As promised, here’s a little run down of the flooring we plan to use throughout the whole house.  I knew I wanted wood floors because not only do I love the way they look, but they are easy to clean and should be better for my allergies than carpet.  The hubby had laminate floors in previous homes and was adamant that we would not use a laminate because of the issues he’s had with them, so we started looking at hardwood and engineered hardwood products.

We found several that we loved the look of, but were completely beyond our budgeted allowance with the builder and just wouldn’t stand up to our rough and tumble dogs.  Plus they wouldn’t work in areas like the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms, which meant we’d have flooring transitions – something we were trying to avoid whenever possible.

During one of our ‘research’ trips to Home Depot I spotted a new tile product made to look like wood floors and asked an associate about its durability.  When I explained what we wanted he asked if I’d see the new Traffic Master Allure Ultra Flooring.  We hadn’t, so he took us to the display and explained how easy it was to install (click & lock with no under layment necessary) and how resilient it was – water proof and scratch proof.  Click here to view a video about the product, describing all of it’s attributes and installation.

The store associate also mentioned that he was about to install it in his own home and that his manager had also used it in his home with great results.  That made us even more interested, so we took a couple of samples to see which we liked best and test them out under doggie feet.

Because both samples held up perfectly to the dogs’ attacks, the hubs decided to give it a little extra testing and actually took a key to the sample we liked best trying his hardest to get it to scratch.  When that didn’t produce any real visible result he moved on to testing with a very sharp knife, which finally did have a result, albeit minimal.  The scratch was minor that you probably wouldn’t see it from a standing height when it was on the floor.

That was the critical selling point for us.  Adding in that it was comparably priced to the end cost of a laminate or tile once you factor in the extra materials needed for installation sealed the deal.  Then we learned that because we would be installing it in a residential home there was a 25 year warranty.  Plus because we plan to use it throughout the whole house there will be no transitions!  I don’t think we could have asked for a better product.

Of course the true test will come once we install it and move in, but based on our testing I don’t anticipate having any issues once we are living on it.  We’ve chosen the Sawcut Arizona style for its rustic look and variety of colors.  I wasn’t crazy about it when I saw the small sample but when I pieced several together and set them on the floor I was sure I liked that style better than the other we tried out.  It’s going to look fabulous with our dark cabinets and light counter tops – which will be featured later once we pick out the exact ones. 🙂