Ceramic tile vs. hardwood flooring

[sniper7]

I'm looking for advice on the difference between ceramic tile and hardwood floors. We have a nice real distressed hardwood floor in our house now, love it, but between the dogs and kids it has some minor surface scratching, which isn't bad for 6 years, and really is only seen when the light hits it correctly.

for our new house we are looking at the ceramic tile that looks like hardwood floor. It looks awesome, seems like it doesn't scratch, I would worry about water on the floor like I do now with the wood (my wife likes to steam clean it so I'm on her about making sure she drys it immediately after). the biggest concern I have is if something drops on the tile and it cracking.

anybody have the stuff? Goods and bads? It would be about $6 sq ft additional from what we are getting now, I just want to see if it would be worth it.

[J]

You need to re-seal the grout every year or two, with most tile floors. Because of this, we spend more time working on our tile floors than our hardwoods.

[Irving]

$6 a sq/ft installed, or just materials alone.

I wouldn't worry about cracking tiles unless you're droping hammers or typewriters. Washing is going to be easier as far as not warping anything. If tile is in concrete, there is just about zero chance of damage from a water loss. If tile is on a subfloor, a water loss can cause the tiles to "pop" if the subfloor soaks up enough water to swell and dislodge tiles. I've seen a couple floors with the tile like you're referring to and everyone I've talked to loves them. Everyone I've come across is usually in the $2/sqft range as far as materials goes. Tile will feel colder than wood or laminate, so you may end up with area rugs in living rooms or high traffic areas.

[cstone]

Hardwood is not that difficult to refinish. If you sand, stain, and poly it every 15 or 20 years, it will last longer than you do.

I like tile in bathrooms and laundry rooms, so that is what I put in those rooms.

I have no experience with the faux wood tile, but it would have to wear pretty well. Are you going to put it in yourself or have someone do it?

[sniper7]

It is for a new custom home we are building. It's $13 sq ft total installed, I think hardwood was around half that but haven't see what type of floor that actually was and I'm guess that price was for much cheaper hardwood than what we would be picking.

it will be installed by the subcontractor the building is working with.

as far as I know it is on subfloor, it's a ranch home with full basement but I don't know if they put down some type of cement board or anything under that faux tile hardwood.

[Irving]

It's going to be on subfloor if there is a floor below. I'm not a contractor, but I'd shop that price. I pay $13/sqft INSTALLED all day long for oak floors.

[sniper7]

Okay thanks We still have to meet with them to verify that price, just wanted to see from guys if that tile floor is preferable to hardwood. I'm not sure on the grout issue how it is sealed, that kind of maintenance makes me lean toward hardwood.

[Ramsker]

We have the "hardwood tiles" in our entire 1st floor . . . replaced old carpet & tile with that a few years ago. We really like it. We used a darker grout and had a "grout booster" added to it so we didn't have to go through the re-sealing or worry about stains as much. No issues with any of that so far. We haven't seen any cracking or scratching since it was all grouted in. Had a couple spots where some small chips came out before the grout with stuff being moved around, but the guys replaced those before grouting. The stuff has actually been really tough . . . we have 2 teenagers and a 95 pound GSD running around, dropping things, etc. Clean up is nice . . . just vacuum and swiffer or mop. No more stained carpet, if it gets wet, it won't warp, etc. Dog can run around like mad and not a single scratch.

The only downside is that it does get dirty/dusty fast if you have a lot of traffic. Dog tracking in mud/snow/rain and shedding . . . a ton . . . but the cleanup is pretty simple. It's just regular. Outside of cleaning, it has been maintenance free.

[sniper7]

Okay great! Sounds about the same type of traffic we will be dealing with other than 2 young boys and an extra dog but much smaller

[Grant H.]

I laid all the hardwood in our house, and I used Bruce Hickory Pre-finished 3/4" thick flooring from Home Depot.

In the 4 years I have had it down, my work boots, lots of traffic with teenagers from church, and lots of other abuse, I don't actually see any damage.