Home Renovation: How to Choose a Flooring That Can Live Up to Your Lifestyle

vinyl flooring for kitchen

Buying a property that needs some improvements can be a wise investment move. Not only can renovating create instant capital for you, but it also elevates your rental returns and can positively affect your property’s long-term capital growth.

When it comes to property renovations, the kitchen is probably the most important room. The goal is to create a warm, comfortable, efficient and stylish room every household will love to spend time in. While a kitchen makeover involves a number of things (appliances, cabinets, countertops, etc) our focus here will be the flooring. Attractive flooring for the kitchen involves a nice design, colour and surface appeal. However, you should also choose a flooring that can live up to different types of lifestyle while providing the comfort and durability households need. Various good options are available on the market. Balancing comfort, style and function is the key to making the right choice.

Vinyl Flooring

vinyl flooring kitchen

Vinyl flooring has been around for some time and used to be tough as a lower price and lower quality flooring option. Today, advancements in technology have made it a durable, long-lasting, and sought after flooring for the kitchen that is still affordable. Vinyl is a type of resilient flooring which means it feels a bit softer underfoot than rigid wood or tittle. It is also a tough material that stands up to both moisture and heavy traffic. Vinyl flooring comes in a wide range of colours and patterns and can convincingly simulate the look of almost any other material.

Vinyl flooring comes in several forms. Sheet vinyl is a large sheet of flooring that you unroll, cut to size, and glue to the subfloor. There are also click-style vinyl planks (similar to engineered wood or vinyl titles), that you glue in place one at a time. You can also find vinyl tiles with a peel-and-stick backing, so you don’t need to add any adhesive before laying them down. Vinyl planks and peel-and-stick tiles are easier to install than sheet vinyl. Plank vinyl is also easy to repair – just remove and replace a damaged plank. All types of vinyl flooring are easy to clean.

Hardwood Flooring

hardwood flooring

Featuring an unmatched warmth and visual appeal, the hardwood flooring leads a look that never goes out of style, giving you a good return on investment if you ever sell your home.

There are two types of hardwood flooring: solid wood strips and engineered wood planks. From these two kitchen floorings, engineered wood planks are a better option for the kitchen as they are built with a veneer of real wood backed by layers of less expensive plywood. This type of construction provides structural stability that makes the flooring less susceptible to movement caused by changes in temperature and humidity, common in kitchens. If you decide to go with solid wood strips, know that they can be sold either finished or unfinished. If you choose unfinished flooring, you will need to sand and finish it after installing, which can add up to the cost fo the flooring. According to experts, prefinishing wood flooring typically costs less and involves less work.

Cork Flooring

cork flooring

If you are looking for an eco-friendly flooring choice that is also softer than wood or tile, cork flooring might be the option for you. This flooring option is made from tree bark that is harvested every 8-10 years. This means that bark grows back and can be harvested repeatedly, making it a sustainable material.

Cork has a unique cellular structure that is compressible and waterproof, making it a comfortable, moisture-resistant choice. Because its surface is naturally textured, it is slip-resistant. One downside of this flooring is that it needs to be resealed every three to four years to help prevent scratches and moisture from entering the seams between tiles. Cork flooring comes in two forms. You can choose titles that you glue down to install or go for planks that typically have a click-lock edge and can be installed as a floating floor.

Ceramic Flooring

ceramic flooring

This type of flooring is made from a blend of clay and shale that’s fired in a kiln like pottery. It’s a strong material that comes in a huge range of colours, shapes and patterns. Experts warn that not all ceramic tiles are tough enough for flooring, so check if the one you are considering is rated for use on floors.

There are different types of ceramic tiles. The most common are:

  • Glazed Ceramic – has a glass-like coating that can give the title virtually any colour or texture. This type of title is practically maintenance-free.
  • Porcelain – it is fired at very high temperatures to make it extra-hard and durable. Porcelain tiles are available either glazed or unglazed. Both types are stain-resistant and work well in kitchens.
  • Terracotta – an unglazed tile that comes only in earth tones. It’s less durable than other tiles and needs regular sealing to prevent stains.

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