When flooring materials match our clients’ lifestyles, they benefit from flooring that literally lasts a lifetime. That’s why evaluating your lifestyle is one of the best places to start when deciding which flooring options match your household’s needs.
Luxury Flooring Options For Every Lifestyle
While there are a myriad of variations, most flooring products fall into one of five key categories:
- Carpet
- Hardwood
- Laminate
- Tile
- Luxury Vinyl
Each has pros and cons, which guide us in helping clients select their best-fit flooring material and locations.
Questions to Consider When Choosing Flooring Materials
Learning about our clients’ lifestyles is one of our most important jobs. Aesthetics are an easy next step, but the type of flooring is the priority to ensure the materials we install are durable, timeless, and that their maintenance requirements match the client’s needs.
Here are some of the questions we work through when meeting with clients for the first time:
1. What type of flooring do you have now? And how do you like it?
First, we want to know what flooring you have in each room of your home now. How has that worked for you? What did you like, and what do you wish was different?
Prior flooring experiences shape your choices for a better flooring future.
2. Do you have children and/or pets?
Children and pets have their own flooring needs, including materials that fare well with a hard traffic level and that can withstand the rigors of rolling toy trucks and cars, roller skates or skateboards (when you’re not looking), frequent drops and spills, not to mention the pitter-patter of excited, claw-footed feet.
There are flooring materials for every situation, and there’s nothing you can’t have. However, some options are better than others. And, within a certain category, some choices make more sense. For example, if you have a young family but enjoy higher shag carpet, that option is better suited for a primary bedroom or formal living room space.
If you want carpet rather than hard surfaces in other main living areas, we’ll guide you toward brands and styles that offer lower profile and more stain-resistant (aka children and pet-proof) carpet choices.
3. Do you live an indoor/outdoor lifestyle?
Waterproofing is a necessity for kitchens and baths, but we also encourage clients to think about waterproof options if they live an indoor/outdoor lifestyle.
If you have sliders or patio doors leading to main living areas, we’ll steer you towards beautiful laminate selections or vinyl options that look like natural hardwood. Or, you may prefer innovative carpet options that can withstand the rigors of both indoor and outdoor life.
4. What’s your preferred flooring maintenance level?
This is a major consideration. All flooring materials fare best when cleaned regularly – whether that means a quick sweep and mop or using a high-quality vacuum cleaner. However, natural hardwood needs more TLC than other options.
If you love the look of hardwood and are a meticulous housekeeper (always ready to clean up a spill and sure that water drops won’t last, but a minute once they hit the wood?), then hardwood may be the right choice. The same is true if you don’t mind clearing the house and preparing to have the wood sanded and refinished every ten years or so.
On the other hand, busy homeowners who prefer low-maintenance surfaces are better served choosing low-maintenance flooring, like luxury vinyl tile or planks, laminate, or ultra-durable carpet.
5. Do you smoke indoors?
Carpet and its underlying padding are the most odor-absorbant flooring options out there. If you smoke indoors, we recommend choosing hard surface options and using area rugs to soften certain areas, like under the couch and coffee table or in your bedroom, where bare feet may prefer extra cushion.
This keeps smoke odors from absorbing as much into the flooring, and you can always have area rugs professionally cleaned from time to time (or replace them) as needed.
6. Is accessibility a consideration?
Most of the focus on accessibility settles on soon-to-retire or just-retired adults who want to age safely in place at home. However, we’ve found accessibility is worth considering in any home. An unanticipated injury or surgery can put a person in a wheelchair or on crutches, and visiting friends and family also benefit from things like mobility aid-friendly and no-slip flooring.
Creative Floors Specializes in Matching Flooring to Customer Lifestyles
There’s no need to endlessly mull over options or take your best guess at which flooring option is best. Schedule a consultation with Creative Floors. Our team takes our time to get to know customers, learning all we can about their lifestyles so that we can install exactly the right flooring.
