
The main thing I noticed is that around the sink, where the floor gets splashed with water pretty often and you are standing there pretty regularly, the floor surface coat wears out a lot faster than the rest of the floor (keeping in mind I have hardwood so it does have a surface coat and needs re coating). So for a while you either have a patch of floor that is worn out and everywhere else is fine; or you do the resanding and recoating earlier than is needed other than the one spot. (you can coat the flooring in oils rather than poly which allows small patch repairs, but at the expense of more regular maintenance otherwise). You have to expect to resand/recoat perhaps every 10 years to keep it looking great, or a few years extra if you dont mind it looking less than great in spots
Oh - also if you have the sun coming in through windows for the whole day, the spots wear the sun hits will fade faster than the rest of the floor. That becomes noticeable after 7 or so years. Its usually not a big deal, there tends to be a graduated fade across the floor (some bits get 10 hours of sun, nearby it gets 8 hours so fades slightly less, next to that is the 6hr of sun patch etc); but you notice it when you compare a 'no sun' part with 'gets sun' part. The paler or darker the wood the less this is noticeable, its the mid tones that are most affected
For all that, I will always get wooden floor for my kitchens and always will. Tiles are the devil's work
of course if you have hybrid/engineered wood then its a bit different - for a start, the flooring is a lot harder so it wont dent or scratch as easily, it wont fade as quickly etc
I love timber too but in the kitchen I had an issue. The dishwasher broke and it took a few months to get the right replacement. In the meantime I had the kids doing the washing up in the sink. Little did I know before it was too late that they were always splashing and dripping water onto the floor - after a month or so I saw the first evidence and a couple of boards started to swell and lift. So enjoy but be careful.
I have both carpets and hardwood flooring and both had squeaky bits. Only in a few spots, but either way its not the surface flooring type that is the issue, its the subfloor. Not too hard to fix if you can access the subfloor from below (which I could, so not sure how you fix it if you cant. I'm sure there are YT videos on it. Probably just some extra nailing from the top).
For me, hard flooring in living and kitchen areas, carpet in the bedrooms. But if I lived Brisbane or north, probably wood throughout (have lived in several tropical (ie humid) countries and carpet is a terrible option there and not just because of the temperature). I just prefer wood flooring. Then again, cheap hybrid looks terrible.
yeah same.. we have hardwood floor, and put carpets in the bedrooms. Had some squeaky parts, went under the house and hammered those spacer things (that look like a big letter U) and problem solved
Did the same thing myself recently, had old carpet and removed it for hybrids across the whole house. Drill screws into the subfloor in the squeaky areas after you have removed the old carpet. Keep in mind hybrid floor boards are very good and you shouldn't get it mixed up with the cheaper laminate boards! Although you can save a lot of money by shopping around, don't cheap out on the design as it will be in your house for a very long time.
Pros: Floor boards are easier to clean than carpets, easier to move furniture around, house is cooler in the summer, much more modern looking than carpets (opinion). If you decide to keep hybrids in the bedrooms instead of carpet and regret it, you can always lay a rug.
Cons: Small hard pieces of dirt can be felt when walking whereas with carpet it, would just sink in and you wouldn't notice it. This means you need to clean more frequently although it is still less effort than carpet. Foot steps are a little louder but not really a big problem as the hybrids helped with sound proofing.
You on a slab or stump?
If Slab, sometimes the floors aren't level and this needs to be rectified before using any timber/hybrid/laminate flooring. Either self leveling compound or grinding slab.
I've installed hybrid flooring in my rental property. It's cheap as chips (under $30 sqm) but looks more expensive than it is. It has a built in (thin) underlay so doesn't feel as floaty/squishy has laminate with 2-3mm underlay.
I'd choose hybrid flooring over carpet.
Holy crap. An 80s house is old?
It could be over 40 years old…probably still in better condition than something built in 2005. I mean, I'm a child of the 80s and I'm definitely in better condition than all those 2005 people. Definitely, no question, I tell myself that every day and so it must be true
Are you trying to mask the squeak sound?