Hanging house in the Southwest Palatinate - Our House Construction 2.0

I clearly belong to the "pro-parquet camp" as well and would never have tiles laid in living rooms. We even chose the extreme and have continuous parquet everywhere except for technical rooms and bathrooms. The same goes for the kitchen and entrance area. At least so far, after one year in the house, we have not regretted the decision and ALL family members enjoy the pleasant natural floor every day.

Tut Tuts as throwing projectiles destroy everything. Our bathtub has scratches in the coating caused by the parts.

But they’re just made of plastic? Well, maybe that’s the price you pay for the fact that these things themselves are surprisingly indestructible.

I wouldn’t like to let your two little ones crawl around on "plastic" either. You’ll find many parquet supporters here in the forum, as well as many for tiles. With my youngest daughter and her three little ones, I’m always "afraid." There are tiles throughout the stairs and the ground floor, and falling (down) there really hurts. They are definitely more durable and easier to maintain, but in terms of feel, smell, and appearance, I find parquet much nicer (my opinion). Mine is oak, super resistant and I like the naturalness it "radiates" compared to a certain "coldness" that tiles convey. I am clearly pro parquet. One of my nephews built a house two years ago: everywhere glued vinyl, another nephew (just finished) has a lot of light oak parquet. Worlds better visually and in terms of feel etc., as I wrote above. Of all the floors I know, the "best" are either solid planks (my brother has these oak planks throughout his whole house) or wooden parquet. Hopefully, this fad for plastic floors will soon end ;-) (unfortunately, I allowed myself to put that stuff in my rented apartment :-( ... )

But solid planks must not be cheap? I think parquet would be financially affordable. My husband is just very skeptical about the maintenance effort and because of the scratches on the wooden stairs from house 1. However, the parquet I’m looking for now wouldn’t be perfectly smooth; I like it a bit more rustic. That way, signs of wear wouldn’t be so noticeable.

My ex occasionally threw dishes in the past, which caused scratches in the light tiles; in wood, "natural" signs of wear would be visually much less conspicuous (IME).

Oh dear... I hope those aren’t the standards by which I have to judge flooring. Well, kids like throwing stuff too. :)

Definitely go for parquet! It feels super nice and cozy. And my tip: when choosing parquet, pay attention to whether you want lively parquet or not. We have it in one room and we didn’t really know what that meant. There you can see a lot of knots and different wood tones right next to each other.

Are those two different qualities? Or how do you distinguish lively parquet from "not lively"?

I find laminate/vinyl floors are quite demonized here... In our current apartment, we’ve had laminate for 11 years (we live on the ground floor of a house), including the entrance area. We walk around with outdoor shoes on and guests never have to take off their shoes. The floor looks as good as on the first day; I still really like it! In the future house, we decided on Modular One. We definitely have about 25 different flooring samples here: laminate, vinyl, design flooring, parquet. The floor feels good, has the Blue Angel eco-label and—an important criterion for me—the decor color fits perfectly. For the black-white-gray uniform types, the search for the right wood color might not be so hard, but it is for us. We don’t have white furniture, walls, or doors. Instead, we have a lot of wood tones, striking tiles, even more striking kitchen furniture, so we’re really grateful for the variety of decors in design floors, even if they’re just printed. But before I crawl on the floor or lick it :) I first notice the appearance. So, in our case: design flooring.

I’m not someone who demonizes vinyl. We had that fully installed in the first house, everywhere there were no tiles, and it’s definitely not a bad floor. I just always had a certain plastic feeling that I didn’t 100% like. I can hardly explain it rationally. In the light, it always had an unnatural shine; you could somehow see the coating and I found it striking that it’s not wood. Otherwise, it was of course easy to maintain. It really is a "luxury problem," I just find real wood simply cozier.

Check out – objectively, it’s probably more a matter of mindset that I don’t like this "material combination."

I agree with you there. Sure, the photos look very nice, but somehow it’s not cozy or homey? It feels cooler than wood.

Me too. Especially because the topic came up rather unexpectedly for us, but also because it’s not just a question of price and taste, but also maintenance. And as a lazy person, I actually don’t really feel like regularly oiling parquet. How often you actually have to do it is still a big mystery to me. The manufacturers say annually, but almost nobody seems to do that...

I feel the same. You often hear here that the maintenance effort is not that bad. It probably also depends on the parquet. I’m not so afraid of total accidents like "pouring a bucket of water and leaving it for an hour." But what if, say, tomato sauce drips on the wood and isn’t removed immediately, or something similar?

Since you have to go to the staircase directly in front of the bedroom door (not quite ideal),

That is already ideally solved, as the staircase runs downwards from the entrance. On the right side of the plan is private.

But I tend to go for parquet in the new house because I never got rid of this "plastic" feeling in terms of haptics, appearance, and walking sensation.

I just looked up Modular One because of the mention and did some googling, since we also want something new upstairs at some point. And I read that parquet is not ideal with underfloor heating that has a cooling function. And if I remember correctly, you have a cooling function, right? Caution is also advised with air heat pumps with cooling function, which are increasingly on the rise. If the floor is cooled down too much in summer, condensate formation and cupping of the floor due to moisture problems can occur. Consult your air heat pump manufacturer for more details. Source mein boden.at

But I tend to prefer parquet in the new house because ...

Parquet is, in my taste and opinion, the best of the best. I hope your concerns can be dispelled. Would it be an option for you, if you haven’t already done so, to search "everywhere" on the internet for tips on how to repair small and large scratches in parquet if they bother you too much? There must be a multitude of possibilities. In the castles, which are visited daily by hundreds of people wearing street shoes (without shoe covers), the parquet still looks good despite signs of wear.

That is already ideally solved, since the staircase descends from the entrance. On the right side of the plan is private.

True, I was mistaken there. In that case, I would place the transition from tiles to X next to the staircase.

And I read that parquet is not ideal for underfloor heating with cooling function.

I already asked that question in another thread:
I think Kati had an air conditioning system, didn’t she?

Parquet is, in my taste and opinion, the most beautiful of the beautiful. I hope your concerns can be dispelled.

I completely agree. But some do not trust my! taste :oops:

.... In the castles, which are visited daily by hundreds of people wearing street shoes (without overshoes), the parquet still looks good, despite signs of use.

Here, rather no parquet but "castle floorboards" made of solid oak, aged for a long time. The name probably even comes from that ;)