Real Hardwood vs. Laminate Wood

My husband imports hardwoods so I'm definately a hardwood believer.

Personally I would avoid either one in a "wet" area like a kitchen.

The things I don't like about laminate are that there are always little grooves where the boards click together (this happens with prefinished hardwood too though) and everything on God's green earth gets trapped in there. Laminates make that hollow sound when you walk on them. They also have repeating patterns which spoils a lot of the hardwood look. Like hardwoods, they do require professional work if they get scratched up.

Laminates last about 20 years and add a bit to the resale value of your home.

Hardwoods can last a lifetime (my house has some areas where the wood is nearly 100 years old and it is still gorgeous) and add a lot to your house's resale value.

If you're planning on keeping your house for a long time I'd go with real wood.

quarter sawn oak random width floors are the most beautiful thing to see.
Although laminates are better , they still have the possibility of de-laminating over time.

How big is the dog, and how sharp are its claws?

If the dog's big enough to damage real wood floors, then go w/ laminate.

We recently finished a formal dining room--we picked hardwood because, unlike most laminates, it can be sanded & refinished multiple times, relatively inexpensively. Like boomerang said, this means a much longer lifetime compared to laminates.
One lesson we learned: scratches are more visible on dark finishes than on lighter colors. If you have an indoor dog, children, etc. you might want to avoid colors like "dark walnut", etc.

Some of the pros/cons of each won't affect you since you are on a slab. For example, true hardwoods are thicker and stiffer than laminates so the subfloor doesn't need to be as thick since the hardwood itself will have less "bounce" than a laminate on the same subflooring. You won't have any bounce to contend with at all on a slab though.

Other than the ability to refinish hardwoods, most of the differences are really up to personal prefenerances. Like boomer, I find the perfectly repeating patterns and seam lines in laminate to be a drawback.

But I also install both and know that laminate is a whole lot easier to install and replace down the road if need be. IMO, it's best used for things like finishing a basement floor or in very high traffic areas where a lot of dirt is tracked in like entry ways, especially in areas where people track in snow/sand/salt in the winter months but if price is your bottom line I can understand why people might want it in other rooms.

As for installing laminate over tile - you are on a slab and if the tiles are 100% secured to the slab there isn't any reason you can't install laminate over it. You may have to do some playing around at the doorways to get the floor height transitions to a point where people don't stub their toes or trip over them though. If any of your current tiles are lose or have been coming lose then putting laminate (or anything else!)over the top is just a bad idea.

As far as laminates themselves go, there is a wide variety and a bunch of different grades. Generally speaking, thicker is better. A 12mm laminate will last much longer than an 8mm laminate and won't sound as "clicky". If you are going to install it yourself I'd recommend avoiding the Dupont brand. I find it much harder to install than other brands because of their interlock system. (It isn't a bad system, it just takes longer than others to get used to working with.)

Wow, thanks to everyone for all the great advice. We've decided to go with the laminate.... the drawback of the repeating patterns really won't be an issue, since my wife wants to throw down some rugs... but thanks again!