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Installing a new floor is a big investment and there are several factors to consider. If you’re unsure what flooring is best for your lifestyle and budget, start by taking a look at this guide.
Chances are that as you’ve been exploring options, you’ve realized that finding the best flooring for your home goes beyond the visual appeal of the product. It’s important to consider many elements such as the activity and foot traffic in your home, moisture levels, durability, level of sunlight, your budget, and much more.
Follow these steps to figure out exactly what flooring is right for your home.
If you answered yes, then we encourage you to consider tile, laminate, and luxury vinyl plank. These are all excellent, durable options for high-traffic areas that don’t sacrifice beauty. Luxury vinyl flooring, for example, is available in a wide array of patterns, colours and finishes. With new materials and manufacturing technology, luxury vinyl tile is a big improvement on old-fashioned vinyl, being both stylish and durable.
However, if you have your heart set on solid hardwood or engineered hardwood, there are several species of wood that are best suited for busy areas in your home. We suggest harder woods like hickory, red oak, white oak, ash, or maple.
If you’re thinking of having new flooring installed in your basement, kitchen or mudroom, then you’ll certainly want flooring that can handle moisture. While many types of wood flooring are water-resistant, you still have to be quite careful. If water sits on the floors for too long it could warp the wood. Therefore, we’d encourage you to consider tile or luxury vinyl tile flooring.
Of course, we know many of you really desire hardwood flooring. Depending on the moisture level in your room, you could get away with using engineered hardwood flooring. Thanks to its multilayered construction, engineered hardwood flooring is less susceptible to damage. We’d caution you against using this flooring for areas that you know will get wet very frequently, like your bathroom.
If you do, then you’re likely looking for flooring that can handle a busy home. You don’t want to be worried about dropped toys or your furry friend’s nails leaving scratches on your new floors. For busy homes we suggest tile, laminate flooring, or luxury vinyl plank.
However, it’s possible to have solid hardwood or engineered flooring, especially if you choose a highly durable wood. We suggest always looking at the Janka rating — anything over 1,000 means that the wood is highly durable. We suggest hickory, red oak, white oak, ash, or maple. Engineered hardwood flooring is a great option as it’s known for being long-lasting and tough. Plus, this type of flooring can be refinished typically twice in its lifetime.
We know how important it is to stay within a budget. That’s why we suggest laminate, luxury vinyl plank or engineered hardwood. Each of these types of flooring can work for almost any budget. The cost of installation of these types of floors is lower because they all involve click or floating installation.
For solid hardwood, there are a few types of wood which are more affordable than others. Maple, birch, and ash solid hardwood are all reasonably priced. Since these trees grow more quickly, there is a greater supply of them which reduces costs.
On the topic of installation, any type of flooring that can be installed over an existing floor helps to speed up the installation process and therefore reduce costs. Keeping this in mind, we’d suggest laminate, luxury vinyl plank or engineered hardwood. Each of these floors involve interlocking boards that can be easily installed over existing floors without nails or glue. Their tongue-and-groove planks allow the flooring to be quickly and effortlessly fitted into any room.
If you’re looking for low-maintenance flooring, then you’re in luck. Luxury vinyl planks take the top spot for being the easiest to maintain. In fact, they are often referred to as being virtually maintenance free.
Laminate flooring and tile is also extremely low-maintenance. Plus, many of the engineered hardwood and solid hardwood options are also easy to maintain. They will just require more frequent cleanings, or if you get a specialty varnish then this could need a bit more attention.
Our flooring experts are highly knowledgeable and always happy to answer your questions. Simply drop by our showroom or give us a call for a quote at 613-688-2080.
Xpression Hardwood Floors
18 Bentley Ave.
Ottawa, Ontario K2E 6T8
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