A Guide to Choose the Right Flooring Option for Your Home

As replacing the flooring is a bigger and costlier job, hence you need to do it right the first time. Here is a complete guide of different types of flooring options to choose from.

Hardwood:

Solid hardwood is the most popular type of flooring because of its simple construction, easy installation, and the great style it adds to the home. You just need to nail the wooden boards to the subfloor to install it.

Hardwood floor is easy to clean and can be refinished up to 5 times to remove any surface scratches which helps in increasing the resale value of the home.

The biggest downside is that these floors cannot handle any rough handling and they can get damaged if they are exposed to moisture for a long time. It is best to use it for living and bedrooms and avoid using it for bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry rooms.

Though many consider wood flooring as sustainable, in reality, it may not be the case. Wood is a renewable source of energy, but it takes years for the trees to grow, hence the rate of cutting is higher than the rate of growth of the new trees. This may mean that harvesting wood for hardwood floors is contributing to global warming.

Bamboo:

An alternative to hardwood flooring is bamboo flooring which is sustainable as it takes just a few years for the bamboo plants to grow. We advise you to go for bamboo flooring not just because of this reason. It has several other advantages that makes it one of the best flooring options available.

Experts at Ambient Bamboo Flooring suggest the use of this flooring as it is tough, durable, eco-friendly, cheap, and easy to install, which makes it a more preferable flooring option for the living room, hallways, and bedrooms. However, avoid using it in the kitchen, bathrooms, and mudroom as it is not as moisture resistant as ceramic.

Ceramic Tile:

Ceramic tile comes in a variety of colors, patterns, and shapes, hence you have a lot of opinions to choose from so that it fits with your home style. Tiles with virtual patterns can be created using modern printing technology to mimic the look of nature.

This is considered as one of the most durable tiling options, resistant to scratches, dents, and moisture. It's quite easy to clean ceramic tiles, hence the maintenance is also not a big deal.

Ceramic tiles cannot make you as comfortable as the vinyl flooring or carpet flooring as it feels hard and cold underfoot. Glazed ceramic tile can be quite slippery and needs to be coated with an anti-slip finish.

Choose tiles as the flooring option for high-traffic areas such as mudroom and kitchen. It also works great for bathrooms and laundry room due to its moisture-resistant quality.

Carpet:

Carpet is made of soft fibers like wool or nylon which can be installed by nailing it to a layer of padding that adds extra cushioning and prolongs its life.

Carpet is a preferred flooring option for bedrooms or the living room as it feels soft and comfortable to walk on and is cheap to install. It is also quite and slip-resistant.

It is easy for dirt to accumulate on carpet or spill to happen, hence do not use it for areas like dining or kitchen.

Vinyl:

Vinyl is a flexible material and a type of resilient flooring option that feels a bit softer under the foot as compared to the hardwood or tile. As it is made of PVC, it is comfortable to walk on. Large sheets of vinyl can be cut as per the flooring size and glued to the subfloor.

Vinyl is made of a tough material that can withstand heavy traffic as well as moisture, hence it can last for up to 20 years if the quality of the sheet is good. It is also an inexpensive and durable flooring option.

Vinyl flooring is appropriate for bathrooms and kitchen as it can tolerate moisture and heavy traffic. You can also use this for basement or kitchen.

No one type of flooring can be used for the entire house as each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. Choose the type of flooring based on the installation space and the utility of the area.