Flooring Basics
Choosing Your Kind of Floor
The standard flooring options include solid and engineered hardwood, laminate, various forms of waterproof flooring, bamboo (which some think of as a style of hardwood), cork, ceramic tile, stone tile and carpet. You may have a very good idea of what you want, you may have no idea, or you may have questions about whether your selection will be the best fit for your room. Here are some very broad tips to get you started, and links to go deeper on any topic you want to investigate further. Our links lead to definitions and further explanations, not to ads or other websites. We also have some shopping tips we think you’ll find useful.
Location
First, on what level will you be installing your floor? All floors can be installed above ground level, called above “grade” in flooring circles. If you’re installing below grade, say, in a basement, You still have most of the flooring options we listed above, but two should be crossed off your list. Generally, solid hardwood is not recommended to install below grade, and bamboo flooring is also considered a bad candidate for a lower level installation. At or above grade, all floors are available.
Subfloor
The surface onto which you will install your floor is called a subfloor, and these are usually made of either wood or concrete. Wood is pretty versatile. All floor types can go over a wood subfloor. With concrete, solid hardwood gets another knock. The vast majority of solid hardwood floors must be nailed down to the subfloor, not glued, and not floated. Nailing through wood into concrete being a difficult proposition at best, solid hardwood should be off the list if you have a concrete subfloor.
Moisture
Does the room get a lot of moisture? Now here we’re talking about the potential for spilled or tracked in water (or snow), but also for high humidity, say in a bathroom with a nice, hot, well used shower. There are better and worse floors for each type.
Rooms with Water and Humidity
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In rooms with high humidity, the options are more pass fail, not so much a matter of degrees. There are floors which will soak in that moisture, and those which just won’t.
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With laminate, if the humidity will be really high, we have to recommend against it. Some really can be quite moisture resistant, and there are technologies in place which may make some of these products just perfect for a steam room, so if you’re hoping to use a laminate in a place like this, do call us in case we have something new and exciting.
Pets
The issue with pets is not so much general traffic, say from a small, frisky dog. It’s the big, heavy dogs with unclipped nails, the deep, sharp impacts or scratching about which we are concerned here.
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High traffic
Best | – Ceramic tile or stone |
Great | – Laminate & Vinyl Plank |
Optional | – Hardwood – it will depend on the species you choose |
Okay | – Carpet |
Not great | – Bamboo and Cork |
Allergies
Do you need your environment to be as hypoallergenic as it can be? Here is what we know:
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Allergies-Pauline-Eccles Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license |
Sound reduction
How important is sound reduction to you? Your best options are limited to carpet, vinyl plank, cork and some laminates, if you use good pad underneath. The hardwoods and bamboo, as well as the ceramic and stone are simply going to do what hard surfaces do when you walk on them.
Installation
If you are a flooring novice, and want to install your floor yourself, there are more and less conducive options for the success of such a venture. If you plan to hire an installer no matter which floor you choose, then the following list can help you save money. Easier to install floors should take less of an installer’s time. Of course, this list is very generic. If this is a serious consideration, do check the links to the installation sections for the choices in which you are interested.
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These are some other good articles for the beginning floor shopper:
Why You Want Samples, and Things to Try with Them
What Type of Floor is Best for a Family?
What’s the best floor for your bathroom?
Best Floors for Allergy Sufferers
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David has written and made videos about flooring products and installation since 2011 at Floors To Your Home (.com), where he is also the PPC Manager,a Researcher, a Website & Marketing Strategy Team member, Videographer, Social Strategist, Photographer and all around Resource Jito. In my spare time I shoot and edit video, put together a podcast, explore film history, and mix music (as in ‘play with Beatles multi-tracks’). Connect with
W. David Lichty
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