Types of Home Flooring and Which Ones Might Be Right for Your Home Remodeling Plans
By Mark J. Donovan
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I’ve had the opportunity to use numerous types of home flooring in my houses over the years. In my younger adult years carpet was the home flooring of choice. It is comfortable, warm on the feet, fairly easy to keep clean, and most important very affordable. However, even with the highest quality carpet flooring and pads, it still only lasts 4 to 6 years in heavily trafficked areas. In addition, carpeting can be rough on people with allergies. Carpet just seems to attract and trap dust into its fibers.
When it came to kitchens and bathrooms linoleum flooring was another popular flooring choice in my earlier home ownership years. Its durable, there are many patterns to choose from, and again its very affordable compared to tiled floors. |
But again, linoleum can wear out after a few years, it can easily cut, and the ends can often curl.
As the years went by and I could afford to spend more money on home flooring I moved up the home flooring ladder and started using wood flooring instead of carpeting in the main living areas and ceramic tile in the kitchens and bathroom.
| Moreover, I began to get more DIY handy around the home which helped to mitigate the costs of installing tile and wood floors. You’d be amazed how much money you can save by installing your own wood or tiled floors and you’d also be surprised what your capable of doing when you put your mind to it. In particular, installing tile flooring is pretty easy to do as long as you have a half decent tile cutter. You can buy very affordable tile cutters and even rent them if you want to really minimize costs.
Another couple of home flooring products I’ve used is engineered wood flooring and laminate flooring. Both are very durable however I would not recommend either in wet areas, particularly laminate flooring. |
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Laminate flooring’s base layer is constructed out of wood chips and glue. If the base layer gets wet it swells and the floor is pretty much destroyed.
| Engineered wood flooring on the other hand is made up of multiple layers of veneer woods. It is less susceptible to water damage but again, just like solid hardwood floors, I would not recommend it for wet areas. This said, engineered wood flooring is much more stable than solid hardwood floors.
Due to the orthogonal stack up of veneers in its construction, expansion and contraction is minimal. Thus, unlike solid hardwood floors, you wont’ see seams opening up during the dry winter months and bulges during the moist summer months. So before choosing a home flooring product for your home consider all the pros and cons of each. Also, remember that spending a little extra money up front on home flooring, may save you extra money down the road. |
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For help on finding a wood flooring installation contractor, see HomeAdditionPlus.com’s Wood Flooring Installation Bid Sheet. It will help ensure that you find and hire the right flooring installation contractor for your wood flooring project. In addition, it will help to ensure that your wood floor installation is completed on time and on budget.
Related Information
- Should Hardwood Flooring go in before the Kitchen Cabinets?
- How to Apply Concrete Floor Coatings
- Solid Wood Flooring versus Laminate Flooring
Additional Flooring Resources from Amazon.com
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