When it comes to flooring for your home or office, the
choices are truly endless. As a Palatine hardwood flooring company, we often speak with homeowners who know that they
want to install flooring for their homes, but aren’t sure what type of flooring
they want to go with. Depending on the
needs of the room in your home the type of flooring you choose is crucial. Every room in your home or office has
different needs and to top it off, not all flooring is created equal. Some types of flooring stand up to wear and
tear better than others. Some types of flooring require more up-keep than
others. This is exactly why we tell
homeowners to choose flooring based on the needs of room the flooring will be
going in. So how does one choose which
is flooring is best? Here are some facts
on hardwood flooring and some of the top alternative flooring choices:
Hardwood
Flooring
Most homeowners today are looking for hardwood flooring for
their home and it is an understandable choice.
When it comes to selling your home, hardwood flooring instantly
increases the resale value due to the fact that so many homeowners are willing
to pay more for a home that utilizes hardwood flooring. Hardwood flooring comes
in a variety of different species and shades and is available at most home improvement
centers and online. Hardwood flooring installation can be done by the homeowner themselves or by utilizing local
hardwood flooring installers, like us. It is not recommended for homeowners to
simply tackle hardwood flooring installation themselves as installation can be
quite difficult. Hardwood flooring is
not only aesthetically pleasing, but it is durable and also natural. Hardwood flooring is a great choice for
allergy sufferers since hardwood does not provide spaces to harbor dust, dirt
and mold.
Tile
Tile flooring is undoubtedly one of the top choices of
flooring for bathrooms and kitchens. Tile flooring, like hardwood flooring, is
quite durable and is very easy to clean. Ceramic tiles can be found at local
home improvement stores and occasionally, you can find tile at very low
prices. While the tile pieces themselves
may be cost-friendly, the cost of installing the tile may be a lot more than
you bargained for. Tile installation can
get quite costly. The other downside to
tile is that it is quite hard against the bottoms of feet and that it stays
cold, which can be less than desired during the cold winter months.
Laminate
Flooring
Over the past few years we, as hardwood flooring installers,
have had quite a few people ask about installing laminate flooring. While we are obviously hardwood flooring
people ourselves, we can understand the draw for wanting laminate
flooring. Laminate flooring is made to
look like the real deal despite the fact that it is not. Laminate flooring can be aesthetically
pleasing (unless you’re the “all hardwood flooring” type). Installation is quite easy with the laminate floor
boards simply snapping and locking into place.
Laminate flooring comes in many colors, styles and patterns can be made
to look like wood, stone or tile. We
typically see people opt to use laminate flooring in kitchens and bathrooms or
a room in their home that experiences heavy foot traffic. One of the biggest pros with laminate
flooring is that it is hard to dent or scratch it.
Carpeting
Carpeting is a great flooring option due to the fact that it
comes in such a wide variety of colors, textures and patterns. Depending on what the homeowner is looking
for, carpeting can be quite cheap. It
can get more expensive depending on the type of carpeting the homeowner is
looking for. The good part about
carpeting is that it is warm, plush, soft and it also absorbs sound pretty well
depending on the type of carpeting.
Typically, putting carpeting down will require a professional installer,
which can be good or bad depending on the homeowner’s flooring budget. The downside to carpeting is that it needs to
be cleaned frequently as it has the tendency to hold allergens and dirt. Due to
the fact that moisture and mold can be housed quite easily by carpeting, it is
not the recommended flooring choice for bathrooms and kitchens. Carpeting probably isn’t the best choice for
allergy sufferers.
Looking for more information on flooring choices? Feel free to leave us a comment below or
contact us.