5 Tips For Choosing Flooring for your home.

We have outlined 5 Tips For Choosing Flooring for your home.

1. Location of flooring.

If you’re looking at an entrance hall area you generally want something that can deal with dirt and muck, and water coming in on shoes. Something hard wearing like coir matting. If the flooring is for bedrooms maybe something soft and warm on your feet like carpet. If you have pets consider tiled flooring which is very hard wearing, low maintenance and easy to clean. Can it deal with water being spilled on it in a bathroom? 

Tip 2: Tiling

Tiling. How slip resistant is it? The majority of floor tiles these days are given an anti-slip rating. This rating comes in the form of an ‘R’ value. The ‘R’ stands for ‘ramp test’. This ‘R’ value ranges from R9, which has a small degree of slip resistance, right up to R13, which is the highest slip resistance. This ‘R’ value shows the degree of slip resistance the tile has. We recommend a minimum of R10 or higher for domestic situations.

3. Is it suitable to use with underfloor heating?

If you plan to have underfloor heating installed check that the product can be installed on top of underfloor heating. You will find solid timber floors will move and gaps appear as they can’t sufficiently deal with the heat coming up. Most engineered timber floors are suitable to use with underfloor heating.

If you do plan to install underfloor heating, a tiled floor works extremely well and on a cold winter’s night is anything but chilly. A tiled floor also works well in the summer heat but having a cooler feel.

4. Single flooring throughout.

Look at installing the same floor finishes in a single open plan space as this will emphasise the size of the space. It also draws the eye over the whole space rather than up to where a change in material happens. 

5. Cost

Flooring is priced per square metre and can add up quickly!

All flooring materials have ‘grades’ of quality. Synthetic carpet is cheaper than Berber carpet that contains big and small tufts of pile.  The plusher or more durable the carpet – naturally the more expensive it will be. When choosing carpet, don’t forget about the carpet underlay beneath. The carpet underlay will make your steps more comfortable and will make your carpet last longer.

Ceramic, slate, and marble tile is generally more expensive than carpet. Tile is very low maintenance and doesn’t usually have to be replaced unless it cracks.  Wood flooring has become more affordable over the years, due to new products entering the flooring market.

If you’re looking at wooden floor check for FSC certified products so you know it’s coming from a sustainable source and not illegal logging.

In conclusion, there are plenty of tips and tricks to follow to choose flooring as well as a wide spectrum of flooring.