Choosing to age in place at home makes sense for comfort, security, community, and affordability.
However, it also requires a forward-thinking plan that ensures the home is as safe and mobility-friendly as possible. Smart flooring selections that optimize mobility and minimize fall risks are a great place to start. Flooring – quite literally – comprises the foundation of accessible home design strategies.
If your spouse, parents, or aging loved ones want to age in place at home, we recommend scheduling an in-home consultation with licensed local flooring professionals who can work closely with you to offer flooring recommendations built on years of experience.
Aging-In-Place Flooring Is Foundational To Accessible Home Design
According to a recent AARP report, an overwhelming majority (75%) of adults 50 years old and older would prefer to age in place at home, rather than transition into some type of retirement or assisted living community.
The report is also clear that home accessibility is essential for our aging loved ones to stay in their homes and communities, fostering the full-spectrum safety, health, and well-being necessary to remain independent for as long as possible.
The Safest Flooring Options For Aging At Home
After more than 40 years serving the Casselberry, Lake Mary, and Greater Orlando communities, Creative Floorshas a wealth of experience working with our clients to select flooring that honors their lifestyle and goals.
With that in mind, here are some of our top suggestions for clients interested in learning more about aging-in-place flooring.
1. Schedule Your In-Home Consultation
Every home is different, and an accessible flooring plan requires a personalized approach. This is why in-home consultations with local flooring pros far outweigh the flooring counter at a big-box store. When we visit your home, we have the chance to:
- Evaluate the home’s dimensions and transitions between spaces.We’ll want to discuss how different flooring options create a smooth transition from one room to the next. For example, even seemingly minor differences between the heights of luxury vinyl stone or wood planks can alter how we address the threshold between the two to minimize mobility aid obstacles or potential tripping hazards.
- Learn more about your daily life and general lifestyle habits.Flooring selections need to meet the demands of each room in your house – as well as the needs of its occupants. So, during your in-home consultation, we’ll ensure the flooring options you’re presented with meet a variety of demands, such as pet paws and claws, the wear-and-tear of grandchildren’s activities, the dirt or water that may be tracked in by active swimmers, walkers, or gardeners, and so on.
- Prioritize safe mobility in every scenario. Life moves quickly, and so can the body’s physical changes as we age. Aging-in-place is a specific goal, one that requires thinking ahead. Whether your older loved one currently uses mobility aids or not, we’ll work with flooring styles that facilitate wheelchair, walker, and cane mobility. We also want to ensure non-slip flooring options are the only styles used in areas prone to moisture, like kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and the transitions between the pool/hot tub and the home.
When you work with the Creative Floors in-home consultation team, you also benefit from our years of interior design experience, much of which is focused on creating safe, accessible living spaces without sacrificing an ounce of luxurious style or comfort.
2. Focus on Smooth Flooring Options
To support safe mobility, we recommend our customers narrow their choices to materials that provide the smoothest transition from room to room. That selection minimizes trip, slip, and fall hazards in the home.
Examples of popular smooth flooring include:
a. Luxury Vinyl Plank
We offer a full selection of the best luxury vinyl plank (LVP) options on the market. These floors are virtually indestructible, support mobility, and are extremely easy to clean and maintain. Best of all, they can replicate both natural hardwoods and popular stones, making them highly versatile.
b. Laminate
One of the benefits of laminate flooring is its ability to replicate natural hardwood with far less maintenance. It’s typically more affordable than LVP and also provides a softer landing for falls or spills. When you visit our showroom or we come to your home, you’ll be able to see the difference between laminate and LVP and determine which one feels like the best choice for you.
c. Soft, Low-Pile Carpet
You may have heard a false rumor that carpet isn’t an aging-in-place flooring option—or that it’s not good for households with pets. Those ideas simply aren’t true. What is true is this: households prioritizing mobility or pet-friendly lifestyles need to be conscientious about their carpet choices.
The best carpets for aging adults are typically those with:
- Low profiles.Low-pile threads or loops that can still facilitate the movement of a wheelchair or walker. They are also less of a trip hazard when wearing heels or slippers.
- Patterns or texture.These are great for hiding temporary spills, messes, or pet fur that may not be cleaned up as quickly as they used to be.
- Top-notch stain-resistance features. Again, as eyesight diminishes or as we slow down with age, it’s not as easy to clean up spills or accidents. Prioritizing carpets with high-quality stain resistance makes it easier to treat spills or potential stains later on, when the caregivers or cleaning team can address them.
In addition to being soft underfoot, carpet also has the added advantage of being a sound-canceling flooring option.
3. Stone Options
If you love the look of natural stone or tile, keep in mind that luxury vinyl options do an incredible job of replicating stone and ceramic/porcelain tiles without being as hard and offering a little more give. Stone or tile currently installed in the kitchen, bathrooms, or laundry room may not be slip resistant at all which is a safety hazard.
Slip-resistant flooringminimizes the risk of falls in rooms with hard surfaces or particularly sharp edges. Our flooring designers can work with you to find options that offer the classic look of luxury stone or tiles, while providing the added benefit of a textured finish to help prevent slipping without their being too pronounced of a texture that can become a tripping hazard.
Consider Mixing Hard & Soft Flooring Options
We also like to remind our customers that there isn’t one perfect flooring choice. In many cases, the best flooring for aging loved ones involves a mix of hard and soft surfaces. For instance, that might include using hard surfaces in the most lived-in rooms or the ones where water or spills are most likely, while prioritizing softer, low-profile carpeting in bedrooms, a library/den, or lower-traffic areas of the home.
Creative Floors also offers an extensive line of high-quality, custom area rugs we can use to add visual interest or to soften and sound-dampen rooms with hard-surface flooring. If you go this route, do take advantage of our professional flooring expertise. We’ve repeatedly mentioned that the best flooring for elderly safety minimizes trip hazards. Cheaper, thin, poorly designed, or inadequately secured area rugs can curl at the edges or corners, increasing the risk of a trip and fall accident.
Creative Floors Offers Senior Friendly Flooring Casselberry Families Can Trust
We know that making plans for loved ones to stay comfortable and independent at home can be a very personal and tender experience. When you work with Creative Floors, you’re in warm, caring, and expert hands. We are the experts in flooring for caregiving households.
Our compassionate team will guide your exploration of aging-in-place flooring options that offer safety, ease, and peace of mind – and that are perfect for Casselberry, Lake Mary, and Longwood home designs that prioritize stylish attention. Contact us to schedule a consultation.
