Flooring is one of the most important features of any home. From hardwood and laminate to tile and carpet, flooring not only serves a functional purpose, but it also helps establish the style and “feel” of a room. Luckily, there are incredible flooring options available today, ensuring that you can find exactly what you want while staying within your budget.
Hardwood
Hardwood is an all-time favorite due to its aesthetics and ability to add warmth to a room. It’s durable and natural as well.Aside from these qualities, a hardwood floor can be sanded and stained, which let’s it maintain its beauty over time. This quality also allows you to play around with different themes and looks for your home. However, hardwood floors are costly. Materials for wooden floor can range from more budget-friendly unfinished planks of oak to more exotic wood planks that can increase your overall flooring budget. Hardwood floors are ideal for a home with no pets or small children, and in places with lower traffic
Composite Wood
Composite or engineered wood is made by compressing plywood together then adding a hardwood film at the top.
If you absolutely love the look and feel of hardwood but isn’t ready for the budget to install it, engineered wood can work just as well. The cost is typically less per square foot than hardwood and is usually relatively easy to install.
As the exposed top layer is hardwood, it is important to use the same maintenance routine as you would for a hardwood floor.
The compressed plywood underneath is also susceptible to damage and warping, so avoid sharp objects such as high heels on this floor. This floor is suitable in any room aside from a high moisture room like the bathroom
Vinyl
Vinyl gives you the most affordable flooring type and is available in large sheets.
This material is easy to clean and maintain, with regular sweeping and mopping being sufficient enough to keep it clean.
However, it is difficult to repair when damaged, so keeping it from abrasive chemicals and anything that might dent it is key.
For someone looking for a low maintenance floor type, vinyl stands among the best in that category. It’s also ideal in high moisture areas like the bathroom and the laundry room
Tile
Porcelain and natural stone are great choices for tile flooring. When picking flooring on a budget, porcelain is the most pocket-friendly of the pack. An added advantage of tile is that it is excellent in high moisture areas as well, where wooden flooring is discouraged. Today you can find tile in faux finishes like wood and stone which can give you the aesthetic advantages of those floor types, but at a much lower price.
Tile is easy to clean and does well with frequent cleaning. This coupled with its durability makes it a good choice for high traffic areas and rooms with kids and pets.
Due to its water resistance quality, tile flooring is great in the bathroom, laundry room, kitchen flooring and the dining area where there are moisture and spills
Linoleum
For people who are particularly concerned about the environment, linoleum is a perfect choice. This flooring material is made from natural materials including rosins, linseed oil, and wood flour, with no effects to forests and greenery.This makes it suitable in homes with small kids or in situations where some of the household members have compromised immunity.This aside, linoleum is also water, bump, and scratch-resistant, which makes it ideal for any part of the house, with or without kids and pets as well.
However, you do not want to install linoleum tiles in the bathroom because water can seep through its seams and cause warping or separation, but linoleum sheets can work well in the bathroom.
Laminate Flooring
In recent years, laminate flooring has quickly become one of the more popular types of flooring because of its cost and ability to look almost identical to some hardwood floors.
The reason for its rise in popularity in the flooring market is because it offers a wood grain or stone texture and appearance and in some cases can fool the eye into thinking it is actually hardwood or a stone/tile floor.
One other unique thing about laminates is that they’re actually a photographic image that’s printed on a durable surface and applied (laminated) to a sturdy base. This gives the manufacturers the ability to mimic a very large variety of wood breeds, stone colors & materials, and tile.
Laminates have come a long way since their introduction in the 1980’s and become a very sturdy and long lasting flooring option for homeowners
Luxury Vinyl Tile
Luxury Vinyl Tile flooring or also commonly referred to as “LVT” flooring is a good flooring choice for homes that have pets, kids, and an active lifestyle. LVT flooring is also a great option to install in high-traffic areas that need a flooring type that can withstand the wear and be easily cleaned. This feature also makes it a great hardwood alternative in areas like your kitchen, bathroom or near doorways where water could potentially damage a real wood floor.
LVT flooring is also produced to look like a very wide variety of flooring types from tile to stone and hardwood, so you can still enjoy the beauty of these materials while getting the advantage of the durability and costs of LVT flooring.