An Expert Guide to Flooring

When choosing flooring materials for your home, you have quite a few options available to you. Of course people would prefer it if this was an easier task to complete, but that’s just not going to be the case for flooring. To help you figure out the best materials to use, you will find a guide below with pros, cons and price levels for each option.

Hardwood flooring

Hardwood flooring is nothing new. It’s been around for many many years and many people have or want this in their house. Hardwood floors look amazing, and the come in all sorts of wood types like Cherry, Walnut, Oak, and even Hickory. When it comes to flooring, this is the option that most everyone turns to, even if it’s just for a look, but this one is also more on the expensive side.

Pros: The resale value of wood floors is through the roof – they are desired by most any homeowner, which means when plan to sell in the next few years, you have a better chance of selling your home for the price you want. These types of floors can also be refinished and waxed, which allows them to last for an even longer amount of time, while still looking and feeling amazing.

Cons: These are not low maintenance floors. when you want these in your kitchen, for instance, they take a lot of care and upkeep. They also don’t work too well with moisture ridden or wet floors, so by having them in the bathroom, you are taking a chance on if they get wet and if they will get ruined or not. These can scratch pretty easily too. Lastly, the price tag is pretty dang high. These will cost you anywhere from $4 to $15 per square foot so they can really weigh heavy on your budget.

Laminate Flooring

When people take a look at materials like stone and wood, and they see how expensive it is, they tend to look for something more cost efficient. Laminate flooring is the answer to the money problem. Hardwood looks amazing, of course. Stone looks amazing, yes. But, if you can’t afford it, laminates are an alternative option.

Pros: These are incredibly budget friendly. Of course that is going to depend on the “style” you want to mimic. Let say you want something more complex that will look like marble, that will cost you more money but when you want something easier to create like a plain old wood floor, its going to be cheaper of course! Most laminate floors have a lock and snap design which means even the most novice user can install it on their own – no installer, means it will be less expensive to install. The cost is much cheaper than a real hardwood floor.

Cons: Like with wood, these floors are not especially durable when it comes to water. You will have to make sure that if you have this in the kitchen or bath that you make sure it doesn’t come into contact with water, and if it does, clean it up right away! Laminate flooring also won’t last as long as hardwood flooring, but with the price point, you might be okay with having to replace it every few years.

Tile

Tile flooring just like aforementioned hardwood and laminate flooring is another popular option for savvy homeowners who loves to save. Much can be said about this material. First off, they are incredibly versatile. Secondly, they can be, thanks to technology, made to look like other materials. These tiles can mimic things like wood, stone and even concrete. Regular tiles come in an array of colors, styles, patterns and tile sizes.

Pros: Moisture ridden room? No problem, tile can handle it! Its also a very hard surface so it can take a lot of abuse. These tiles can be placed in any room, even outdoors, as long as they are sealed properly. These are also incredibly easy to clean and upkeep, you just need to quickly sweep them once a day and mop once a week. These are also fairly priced, anywhere from $4 on down per square foot.

Cons: These can get incredibly slippery when wet. By installing them in your bathroom you gotta make sure that you place mats down between places like the tub/shower, the toilet and the sink or get a matte finish which will reduce the slipperiness of the tile. These can be troublesome on your feet and knees, back and neck if you stand on them for too long and you can forget about kneeling down – these will seriously hurt your knees even after just a minute or two. Lastly, if you drop something on these tiles – it will break the object, guaranteed and dropping a glass for instance, on these tiles, you can expect that it will break into a zillion tiny pieces!

Conclusion

There you go, the extreme flooring guide with all sort of pros and cons about the Tiles, Hardwood and Laminate flooring. According to tilemarkets.com flooring are not only trending in Toronto, Canada but also adding value in real estate but obviously it would depend on which type of flooring you would select whether its budget friendly laminate flooring or expensive look of hardwood flooring for less in Toronto, for further read review these articles from TileMarkets.com, Nola.com, and Greenhomeguide.com before purchasing.