Laminate Wood Floors V.S Carpet! Which Is Best?

David - Although hard wood is more expensive, I would much rather have them instead of carpet.  With three dogs, carpet is harder to keep clean than hardwood floors.  Good to know about laminate though.

Here in the Northeast/Mid Atlantic hardsurface is definitely in and carpet is on the decline.  Besides the fact that hardwood is in and solid hardwood can last close to forever, I see tons of customers where they need to remove carpets due to allergies or asthma.  More often than not I see people trading up - ideally to solid hardwood, if not engineered hardwood, if not laminate and only do carpet if they can't afford hard surface.  (But, I will say older customers 60+ often do prefer carpet in bedrooms).

Comparing laminate vs. carpet, laminate generally lasts longer and there are several entry point ones w/ 20 yr warranty made by reputable manufactureres such as Armstrong.  (the bigger issues w/ laminate is that there are many DIYers and handyman that don't install it properly and don't leave the 1/4" around perimeter and in nail in quarter round to the laminate rathe than the wall).  Carpet in the long run will almost always cost more as you need to replace much sooner (and this is certainly the case for rentals).  Further, because carpet is petroleum based, the prices have been going up the last few yrs (w/ multiple price increases for yrs) while cost of laminate has been flat.