5" Engineered5" SolidBastilleChurchill MapleCoastal ArtColonial ManorHistoriqueThorne HillVintage Random Width You can select up to four color samples of our quality hardwood floors that will be shipped to directly to your door. Simply check the box under the sample you like and checkout whenever your ready.The Pros And Cons Of Different Types Of Home Flooring If you're looking to renovate a home or taking a look at new places to live, you should know the pros and cons of various flooring types. This visual guide covers nine different flooring types and how they rate when it comes to cost, durability, difficulty of installation, and how easy they are to clean. The guide comes from Direct Buy, and lays out the pros and cons for ceramic or porcelain tile, floating wood tile, carpet, hardwood, engineered wood, bamboo, cork, stone, an vinyl flooring. Installing flooring can be an incredibly difficult task to take on, so it helps to know what you're getting into, and whether the flooring type you like is actually worth it.
One type might be easy to install, but is hard to clean. Another might be durable and easy to install, but is more expensive. Check the guide below to see what flooring might be best for you and your home. A Buyer's Guide to Home Flooring Types [visual.ly via Direct Buy] WATCH MORE: Home Ideas & Life Hacks Trending Stories Right Now The Truth About Centrelink's Waiting Times [Infographic] Planhacker: The Best Phone Plans With Rollover Data Email newsletters will contain a brief summary of our top stories, plus details of competitions and reader events. Answers to your questions about gardening, energy, homesteading and other sustainable living topics. I’m considering installing bamboo flooring, but I’m finding conflicting claims about it. Is this type of flooring truly a sustainable selection?Bamboo flooring is often sold as a “green” flooring option, but the truth of this claim depends on which criteria you consider.Processing raw bamboo into flooring involves kiln drying, boiling (sometimes twice) and often steaming.
All of these processes are energy-intensive. Reliable embodied energy data for bamboo flooring is lacking, making it difficult to accurately compare bamboo to alternatives. But given the need for two to four high-heat processes, the production of bamboo flooring likely uses more energy than that of wood floors. Shipping bamboo materials from Asia can add to bamboo’s total energy footprint, sometimes significantly. Bamboo flooring is made from laminated strips of bamboo bonded with chemical glues. Surface finishes are also chemical composites. Depending on the type of binders and finishes used, some bamboo flooring can emit high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other toxins.Most bamboo flooring companies claim their flooring is much harder and therefore more durable than hardwood, such as oak. Some bamboo flooring does score high on the Janka hardness test. However, the Janka test protocol doesn’t necessarily predict actual wear and tear on a floor, and experience has shown that bamboo floors have real-life wear characteristics that are so similar to hardwood that bamboo can’t prove a true durability advantage.
Proponents of bamboo flooring say it has a minimal environmental impact, pointing to the crop’s fast growing cycle and rhizomatous root system that doesn’t require replanting and helps control soil erosion after harvesting. Bamboo fans also claim that growing bamboo doesn’t require chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.Not all bamboo made into flooring can lay claim to those attributes, however. Increased demand for the flooring material has resulted in a rapid movement away from mixed forests of naturally occurring bamboo to large monoculture plantations. Plantations prompt concern over significant soil erosion, and, in reality, do often require fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides to sustain the monoculture in the absence of natural ecosystem controls. In addition, forests are being clear-cut to make way for bamboo, which results in habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity.Chances are, the cheapest bamboo flooring is cheap for a reason: It’s more expensive to harvest, process and finish a material to high environmental standards.
But you can find truly green bamboo flooring if you search for it.Choosing bamboo flooring that meets the FloorScore standard — developed by Scientific Certification Systems and the Resilient Floor Covering Institute — will help ensure your choice is healthy in terms of indoor air quality. Buying bamboo certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) will also help you know you’re purchasing responsibly. Keep in mind, however, that FSC certifies some monoculture plantations — and in those cases, even if the plantations use sound practices, much of the environmental damage would have already occurred. Ask questions and research options to find out whether the bamboo you’re considering came from a monoculture operation or a more diverse, sustainable forest. The Rainforest Alliance and the Sustainable Agriculture Network are both working to develop standards that will address issues with bamboo production, and, after they go into effect, these certifications will help consumers determine whether a particular brand of bamboo flooring is really green.
Photo by Flickr/Designbuildinhabit: Bamboo flooring may not always be as eco-friendly as dealers claim.Before a room can be decorated, furnished or even just moved into, it must have a substantial floor. When chosen with care, the best flooring options will set the stage for many years of good looks, durability and comfort. When selecting flooring, a little homework goes a long way. You'll want to take into account the style of the house, the budget, the amount of wear-and-tear you anticipate it will need to withstand, and the look and feel you want to create. From standard wood flooring to stone or concrete, living room flooring options are plentiful and offer a range of pros and cons. Architect Bob Wetmore of Cornerstone Architects says that as styles evolve, so do our options. "With the developing soft contemporary movement, we frequently design stained concrete floors or a clean-engineered wood floor," he says. "We also enjoy using cork floors that are very resilient to walk on and warm on the feet during the winter."
One of the benefits of working with a trusted architect or contractor is that he or she can quickly help you narrow down your options. But whether you're going it alone or enlisting in the services of a professional, experts agree upon one thing: Don't make a decision based on a small sample in a showroom. See how it looks on a grander scale. "Compare samples side by side and to try to see the product in an actual installation," says architect Robert Tuthill. "Seeing a floor as a complete composite is sometimes much different than how it appears as a small sample." And then, of course, once you've chosen the materials, proper installation is key. A firm, stable, substantial floor should feel that way. In living rooms in particular, a decorative rug will likely anchor the furnishings, but the flooring materials are the foundation that the rest of the room depends upon. Here are the pros and cons for the most popular living room flooring options. When remodeling an older home, good fortune sometime smiles upon those brave enough to pull back a corner of a tattered old carpet: There might be pristine hardwoods underneath, which often can be sanded, stained and sealed.
With plenty of choices in stain color, the floor and the room as a whole can feel remarkably refreshed, polished and updated with minimal effort and expense. No large crews of workers, no shopping for expensive materials. It can be incredibly satisfying to do so much with so little. But what if your hardwood floors have damage or need to be extended? A practical and economical option is to match them. "Make use of what you have," advises architect Carol Sundstrom. "If you already have hardwood, consider matching and refinishing. I prefer large continuous areas of one material rather than a different flooring material in each room, which reminds me of a patchwork quilt." And if you need to start from scratch, you can broaden your horizons a bit. There are hardwood options that can be fitted into your space while bringing a sense of age and patina. "We love the warmth of reclaimed heart-pine flooring," says Jane Frederick, of Frederick + Frederick Architects. "It is sustainable because it is reused from old beams removed from buildings being torn down.
The boards are wide — 8 inches to 12 inches — and the patina is wonderful." Though wall-to-wall carpeting in bedrooms is still a popular choice, in living rooms, not so much. "I generally never use wall-to-wall carpet in high-traffic or public areas unless my client specifically asks for it," says designer Rachel Oliver. "It is usually less expensive than hardwoods and many styles are easy to keep clean, but it can soak up odors and liquids in high-traffic areas and may stain." Oliver, however, has a trick for taking advantage of the cozy feel that wall-to-wall carpeting provides: In addition to the rugs she likes to scatter about a space, she sometimes has carpeting cut and bound to the exact size needed for a room — it provides all the comfort of carpeting but can be easily removed and cleaned or swapped out. As for getting the size just right, Oliver recommends floating a large carpet 12 to 24 inches from the perimeter of the room. "It offers a uniform, clean look," she says.
"The right rug can offer a high-end look in any home, no matter the price," she says. "There are even many indoor/outdoor rugs that are soft enough for babies and kids to play on. Natural jute, seagrass and sisal rugs are hugely popular, but can be harsh on bare feet." "Stone has a strong, tailored feel that tends to work in public spaces," says Robert Tuthill. Stone flooring is not only desirable for certain architectural styles (think grand Old World rooms or spacious modern expanses), it can be entirely appropriate and elegant and, in some cases, relatively locally sourced. With its natural tones and unique characteristics formed eons ago under the surface of the earth, stone flooring can be a sophisticated, one-of-a-kind and very durable option. It can also be one of the more costly options. Using natural stone, such as marble, slate, travertine or limestone, will require careful installation. Cracking, chipping and staining can be some of the pitfalls if the area is not carefully prepped, depending on the type of stone used.
Remember, stone flooring will be cool in warm climates and downright chilly in cold climates. Minimalism and the appeal of industrial-chic options make the use of concrete a surprisingly popular option for indoor living spaces, where concrete flooring has moved beyond the garage and into the house. Painting, staining, scoring and polishing — just a few of the options available — enable an existing concrete slab to be transformed rather dramatically while also fairly cost-effectively. These floors can withstand just about anything, but the reverse is also true: Not much can withstand them. If you drop something on a concrete floor, chances are it will suffer. There's no give in this material, but in living rooms, where we're not often on our feet, it might not be such a concern. Also, "concrete floors, by nature, reflect sound," says Bob Wetmore, who advises that the placement of rugs and sound-absorbing materials such as drapery and furniture should be carefully considered.