One of the most common questions we get about our home is, “what floors are these?!” I have mentioned them before but today, I am writing all about our floors!
So to answer the biggest question: they are engineered hardwood. For the exact type and how we made the decision, you’ll just have to keep reading!
When we first moved into our house, we wanted to replace all the floors to be hardwood floors. I had a vision of wide plank with texture. I liked the lived in look the texture gives and the warm feel that wood floors give. Another honest reason I wanted texture was for the future of a house always with a dog. I grew up with a Newfoundland and our hardwood floors were always scratched because of her…mainly from her getting up after laying down because laying down and napping is what Newfies do best! My husband and I knew we wanted to get a puppy in the future and that we would be a house that always has a dog. We figured texture in the floors would always help disguise any scratches that are inevitable when having a dog.
Deciding on Our Floors
Our house had several floors throughout the house. The kitchen had linoleum, the living room had dark red carpet, the entry way was multi-colored slate (blues and reds), the master was the same red rug as the living room, one bedroom had pink carpet, the third bedroom has beige carpet, the laundry area is linoleum, and the hallway was the only part with exposed real hardwood floors. It was a medley of flooring and with the exception of both bathrooms, the only flooring worth keeping was the hallway and the beige carpet. Every time I look at pictures from when we first purchased the house I can’t believe it’s what it really looked like!
First thing we wanted to do was make the whole living area the same floor. We would also want to extend that flooring into the master since we wanted that carpet out right away as well. We got a few quotes from local hardwood floor companies for everything to be ripped out and wide planks to be installed (again with the exception of the hallway wood floors). When we started to get the quotes, one company found that there were actually hardwood floors in good shape under the master bedroom carpet. Even though we weren’t planning on doing the other two bedrooms right away, they still checked to see for us and there are hardwood floors under those too! There were unfortunately no hardwood floors under the living room carpet. So the quotes would now include ripping out all of the original flooring, refinishing the hallway and master bedroom wood floors, and install new hardwoods in the main areas of the house. The quotes were all about double of what we had estimated in our heads. One was even triple. It was just a cost that was too much so we had to reel back and regroup with new thoughts and designs. I originally wanted textured wide plank, but the companies also gave quotes for regular hardwood floors that matched the original ones in the home and that was still just way too high.
We started exploring other options. I did a ton of research of engineered hardwood flooring and the kinds that seemed to hold up to everyday life would also be expensive. At the time in 2019, it seemed like engineered hardwoods worth getting were over $12/sq ft, which adds up to a lot, or similar cost of real hardwoods for the amount we needed in our house (and I’m sure prices have gone up a significant amount since we renovated our floors). We then started to explore luxury vinyl plank or LVP. Definitely not what I had ever envisioned but they do now have styles that have texture and are thicker than the typical vinyl that we remember from the 90’s. The plus for LVP is also no scratches from dogs and no water damage from dogs and honestly just life. After looking at hardware stores and local flooring companies, we took two larger samples home to decide on. We had these in the house for about a week or so to decide. It felt like we were settling but it felt like it was the option that made the most sense. When we were coming to a decision, my dad’s friend who is a contractor called him and said a job he was working on had a ton of left over engineered hardwood floors. He said it was ours at the contractor’s price, which was very low compared to the normal pricing. He let me know the brand, plank size, and color and it was actually the exact one I had lusted over in Pinterest photos. The amount he had was one box short of the amount we needed, and we luckily found a local floor shop who could order one box for us at the normal price. We hired someone to refinish our floors and he would also install the new engineered hardwoods we decided on.
What Are Your Floors?
The beautiful floors we decided on and were lucky enought to get are Hallmark Floors, Harwood Flooring Alta Vista Collection in Malibu. They are engineered hardwood and 7.5″ wide planks. Thickness of engineered hardwood matters greatly, as well as composition, so you can find all the other important specs on their site.
How Do They Hold Up?
Two years later, with a new puppy and all, the floors are still great. We were very careful when we first got the floors. I made sure to pick up droplets of water the second they hit the ground when washing dishes. We rarely wore our shoes in the house. I would get frustrated if I dropped something on them. Essentially, I tried to baby them. Then December 2020 came around and our puppy (a long haired German Shepherd) is the sloppiest drinker, drools onto the floor when waiting for his food, drops his hard toys from his mouth onto the floors, drags his metal bin of toys around, runs around with the puppy zoomies trying to get traction with his nails, and after all that (knock on wood) they still look like they were just installed. I honestly cannot see scratches from everyday use in the floors but if there are, the texture that is in the floors helps conceal it very well.
Our pup is a little more than a year now, about 90lbs, and still has his crazy puppy zoomies and that does not effect the floor. I did catch him in the act when he was 7 or 8 months in 3 different spots, 2 on the engineered hardwood and 1 on the hallway real hardwood, literally scratching like he was digging for something and that did cause scratches in both types of floors. I notice it and know that they are there but I do not think it is overly noticeable just being in the house. We have a baby on the way now too so I am sure we will be able to unwillingly test the floors out even more in the coming years!
If you have the budget and are in the market for engineered hardwood floors, I’d highly suggest the Hallmark Floors!
Save this post to reference back to when you renovate your home and are looking for wood floor options!
