With there being plenty of flooring choices available, it can mean picking the right option can be a tricky decision. Sometimes we just need someone with all the knowledge to tell us which one suits our needs best. We’ve come up with the main factors that you’re likely to need to take into consideration so you can make an informed decision.
Consider who’s in your household
Like anything, different flooring suits different types of people/families. For example, if you come from a household with pets and children then options such as carpet and tiles might be a big no. The good news is that there’s plenty of alternatives that would be suitable such laminate and luxury vinyl tiles. It’s also likely that you’ll have some sort of budget to stick to, so price comes largely into play too. We’d recommend LVT as the best choice for a family household, as it is scratch, stain and water proof as well as having impressive durability. Laminate is probably next up, offering good resistant to damage like scratches, stains and water.
Budget
Like any big purchase (unless you’re lucky) money is the main thing we look at. Therefore, before you start going to stores and looking online, make sure you’ve worth out exactly what you can afford to spend. The worst thing to do is to fall in love with a flooring to then find out it’s way out of your budget! It’ll also narrow down options, so you wont feel too overwhelmed. However there are advantages to spending a little more money in the first place, as certain flooring types can reduce your heating costs due to their insulation properties, last longer and can be repaired meaning you don’t have to replace is as quickly.
Think about foot traffic
This does largely come down to whether you’re from a busy household or not, however the room you’re looking to re floor is important too. Rooms with low traffic such as the bedroom doesn’t matter if it has a less durable floor such as carpet, whereas the hallway which sees lots of foot fall needs something like solid wood.
Cleaning and maintenance
As boring as it is, cleaning is something we all need to do especially when it comes to our floors. If we’ve spent a lot of money on our flooring, then we’ll want to get the most out of it! Again, laminate and LVT are very easy to keep clean and we’d recommend staying away from materials such as carpet as it harbours dust and dirt. If you want to go one step further to preserve the beauty of your new floors, then you can get specialist floor cleaner. Although laminate and LVT are more resistant to damage, there is a way you can eradicate it with real wood. You can sand it down and refinish it with real wood, however this shouldn’t normally need to be done for the first 15-20 years so you can only imagine how long these floors can last for!
Style
It’s all very well getting the practicality side right for our flooring, but there’s no point unless we love the look of it! In terms of fashion, wood flooring has an unbeatable beauty that’ll never go out of style.