About Floor Coverings

Selecting floor covering for a remodeled kitchen or bathroom can be difficult. Not considering pattern or color, the choices of materials can include bamboo, carpeting, ceramic tile, concrete, cork, laminate, linoleum, rubber, stone, vinyl, and wood.

Generally vinyl and carpet are the least expensive flooring materials, with

wood, tile, and stone on the high end. Installation costs seem to mirror the relative cost of the material.

If you are upgrading to ceramic tiles from vinyl make sure the floor joists are strong enough to support the added weight. The flooring that tile will be set on must be solid; even a little deflection will cause the tile to fail.

No rooms of a house come with hard-and-fast flooring rules. Kitchens and baths are high moisture, high traffic areas and require special consideration. Cork, vinyl, and tile are moisture-resistant; laminate and tile tend to be more resistant to fading, staining, and scratching. Carpeting placed in bathrooms is likely to rot due to high moisture. Stone flooring, even if sealed, can be stained by a kitchen spill.

Education:

Wood flooring

Vinyl

Laminate

Tile and Stone

Courtesy of NARI CKBR education program