what would you do for flooring?

I'm interested in ideas on underlayment and wood floor types for my application. I have a neighborhood full of kids who will bring wet feet, etc... into the house. The floor is approx. 40x25.
The home is located 200 feet from a lake and has a 4 ft high crawlspace which is kept closed up. I had fiber board installed directly under the house covering the underneath framing and hot air / ac ducts located under the house.
There is a subfloor with carpeting and some tile in the kitchen area which will be removed for a new.....( 3/4" solid hardwood) ?
You can feel the subfloor under the carpet has a couple of humps in it but won't know how bad until the carpet is pulled up.

Questions, is 3/4" solid hard wood a good idea? Will it cover up the small dips in the floor?
What underlayment if any should I consider?
Should the new floor float?

What other things should I consider? Thanks for any help.

 

Kids typically bringing in sand on their feet?

 

Both sand and moisture are hard on wood. Ceramic tile might be an option.

 

Tile is out. I'm looking for wood flooring ideas for my application.

 

I would at least work in a mud zone of tile near the entry so they can take off their shoes.

Hardwood will not take care of any bumps or dips and may exacerbate them. Hardwood is set perpendicular to the floor joist system and needs to ride over the imperfections. Also need to know what you have for a subfloor, the thickness and material composition of both the joists system and decking material. Rule of thumb is minimum 5/8" plywood and minimum 3/4" OSB subfloor for a nail down wood floor. Particle board is taboo and should never be used as it will not hold the cleats/staples.

 

Maybe vinyl or ceramic that looks like wood?

Sorry, you just don't seem to have the right environment for wood. At least not without some kind of transition area like the mud zone Z mentioned.

 

I do prefer wood over tile but they do sell some tile that looks like wood planks. The subfloor might need to be beefed up to support tile.

 

Hmm, wondering why the guys who want to sell and install the wood floor tell me they can hide these little dips. I've been told shingles would fill the gap. And 3/4" hardwood at 2 1/2" or 3" wide is thick enough to go right over them.
The tile idea is good, and there is a small mud room/porch before the entrance so that is taken care of.
The subfloor is 3/4 4x8 plywood over georgia pine beams, over a crawl space.

Please give me your thoughts on an underlayment if any. I'm looking to add some wormth to the floor as we are located in the "great" northeast.
Thank you for the help.

 

Have they seen/felt the dips and humps?

Dips can usually be filled in but humps can be harder to deal with.

 

I think there are mainly dips no real humps, but only removing the carpet will show what we don't exactly know.

 

What would you fill the dips with?
Should I have an underlayment?

 

I have a very wavy floor to the point that I have to bend some of the boards to beat them in place. I even put down some self leveling compound on one really bad area. (Had to get the big compressor out to beat the staples in ) That was over 10 years ago and the floor still looks the same waves and all.

My floor is 3/4" x 4 1/4" wide white oak. We do not have kids, just cats. They scratch it up a little but only if you look in the right light.

 

Sorry, I am not a fan of filling a void with trash laying around that happens to be of he same thickness. Call me anal, but I will only do an install one way, correctly. Some fixes are labor intensive. Some are cop outs. I won't do the cop outs. In all honesty, you can ask the internet and you will receive enough positive responses that you would move forward with the roof tile shim theory. It is not the correct and proper way to level a floor. So, I guess you can move forward with your plan and don't need our help. Personally, I will not advise anymore with someone who is going to shim with what ever is laying around. Your floor needs a solid base. That is all I am going to say.

 

We stayed in a pet friendly room in a hotel a couple of weeks ago. The room and bathroom had the wood look tiles. It was a really nice looking floor. The same tile (different look) was installed in the lobby. You might want to check it out. Lumber Liquidators. It looks to be inexpensive and DIY friendly. I thought that the only drawback was that the tile comes in uniform length. You would still have the problem of getting the floor flat.

Another option is a high end engineered hardwood floor. I have that in our kitchen and the finish is really durable. We have several dents in the floor from dropped stuff like a cast iron grill pan and even though the wood dented the finish remained intact.

 

Personally, I avoid having real wood in areas with high traffic, moisture or abrasive substance. We just had bamboo installed and that is considered really hard on the janka scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test

I accidentally dropped a hammer at 3 feet and it still dented the floor. But then again, if you drop a hammer on any floor, there will be some level of damage.

In the kitchen and bathroom areas, we installed porcelain tiles (wood look a-like). They are so awesome. They look exactly like wood. Our friends can't tell until they step on them. The maintenance has been much easier to take care of than real Bamboo. Plus, we also put a polish on top of it and it has a nice shine. Had I known, I would have had the entire house installed with these, instead of the Bamboo. My wife likes the porcelain but she doesn't want tiles throughout the entire house because it does get much colder.

 

I think pulling the carpet will tell the tale about the dips. Use a metal straight edge to determine the deflection that you have so you will know if you are within parameters of the flooring you choose. At the very least provide a 3' x 3' tile LZ as you enter the structure. That can help take the immediate moisture and sand out of the equation if everyone is pretty compliant with removing dirty footwear.

I installed bamboo in our weekend rental cabin and it wears like steel. We are pet friendly and have yet to see a scratch on the floor due to animal claws. The main hallway in our house was carpeted (can't find a puke smilie), and the cats used it for a killing zone for birds, etc. Didn't fare very well and was impossible to keep clean. We installed the wood like ceramic tile planks and never looked back. Looks great and cleans superbly.