Flooring Choices: Narrowing Them Down

Picking the right type of flooring for your needs can be difficult. You need to consider your budget and the type of flooring you should use. Depending on what rooms you’re installing the new flooring in, you should carefully consider the type of flooring to get. If you need flooring for high traffic areas, tile or hardwood may work best as opposed to carpeting. However, if your budget only allows for carpeting, you should stay away from light-colored carpet or you will be steam cleaning more than you’d like. 

Types of Flooring

There are many types of flooring to consider from carpeting, porcelain tiles, vinyl, hardwood floors, or laminate flooring. It may also be worth considering rubber flooring, matting, luxury vinyl tiles, or maybe even stone or ceramic tiles. You may not have considered these before, but each has its own unique set of advantages. Closely comparing their advantages in comparison to your own priorities should give you a clear winner. 

Laminate wood flooring may be an option if you want the look of wood but you have a tight budget. It can be significantly cheaper than solid wood.  With the many different types and shades of wood available, and countless different pattern layouts, it can take a long time just to find your favorite.  If you are installing different types of flooring, finding a flooring contractor that can handle more than one type of flooring can save you some money due to the size of the job.

Tile flooring is a great option for many, especially in high traffic areas. They are easy to clean and some of them have designs that look like wood. When it comes to bathrooms or rooms with high moisture, using tile is the best option. There are many colors, style, and design options to meet your specific preferences. Tile can be expensive depending on the type you use but installation typically costs more due to the work involved.

How Do I Choose A Contractor?

Flooring companies for your home are readily available. When choosing an installer, it’s wise to get multiple estimates from a few different companies to compare pricing. It’s important that you sit down and discuss the terms as well as understanding the scope of the work. Your contractor should be able to tell you what materials they are using such as underlayment, subflooring, or even the thickness of the carpet pads. Whoever you go with, make sure you choose a reputable company to perform the installation, as even a good quality product can’t hide a bad job. Check out online reviews and ask for recommendations from trusted sources.

If the work is being performed in an existing finished space, you may need to repaint/replace baseboards. Be sure to talk about these things with your contractor so that there are no surprises in the end. When working with any contractors coming into your home to do work, make sure they are licensed and insured. This can save you a huge amount of hassle later on in case something goes wrong. 

Lastly, ask your contractor for photos of previous jobs they’ve done. This will show you the quality of their work and hopefully make the decision easier when it comes to choosing from a number of contractors.