Flooring Wars

First of all, please remove all wall to wall carpet in the bathroom. Carpet in the bathroom is a big NO-NO.  If you are soon to be putting your home on the market, get that out of there before your home hits the market!  What to replace it with?  Tile.

Hardwood Floors: Beautiful & easy to clean. Downfall: can show scratches

Slate Floors: Downfall: hard to clean due to uneven surface; Slate is porous so perhaps not such a good idea for shower or bathroom areas unless a waterproof membrane should be used if installing slate in wet areas.  

Laminate:  Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between a real wood floor and a laminate looking wood floor these days.  Laminate flooring is very durable and usually water resistant. Downfall: buyers generally prefer real hardwood over a fake look alike.

Carpet:  Yes, in the appropriate places like the bedroom, the recreation room or lower level family room.  Downfall: hard to clean carpet stains like wine; and carpet can retains pet and other odors.

Linoleum: Made mostly of linseed oil and other natural materials. Often considered the ‘Old School’ style flooring as it has been around for 150 years or so.  Downfall:  linoleum is susceptible to moisture damage, and has to be treated with a surface sealer after installation and need to be protected against water penetration.  Linoleum is often looked down upon as a ‘less expensive/cheaper’ choice of flooring, especially to upper bracket home buyers.

Vinyl Flooring: Unlike linoleum flooring, Vinyl is a man-made manufactured product. Vinyl is durable and waterproof, and as such doesn’t require periodic sealing or waxing. Downfall: just like linoleum, vinyl can be stereotyped at the ‘less expensive/cheap’ choice to a buyer.

Stamped Concrete: Very hip.  Great for a lanai or perhaps a funky lower level finished area. The concrete can be stained to almost any color.

Tile:  There is tile out there that looks like wood floors.  Really. You (I had to) kneel down and tap on the material and I still couldn’t believe that it was tile that looked like hardwood floors.  This flooring is becoming quite popular.