CHOOSING YOUR NEW FLOOR

(If you're looking for a blog on "Flooring Types", in case you're not familiar with all of the new types of flooring and their nuances, click here.

Choosing your flooring may seem like a big deal... well it is! The new flooring you choose will dictate how your home looks overall. It can make or break a homes look and feel. Also it can be a huge hassle if you get a low quality floor or put the wrong flooring in a room, such as normal laminate in a bathroom or kitchen. Although picking a floor can be tricky and seem daunting, we can help. Here we go over some of the flooring product basics, please call us after reading the article, or before, and we can give you more details. 919-728-1964.

Why its important

When choosing a floor, its important to actually think of how your floor will be used. Whether you'll have kids running around and playing... and spilling, pets and animals with their claws and hair (and even the color of the hair), whether this is a rental home, if you plan on selling in the near future, or if this is your retirement home and your kids are out or don't have kids or pets and are enjoying the easy life. (We also have a blog describing each of these floors and their benefits. Many new customers may not even be aware of what LVP is or what a wear layer is on LVP, or they may not know many new engineered floors can be installed via "click lock" method which saves money. Click here to see the "Flooring Types" blog.

For the basic family

For the basic family, with 2 kids and maybe a dog:

($$) LVP-any times a good LVP is a good choice. LVP is one of the best floors, or even the best, at resisting scratches, its waterproof, and the installation is much lower than hardwood. LVP such as "Lifeproof" has come a long way in looks and can look elegant in a home these days; many brands and models no longer have the "plastic look" to them.

($) Laminate: A good laminate can also be a good option for a family, but I do suggest getting a well known brand such as "Pergo" since it is more scratch and resistant (with some models being water proof). Many choose Laminate over LVP for the look and feel which can be closer to real wood. Laminate will normally be the lowest cost option but not much cheaper than LVP.

($$$) Hardwood: Hardwood is a good option for almost anyone if you have the money to spend on it, and if it is your forever home, then it may be a good idea to go ahead and install hardwood even though the cost may be higher than the other options. It may be higher than LVP or Laminate but it can be refinished where others would have to be replaced. One thing to consider though, is that with large dogs and kids, hardwoods can be scratched fairly easily compared to a good LVP. One last thing to consider is the value of the home will be higher than if you were to go with a LVP or Laminate.

Also we offer financing if you cannot afford to pay all of the cost at once.

($$$) Engineered Hardwood: Not recommended for families as it scratches fairly easily, cannot be refinished in most cases, and costs about as much as hardwood (with the exception of a click lock floating engineered floor being about half the installation cost of hardwood)

Rental Property

Rental property has one good option in my opinion... LVP. When I first started out, one of my biggest customer demographics were people who rent property, and most come to me frustrated that another tenant has ruined another carpet or laminate floor. Unfortunately these floors are not durable and tenants who don't own the floor don't usually take care of the floor as well as they should.

With a good LVP, the tenants would have to be very negligent to damage the floor. I regularly get calls from customers who just installed more carpet 6 months prior, and now need to install new flooring. It is best to go ahead and protect your investment with a good floor. I do not recommend wood floor in most rentals, they scratch easier and if they are messed up it does cost to refinish them. Many times in high end rentals, we go directly over the hardwoods with LVP to protect them so when the home is sold years down the road, we don't need to refinish or replace them.

No kids or animals

If you don't have as much potential for scratches or spill damage, then this is where a good engineered floor can be recommended. Although this is of the few times engineered flooring can be recommended, I would still go with hardwood or LVP for the reasons stated above.