Choosing the new flooring for your home is an important step in the renovation or construction of your new home. Your new floor should be cost effective, practical and easy to maintain and to integrate seamlessly into the general décor of the room and the approached style.
Knowing the pros and cons of each floor type will be useful in your choice.
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Let’s see together the most important factors that may influence your decision.
MAINTENANCE
a) Wooden flooring: This type of flooring comes in a wide range of types, sizes, colors and qualities. However, regardless of the chosen type, wood flooring is generally, a warm, welcoming, hygienic and beautiful floor, which is suitable for any room.
Unfortunately, any type of wooden flooring requires intensive maintenance. This maintenance or house chore should be done periodically, if you want to have a floor in good conditions at all time. More than that, special care should be taken when you clean a wood floor. You need to choose specific cleaners for each type of wood.
However, you can wash your wood flooring, but only with a solution of water and a little amount of soap. Use only a damp mop and do not use too much water, otherwise there is a danger that your floor to swell. Wipe your flooring dry afterwards.
b) Tile Flooring: Ceramic tile flooring is another popular option. It is simple and easy to install and it is almost appropriate for any kind of environment. As opposed to wooden flooring, ceramic tile flooring is easy to clean and requires little maintenance. You need only a bucket filled with water and detergent and a mop. In fact, the grout remains the main concern regarding the cleaning of a tile surface. It is quite difficult to keep the grouting lines free from stuck grime and stains. However, sealing the grout lines is the best way to prevent any dirt buildup and to preserve its original color.
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DURABILITY
In terms of durability, the wooden floor is superior to that of ceramics. Any heavy object falling on the surface of a ceramic floor can lead to cracks and chips. If this will happen you have to replace the damaged tiles to restore your floor surface.
On the other hand a wooden floor is not so easily damaged and anyway even if it is, it can be easily repaired, not to mention that a solid wood floor will look more interesting with a few scratches on its surface.
WEAR and TEAR
Ceramic tile flooring can easily withstand traffic even high traffic with no major impact. Therefore, they are a better option than wooden flooring in this regard.
Sand and grit can affect seriously a wooden floor but have no effect on tile flooring. Therefore, ceramic surfaces are a more appropriate solution for the areas that are exposed to sand and grit.
REPAIRS
A worn, scratched, dull, in a word, a damaged wooden floor can be repaired easily by sanding or resurfacing processes. On the other hand, it is quite hard to repair a cracked or chipped tile surface. In fact, the only viable solution is to replace the damaged area.
COST
Cost is a very important factor that you have to take in consideration. It is obvious that a wooden flooring installation is more expensive that a ceramic tile flooring, not to mention that ceramic tile flooring doesn’t require too much surface preparation as wooden flooring.
However the decision is yours. Sometimes the cost can not be the main factor, and final appearance may be more important to you.
Living Room Flooring Types | How To Build A House (howtobuildahouseblog.com)
