When choosing a new floor for your home, asking yourself a few key questions can help reduce the amount of stress later on.
Choosing flooring to create a particular mood or feel for your room may seem like a daunting decision. It’s a process that combines your personal taste with careful thinking about practicality and lifestyle. After all, it’s a surface you, your family and friends will walk, stand and sit on, your kids will spill, play and grow up on.
Allow me to help reduce your worry, ease your choice and increase your long-term satisfaction with your new floor.
Questions to meditate on:
What’s the size of the family that will regularly use the room, and how much traffic will the floor receive? Children definitely make a difference. Any pets? Will the floor be exposed to moisture regularly? How often is the floor likely to need cleaning? How long do you hope and expect your new floor to last?
Kitchens
For kitchen flooring, durability and ease of cleaning are top criteria. Solid choices are ceramic tile or a water resistant LVP. Ceramic tile is a top choice for kitchens due to the ease of cleaning and strong protection against moisture. There are a couple of things to keep in mind about tiles if you have an older home. One is that if installed over a floor that has structural movement, ceramic tiles me be prone to crack. If your house is very old, or a pier and beam foundation, it’s a good idea to replace your subfloor while you’re at it. A second point that’s worth thinking about, particularly if your family includes children, senior citizens or those with mobility concerns, is that smooth tiles can be very slippery when they get wet, so you may want to consider ones with a textured surface.
Another option to explore is hardwood floors. While some feel it’s an unusual choice now that there are so many different flooring options, I personally think hardwood is an excellent choice for the kitchen. People end up spending a lot of time there, and wood floors can add a great deal of “warmth” to the kitchen. Hardwood floors are very durable and good at coping with the high traffic volume. An important reminder: When installing wood flooring in a kitchen, do make sure you apply a good protective finish, such as a polyurethane, to guard against the many kinds of moisture that inevitably make their way onto the kitchen floor.
Bathrooms
Even more so than kitchens, bathrooms obviously see a lot of moisture. Ceramic tile, marble and granite are all popular and functional flooring choices, coming with a range of different price tags and requiring various levels of expertise to install. Ceramic tiles look great and provide superb durability, but they aren’t cheap. And if you should elect to go with an even more challenging and higher-end material such as marble–you will want fo make sure you have a skilled professional laying the flooring.
Flooring for the rest of your home’s living space really comes down to a matter of personal choice. Some people like tile in their living areas, some wood, others carpet. Tile offers a nearly unlimited variety of patterns and styles, from the simple to the extravagant, which make it possible for tiles to give a room a very creative or classy feel. On the other hand, tiles can feel cold and hard underfoot, so they may not be the best choice if you’re looking for something a bit more cozy. Wood flooring has a organic beauty and class, feels warmer and is easier on your feet and back. It is stain-resistant, easy-to-clean and offers long-term versatility because it can be sanded and refinished.
And finally, there’s carpet. In terms of sheer warmth and comfort, carpet is probably a top choice. It’s especially great for bedrooms and anywhere you may like to spend a lot of time barefoot. Carpet provides a certain amount of sound-proofing, as well as some insulation. The downfall to carpet is that it is prone to hold germs and bacteria. Be sure to invest in a regular carpet cleaning service or home carpet cleaner to preserve the longevity of your carpet. Carpet is available in a wide array of styles, textures, colors and costs. And remember that the quality and thickness of the pad you use underneath is nearly equal in importance to the carpet itself in determining what its life span will be in your home.
Choosing a floor is a big decision, but it doesn’t have to be overly stressful. Plan ahead, asking yourself all the important questions beforehand and shop around. Purchase samples to take home to help you vision your next flooring.
