Deciding on your new floor can be a difficult choice, with there being so many choices to pick from. When you go to buy flooring you will of course have to choose from style of material (carpet, laminate, wood, ceramic etc…), along with quality, color, texture, warmth and coziness.
You should be careful when you go to buy flooring that you check out through the business bureau or even better, deal with a national chain store. This way if something was to go wrong, you have managers to take care of you if need be.
OK, now let’s get into the choosing of type of flooring. Where there will be moisture of course hard surfaces are better, except laminates and bamboo are not a good products for bathrooms and kitchens, as they are not warrantied.
You also want to be sure when you buy flooring you choose one that:
- Fits the style of your home and looks good.
- Comfort it will bring to your room.
- Durability, or how long will it last.
- How easy it is to clean and maintain.
- Material cost.
- Installation cost.
Here is a list of the most common styles of flooring
- Carpet
- Wood
- Laminate
- Cork
- Bamboo
- Vinyl
- Ceramic
- Engineered Wood
CARPETING: The most warm and comfortable to walk or lay on, and by far the best sound-absorbent flooring. Carpet is the hardest to keep clean, and not as durable as the hard surfaces. Areas with lots of outside traffic should have hard surfaces or shorter nap, commercial carpet.
WOOD FLOORING: Wood flooring is one of the most durable flooring materials, along with being the 2nd most popular flooring after carpet. Wood flooring has a natural warm feeling to it.
To check durability of the wood you will want to check the hardness of it. The easiest way to check this is by looking at the hardness rating, or Janka rating. Another major thing to check is the finish or top layer of the wood.
LAMINATE FLOORING: This is in most cases one of the cheaper routes to go. Laminate flooring is normally about half the price of real wood, but has the look of real wood, ceramic or stone. Of course in the cheaper laminates usually don’t look as real. Not as durable as real wood, laminates can scratch easier especially with dirty traffic such as dirt or pebbles.
CORK FLOORING: Cork is actually a durable surface compared to the bulletin cork boards we think of when we hear the word “cork”. Cork also has great thermal insulation properties. If you buy cork flooring you will be helping preserve the environment. Cork actually is made from the bark of cork oaks, harvested every nine years, this way the tree is not killed like other wood materials.
If you are looking to buy flooring hopefully these tips will make your process a little easier and quicker.
