Like most things in life, not all flooring is created equal. When considering new floors for your home, it’s important to factor in at least a few key things. Does your room see high traffic, low traffic, or somewhere in between? How much moisture will your flooring come in contact with, and how often? What about pets? Do they spend a lot of time on your floors, too? If it all seems like a bit much to keep track of, this blog post can help you determine which flooring may be just right for your next project. Let’s get started!
The kitchen is usually the place that sees the majority of the stains, spills, and messes in your home. It’s also a room where your family gathers to cook, work on school projects, and entertain guests. Instead of worrying about all the foot traffic in your kitchen possibly ruining your floors, choose flooring that’s durable enough for heavy traffic as well as moisture resistant. This would make ceramic or porcelain tile, vinyl tile, vinyl plank, and wood laminate the best options for your kitchen.
Your family likely spends lots of time together in the living room, whether for movie nights, the occasional dinner on the couch, entertaining friends, or celebrating the holidays. Solid hardwood, engineered hardwood, wood laminate, and carpet are all excellent flooring options for a living room.
If you have pets, remember to look for flooring that is resistant to damage from their nails. Engineered hardwood, wood laminate, and carpet that won’t snag—plush, frieze, and our hypoallergenic HOME Fresh carpet—are all excellent options for a pet-friendly living room.
Pro tip: It’s recommended to stay away from Berber carpet if you have animals with nails or claws that spend time on your floors. With its looped design, pet nails are likely to get caught and snag on Berber sooner or later.
No matter what day it is, your bedroom is the place you escape to at the end of each day, so making it a comfortable and welcoming area is important. You can go in a few different directions with bedroom flooring—either carpeting the space for a soft feel, or finding the perfect tone of a wood-look floor to match your area rug. The best options for bedroom flooring include solid hardwood, engineered hardwood, wood laminate, and carpet.
Unlike your bedroom or living room, your bathroom is likely to be a moist environment where flooring will continually get exposed to water droplets and puddles from activities like showering or washing the family pet. Plus, the steam from showering and bathing means that your bathroom will have higher levels of humidity, too. The best options for your bathroom include ceramic or porcelain tile, vinyl tile, and vinyl plank. Waterproof laminate can work, too.
While guests likely don’t visit your laundry room too often, beautiful floors can make this space feel more like a retreat and less like the home of one of your least favorite chores. However, your laundry room is another area where flooring can be exposed to moisture and higher humidity levels. So, the best options for your laundry room include porcelain or ceramic tile, vinyl tile, vinyl plank, and waterproof laminate.
The most important thing to consider when choosing new floors for your basement is the concrete subfloor, since not all types of flooring can be used on top of solid concrete. This means the best options for your basement are vinyl plank, vinyl tile, engineered hardwood, wood laminate, and carpet.
The flooring you choose for your basement should also be dependent on what you use your basement for. Do you have kids who use it as a daily playroom? Then consider comfy carpet. Do you occasionally entertain guests in your basement bar? Then look into wood laminate or vinyl plank. Does your basement act as a second living room for movie nights and kids’ sleepovers? Then carpet, wood laminate, or vinyl plank may be your best bets.
The flooring you choose for your rooms can make or break the entire space, so it’s important to know your options and choose wisely to fit your family’s needs. That’s what we’re here for! To help you with these big decisions. Your Empire Today® flooring professional can guide you through the whole process—making choosing new floors more straightforward, easy, and even fun!
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