When picking flooring for your home, there are many factors to consider outside of design. Durability, cost, moisture, and maintenance should all be evaluated before deciding what kind of flooring is best for your room. Below we’ve compiled a series of questions to ask yourself when attempting to narrow down the best flooring option for your desired space.
Will the floor be installed in a high moisture area?
If you’re installing flooring in a basement or bathroom, carpet or wood flooring may not be your best option. For areas that have heavy moisture interaction, floorings like concrete, ceramic or vinyl tiles may be a better option.
What is your square footage budget?
Keep in mind that installment and delivery are included in your budget for flooring. A good inexpensive option if you want a polished, wood look is wood-like laminate. You still get the same visual appeal without the maintenance or price of wood. Vinyl plank can also be fairly inexpensive and can replicate wood very naturally. For first floor rooms, staining your concrete is another great option for a very modern, elegant look for a relatively cheap pricepoint. If flooring is something you’d like to invest more in, premium laminates, marble ceramic tiles, or exotic hardwoods could be a good option.
Do you have children, pets, or other needs that require durable flooring?
If durability is an important deciding factor, solid hardwood may not be your best option because it can scratch easily. Options like concrete, carpet, bamboo, laminate, and stone ceramics are much better candidates. If durability isn’t a concern, most floorings don’t require extreme or tedious maintenance.
How much does comfort matter to you?
It’s important to be realistic about your lifestyle. If you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, tile may not be comfortable to stand on for surplus periods of time. If you have young children, carpet may be a safer option for bedrooms. If you have pets who track in mud, you may want to avoid scratchable woods and use concrete. Do research on the different types of floorings to see what best accommodates your top concerns.
How busy are you?
Some floors require more attention than others. Black floors tend to show more dirt than others, so if you don’t want to spend extra time cleaning your floors, you may want to steer clear of black. Light hardwoods tend to show less dirt than other flooring and may be a good option if you live in a very flat plane area. Laminate and cork floors are very easy and low maintenance to clean, while bamboo flooring may require a bit more attention. Just be aware that different flooring requires various levels of preservation and precautionary measures may have to be taken not only when choosing your floor, but the long-term upkeep.
Remember there are no wrong options when it comes to picking flooring, only different options to compliment different lifestyles. If you’ve already evaluated all of the following questions and still don’t know what the best option for you, ask your contractor what flooring might best suit your specific needs.