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Your One-Stop Guide for Flooring Types

Every home deserves to have flooring that is both beautiful and functional. When building a new home or renovating your old one, choosing flooring that is durable, practical, and aesthetically pleasing is the best way to ensure that your living spaces are built to last and that you feel good as well. 

Ideally, every floor in your home should have most of these qualities and be low maintenance to keep costs down. But with such an abundance of flooring options and a huge range of prices, it can be difficult to know which will work best in the application you need it for. From terrazzo to parquet flooring each material will have its benefits and drawbacks, and each will have a function that it is especially well suited for. 

Home remodels always come with a considerable range of various costs, especially if you’re planning to do something big like knock down a wall, replace your siding, or build an inground swimming pool. Choosing the right flooring, as with those other projects, therefore, requires good research. It also requires a basic understanding of the characteristics of each flooring material as well as the average costs for their installation costs. 

Tile Flooring 

Tile flooring is the ideal choice for a lot of applications. It’s great for underfloor heating because it heats up faster and distributes heat better than most other materials. A lot of tile materials, such as quarry tile, are anti-slip which makes them a safer flooring option. It also has non-porous antimicrobial surfaces. This means that they don’t harbor bacteria and don’t stain easily, making them quite easy to clean and maintain. 

Some forms of tile flooring such as porcelain and ceramic are renowned for their durability and can last as long as a lifetime. It is quite difficult to damage porcelain tiles, and they can be easily replaced in any case. Much like ceramic, porcelain tile can be made to simulate all sorts of materials like wood, stone, marble, and concrete. Tile floors tend to give your floor a sleek contemporary look, though some people may not like the hard, cold feel of walking on them.

Tile Flooring Designs Perfect for a Contemporary Home

Average Prices for Tile Flooring

On average, you can expect to spend between $10 to $15 per square foot on tile installation costs. Ceramic tends to be the cheapest of the tile family, whereas more premium materials such as natural stone are on the higher end of prices.     

Wood Flooring 

Hardwood flooring materials such as oak have incomparable aesthetic qualities and can impart a lot of warmth and character to a space. Oak is also an exceptionally strong wood, meaning it can last quite a long time given proper maintenance and care. As long as you avoid damaging your hardwood and clean it regularly, it could even last a lifetime. Plus, hardwood flooring costs can be pretty affordable in certain applications. However, hardwood is quite susceptible to water damage because it doesn’t deal well with moisture, making it an inappropriate material for wet places such as bathrooms. 

For wood that can stand up to the wet, you need engineered hardwood, which is made up of many layers of wood fibers and veneers bound together with glue. This construction method gives engineered hardwood the look of solid hardwood but makes it much stronger. Engineered hardwood has a lot more structural rigidity and versatility, meaning it won’t rot from moisture, and it won’t warp either. As a result, it’s also much easier to maintain solid hardwood.  

Everything You'll Need to Install Wooden Flooring

Average Prices of Hardwood Floors

Solid hardwood flooring prices (including installation) start at $13 and go up to $25 per square foot. Engineered hardwood tends to be more affordable, ranging from $3 to $8 per square foot.   

Carpeted Flooring 

Carpet flooring has quite a few benefits that make it especially attractive for households with young children and pets. They’re slip-resistant and also act as padding to help prevent rambunctious toddlers and clumsy doggies from getting hurt. Even if you don’t have kids or pets, carpeted flooring still has a lot to offer. Its soft plushness makes it a flooring material with a comfortable, warm, and luxurious feel that few other flooring materials can match. Carpeted flooring can come in a ton of different styles, designs, and colors, so there’s a lot to choose from. 

Carpet tiles are also pretty easy to install, so much so that wall-to-wall carpeting installation is a pretty easy DIY project. 

The main thing to keep in mind though when it comes to carpet maintenance is to have it cleaned regularly. This prevents your carpeted flooring from becoming a hub for mildew, mold, and other nasty things. Carpeting has seen something of a decline in popularity in recent years, but it’s still one of the best choices for someone looking for soft and comfy flooring.

Tips on Deep Cleaning Carpet Flooring

Average Price of Carpet

Carpet installation costs are typically between $3 to $4, making carpet tiles one of the more affordable flooring options on this list. You’ll also need to add cushioning for your carpet tiles, which will add up to 90 cents per square foot to the final carpet installation cost. 

Laminate Flooring 

If you don't want to tear out your existing flooring or deal with carpet stains, laminate flooring is a good way to go for those that want an alternative soft flooring material. Laminate flooring gives you the same warm, inviting aesthetic as hardwood flooring, but is scratch-resistant and padded too, which is good for preventing injury during falls. Plus, laminate flooring can be installed over most flooring options except carpeted flooring, making it easy to retrofit your flooring to be more kid and pet-friendly.

The Many Benefits of Laminate Flooring

Average Price for Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring costs range from $3.80 to $4.80 per square foot.  

Vinyl Flooring

Vinyl is a PVC-based material that works as a very versatile material for flooring. It comes in many sizes and types so you don’t have to settle for just plain vinyl sheets. You can get stone-look vinyl flooring for a charming living room, decorative vinyl flooring for a cozy bedroom, or even waterproof vinyl flooring for a bathroom. If you want hardwood vibes, you’ll be happy to know vinyl plank flooring is wood plated and is designed to look and feel almost indistinguishable from the real thing. 

Vinyl flooring won’t come with any of the challenges of real wood since it doesn’t degrade from moisture and is very durable. Plus, vinyl flooring panels are often designed to easily interlink together making installation quite easy. Putting in new vinyl flooring, therefore, becomes an easy and affordable DIY job. When you put all these things together it’s easy to see why vinyl is such a popular choice in home improvement projects throughout the country.  

Herringbone Flooring for the Coziest Rustic Atmosphere

Average Prices of Vinyl Flooring

The cost to install vinyl flooring depends on whether you get basic vinyl or something more intricate. Affordable vinyl options such as sheet vinyl start at $3 per square foot. Luxury vinyl such as wood-look vinyl or natural stone vinyl is a bit more expensive at $7 per square foot. 

Bamboo Flooring 

Bamboo flooring is relatively new as far as flooring materials go, and it’s gained a lot of attention for its attractive qualities. Bamboo flooring, especially strand woven bamboo, is known to be more durable than other wood flooring types and is also unique aesthetically. It is naturally light in color, but it can be darkened or carbonized to give it a darker look. Plus, because bamboo is a fast-growing plant, it’s easily renewable and can be used to reduce the over-exploitation of less renewable wood types. 

Bamboo floors are pretty easy to keep clean and are low maintenance; they can even be DIY installed to reduce costs. The main drawback is that bamboo flooring costs tend to be high for quality variants that are certified by a warranty. Because bamboo flooring quality varies widely, you might end up with inferior quality if you try to cut costs.

Lighter Flooring Options and Designs That Brighten Up Your Life

Average Price of Bamboo Floors

Quality bamboo flooring costs start at $5 per square foot and go up to $8 per square foot for the high-end stuff. 

Concrete Flooring 

Concrete flooring might seem like another frivolous trend in home remodeling, but there are some pretty good reasons to consider getting it for your house. Concrete is quite a durable material and is capable of standing up to grit, dirt, stains, spills, hard impacts, and the elements without much in the way of damage. It’s low maintenance and easy to keep spotless. Concrete is also a versatile material to work with design-wise and can come in a variety of colors, styles, and textures. 

It is rather difficult to work on yourself, though concrete flooring installation can be a DIY project for those confident enough to take on the task. Concrete flooring works well with underfloor heating, and can also retain the sun’s heat, increasing your home’s thermal efficiency and reducing energy costs. 

Concrete Flooring Designs for a Variety of Interiors

Average Price of Concrete Flooring

The average price of concrete ranges from $2 to $15 per square foot depending on how much you choose to customize your concrete flooring.  

Marble Flooring 

It’s safe to say that marble flooring is one of the most luxurious materials the world over. Indeed, marble is the flooring of choice for luxury hotels, royal-esque penthouses, and couture interior designs alike. It is well-known for its elegant and sophisticated material, and its high thermal efficiency (perfect for underfloor heating). Marble flooring does tend to be more maintenance-intensive since marble is softer and more porous than other natural stones. But since marble flooring is almost guaranteed to increase your home’s value, it can be well worth the investment.  

Marble Flooring Design Inspiration for a Sleek and Glossy Surface

Average Prices for Marble Floors

Marble flooring costs range between $10 and $20 per square foot on average for professional installation.

Average Cost of Flooring Materials