Laminate vs. tile

I've always lived in rentals with no choice, but have experienced both. Tile feels colder under your feet if you are barefoot. I have cold feet so I prefer laminate. Someone who tends to feel hot would probably prefer tile. Things break more easily if you drop them on tile. Tile lasts longer if you take good care of it and it doesn't break (and of course you can get replacements for breakage). In fact it lasts waaaay longer-- archaeologists find ancient tiles on sites that are still theoretically usable. Laminate is easier to clean. Grout especially is a pain to clean. Tile shows dirt a little more, depending on the color of course. Glazed tile is easier to clean than unglazed tile, and IMO feels nicer. If you get unglazed tile in the color of clay, when people track in clay it won't show much at all because it is more or less the same thing as the tile. As I said I prefer the feel and easy care of laminate. If you do get tile, get big ones so there is less grout to deal with. Tile is more slippery and can be very dangerous when wet, so if you get tile, make allowances for that by putting rugs or something near the bathroom.

I personally would pick laminate, with tile on the kitchen backsplashes maybe.

I think tile seems to echo a little more.

My personal favorite for non-carpet flooring is bamboo.

We have parquet flooring in our entry way, I think that's considered about the same thing?

Is pergo wood?

Gotta run, so I'll save my opinion till I'm sure I have one LOL.
Depends on weather or not pergo is the same as parquet? Anyone know?

We installed Pergo over a yucky old tile kitchen floor in our last house, and were very happy with it. The new laminates really don't look "fakey", and it's easy on the back when you are standing in the kitchen a lot. We picked it mainly because it was easier to install ourselves than ceramic tile, but ended up being happier with it anyway. We had just removed and replaced a bathroom floor with ceramic, and we nearly lost our minds. If you do ever want to replace the floor, it's very easy to take up the laminate. Busting tile can be fun, but it's kind of a nightmare to get all of it up.

I did find out that laminate is the same as what my aunt has, and close enough to the same stuff we have.
Both my aunt and I are in the middle of dealing with what happens when laminate (or laminate like wood) gets wet. Mine's not as bad as her's, her's is requiring her to go threw her insurance company. She's not sure exactly what happened but most likely it was a slow dishwasher leak that has her entire kitchen and dinning room buckling.
Our situation is where when he have alot of rain the moisture alone is causing buckling at our front door. So far if I let mine dry out, I can fix it, but if I ever replace I'll use tile.

So you have arguments on both sides, just my two cents, hope that helps.

Obviously you can wet laminate enough to mop it, it's just long-term soaking that is a problem. So part of your decision would depend on how damp the house will be.

Sounds like it's easier to pull up laminate than tile, so you could start with laminate, then replace it with tile if you decide to later.

The ONLY person I have ever wished a slow painful death...is the idiot who thought that white ceramic tile was a good idea in the foyer and hall of a "family" home. We bought this house when it was about 5 years old and I HATE the ceramic tile! I might like it if it had some color or texture...but it is plain white...and NEVER clean enough ...its COLD, too. I can't wait to pull it all up and replace with Pergo!

I think the man who made that descision should be boiled in Spic-n-Span! (Note that I said "man" because I'm pretty sure a woman would have had more sense! )

Lenora

In our current house, we have bright white ceramic tile in the kitchen, which has to mopped EVERYDAY or it looks filthy. Boiling in Spic n'Span sounds good to me too Lenora!!!

Thanks for everyone's input. I'm still waffling, but leaning toward Pergo in the living area & hallways & tile in the baths , kitchen & laundry room. Not white though! I may have to borrow your spic and span treatment too, ha.

I tried to talk DH into checking out the glazed concrete at least for the laundry, but he ain't talking.

Anyway, hearing everyone elses experiences is helping.

tile is very cold and echoey unless your rooms are well furnished with lots of stuff. Even so I can tell the difference in my kids' room when I pulled up their rug recently - it sounded like I was walking into a totally empty house.

our tiles are kind of pale grey and white with an inner square of mottled grey and a slightly lighter border - they don't really show the dirt that much, and I rarely bother mopping. I have noticed that they're beginning to get some pretty bad chips now though, but they are about 10yrs old.

for me personally I'd choose Pergo any day, but I haven't had direct experience of it. I'd stick wtih tiles for the kitchen floor though and make sure they're glazed and non-stick. I'd also have to keep tiles in bathrooms because my lots are extremely messy with a variety of nasty liquids and solids. Having tile rather than carpet has made a huge difference to how I respond to kids peeing on the floor or dropping toothpaste, or DH doing the washing up! I'd probably be slightly less relaxed wih Pergo, and downright freaky if we had carpet!

I'm thinking of carpet tiles for the kids' room though...

Kerri.

I'm a floor snob. My husband put in hardwood floors, and I personally think that hardwood floors are the most beautiful floors in the world. I like them even better than pergo, which I think looks fake. But if given a choice between pergo and tile, I'd choose the pergo, cause the hardwood floor look is always in style, whereas the tile look comes and goes. Plus you can put throw rugs down on hardwood floors/pergo, and it looks good. It's a lot harder to do that with tile. In my dream home I'm going to have hardwood floors all through my house, with area rugs to cut down on the echo, and to make the rooms warmer.

A girlfriend of mine recently got Pergo floors...they waffled for a long time between hardwood and Pergo. The laminate won out because they plan on getting a couple of dogs in the next few years (and on having some kids) so they wanted something indestructable. A mom I know through my local club breeds Burnese Mountain Dogs (or something like that)--they are huge St. Bernard-looking things--anyway...she also has a grooming business on the side and allso occasionally boards. Those floors get a ton of use, sometimes by dogs with poorly trimmed nails. She also has a couple of teenage stepsons, not to mention her bio-brood. The floor is about 2-3 years old and looks beautiful. And no more maintainance than no-wax linoleum.

Maybe I am scarred from hardwood floors though--we had some in one of the houses I lived in growing up and my dad went completely bugnuts over their care. I can't look at one without seeing him wiping and polishing on his hands and knees every week. (He has some issues with cleanliness though, so I dunno if this is 'normal' hardwood care or not)

I don't like tile floors or countertops at all. They're pretty...but a pain in the rear to take care of. We have tile in our foyer, and it's fortunate we have extra tiles because already some are cracked from moving furniture in--and it's been less than 2 years.

I guess it depends on lifestyle, wear and tear, ect. I tend to go for the prettiest low-maintanace stuff...but you know, if you've got the time and inclination to care for it properly you should get whatever makes you the happiest!
-Kitty, mama to Fiona, Thomas, and Dylan.

We had laminate flooring put in our family room. In a couple of weeks we had heavy rains and water came in through the chimney and completely ruined our new floor. Now we are going with a "wood-look" ceramic floor. Has anyone had any experience with that? Thanks, Claudia

I'm on the fence with this one, too. We are turning our garage into a living area (it was too small for my pickups anyway). I would like the Pergo because of the less-echo effect (and since DH will be playing music in this room). BUT, this room is going to get dirty. And I mean, the brunt of dust storms since it is on the west side of the house. This will also end up being our main entrance for ourselves (closest to where we park out back), so that door will be opened and closed in the middle of dust storms alot. We are going with ceramic tile for the durability factor. I'll just have to put a couch and quilts to help with the echo.

We have 1000 sq/ft on our main floor. We tore up the carpet and replaced it with the cheapest laminate we could get at the time (.79/sq/ft) We considered it a temporary measure until the children grew up a little. With 4 kids ranging in age from 7 to 3, and an 80lb black lab we have no scratches and the floor looks like it did the day we installed it 4 years ago. Even the powder room (which gets wet a lot because of the kids) floor has not warped or anything. The stuff we got had a pressure treated bottom and in the powder room the guys used some sort of sealant - what I do not know. 4 guys did the job in 8 hours, mind you they moved fast. Ours was triple strip as opposed to single - single looks exactly like the real thing. Had we known about single strip we would used it instead and would probably never tear it out. I cannot praise this stuff up enough!

HOW DO YOU ADDRESS STEPS WITH A LAMINATE?
I WANT TO PUT DOWN LAMINATE FLOORS AND HAVE 17 STEPS, CAN THIS BE DONE?????

Yes, go buy a instution video, we bought ours at home depot near the lamenate flooring.

Michelle

I love the flooring I put down about a year ago. It's porcelain tile in my entire downstairs (living & dining room, kitchen & bathroom) & upstairs in my bathrooms. It's NOT plain white though It's sort of a mottled beige with different textures in it. It doesn't scratch or crack when furniture is moved or things are dropped on it. It doesn't show dog hair easily & I just keep it vacuumed & mop with vinegar & water occasionally. It was professionally installed bc it would have been pretty hard to put in myself.

We finally decided to go with tile in our garage remodel. Easy to clean, cost, and durability were the main factors. It's a beige (Texas beige at Lowe's, to be exact). Cost was .78 per square foot (1 foot tiles, so .78 each). Also, since it is a main entry area and on the southwest side of my home, I knew it was going to get a lot of dirt (especially during dust storms. Doesn't matter how new and good your windows and doors are, you are going to get dirt during a New Mexico dust storm. It's those 55MPH winds that just drives it in.) I'm afraid the dirt would have scratched up the surface of any kind of hardwood laminate.

We also just redid the kitchen (finished last night). And we put vinyl in there. Cheap and looks nice and clean (a white/gray tile pattern).