Many articles about what kind of flooring to bring into your home are focused on a design question, when in reality the issue is about durability disguised as design. What does the best-looking floor in the showroom matter if it looks terrible after five years? What does the most sustainable material matter if the product is tossed into a landfill long before your kids move out?
That’s the wrong question to be asking about every room in your house (or your client’s). The best floor for a room is the one that’s been tested for its ability to withstand the unique conditions of that room and not have to be replaced for decades.
Here’s what to think about when considering materials for every space in your home:
Durability is a number, not a vibe
Retailers will try to convince you that their product has premium heft and substantial build, but ignore those feel-good words and look for specific numbers. For solid hardwood or engineered wood, you’ll want to research the Janka hardness scale. Woods like oak and hickory score high on this test, meaning they’re more difficult to dent and will hold up to chairs better than softer woods like pine. With luxury vinyl plank and luxury vinyl tiles, it’s the mil thickness that matters most – 6 mil would be fine for a guest bedroom, but 20-25 mil would be better for a home with pets. Tiles have the PEI rating, which measures the number of passes over the tile’s glazed surface it would take for the finish to start coming off. Pick a rating high enough to withstand the conditions in the space you’re finishing, and remember that low PEI tile is not fit for floor covering at all. For the traffic areas in your home, such as the main entry, look for PEI 5; for walls, PEI 1 will be sufficient.
The greenest floor is the one you don’t have to throw away
Recycled materials and rapidly-renewable resources sound good, but remember that any floor covering that needs to be manufactured, transported to your home, and installed will have a footprint. But a floor that lasts three times longer than another has a footprint three times smaller – so think about how long you intend to live in the house, and how often you intend to replace the flooring. According to the National Association of Home Builders’ Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components, carpeting lasts 8-10 years, vinyl – 25 years, and hardwoods properly maintained can provide service for a century or more with refinishing. Now compare the cost per square foot of a $3 per square foot carpet to the $9 per square foot hardwoods, and you’ll see that the initial investment is quickly paid off by the long lifespan of the right material. The same goes for laminate floors, which have a shorter lifespan but require no special maintenance. The ability to refinish is a huge plus for solid hardwoods, which allows the surface to be rejuvenated several times during the life cycle. Other materials such as carpet or laminate parquet generally cannot be refinished.
Room by room: matching the material to the conditions
Water is your enemy for most flooring, be it the humidity, potential for flooding in the basement or regular water exposure in the bathroom. For these conditions, ceramic and porcelain tiles as well as luxury vinyl planks are excellent options. Tile is a natural choice for the bathroom, but it has to compete with vinyl in the basement, which is usually poured over a concrete slab heated from below.
This is where the difference between water-resistant and waterproof becomes extremely important, as many a consumer has been fooled by the language on the packaging at the time of sale. Water-resistant floors slow down water penetration for a period of time while waterproof products do not allow water to get through at all, preventing mold growth and subsequent rotting of the subfloor. Water-repellent laminated vinyl planks in the basement will help combat constant moisture down there, despite a vapor barrier.
For less extreme conditions of bedrooms and living rooms, comfort is often prioritized over general durability since those areas tend to see less traffic. Carpet, cork, and hardwoods are all viable options, with decisions being made based on comfort and the potential for spills and stains in a particular room. If choosing between types of carpet, nylon carpets are the most resistant to staining and crushing, making them ideal for a family room, while wool is a rapidly renewable resource and extremely comfortable, but more expensive and prone to staining.
This is where the actual experience of visiting a showroom matters, since the look and feel of the carpet’s nap, tile’s surface, and so on, is difficult to grasp on an online photo. The opportunity to evaluate the characteristics of different materials in parallel also helps in understanding how the given material will perform in the desired space. The Carpet Company & Tile can help compare the characteristics required for a specific room with the options available, narrowing them down to the ones worth considering further. Having the opportunity to see and touch the materials helps avoid purchases of a carpet with low face weight or tile with an unreasonably low PEI rating – mistakes that are difficult to understand on a photograph.
High-traffic areas and stairs
Stairs put some of the greatest strain on any material, because the entire body weight is placed on a small area with every step. For this reason, hardwoods and porcelain tiles that mimic wood tend to be the longest lasting, although carpets still win in terms of comfort and safety for families with young children or elderly members.
Indoor air quality is a sustainability concern too
The sustainability of the flooring material depends not only on where the resources for it come from but also on the effect the material has on the environment after being installed in the home. Many types of flooring and their adhesives emit volatile organic compounds long after installation, and the highest concentrations of VOCs are found in the rooms where the flooring was recently laid. It means that sleeping, studying, or spending a lot of time in a room with new flooring can be harmful to your health long after the installation is over.
To avoid VOCs, look for FloorScore or GreenGuard Gold certification on the product, which indicates low emissions. In addition, you should inquire about low emissions adhesive and underlay if these are required for the type of installation you’re going to do. It may surprise you that the adhesive can be much more harmful than the flooring itself. If you want to go into rapid-renewal materials, such as bamboo, look for FSC certification, which ensures that the material was not harvested from old-growth forests that have long been subjected to clear-cutting. Bamboo deserves special mention as a resource that is rapidly renewed, but it should be noted that flat grain bamboo is less dense and more prone to damage while strand-woven bamboo is comparable to hardwood in terms of strength. Cork is another great rapidly-renewable material that is comfortable on your joints, especially for people with back problems, but it must be sealed properly in the kitchen or wherever spills are possible.
A subfloor is just as important as the floor itself
Even the most durable materials can fail prematurely if installed on an uneven subfloor. Water on the subfloor will make its way up through the new floor, and cracks in the concrete will create pressure points on the surface layers, causing a vinyl floor to buckle or a hardwood to crack.
Make sure to do a moisture test in kitchens, bathrooms, and basement before installation, and budget for floor leveling if the subfloor is uneven. This step is often overlooked by people trying to save money on the floor, as well as dishonest installers who want to hide their lack of expertise. In reality, it’s the difference between a floor that lasts until it’s due for replacement and a floor that fails prematurely. If you have radiant floor heating or plan to install it, this will also influence the choice of the floor covering, as materials like tile or engineered wood are good at conducting heat while thick carpets and cork are poor conductors and can be a poor choice for the heating system.
Pets, kids, and honest appraisal of the current state of affairs
Families with pets and children put some of the greatest stress on floors, as pets’ nails can scratch almost any surface and spills happen much more often than in a household without them. For this reason, nylon carpets, harder woods, and luxury vinyl planks with a thick wear layer are the most practical choices, while more delicate materials such as natural wood finishes, thin carpet planks, or delicate tile are better left to a pet-free and child-free environment.
It’s always best to think about pets and children before purchasing materials, so that a beautiful matte finish of the walnut hardwood in your family room doesn’t become a disappointment with the first pet scratch. A similar consideration should be given to the choice of sheen, since lower gloss levels hide wear and tear much better than higher ones. Lighter wood tones also hide scratches better than darker ones, so keep that in mind when choosing between maple and walnut.
Waste management considerations for when the floor is finished
The end of life of a floor covering is another sustainability factor you should consider, as most materials will ultimately end up in landfills. This means researching what happens to the product once it’s reached the end of its service life. Materials like sheet vinyl are extremely difficult to recycle, while porcelain tiles are much easier to process. Hardwoods, even if they can’t be sanded again, still have value and can be sold or donated when the time comes. Inquire about the recycling options and take-back programs before buying, because a responsible seller will also be up front about the material’s sustainability and longevity. This goes hand-in-hand with considering the product’s lifespan – a durable material may have a higher purchase price, but it will pay for itself over time. A knowledgeable retailer should have information about both topics, as they affect the choice of flooring.
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