Are you planning to redo your home’s floor? If you’re, you’ll be happy to know that there are many quality flooring options for you- regardless of your budget, tastes & preferences, and flooring needs. But then having so many flooring options to choose from can be a challenge on its own. That’s why you should stick around as we explore the 5 commonest flooring options, with a special focus on their pros and cons.
The Best 5 Flooring Options For Your Home
Before we narrow down to the specific flooring options, you should know that good flooring necessitates quality installation by professional floor installers. Check out these Granite Bay flooring experts for inspiration. These experts offer quality craftsmanship and guarantee the exact flooring grain, grade, and quality that you desire.
With that in mind, here is what you need to know about these 5 common flooring options:
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Hardwood flooring
The common hardwood species used in flooring are oak, maple hardwood flooring kent, and hickory. And although they’re relatively softer, wood species such as cherry, walnut, cedar, fir, and pine are pretty solid flooring options too.
Hardwood flooring comes with a ton of benefits including:
- It’s durable and, with the right maintenance, can offer lifelong elegance.
- Wood is versatile in design and aesthetics. There are a ton of styles, species, coating & finishing options, plank sizes, and custom installation techniques to experiment with.
- Natural wood adds color to your home, making it look and feel luxurious.
- It’s the most eco-friendly flooring option out there.
The downsides of hardwood flooring include:
- You’ll need a hefty upfront investment.
- Wood can be quite noisy- not as plush and soundless as carpet.
- Wooden floors are high maintenance- they require regular sweeping and vacuuming.
- Wood is prone to termite, sunlight, and water damage.
- Scratches by pets or kids can cause wear and tear on wood floors. You will need area rugs in high-traffic areas to protect the floor. You may also need a no-high-heels policy in the house.
Hardwood flooring is perfect for the living room, dining area, and bedrooms. It’s not practical for damp areas such as kitchens, bathrooms, foyer, and laundry rooms.
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Laminate flooring
Laminate flooring is made primarily of wood products, with a protective layer and resin coating. That gives it many advantages including:
- It’s more impact and scratch-resistant than hardwood flooring. You won’t have to leave your high heels outside.
- It’s stain and fade-resistant, which makes it easy to maintain.
- It’s not prone to moisture damage.
- It’s cheaper than hardwood both to buy and maintain.
- It comes in a variety of elegant styles, patterns, and color tones.
- Laminate planks lock together securely without needing attachment to the subfloor. That means you can float it over your existing floor (wood, concrete, etc), which further makes the installation process easier and cheaper.
- It’s one of the hypoallergenic flooring choices out there considering that it doesn’t hold dust or other allergens.
The downside of laminate flooring include:
- Although it’s quieter than wood, it is not as quiet as carpet flooring.
- It can be slippery.
- It can’t be refinished.
Laminate flooring is ideal for any room that doesn’t have standing pools of water, notably laundry rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens.
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Vinyl flooring
Vinyl flooring is made of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). It’s fiberglass-cushion-backed to make it durable and stain-resistant. Its advantages include:
- Relatively easy to install and maintain compared to laminate and hardwood flooring.
- Comes with an inbuilt acoustic underlay that enhances sound absorption.
- PVC is waterproof, which means this flooring is moisture-resistant.
- It’s easy to install. You don’t need glue or nails to attach it to the subfloor.
- It comes in a variety of timeless and trendy designs.
- It doesn’t ripple or swell when exposed to moisture or temperature variations.
The downsides include:
- Vinyl flooring cannot be recycled or reused, which makes it unsustainable.
- Vinyl floors cannot be repaired.
- They are not as durable as wood floors.
- Looks cheap and unauthentic compared to wood and laminate floors.
You can install vinyl flooring in any temperature-controlled space in your home, including the kitchen and laundry room.
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Carpet flooring
Carpet flooring is a pile of natural or synthetic fiber that’s stabilized by a backing layer. Using this flooring in a home has many advantages including:
- Comes in a wide range of colors, patterns, and textures.
- It has the best noise-absorbing abilities among all available flooring options.
- Has superior thermal insulation and resistance compared to other floors. It’ll keep your home cozy and comfortable in all seasons.
- Protects people and pets from accidents such as slips and falls.
- It can be installed over all kinds of sub-floors.
- It’s the most cost-effective flooring option at the moment.
Its downsides include:
- It’s notorious in terms of trapping allergens such as dust and pet dander.
- Carpeting is more prone to wear and tear compared to the other options.
- They stain easily.
- Attracts dust mites and other pests.
- Cleaning carpets is tedious and time-consuming.
- Attracts dampness when exposed to wetness.
Carpet flooring is ideal for bedrooms, hallways, stairways, and playrooms. It’s, however, not ideal for damp areas.
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Tile flooring
Tile flooring is made of small tiles of different materials, mostly stone, ceramic, or porcelain. They come in different colors, sizes, styles, and patterns. The key advantages of this flooring are:
- Although tiles are very fragile before installation, a tile floor can be very durable after installation.
- Tiles are the easiest to mop and sweep, which makes them perfect for high-traffic areas.
- Tiles are quite cost-effective
- Tile flooring is moisture-resistant.
- They are sustainable, especially porcelain and ceramic tiles because they are made of clay.
Its main downsides are:
- Tiles are very fragile before installation.
- They can be slippery because tiles don’t absorb water.
- They’re easily dirtied, although cleaning them is equally effortless.
- Extremely hard and cold. You can’t comfortably stand on tile flooring for a long time.
Tile flooring is perfect for both indoors and out.
Final word
You now have all the information that you need to choose the perfect flooring to complement your decor. Don’t waste any more time. Schedule your consultation with a flooring expert to get your flooring project underway today.
