Ok, so I browse REALTOR.ca a fair bit looking for my ideal acreage in NB, I can dream for now...

Anyway, one thing I do not understand, and I am sure someone here will tell me, why all the wooden floors? I expect there is a logical reason as otherwise all houses would have carpets.

I know we had wooden floors here and I tore them up after one winter, too cold.

Is it down to dragging in all those wet clothes? Underfloor heating?

I don't have the answer but when I watch HGTV (I know, I'm sad) it seems wooden floors are THE thing to have, along with granite kitchen worktops (counters). I ask myself the same question because in the UK we had wooden flooring in our sitting room and whilst it looked nice, it was noisy and whenever DS dropped the remote control it would leave a nice dent as evidence. Mind you, it's much cleaner than carpeting, just not quite as cosy.

I don't know why it is the flooring of choice - there must be some history to the reasoning - but I am now totally sold on wooden flooring, and knowing what lurks in carpet turns my stomach!

The living rooms on the ground floor of my house are now wood (it was carpet before, but puppy pee stains soon put paid to that!). We then renewed carpet on the stairs and bedrooms.

We cleaned the bedroom and stair carpet ourselves a couple of weekends ago with one of those hire thingies, and the carpet was barely a year old. Scary what comes out. With hindsight, I wish we'd put wood in our master bedroom.

Add pets into the equation and it's wood all the way. A couple of strategically placed rugs help to make it more cozy.

And don't forget, for many old homes in the UK, the old wooden flooring was all there was between you and the brick rafters the house sat on - they are cold. In Canada, the wooden floors are nailed into a layer of boarding (don't know what it's called, having a brain fart moment but it looks like chipboard) - drafts and squeaks are not usually an issue.

Yes - you need to be careful when moving furniture or dropping heavy things - and if you make a really bad scratch you could sand it out.

My tuppence worth. Don't discount homes with wooden floors.

Isn't it because nearly everyone has "allergies" or asthma and carpets make that worse?

Who in their right mind would prefer wall-to-wall carpet over a wood floor (given the choice)? Ever heard of area rugs?

Oh, and the daily vacuum with hardwood is as easy as peasy.....you can do it one handed....vacuuming carpets is flippin' hard work!

Maybe its the uk floors, (concrete below?), but I honestly tried it, with rugs and slippers, too cold, which obviously prompted the question as to why they were popular in Canada given the general cold climate. Horses for courses then.....

Most Canadian homes have good and decent central heating, so wooden floors not cold as they are likely to be in UK.

Probably Oriented Strand Board (OSB).

A few years ago I ripped up all the carpet of the main level of our house and put down hardwood floors.

It is actually very warm underfoot, not least because it sits over the basement which is heated.

Is is very easy to keep clean (we have a dog too).

Yes, area rugs in the living spaces.

Also, in the tree hugging, yoghurt knitting, environment that is West Coast Canada natural materials just seem very appropriate to the lifestyle.

I would also point out that if you want an acreage probably go for something hardwearing in your boot / mud room (if you intend to have one) or if not then in your entry way (such as tile / laminate) - unless you are clean freaks I would not suggest hardwood (which as was pointed out) is not very f****g hard judging by the dents / scratches in friends houses.

As for carpet with rural living - oh dear god no

In our last house it was laminate in 70% of the house, then tile and lino made up the rest. Boy does it get hard on your feet. I get the hygiene statements and the cleaning statements and yes hard wood or laminate is by far more hygienic and easier to keep and it looks lovely. In this house we have to redo all the floors. So far we have gone for carpet in all the finished rooms downstairs (3 unfinished), we have carpet in the upstairs bedrooms and on the stairs and we wanted a hardwood for the big room upstairs and tile for the kitchen but we fell in love with a laminate and have done the big room and kitchen in that, it looks fab.

We live on a small acreage with gravel roads, we have a big super fluffy dog, who picks up the wet gravelly sand on his fur and transports it inside, he then lays down and dries off leaving sand mountains, thankfully he find carpet too warm to lay on after a walk. We do wipe his feet and dry him as he comes through the door. I do cringe when he runs into the bedroom or downstairs when he is wet and realise I will be spending money each year on carpet cleaning.

Would I in hindsight have gone solid floors throughout again? Not on your nelly

Someone hard of hearing.

The acoustics in wooden floored rooms are terrible. Add in some blinds instead of curtains and you may as well give up trying to understand conversation.

They've got a lot of trees in Canada.

Cheers for the comments!

I fully understand that wet rooms/hallways etc should be capable of handling muddy/wet conditions, its the same here, I have tiled hallway/kitchen etc, but in the living room(den?) I would want a nice carpet for those winter nights.

It's probably cos most vacuum cleaners sold here are crap and leave the carpets filthy