New home flooring.. carpet / wood / ceramic

I'm having a new house built in the spring. The builder provides carpet for the 2nd floor (4 bedrooms). I'm thinking for paying for the berber carpet upgrade but I'm wondering if I should consider going with hardwood. I've got a 1 1/2 year old son, might have another kid next year. Carpet is nice and warm... nice when young kids fall on it. Baby puke is a PITA to clean from regular carpet though (easier on berber?).

On a related note, ceramic is included in the kitchen / dinette... It's nice and everything but I'm kinda worried having that with a kid that would be learning to walk. Mine fell a bunch of times in the kitchen when learning and we've got vinyl... If it was on ceramic, I think that he would have cracked his head open!

Any thoughts?

i'd go with what's easy to clean: ceramic, tiles and wood.

with regards to having a baby and worried about them falling - just put them in their pen or have a blanket (or two) on the floor.

you could always buy a rug if you change your mind. harder to do with carpet.

my 2 cents

(please note that i'm utterly biased against carpets. i have dust allergies and have not lived in a carpeted house for about 15 years now)

good and bad for both

my kids are all grown now but carpet was nice and soft plus warm for kids, hardwood and ceramics(what we just got done) is cleaner and better looking but colder..........I find I have to wear slippers or shoes all the time

from guys at work with younger kids, its cleaner for allergies etc but not as friendly..........definitely a trade off

our finished basement will be redone in 2 years and I'll probably stay with carpet there

good point about kids hitting their heads

A couple of things to consider... Berber carpets are trendy as hell right now but not the easiest to live with. It's not recommended to use a beater bar attachment on the vacuum. It's a continuous pile carpet, which means that's it's one continuous thread. If you get a pull and you catch it with the beater bar kiss your carpet goodbye. The string will pull out across the entire carpet. If you're looking to upgrade put your money into the upgrade underpad. Underpad it what makes the carpet feel better underfoot and increases the life of the carpet. In regards to the kids, you may very well want to have it professionally cleaned every year or 2, which most folks do anyway. Kids can be very hard on hardwood. Think toy cars, etc scraped across the floor a thousand plus times.

Personally I could never live with ceramic in my kitchen. I spend way too much time in there. It can be cold underfoot, slippery and it's hard on your back. I'm not sure I would want a little one crawling around on it or learning to walk on it. Don't forget it can be broken as well if you drop something on it and anything breakable that you drop will shatter. I am seriously thinking about putting cork flooring in my kitchen as an alternative to the vinyl.

My son learned to walk on hardwood and tile... Sure he fell and hit his head and got a nice bruise a few times but they are small and light and can't really do much damage to themselves without actually falling off a table or something.

I prefer the ability to truely clean hardwood and tile. That said, I did go with carpet for the stairs, the bonus room and the kids' rooms.

Originally Posted by CSK'sMom

Personally I could never live with ceramic in my kitchen. I spend way too much time in there. It can be cold underfoot, slippery and it's hard on your back. I'm not sure I would want a little one crawling around on it or learning to walk on it. Don't forget it can be broken as well if you drop something on it and anything breakable that you drop will shatter. I am seriously thinking about putting cork flooring in my kitchen as an alternative to the vinyl.

Hardwood will get scratched up, but the real stuff can be re-finished. We just moved into a home with real hardwood and in certain lighting conditions you can see all the scratches a mile away, and the house is less than 2 years old..but I guess all surfaces will have some kind of wear.

I would love tile, I like the look of it, the feel of it and the durability. One thing I would do with tile though is to put in the electric heating sheets under the heavy traffic areas, it makes a world of difference walking bare feet on unheated vs heated tile.

I've had both hardwoods and ceramic tile in my kitchen. I prefer the tile because it wears better. Hardwoods need to be "screened" every few years to buff out the scratches caused by everday use (even my cats running leave scratches on the hardwoods). I don't find tile any "harder" to stand on, and I actually like a cool floor, although you can install in floor heating for surprisingly reasonable prices if its an issue for you.

As for falling babies... good luck...they will always find something hard to bonk their heads on. Puke is much easier to clean up on tile, then hardwood, and then carpet...

Originally Posted by BobW

I don't find tile any "harder" to stand on, and I actually like a cool floor, although you can install in floor heating for surprisingly reasonable prices if its an issue for you.

Not if you're having that done through the builder. They wanted something like 1000$ for an ensuite. I can't wait to see how much they'll charge for a kitchen! (different builder though)


Thanks for all the tips folks. Keep em coming, I'm sure they'll be useful for lots of people. I'll stick with the carpet in the stairs as in my original plan but that berber carpet worries me now... (single strand). As for ceramic in the kitchen, it comes with the house. I could get a credit and go for vinyl, but installing ceramic later is a PITA.

mart242, berber carpets are absolutely not recommended for stairs, especially upholstered stairs. Look into a level loop or hard twist carpet. These will wear better. My hubby is a flooring installer by trade and just got a call last week regarding a pulled string on a berber. He went and looked at it yesterday and it can't be fixed. They will be replacing it before they have a houseful for Christmas.

As for the undertile heating systems, with energy prices continueing to rise I would hate to see the bills. Electricity is rumoured to be rising substantially in the spring, which most undertile systems are.

we decided on this...

entrace + kitchen = ceramic (very nice upgraded one though )

all bathrooms = ceramic

main floor + upstairs main hallway + stairs = hardwood

upstair rooms = carpet

I may rip out the carpet in one of the rooms that will be our office though and install laminate.

Make sure you grab a few extra tiles from them. Tile in kitchen tends to get broken because stuff gets dropped quite often in the kitchen. If you have a few spare tiles, you can at least get any broken tiles replaced.

I like hardwoord and tile. Its just in the kitchen, you have to be a bit careful.

I ripped out the carpet and refinished the hardwood.
Its is nice!!!

We just put slate tile in our entryway, looks great and it's pretty durable. We're putting hardwood in the living room, and we're going with cork in the kitchen.

The nice part with cork is that it's easy to clean, easy to install, has some give to it and it's warmer than hardwood or tile. I'd think it would be a lot easier on junior's head.

Originally Posted by galanz

We just put slate tile in our entryway, looks great and it's pretty durable. We're putting hardwood in the living room, and we're going with cork in the kitchen.

The nice part with cork is that it's easy to clean, easy to install, has some give to it and it's warmer than hardwood or tile. I'd think it would be a lot easier on junior's head.

What's the price difference between basic ceramic and cork?

Originally Posted by mart242

What's the price difference between basic ceramic and cork?

The cork floors I've seen are around $6/sq foot. That's a lot more expensive than ceramic.