Get new flooring?

I have carpeting through my living room. My husband and I have wanted to get hardwood for a long time. The expense has been part of the issue but mostly the issue is THE DAYCARE! The Day Care kids do a ton of wear and tear on the house (as all of you know) walls marked chipped and scraped, hardwood in halls scratched and marked. Our thought were to wait until the day care is done or moves out of the house. (dream) :)
Thing is lately, I have this new baby who has this daily gift of "spitting up" after every bottle. On me, on the furniture on the floor. Yuck! I know it comes with the territory of having the day care, but irritating non the less.
Is it a good idea to do hard wood now? Does anyone else have nice hardwood floors in the main play space? what your take? too much wear and tear? not enough comfort for the kids i.e. crawler and "tubbling toddlers"? I plan to do an area rug if we choose to go through with it. Just need a little advice!!! :)

I love hardwood however I would do a wood laminate. Cheaper and the kids wont kill it. I have some hardwood in my home and it has dents and scratches in it but my laminate that is actually in the daycare playroom is in perfect condition. They have some amazingly nice looking laminate now too.

hmmm! maybe I can get my hubby on board. He hates laminate! I'm all for whats cheaper as long as it looks real, and i have seen alot of really nice laminate flooring. Maybe I will offer to pay for it, then he might agree. :) we can always do laminate first then real wood when day care is done. thanks

I have hardwood in the livingroom. Since it is not the play area(with toys) it has survived very nicely. It is so much cleaner and easier to clean than carpet. Remember, any improvements to areas where the kids play, eat etc. is a daycare write off (proportionate to the amount of time used of course):)

We just invested in Armstrong 'commercial grade' flooring for the playroom ~ it looks awesome and has a 25 year wear and tear warrantee .... not sure how much it retails for because we have Direct Buy membership so got it at cost we paid less per square foot than the crappy laminate snap together stuff they sell at Home Depot or Lowes ;)

http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/floors.html

We personally chose to go with a 'hand scaped' design ~ because it goes in looking 'weathered' and will hide imperfections later ;)

http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/la...stLivingPatina

If we dont get hardwood definately had a thought the other day: if anyone asks what I want for christmas (especially the pukers parents) I say: a professional carpet cleaning. My carpet has little spots all over it from this kids puke marks. ewweee!

Buying a shampoo carpet cleaner and using it every other month might turn out a lot cheaper than new carpeting in the long run. And you won't feel so bad about the kids on it. Then replace when daycare is done or you change age groups for good.

I have already gone thru two shampooers!!!!! aahh! not too big of deal to shampoo and I did start renting a really nice industrial one from a local vacuum store in town. This baby literally spits up mult times a day, just makes me want to throw out the carpet all together and get hard floors that can wipe clean. Dreaming maybe!!!! we need new roof this year and windows next!!!! maybe the floor wont be for a while? guess i should just stick to the cleaner, or just swallow the fact that my house is getting trashed and theres nothing I can do about it!!!!

Just remember the hard floors will be slippery where the child has spit up so unless you are right there with them to wipe up and dry the area it could also become a dangerous thing.

I would be inclined to just hang in there a bit longer in the sense of the older the child gets the less they will spit.

If the baby is young enough consider getting one of those play yards that has several sections and cover the floor with a blanket or sheet and put the play yard on it. Then baby can spit to their heart's content and all you have to do is wash the blanket - and it keeps the spit on only a few toys per day which helps too.

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Originally Posted by playfelt

Just remember the hard floors will be slippery where the child has spit up so unless you are right there with them to wipe up and dry the area it could also become a dangerous thing.

I would be inclined to just hang in there a bit longer in the sense of the older the child gets the less they will spit.

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I have never had a child fall or slip from puke or spit up but it was definitely easier to clean. This child may grow out of spitting up, but what about all the other new ones that will. Cost wise it is just such a good investment.

Ya for me the hardwood was a sanitary thing that outweighed any 'slipping' risks ~ not just the spit up but pee and puke and well sorry but no matter how 'great' a steam cleaner is it never gets it ALL clean ... if you lift up an old carpet the dander and dust and 'stains' on the underside of the carpet and under pad regardless of how often you steam cleaned it :eek:

My crew are all asked to wear 'slippers' in the playroom with the slip guard on them ~ if their parent does not provide those and the kids slips and gets a bonk well I 'warned' them and will write right on the accident report for plan of action 'parent to provide slippers for indoor play to prevent slipping on the hardwood floor' ;)

That gave me a good laugh....the pukers parents pay for carpet cleaning:laugh:

I am a bit of a tidy freak and germaphobe, I HATE having marks on my carpet. The idea of hardfloor just sounds so much more sanitary than carpet for a daycare!!!!!!!!! hmmm, will def check all types including laminate, that armstrong stuff sounds great, and def have to talk to my man, see if he ok's it I'm all for it. He's the installer and the roof comes first, then some windows then the garage siding, then the garage roof, then if I can "sweet talk" I may be able to sqeeze in some flooring. he has "lay off" all winter, will keep him busy!!!!!! :)

hay mimi: I chuckled when I thought of it too, I do understand Spit up def comes with the territory but if the shoe were on the other foot I would feel kinda bad if my kid was throwing up all over someones floor. :) I'd bring some carpet stain spray with a bow on it or something!!!!! :) :)

My Mom just bought laminate for her bedroom and she saved a fortune, it was easier to install and it looks gorgeous. She bought top of the line and it looks exactly like the very expensive wood flooring she had installed in her living room.

Have you thought about maybe doing Vinyl Laminate flooring? Goes down super easy and is pretty much indestructible! The guy at home depot threw his knife at it and you couldn't even tell where it had hit. Plus it has a bit of texture so it doesn't feel or sound like fake laminate wood. Comes in all kinds of wood choices as well for just over a $1.00 sqft.