Types of Home Flooring
Since your floors set the stage for the whole design, it’s best to choose the right type of flooring. Fortunately, there are many kinds of home flooring to choose from. These options include hardwood, parquet, stone, and laminate.
Flooring is one of the first choices you will have to make
when remodeling your home, and one of the most important. The rule is to work from the ground up: once your foundation is laid out, you can go about choosing doors, wallpapers, and other treatments. Your floor sets the stage, and if you stumble on the foundation, you’ll have trouble putting the rest of the home together.
Flooring isn’t just about choosing between tile, parquet, vinyl
or carpet. You have to consider the size of the room, your color scheme, and
your budget, among other things. Here are some of your choices.
Hardwood
Hardwood floors are a classic—they work with most color
schemes, they go well with protective treatments, and with proper maintenance, they
can last decades. Most people are attracted to the rich colors and the sturdy,
solid sound it makes when walked on. Choose from a wide range of shades, from ash-white
to warm brown to dark mahogany. Oak, pine, cherry, walnut, and hickory maple
are some of the most durable types.
Parquet
Parquet flooring offers the classic look of hardwood minus
the high costs and lengthy installation. Parquet floors are made up of little
wooden tiles arranged in a geometric pattern. The tiles are about 1.5 cm thick,
sometimes thicker or thinner depending on the type of wood used. There are
three types of parquet flooring: solid, laminate and veneer. Solid parquet
tiles are made from real wood, while laminate tiles are made from several thin
layers pressed together. Veneer parquet has a solid piece of wood placed over a
thicker layer of plywood, so that the real wood shows through.
Stone
If durability is on top of your list, stone flooring is your
best option. Stone floors are no longer just plain concrete or marble; they now
come in a wide range of colors, patterns, and finishes. The main advantage, of
course, is their resilience: stone wears extremely well and requires very
little maintenance. They also fit in with modern home design, which favors the
use of natural materials.
Laminate
If you like the look of wood or marble but can’t afford the
real thing, go for laminate floors. Laminate flooring is made from several printed
sheets pressed together and sealed with a synthetic layer. Since the print
shows through the laminate, you can use practically any design, from plain
solid colors to wood and stone imitations. The only drawback to laminate
flooring is maintenance—it needs regular wiping and cleaning, and it can be
hard to remove stains and scratches.