Golden Rules for Picking Out Your New Flooring

Picking out new flooring for your home can take a long time. You might have moved into a new house, or perhaps you’re fed up with the floors you currently have. You have a number of options to choose from, ranging from stone to carpet. Each material has its benefits and its drawbacks, so choosing the right one for you can be confusing. Before you decide what sort of floors you want, you need to think about a few things. It’s important to consider how you’re going to use each room and what you want it to look and feel like. Don’t forget these factors when you’re deciding on your new floors.

Practicality

It would be excellent if you could just focus on looks and get yourself a picture-perfect home. But the reality is that people have kids and pets, they sometimes wear muddy boots and occasionally drop heavy things on the floor. If your household is a busy one, you don’t want a floor that will take a lot of effort to look after. You don’t want to have to worry about damaging it or wearing it down. When you explore your different carpets and flooring options, you need to think about how much traffic you get coming through every room. Consider how you use each space and whether the floor could be at risk from spillages, heat or anything else that could do damage.

Looks

Of course, just because you want a practical floor, it doesn’t mean you don’t want it to be attractive too. You need to consider how you want it to look, and what your plan for the whole room is. You might decide to choose a floor first and worry about the design of the rest of the space later. What you want it to look like is entirely down to your taste. But you might take inspiration from the latest trends too. Some people can’t stand the thought of wall-to-wall carpets, while others don’t want to see any laminate flooring in their home. You might love the look of polished concrete, or you might think it’s cheap and boring.

Warmth

Don’t forget to consider whether a room is going to feel warm or cold. Having tile or stone floors could mean it’s chilly underfoot. But you could also install underfloor heating for extra warmth. However, even if it feels warm, it can still look cold. You can give a warmer feel to hard floors by adding rugs, which still allows you to avoid carpets.

Cleaning

Another side to the practicality of your floors is how easy they are to clean and maintain. You don’t want to have to spend a long time cleaning and polishing if you can avoid it. Carpets can be difficult to keep clean, even when you vacuum regularly. You need to be careful with wooden floors, as they can react badly to too much moisture unless treated. Make sure you read about the pros and cons of each material before you get your new floors.

Your floors should last you a long time, so think about them carefully before you choose. They should look beautiful but be practical too.