Flooring selection is one of the most important decisions homeowners have to make when they are upgrading flooring in their house. So, when it comes to select different kind of flooring. There are plenty of different options to choose from and it is best to learn about pros, cons, cost, and style options available to help ensure the right floor is selected for the project. The options are Hardwood, Laminate, Resilient flooring – Vinyl, Carpet. Tile, Cork, Once you find the perfect fit for your space, you’ll need to think about installation.
- Hardwood:
There are two basic types of hardwood flooring, solid and engineered. Hardwood is an excellent choice to increase value for homes and at the same time add beauty and elegance to your home. Hardwood floors can last more than 25 years when maintained properly and their beauty often increases with age. Here it is shown the two different types of hardwood floors and help you understand a bit about which one of them suits your need.
Solid Hardwood
Solid wood floors consists of a single piece of wood and made to be around 0.75in. (19 mm) thick with a tongue-and-groove for installation. It can be sanded and refinished more times than an engineered wood floor because of that it can maintain its natural beauty. One of the biggest factors that makes solid wood unpopular is application limitation. There are some places solid hardwood is not recommended because of moisture and humidity damage such as kitchens, bathrooms and basements.
Engineered Hardwood
Engineered hardwood flooring is made using a real wood for a top layer (wear layer) and combined with multiple layer of wood for the core. its construction produces a more stable product, this is achieved by running each layer perpendicular to each other (90° angle to adjacent layer), as a result it makes a perfect product that can be used in basements, and in below or above grade spaces. The wear layer is usually 2 – 4 mm thick and it can be sanded and refinished a certain number of times to remove signs of wear and damage.
These days, with the increased use of concrete as a subfloor, engineered hardwood has been growing in popularity because it has the option of floating installation. Depending on the style and brand, engineered hardwood is less expensive than solid hardwood floors.
- Laminate:
Most laminate flooring consists of three parts core, mimicking image, and protective layer. The core is a compressing layers of fiberboards together, this can be High Density Fibre (HDF) or Medium Density Fibre (MDF). On top of the core is an image mimicking wood grain. After that, a protective coating is added to help prevent damage and add a scratch resistant finish to the flooring. The planks will click together that makes it fast and easy for installation and it can be laid over any kind of subfloor. One of the disadvantage of laminate is it cannot be installed in a place where there is lots of moisture especially bathrooms.
Laminate flooring is often confused with engineered hardwood floors, but top quality laminate will not match the look and feel of real wood floors. Advanced technology makes an image of wood that shows of knots and other characteristics of natural wood. Once, it is installed you cannot tell whether the floor is hardwood or laminate. The pricing of laminate is vary based on quality, locking mechanism and the core.
- Carpet:
There are plenty of fiber types of carpet and carpet styles to choose from. It is best to learn more about why carpet is a great choice for your home flooring. There are so many main advantage of choosing carpet among them are affordability, non-slippery floor, cushioned surface to less noisy to walk on, and providing additional warmth underfoot.
There are four basic types of carpet fiber which are nylon, polyester, olefin, and wool. Selecting any of them will be based on your need and affordability. In terms of longevity, nylon fiber is the most durable and stain resistant one while the wool fibre is more natural and eco-friendly. The common carpet textures are cut pile, loop, having both cut and loop pile together.
- Tile:
Tile flooring is ideal for any space that gets a lot of foot traffic and excessive moisture because those areas will get damage and wear easily. So, it’s best to go for tiling for that places such as entrance and bathrooms. The most common space for tile application in any house is bathrooms floor, around the tub/shower walls, and kitchen backsplash. The important point to consider in choosing tile is to aware of not using wall tiles on floors, however, using floor tiles for walls should be fine. The wall tiles are often lighter and thinner compare to floor tiles, they are not designed to carry lots of foot traffic.
- Vinyl:
These days, the most popular flooring type for homes are vinyl flooring because of its durability and its application throughout homes. There are two kinds of vinyl clicking system which are Wood Plastic Composite (WPC) and Stone Plastic Composite (SPC). WPC is recycled wood and plastic composites that are both combined to create the core for the standard vinyl, however, the core of SPC consists of a combination of natural limestone powder, polyvinyl chloride, and stabilizers. The latter has the advantage of having more stability and its uniquely resilient core layer
Since the vinyl can be installed everywhere in any house, the style of vinyl comes in both wood look and tile look. There are so many brands in the market, so it’s better to do a due diligence before deciding to buy vinyl flooring. In terms of pricing, the vinyl is an affordable option compare to tiling and hardwood but its more expensive than laminate.
- Cork Flooring:
Cork flooring structure looks like engineered hardwood product because a top layer made from the harvest of the cork oak tree bark. It’s the most comfortable flooring under your feet by far and environmentally friendly because cork is a sustainable and renewable resource. It is also moisture resistant and retains warmth well, making it suitable for areas where people will be on their feet for extended periods of time. One of the disadvantages of cork flooring is the cost, also due to the soft nature it will be easily damaged by furniture and shoes.
