Trends in Popular Home Flooring Choices

Which room is being remodeled makes all the difference as to which type of flooring one chooses. The room's shape and amount of traffic should also be taken into consideration. The budget you can afford, your desired color and design, along with the workmanship needed should also be considered. Some individuals have the skills to install flooring themselves, but if not several professionals should be consulted for estimates. Estimates are ordinarily provided at no charge. This allows the owner to choose the contractor that will provide the best quality for the desired price.

Reasons for Choosing Tile

Large tiles are currently very popular for kitchen flooring. These have rectified edges that allow installation with smaller grout lines. The look provided is modern and clean, needing minimum maintenance. These tiles come in many varieties of materials and colors to match almost any existing kitchen décor or any new counters and cabinets.

Bathrooms usually have smaller tiles surrounding the tub or in the shower. The floor may match the type of tile but be in a different material or color variation. Stone tiling is especially desired by today's owner for its style and durability. Other homeowners may choose to have linoleum or another type of flooring to contrast the wall tiling. A white bathroom space can become a fun, happy room by merely adding a bright colored tile floor in the shower area. There are also ceramic tiles available that look like wood but are waterproof and easy to clean. These can be used in any part of the house even bathroom floors and walls.

Elegant Wood Floors

Wood flooring is very popular throughout homes today. Hearts of oak flooring can be installed with staggered widths using 6, 8 and 10 foot long boards. Boards from reclaimed floors are especially desirable for their quality and "green" aspect. These rustic style floors can actually fit in beautifully with modern wall treatments and furniture designs. With fine quality wood flooring a homeowner should regularly shift furniture and area rugs to ensure that the flooring ages evenly throughout the room over the years.

Benefits of Cork Flooring

"Green" flooring made of cork is environmentally friendly and becoming ever more popular. These floors can improve the family's health and comfort inside their home. Cork floors provide a warm, resilient, comfortable surface, gentle underfoot and naturally anti-microbial. Cork is an environmentally sustainable product, healthy and non-toxic. Harvesting the product, production methods and installation of cork flooring all have a small environmental impact compared to other materials. Cork flooring products are made from post-industrial by-products from the production of bottle corks. This "waste" material is ground into small shreds and formed into sheets for flooring using small amounts of adhesive binders to hold the particles together while high pressure is applied.

Bamboo Flooring

Another type of "green" flooring is manufactured from bamboo. The quality of this type of flooring is especially important since lower qualities can use adhesive with formaldehyde that exceeds European and American Indoor Air Quality recommendations. Bamboo makes a warm, beautiful, environmentally friendly floor that lasts a long time. Product quality varies between manufacturers so the homeowner must do some research before purchasing this flooring. You should look for a 25 year warranty which indicates a higher quality product.

"Green" Linoleum

Linoleum may not usually be thought of as "green", but it is actually made from all natural materials. Linoleum receives exceptional performance scores for life-cycle assessment. It is produced using oxidized linseed oil and rosin mixed with other raw ingredients forming linoleum granules which are then pressed onto a jute backing to form linoleum sheets. Being hung in drying rooms allows them cure until they acquire the desired resilience and flexibility. Remnants of linoleum installation are recycled to produce new product.

The materials used to produce linoleum are abundant. Linseed oil is the most important raw material and is made by pressing flax seeds. Tall oil (which may be added to linseed oil) comes from recycled post-industrial use in the paper industry. It is a resin based fatty acid. When combined with linseed oil, it optimizes oxidation in linoleum production. The rosin that acts as a binding agent, and adds flexibility and strength, is tapped from pine trees. Wood flour ensures colorfastness by binding pigment in the product. The creation of beautiful colors comes from ecologically responsible pigments free of heavy metals.. Natural jute backing makes a strong, pliable finished product.

The right flooring choice is very important for every room in the house, since this will be a decision the family will live with for many years.

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