What Is The Best Flooring Choice For Each Room In Your Home

Each room in your home is unique.  Between different looks, functions, and traffic, each room in your home tells a different story of your family.  Whether you are looking to redo the flooring in your entire home, or looking to redo the flooring in a few specific rooms; one important question is: what are the best options for flooring in this room?  While flooring choices are as unique as your taste, here are a few suggestions to help you get started in your quest for the perfect floor.What Is The Best Flooring Choice For Each Room In Your Home

Kitchen – When it comes to flooring the kitchen, the most important factor to consider is durability.  Tile (stone or ceramic), linoleum, vinyl, and laminate are some of the best options for this room.  Just be sure any cracks are sealed against water damage.

Dining room – The purpose of this room is generally the same from home to home, but the formality level is different in every home.  This room allows the greatest versatility when it comes to flooring, so let your imagination wander.  Carpet and hardwood floor are excellent options, but the ultimate guide is your own personal taste.

Living room – The living room is another room that sees a lot of traffic.  Carpet is common for living room flooring, since it provides a gentle cushion for your feet.  However, since this room sees a great deal of traffic, you might want to consider hardier options like laminate, hardwood, vinyl, and the like.

Bedrooms – Your bedroom is your sanctuary.  As you consider flooring for your bedroom, think about what you want your room to portray.  For children’s rooms, carpet is an excellent option (stain resistant please) since it provides a bit of protection for falls.

Bathrooms – The words to remember here are “Water resistant.”  Tile, vinyl, linoleum, and the like provide the best bathroom flooring since they have the best water resistant features.

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Comparing Your Flooring Options

Comparing Your Flooring Options

When it comes to your flooring, today’s decision has implications on your family and your home for years to come.  When you go to replace your current flooring, you want to get the best value for your money.  So, what flooring will be the best for your family?  What flooring will be the best for your home?  What flooring option will provide the greatest resell value?  It’s important to consider the pros and cons of your flooring options before settling on one.

Carpet flooring is very comfortable underfoot, and provides great acoustic dampening.  Carpet also works well at retaining heat in the winter.  However, since it is composed of pile, carpet is not very fire resistant, bug resistant (fleas, mites, etc.), mold or mildew resistant…you get the point.  Carpet is comfortable, but not necessarily the cleanest option.

Hardwood flooring is very elegant, durable and easy to clean.  It is also a fairly eco-friendly flooring option.  However, hardwood floors can be difficult to install and repair, and do not provide a significant source of insulation.

Cork flooring is growing in popularity on the flooring scene.  Created from natural, renewable resources, cork is comfortable underfoot, provides excellent insulation, and has high marks in resistance to fire, mold, mildew, insects, and the like.  Since cork is a relatively newer option, it may be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for in your area. Talk with your flooring consultant to explore cork flooring further.

Tile creates a beautiful, durable floor.  When properly sealed, tiles are highly water resistant and easy to clean.  However, tile floors are hard and cold underfoot and provide very little insulation.

Vinyl flooring ranks differently in the comparison depending on the type of vinyl flooring being used.  All vinyl is easy to clean and very durable.  However, if you choose to go with a sheet or rolled vinyl, you may find that it can be very difficult to install.  Vinyl flooring also does little to add value to your home.

In the end, you have to weigh the pros and cons, then go with whatever you like best.  Happy shopping!

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The Evolution Of Cork Flooring

The Evolution Of Cork Flooring

Cork has an interesting history.  If you were to ask the average individual what cork was, the most common answer you would hear is it’s the stopper in a wine bottle.  Well, believe it or not, the cork that serves as a wine stopper is actually a natural material derived from a cork tree. (Wouldn’t it be nice if green backs were a natural material derived from a green back tree?)

Anyway, cork has served far more uses than just a beverage lid, so let’s take a moment to consider the evolution of another cork product…cork flooring.  Cork trees are actually a subspecies of the oak tree family.  This particular branch only grows in the coastal regions of the Mediterranean.  Cork trees are resilient, slow growing trees that can survive well in depleted soil and harsh conditions.  The bark of the cork tree is the primary source of cork materials.  Cork flooring (and other cork products) are environmentally friendly in part because the bark of the cork tree regrows within ten years of being harvested. [Read more…]

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The History Of Flooring

The History Of Flooring

We all love the soft sinking sensation of carpet between our toes, or the cool firmness of tile on a really hot day.  Hardwood floor is definitely pleasing to the eye, and vinyl tiles are a study in resilience.  But as you enjoy your flooring of choice, did you ever stop to think about what lead up to the vast variety of flooring options we enjoy today?

The very earliest flooring option was no flooring at all.  Homes were built in the dirt, on the dirt, and the floor was…dirt.  If this isn’t bad enough, for much of history, any waste was thrown on the ground and became part of the floor (and I do mean any waste).  If the animals spent any time indoors, their waste was simply added to the new flooring material.

Thankfully, flooring has come a long way from clinging quite so close to nature.  Eventually, people began using thresh or sand to cover the dirt floors.  When the material got too dirty, the housewife would simply sweep the material out with the trash and lay fresh thresh or sand.  In case you were wondering, the term threshold came from this time.  The threshold was the barrier at the door that served to keep the thresh in the house. [Read more…]

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A Guide To Natural Linoleum Flooring

True linoleum flooring has always been one of the most eco-friendly flooring options available.  Everything from creation to disposal of this flooring meets the highest green standards.  This being said, customers looking for eco-friendly linoleum flooring need to be careful.  Within the flooring industry the term linoleum has long been used to also refer to vinyl flooring.  This synthetic material does not share the environmentally friendly features of true linoleum flooring.

A Guide To Natural Linoleum Flooring

Natural linoleum flooring makes use of renewable resources.  All the materials used to make natural linoleum flooring exist in nature.  For instance, the cork dust is ground from the bark of a cork tree that regrows its bark every ten years.  The rosin that is used to give flexibility and strength is tapped from the trunks of pine trees (a process that causes no damage to the trees).

Many forms of natural linoleum flooring require no form of adhesive.  The only step of creating or using linoleum flooring that could cause any negative environmental impact is the installation of the flooring.  Many forms of linoleum avoid this possibility by requiring little or no adhesion to the subfloor.  If you do need an adhesive to lay your flooring, be sure to use one that meets all low VOC requirements. [Read more…]

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Best Choices In Flooring For Wet Locations

Trying to find the perfect flooring choice can always be a difficult and overwhelmingBest Choices In Flooring For Wet Locations task. Add in extenuating circumstances, such as a room that is subjected to a lot of water or humidity, and your choices become that much more difficult.

Wet locations provide a particularly difficult challenge when it comes to flooring.  For dry areas, your choices can be mainly guided by budget, personal taste, or functionality.  When you are considering flooring for wet locations, your main consideration centers around how well your flooring will wear over time.

So, what are the best options for flooring these wet areas of the house?

Concrete is one of the best options for flooring in wet locations.  If you concrete is only for patios and garages, think again. With today’s new modern technology, concrete floors can look good anywhere – from your laundry room, to your kitchen, to your front entry and more.

Sheet Vinyl is another good option for wet locations. Sheet vinyl today is not what you remember in your parents or grandparents’ homes. Today its stylish and functional, giving you a sophisticated look in any room in your home.  If vinyl is your choice, go with the sheet vinyl and avoid the vinyl tiles. Since sheet vinyl comes as one solid piece, there are no crevices for water to seep through the flooring and damage the under layers or the sub flooring itself. [Read more…]

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Selecting Your New Kitchen Flooring

Planning a remodel project this year? A new kitchen in your future? Remodeling can be one of the most rewarding and fun home projects you’ll ever do. It can also be the most stressful. Choosing a contractor is just the start of your tasks. From there you’ll be Selecting Your New Kitchen Flooring selecting everything from cabinets to cabinet hardware, countertops to appliances. And of course to tie it all together, your flooring choice can add to the overall enjoyment of your room for many years in the future.

Our kitchens are the center hub of our homes. With family members and guests in and out all year long, it’s the one floor that will take daily abuse – from shoes with heels to spills of every magnitude. While you may spend hours debating the right color for your cabinets, its your floors that should receive the most amount of attention.

Thanks to the range of flooring materials currently available on the market today, its easy to find the perfect kitchen floor that’s both functional and looks great too.

Tile Flooring

Many homeowners choose ceramic tiles for their kitchen flooring because of the range of benefits that comes along with this choice. No other flooring offers you the same amount of color, style and size choices. One of the greatest benefits of ceramic tiles is that they look great in almost any kitchen. Yet they are inexpensive enough to fit into any budget option you may have. They hold up great year after year, and can survive just about anything you do within the confines of your kitchen. Smaller kitchen designs usually stick with smaller tiles to have more flexibility in reaching in to smaller corners; larger kitchen designs typically go with a larger tile. You can even install radiant floor heating underneath to keep your kitchen warm on those cold, winter mornings.

Hardwood Flooring

Nothing beats the look and feel of hardwood flooring. It not only looks great, it holds its value well to … a fact you’ll appreciate when it comes time to sell. Despite the concerns about water damage with real wood flooring, its actually more durable than you think. The key is cleaning up messes and spills as quickly as possible. And sealing the wood properly and keeping up with routine maintenance over the years. Hardwood flooring has the added perk of going with just about any choices you’ll make in your kitchen. It can complement a traditional kitchen design, or enhance a modern or contemporary style.

Laminate Flooring

As technology offers better solutions, laminate flooring continues to grow in popularity. Laminate flooring is essentially a manmade flooring option – its created to give you the appearance of expensive materials, such as real wood or stone, without the costs or durability risks. It’s a way to have a luxurious look on any budget, no matter how big or small. Because the top layer of a laminate is sealed, it preserves the floor from scuffs and other damage. Which means it’s the perfect choice for a kitchen that sees a lot of action from morning til night.

For all of your Denver Hardwood Flooring needs visit our site today.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Cork Flooring

Cork flooring is quickly gaining popularity in homes everywhere. Not only does it have the advantages of being a comfortable flooring surface in your home, it is also an attractive option. The main substance of cork flooring is suberin, which is what makes it mold resistant. It also has natural insulation properties that help to keep your room warm and your utility bills down. Cork flooring is the perfect choice for any room in a home, especially those where children spend a lot of time in. It is also good for commercial spaces where employees spend a lot of time on their feet.

Installation

One of the largest benefits of this flooring type is its ease of installation. There are not a lot of restrictions on it, allowing it to be installed over radiant heat systems, on surfaces that are less than even and it can even be installed over a different type of existing floor. The natural insulation and natural process of extraction also make this flooring very environmentally friendly.

Safety

As with any flooring, you need to know the safety factors involved in it. Cork is very fire resistant and does not release harmful chemicals, putting the respiratory health of anyone, especially children and the elderly at risk.

Durability

Durability is important for many areas, including those with children or in commercial areas. Cork flooring is very durable as long as it is maintained, allowing you to have a safe, comfortable surface for many years to come.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantages of cork flooring include its limited color availability and its high cost. In addition, it is a bit costly to maintain. Every 5 years, you must seal it in order to keep its waterproof properties. It can also easily stain if you do not keep up the sealing process in a timely manner.

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What Type of Flooring is Best for Resale Value

If you are thinking about selling your home, it is important to make it as aesthetically appealing as possible. This will help increase its value and make it stand apart from the many other homes on the market today.

One of the largest areas to consider is the flooring. A new floor in your entire home or even a small part can make a huge difference in how it looks, as well as increase its value.

Replace Carpeting

If you can afford it, you should replace any or all carpeting in your home. Pay close attention to areas where pet messes or other disasters have occurred. One stain on your carpet can take away the aesthetic appeal of the entire room. Most potential buyers would prefer to see laminate flooring or any other cheap alternative to stained carpeting in a potential home. If replacement is not in your budget, make sure you have the carpets cleaned by a professional to ensure their beautiful appearance. [Read more…]

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How to Remove Scuff Marks from your Floor

Anyone that owns a home is most likely familiar with the unsightly scuff marks that can be left on their floor. It does not matter what type of floor you have – the ugly black marks can be left on your floor from a variety of items, such as shoes, ladders, chairs and even toys. Luckily, with a few simple tricks you can remove the marks.

Household Items

You might be surprised to find out that items such as pencil erasers, tennis shoes or tennis balls can easily remove your scuff marks. With each item, you simply rub with mild pressure to help the spot disappear. If your marks are very large, the tennis ball works best and involves the least amount of physical labor. Simply cut an X in the tennis ball and insert a broomstick in the hole. You now have an eraser on a stick that can easily remove the black marks.

Cleaning Items

If you feel as if you need to use a cleaning solution rather than just an eraser, you can use a few simple products:

Baking Soda – Baking soda is a universal cleaner and is great at removing spots. Simply mix a few tablespoons with enough water to make a paste. Scrub the paste on the spot and rinse it clean.

Toothpaste – You can use toothpaste on its own to remove marks by simply rubbing it into the spot in circular motions and rinsing clean.

Store Bought Products – If you wish to purchase something at the store rather than make your own, there are plenty of products on the market. Try to buy the mildest formula available in order to avoid using harsh chemicals on your floor and running the risk of ruining the finish.

Scuff marks are never a pleasant sight on your floor, but with a little elbow grease, you can easily remove them, keeping the beauty of your floor alive.

For all of your Denver Hardwood Flooring needs visit our site today.