It's possible to pick flooring on a budget. Here's how
Adding new flooring to a new home or your existing residence can be a dicey process; it can also be expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating. If you are remodeling your current home or flipping a house, a budget is always going to be a top priority, so how can you find suitable flooring that looks great and still has a cost-effective.
According to Consumer Reports, most flooring falls into six categories: solid or engineered wood, laminate, vinyl, linoleum, and tile; however, they don’t mention carpeting. Of course, the type of flooring you get will be based on your budget, room size, decorative choices, and the traffic needs.
Some things to consider before going to look for flooring, what kind of room do you have? Is it a kitchen where you will need durable flooring? What sort of foot traffic is in this room? How much wear and tear will you get on the new flooring? Do you want carpet, hardwood, or tile? Vinyl or laminate? Are you getting your floors installed or are you going to take the do-it-yourself route?
Now that your head is swimming with more thoughts than when you started reading, see the information below to discover how to pick the most cost-effect flooring that will fit great in your budget and your home.
Make a List
The best way to start looking for the flooring you need is to make a list of items you want out of flooring. Once you hone your list down to price, style, size, and color, then the real work can begin.
Choose Your Price Range
Flooring is quite expensive if you let it be, and while your budget may be large or small, finding out the amount of money you want to spend on your new floor will give you the right range of flooring to choose from.
What Style Works Best for You
The style is the next big choice. If you are choosing from the seven options listed above: linoleum, vinyl, tile, carpeting, hardwood (engineered or real), you will be able to winnow your search even more.
Some tips: if you have a high-traffic area you are looking to refloor, vinyl, and laminate are not as quick as feet-resistant as tile and hardwood flooring. The carpeting might be a good idea for living and family areas, but adding carpeting to a kitchen can mean some significant stains to clean up in your future. Tile comes in a variety of material; porcelain is more expensive than ceramic.
Pick your Size
The size of your flooring is essential also, however, if you haven’t settled on a style of flooring, picking your capacity may be moot.
Tile comes in all forms of shapes and sizes so if you decide to go with tile, finding the right size is essential and could add more cost to your flooring if you don’t have the budget for it.
Carpet is a bit easier when it comes to the flooring as it is measured for the room area and brought in specifically for that room. The hardwood floor comes in different sizes as they can range from one-sixteenth of an inch and upward.
Linoleum, vinyl, and laminate can work like carpet does and usually comes into your home in large sheets to be cut and rolled out. These will fit the area of the room.
Color is Easy
While there are multitudes of colors in the world, if your room has a color and decorative aesthetic, chances are, picking your color will come naturally to you. Or, if you don’t have just one color in mind, you’ll have to choose from a few instead of the entire color spectrum.
Pros and Cons of Every Kind of Flooring
There are pros and cons to every kind of flooring. It is essential to research these before you settle into an idea.
Finding out that you’ve already spent the money on real hardwood floors but that there is an opportunity to get splinters if the wood isn’t maintained in a timely and correct fashion can add quite a damper to your new floor excitement.
Making lists and researching for what is right for your home will make finding flooring so much less of a chore and much more enjoyable for everyone involved.
Resources — Consumer Reports, Express Flooring, Floor Critics
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