I'm with Joe on this one. If there are kids involved a good laminate will take the abuse, hardowod will never survive. Having just moved from our old house where I installed laminate which replaced our carpet after the first child destroyed it with, well I won't go into that. The laminate withstood all we allowed him to throw at it, literally. Oddly for our new house we asked about going with laminate instead of hardwood but the home builders get such a good deal on hardwood it was cheaper than laminate. Coming up on one year now with Maple hardwood and it already shows more wear than the laminate ever did after 6 years at the old place.
I have laminate that I installed through my entire house. Do I like the look of hardwood better? Of course. However, I have two kids, two cats and a dog and hardwood floors would look like crap in no time. Pets and kids are a definite consideration. I also would not have been able to afford hardwood throughout the house.
