Flooring 101
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
For those of you out there that don’t find floor covering fascinating and spend your weekends on Google to learn all you can about floors, here’s a run down of the basics. This information may help you understand about your options and what you need to know when you decide you want new floors.
1. The main categories of flooring are:
To learn more about these categories and to see different styles see the information outlined on our parent site or just click on the link above.
2. Technology and design styles have had significant influence on flooring. Other than the basics flooring types listed above, there are also styles of cork flooring, bamboo flooring, glass tiles, stainless and other metal tiles, rubber tiles, natural fibers like seagrass and sisal and many others – even paper!
3. Not all floors are acceptable on all foundation types. For example, most solid hardwood floors cannot be installed on concrete slabs. Be sure to know your foundation type before you start shopping.
4. Flooring is measured and sold either by the square foot or the square yard. Be careful when comparing prices that you are comparing apples to apples. If a hardwood tag says “$4 per SF” and a carpet tag says “$18 per SY” and you don’t see the one letter than distinguishes the two, you might think the hardwood is less expensive than the carpet.
5. Allow a retailer give you an estimate on your room size to determine how much flooring you will need rather than building your budget from your own measurements. For example, if you have a room that is 13′ x 13′ you will need different quantities for different flooring materials. Some items are sold by the box and carpet and vinyl are sold from a roll that could be 12′, 13′6″ or 15′ wide. Since you have to buy items that are sold by the box by the full box (and take the waste factor, pattern match and pattern repeat into consideration) and items sold on a roll by their given width you could need anywhere from 190 SF over 300 SF for a room that actually measures 169 SF.
6. Different floors are made for different lifestyles. For example: You may love hardwood, but if you have large dogs hardwood may not be the best choice for you. If you have dark hair, white bathroom floor tiles might not be the best choice for you. If you have small children and pets, white carpet may not be the best choice for you.
7. Keep transitions to other rooms in mind when choosing flooring. Floors have different finish heights and those heights can vary depending on your subfloor. Floors with different finish heights will need to be treated with a transition strip. Transitioning from a (low) vinyl/resilient floor to a 3/4″ solid hardwood floor can be significant. Transition strips are no big deal, if you know in advance to expect them.
8. Keep resale in mind. Because floors like hardwood, ceramic tile and natural stone are costly and rarely need replacing due to wear, consider how long you are going to live in your home before choosing your floors. Your favorite color may be blue, but a house full of blue floors may be a turn off to a potential buyer. If you do choose to express your style with a house full of blue floors, be sure that you won’t tire of looking at the same color after a while. However, I am definitely not suggesting choosing all beige floors for resale purposes!
9. It is important to consider maintenance. If you don’t like to clean, there are flooring options with very little maintenance that also stand up to heavy traffic and pets.
10. Floors come in a variety of different styles and that means that they also come with different budgets. Be careful when shopping that you don’t rule out a particular flooring type because of the first priced sample you see. There are some vinyl floors that are as expensive as a hardwood floor and there are prices ranges within each type of flooring that can be as much as $20 per square foot.
The floors in your home are a big decision. They take more wear and tear than most any other item in your home. Other than your walls, your floors consume the majority of the square footage in your home. Choose a floor type based on the fact that you will probably live with it for a very long time!
The size of the grout joint can dramatically change the way your overall tile installation looks. It is important to use the right size grout line for technical reasons and also for aesthetic reasons. For example, if you are using a marble or natural stone tile and the grout joint is too large, it can make the marble look fake. Natural stone is cut with such precision that the typical rule for natural stone is to set the tiles with a 1/16″ grout line. When each tile is more uniform, you have the luxury of using a smaller grout line. When tiles are fired in a kiln, there is no guarantee of the precision and uniformity of the edges.
The amount of foot traffic in the designated room will directly affect the color and finish of any wood floors. Natural light wood colors like oak and maple are less affected than dark color wood floors, which tend to wear and show traffic marks sooner. In areas with high traffic extra attention is recommended as far as recoating. 
In addition to types of green flooring, there are products that can be used in conjunction with flooring that may possess green qualities. The most common are adhesives and cleaners.
Do you know someone in the flooring business? Have you even been in a social setting where you meet someone in the flooring business, say at dinner at a mutual friends house or restaurant and had questions about how much it might cost to add flooring to your home?