How to Choose the Right Flooring for Your Needs

Written by Jim Casar Carpet Warehouse

There are many things to consider when selecting flooring for your home or office. You should consider your needs, your personal taste, and the specific function of the room when deciding on the right flooring. Hard-surface flooring can include wood, vinyl or some type of composite. These products look so amazing, you would think that it really is wood or ceramic tile.

With better technology comes better-looking and longer-lasting products.

And with better sizing and easier installing, these products can be a great alternative to real wood or tile. Most products can even be installed over existing flooring, often resulting in reduced installation labor costs.

Expert Contributor Jim Casar

You may also want to consider the desired function of your floor. If you will be moving heavy furniture across the floor, you may want a floor built for dent resistance. If your room has a large amount of natural light, especially something like a sunroom, look for floors that are made for heat resistance. And if you have pets running around the house, you may need scratch-resistant flooring.

A good waterproof option is luxury vinyl tile (LVT). LVT is manufactured in planks or larger tile form, as well as veneer hardwood planks.

Almost all the vinyl products are waterproof, offering a wider variety of areas in which they can be used in your home.

For instance, basements have a tendency of getting a wet spot or two, and vinyl may be the best option to last long and clean easily. LVT comes in many qualities, some with thicker vinyl. The thicker option feels more like real wood and generally tends to be better underfoot.

The best dent-resistant or scratch-resistant flooring option is laminate, a composite type material with a dense backing and a layer on top with an extremely tough surface. If this room will have heavy traffic of either large machinery or pets and small children, laminate flooring may be the best option for you.

With all hard-surface flooring, the wear layer can be different, some with urethane and some with aluminum oxide finishes. Both finishes are excellent. The preferred wear layer is about 20 mil urethane finish, and aluminum oxide has a very high density making it one of the best. There is also a wide variety of plank sizes, from 3" up to 9" in width and lengths up to 80" plus, for larger rooms and that larger plank look, which would otherwise be cost-prohibitive with real wood.

With new products coming out all the time, it can be a challenge to stay on top of what’s available. When looking for new flooring for your home or business, make sure to learn about the different options and consider which floor is best for your needs.

Marple Newtown’s Carpeting & Floor Covering Expert

Offering New Floors at Warehouse Prices!

• Residential carpeting

• Commercial carpeting

• Waterproof vinyl plank flooring

• Quality pre-bound area rugs and remnants

• Carved college logo rugs including Penn State

• A full-service workshop for cutting/binding

• Installation for all of the products we sell

610 -353-1312

www.CarpetWarehouseCo.com

620 Parkway Dr,

Broomall (Lawrence Park Industrial Park)