Selecting the right floor for your home is much more complex than simple aesthetics. More often than not, people invest in flooring for their home simply by virtue of its looks. This usually proves to be a disaster, and the floor becomes ruined. When you are selecting a floor, you must pay attention to small details, and you must assess how your lifestyle will impact the floor. Do you have pets? Do you have children? Do you wear shoes indoors? These are all questions that you must ask yourself before you pull the trigger on some new flooring.
In this article today, we are going to present to you six tips that we sincerely believe will help you to pick the perfect floor for your home. Investing in new flooring for your home is never going to be cheap, so it is important that you plan your new flooring methodically, so as to minimize costs, and so as to ensure that you get bang for your buck. Choosing the right flooring, by the end of this page, will be as easy as pie.
Here are a few tips, brought to you by the experts, to help you to pick the perfect floor for your home.
Pets or No Pets?
The first thing to think about when you are selecting a new floor is about your pets (if you have any). Pets can be a massive detriment to your brand new floor, especially dogs. Cats can also be just as bad, feline lovers. If you were to invest in, say, carpet, your cat could potentially destroy it, as mine has done to my carpet. Cats have a tendency to pull things up and scratch. Dogs, on the other hand, will not necessarily tear or scratch things, but they are big, heavy, and have claws, so they can cause damage to your carpet in other ways. If you have pets and you are thinking of investing in new flooring, you must first establish what flooring is suitable to your specific pet, and then, how you can protect that flooring from your pet, whether it be through mats, rugs, or protective covers.
Children Are Just As Bad…
Children can be an absolute nightmare, sometimes they can be just as bad as our pets (with regard to destroying carpets, that is). Anyone who has had a carpet, a child, and a box of crayons will be able to attest to this. Young children will destroy virtually everything that they come across, so to prevent them from destroying your flooring, you should ensure that you pick child-friendly floors, or at the very least, keep anything that your child could destroy your floor with away from them when you are not present. Choosing the right flooring for a child also means choosing a type of flooring that is safe for your child. Children fall over, bump their heads, and crash about chaotically – you do not want, for example, polished hardwood floors with this in mind, for they could very easily hurt themselves.
The Test of Time
When buying new flooring, you do not want to invest in flooring that lasts you a year or two then deteriorates. Some of the best floorings, in our opinion, which can be found in every corner of the world, from the Gold Coast in Queensland to Berlin, is epoxy flooring. Epoxy flooring is durable, high-quality, and stands the test of time. Whether you search for epoxy flooring Gold Coast, or in Berlin, give it consideration for your home, though do take the previously mentioned things (children and pets) into consideration. There are so many different types of flooring and so many different price brackets – generally, you will find that the more expensive the flooring, the longer it lasts, and the more durable it is. That’s not the case with epoxy flooring, mind you. While the initial installation can be expensive, you can make tremendous savings over the course of your ownership by not having to replace your flooring.
With this in mind, choose carefully, and while you should stick to a budget, try to find the highest-quality materials available for your flooring so that you do not end up having to replace your flooring every few years. The initial investment in high-quality flooring will save you money in the long run when you take that into consideration.
Shoes In the House
Has anybody got that friend who, when he comes over, just marches through your home with his shoes on? This, for me, was a real problem. You yourself may even want to wear shoes in your home – I’m not here to judge. If you do wear shoes in the house, or friends and family do, then we recommend that you avoid carpets and go for laminate or hardwood. Carpets can pick up a lot of dust and debris, not to mention that they can become stained, dirty, or muddied quite easily. Shoes and carpet do not go together well. If you do want to wear shoes then follow my previous suggestion and go for hard flooring that is easily mopped up and cleaned. Keeping your floors in good condition can also increase your home’s value. Shoes in the house can be a real problem, we know, but when you choose the right flooring, they don’t need to be.
Aesthetics of Your Home
Now, with practicality out of the way, let’s move onto aesthetics. Most people, truthfully, select flooring only for the aesthetics, and care very little about the practicality of their flooring, or whether or not it will be incompatible with their lifestyle. Aesthetics are subjective, of course. One person may prefer straw mat flooring, while another may like hardwood. Whatever you personally like for your home, you should not hesitate in getting it (provided that it is practical). Flooring can be very expensive, mind, and the more ‘aesthetically pleasing’ flooring is always going to cost a lot of money.
Repurposed Flooring
If you are into hardwood floors, then you could potentially invest in repurposed wood flooring. This type of flooring has, over the last few years, become incredibly popular. Repurposed flooring is most certainly a fantastic way for you to design your home’s floors while giving back to nature, and cutting down on costs. Rather than allowing wood panels to go to the scrap heap and to rot away, why not bring them into your home and give them a second life? Repurposed flooring is, inarguably, this author’s favorite type of flooring. You should see my hallway!
Finding the right flooring for your home can be particularly difficult. Well, not now! Thank you for joining us, and more importantly, thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this article. Happy flooring!
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