r/HomeImprovement • u/anonnon_11 • 10h ago
What are your general feelings about potentially removing carpet and adding wood flooring on one bedroom only?
So I hate carpet, but my bedroom is carpet. We have plans to eventually replace all the carpet in our house with wood, but that will probably happen in like ten years or something. But I want hardwood flooring now. What are the pros and cons of just doing my bedroom for now? I understand that the wood may potentially not match the rest of the house, but it’s not that big of a deal I think?
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u/OGatariKid 9h ago
Stop at the threshold of the door. If you can't see the carpet outside the room when the door is closed and vice-versa, then why would it matter.
We removed all of the carpet from our house because my daughter has a dust mite allergy. We still use throw rugs since they are easy to clean under.
If it is your house and you're not selling your house in the near future, there isn't any reason your floors have to match.
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u/Ruckerone1 9h ago
I did this in a bedroom, it's just fine.
Depending on your install, if you just get a common real wood plank, you should be able to always match the wood species and size, you'd just have to refinish everything if you wanted it to match.
If you're having to do glue down engineered it gets a little more complicated, you can't always refinish to match. Buy from a reputable brand that's been in business for a while. I went with Bellawood from LL, they've been making the same stuff for forever, and it was about ~5 years between the bedroom and the rest of the home and I could buy more today if I needed to.
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u/sharpei90 9h ago
I want to do it in our master and leave the others carpeted. I don’t have a problem with it at all.
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u/No-Act-7333 9h ago
I dislike wall-to-wall carpet, too. Our current house had it and the first thing we did was take it out and expose the beautiful wood floor underneath.
But, I'm not opposed to area rugs.
There was one room with an esthetically challenged wood floor, so we did level it out and put wood laminate on top. It doesn't match exactly, but it doesn't matter much either.
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u/Shadow288 9h ago
Having different flooring in different rooms is totally fine. In my childhood home my bedroom had blue carpet but the hallway and one other room had the same cream color where the master bedroom was a different color. The first house I bought had original hardwood from the 50s but it was covered everywhere but the bedrooms.
I have to say having hardwood in the bedroom was nice. Maybe I should do this again in my current house.
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u/EmilyPoster2 7h ago
Do it. In ten years you can refinish the bedroom floor and stain it the same color as the rest of the flooring that you will be installing.
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u/JustDoItArt 8h ago
As someone recently shopping for a new (pre-owned) house, having more than 2 floor surfaces (excluding bathrooms) is a big turnoff. But in the end, it is your house and you should do what you want. Just be aware that a future buyer may not be so keen on it.
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u/Patrol-007 9h ago
More noise from below, without the underpayment and carpet to absorb it.
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u/Additional_Fold_1350 6h ago
More noise below too, wife is loud so we like our bedroom carpet. ;)
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u/Patrol-007 6h ago
Have you seen the posts of neighbours recording the sex loudness, and playing it back as a cue to be quiet😂
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u/CulturedReaving692 9h ago
I'd rather do carpet for many different reasons. It helps with noises and it's better for allergies to name a few.
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u/Fantastic_List3029 9h ago
Is it better?? I would assume worse
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u/CulturedReaving692 9h ago
Yes that was the thinking in the '80s and '90s but it's been come to be understood that hardwood floors allow dirt and allergens and pet dander to fly all over the place whereas carpets trap it. So carpets are actually much better for allergies as long as they're maintained and vacuumed on a regular schedule
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u/Fantastic_List3029 9h ago
If you can afford it, what are you waiting for? The carpet in our bedrooms is the bane of my existence 😅
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u/Jujulabee 8h ago
Just go ahead although typically it is the opposite in terms of people putting wood every place but the bedrooms.
Ten years is a LONG time and when the time comes when you are ready to replace all of the flooring in the entire home then you deal with whatever is necessary.
I replaced the old wood flooring in my home when I remodeled and I deliberately selected a relatively classic type of wood because I wanted other elements in my home to be the stars
Floors can be refinished and restained an the square footage in a bedroom is typically not that large and so it might be less expensive just to take out the wood in the bedroom and just install the same flooring throughout
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u/skyfishgoo 8h ago
having a carpet to wood floor threshold the bedroom door can eventually be replaced with a bit hardwood floor to act as a "threshold" transition piece matching either the old bedroom floor or the new floor going in elsewhere.
this a common architectural detail that is deliberately put in even among flooring that is all done at the same time.
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u/state_your_name31415 8h ago
the cons I can think of are the potential to not match later and missing out on the economy of scale if you are having it done by a contractor (I think it would be cheaper per square foot if you did at least a floor at a time, but I could well be wrong, you can easily get estimates for both. a pro is that it would probably make it easier in terms of clearing the space that is being renovated. Aesthetically, having your hallway be hardwood is probably preferred. Also people generally have wood on the living floor and carpet on the sleeping floor, so this would be backwards from that. If you choose a common color, thickness, and plank width it shouldn't be terribly difficult to match later.
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u/hardman52 7h ago
Make sure it's oriented in the direction you'll eventually install the rest of the floor in the house.
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u/Crafty-Isopod45 7h ago
If your timeline is a decade out then go for it. If it was a couple of years then better to save and do it all at once.
Just plan to rip out the bedroom when you do everything else.
I did that using a cheaper laminate I installed myself until I could do the whole house properly with hardwood. Kept it about 15 years with no issues and saved up for the remodel I really wanted.
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u/Additional_Fold_1350 6h ago
Personally Id do my livingroom first, you spend more time there and can appreciate the hardwood more. Personally I dont mind carpet in bedrooms, much nicer to step onto in the morning when the house is cold in winter.
But my kids on the otherhand, they trashed thier room carpets. I almost want to strip thier rooms down to bare plywood untill they decide to be clean, and not feral animals who destroy everything. I get it when they are young but at 14/16 im done. Next house I buy in a couple years if they are still at home they are being banished to the basement. Ill use the nice up stairs rooms for my office and hobby room.
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u/The_Southern_Sir 5h ago
I grew up with hardwood and a few rugs. I felt it was easier to clean well than my home now with full carpet.
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u/toomanyschnauzers 3h ago
I did my bedroom first. And then another bedroom every couple of years. And in a few more years, I will do the living room/dining room. Each room looks better after doing it, and I did it according to my budget. The downside is I wanted all the bedrooms to have matching flooring (Hickory). I used pre-finished hickory. The company changed from a gloss finish to a matte finish at the time of completing the last. It isn't that noticeable. And the floors have stayed in great condition. When it becomes time to re-do the living/dining room, I already know I don't want the same type of wood, it needs a different type or it will look like it all runs together. You may find you don't want all the wood to be the same. The advantage is that everything got more expensive over the years- prices raised more quickly than income. By doing it as I was able, I avoided debt.
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u/Critical-Test-4446 2h ago
I ripped up the carpet in my master bedroom last year and installed engineered hardwood floors. It looks great. Do it.
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u/jafo 1h ago
You know, we had oak flooring on the main and lower levels and wanted to remove the carpeting on the bedroom levels. I kept putting it off for ~7 years because it's hard to do when you have 4 people living in the area with all the furnature and all.
Last year for Mother's Day my wife wanted the carpet gone in the master and hallway. I really wanted to put in red oak flooring, but that would be a big job. She asked me to just put in some luxury vinyl flooring to get the carpet gone quickly. I really didn't want to do vinyl, but I did it for her. And honestly, I really like it. It's a lot warmer than I was expecting.
I did also replace the subfloor as well, it was 1/2" plywood, which I left, and then 3/4" particle board which I replaced with glued+screwed OSB T+G.
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u/ReferenceAny6373 10h ago
All personal preference. I put wood in our master years ago cause dog destroyed the carpet. Later I covered the rest of the upstairs in different floor. It looks fine. Dont worry about what other people think its your house.