Detailed Guide to Choosing Flooring. Comparison Table

Choosing flooring is a responsible event for everyone. Because it is a product with which you interact every day. Flooring sets the stylistic design and performs the function of noise insulation. Therefore, there are many components to consider when choosing flooring.

Basic Floor Covering Choices

1. When choosing a flooring, you should decide on your budget. If your budget is limited and you want to buy the best quality material possible, this factor will be one of the key ones.

2. Also, you should pay attention to the coating’s relationship to moisture and climate change. Since not every coating is suitable for laying in a room with high humidity. If you decide to make repairs in the bathroom, it is worth paying attention to this point.

3. Aesthetics – not the only criterion for which selection of floor coverings. The flooring should be durable in the first place, it should be hard and not give way to deformations and bends.

4. Ease of maintenance. Keeping your floors clean in a family where there are children and pets is a chore. Choose flooring that is easy to clean and does not require any special cleaning products.

5. Safety. Several things are important here – environmental friendliness, fire safety and injury hazards.

6. Each type of flooring has its own characteristics, but the selection criteria for almost all materials are the same. This design, operating conditions, load and price category.

Choosing Flooring Types

Linoleum

Linoleum has been and remains the most popular flooring material in Russia and neighboring countries. Linoleum attracts customers with a variety of designs, ease of care and installation. Modern technologies allow to approximate the surface appearance to the natural materials as much as possible (the “Living structure” technology).

Choosing Tips

  • It is necessary to determine in what room will be laid linoleum. On this basis, choose a collection. For example, the bedroom is the room with low operating load, and the kitchen and hallway with a high load.
  • When laying in unheated country houses and villas need linoleum that can withstand temperature changes, so you should pay attention to the collection on a duplicated basis.
  • It is necessary to measure the room and determine the size of the leaf. In the calculation should take into account the presence of thresholds, niches and ledges.
  • The width of the leaf should coincide with the width of the room (with tolerances for trimming). If the room is wider than the maximum possible leaf size, you can connect the cloths of different sizes with cold welding.
  • In winter, it is recommended to buy linoleum only in heated rooms.
  • Collections with additional protective varnish are easier to care for and retain their original appearance longer.
  • The durable material muffles footstep sound and is pleasant to the touch. And it requires no special care: dust and dirt can be easily washed away with plain, warm water or mild detergent solutions designed for floor cleaning.
choosing flooring

Art Vinyl

Art Vinyl is a modern, modular PVC flooring in the form of slats and tiles. Modular PVC flooring offers nearly unlimited design possibilities.

The slats and tiles embody any design or color, capture the beauty of natural materials or present abstract patterns.

Advantages

Eco-friendliness allows its use in children’s rooms, durability and resistance to wear and tear – in rooms with heavy traffic, and resistance to moisture – in kitchens.

With the right choice, modular tiles are suitable not only for domestic, but also for public spaces.

Compared to ceramic tiles, it is less noisy when walking and warmer to the touch flooring, on which it is pleasant to walk even barefoot.

Choosing Tips

Before you buy, pay attention to the way the vinyl tile is installed. The manufacturer offers Art Vinyl of two types: adhesive and locking.

Adhesive coating is fixed to the base on the glue and requires a highly skilled installer. The adhesive strips and tiles of different designs and colors can be combined with each other and create a unique floor design.

Locked flooring is laid in a floating fashion. It’s easy to install, even if you don’t have any experience: the modules are connected by interlocks on the perimeter of the strips.

Take into account the intensity of the load on the floor in the room. Spaces with high foot traffic require a more robust flooring.

When choosing Art Vinyl, pay attention to the thickness of the protective layer of pure PVC – the transparence. The higher this indicator, the more resistant to abrasion the tile is.

When choosing, make sure that the product is safe by checking with the dealer for expert opinions and certificates of conformity. All Art Vinyl products have passed mandatory tests in accredited laboratories.

choosing flooring

Parquet Board

Parquet – a classic option for finishing floors, which will always be in fashion. No other material can compare with the parquet for its environmental friendliness and natural beauty.

The only disadvantage of the parquet flooring – it costs a lot. That’s why it is doubly offensive to overpay for low-quality material.

Choosing Tips

  • For the final coating of boards manufacturers use lacquer or oil. Lacquer is more resistant to scratches and moisture. Oil penetrates deep into the pores and preserves the natural feel of the wood surface.
  • However, such a floor needs to be cleaned regularly and new oil needs to be applied. Taking care of the lacquer coating is easier.
  • It also matters the construction of the flooring. Three-layer planks are more stable with changes in temperature and humidity levels. Two-layer boards are mounted exclusively with glue, while three-layer boards can also be laid “floating”, which is faster and more economical.
choosing flooring

Laminate Flooring

Today, laminate flooring in its performance properties can not only compare with the parquet, but sometimes surpasses it.

Choosing Tips

  • First of all, determine the color and, if possible, the design appropriate for your space.
  • Evaluate what kind of load the coating will carry in the chosen room. When choosing laminate flooring, you should pay attention to the class of application.
  • Determine if you have any wishes on the geometric dimensions of the laminate (length, width, and thickness of the slats). Your choice will be determined, among other things, by the size of the room. For example, narrower slats help to visually expand the space.
  • Pay attention to additional value effects: embossing in the register, chamfering, and other surface treatment effects.
  • Since the base of the laminate HDF-plate, sensitive to moisture, it is important to protect the locks and joints from the penetration of moisture from above. It is necessary to use moisture protection film on the substrate when installing laminate, regardless of its proposed characteristics.
  • Particular attention should be paid to the presence of environmental certificates. Therefore, check with the manufacturer for this information.
choosing flooring

Carpet Covering

Fans of carpeting are convinced that this material is the perfect covering for home and office.

It looks beautiful, makes the room at home cozy, absorbs noise, perfectly retains heat.

Choosing Tips

Carpeting comes in:

  • Household has a medium or high pile, which gives warmth and comfort, as well as a wide range of designs. But do not forget that it is not designed for heavy loads.
  • Commercial is much more resistant to abrasion and easy to care for. It is not afraid of dirt and moisture. A significant disadvantage – a small selection of colors.
  • Natural wool carpet is environmentally friendly and durable, but it is expensive.
  • Covering made of synthetic fibers is better to wash and is cheaper.

Carpeting is divided by indices of durability. Remember, it is better to overpay a little, but buy the material with a reserve of durability. So it will last much longer.

Flooring in Design

As for the choice of design for flooring, there are no universal solutions. The same shade looks different in different interiors. However, experts recommend following a few rules that will allow you to create an interesting interior in the room:

  1. If you want to add a little tranquility to the design of the room, buy materials of cool colors (blue, blue, gray).
  2. To make the room more cosy and warm, choose flooring in warm colours (beige, orange, pale pink).
  3. You can also combine light colors with darker shades, and that way you can create a clean and tidy feeling in your home.
  4. Floor covering of bright colors is ideal with dark furniture, and light-colored items of decor will look great against the dark floor.

Species Comparison Table

choosing flooring

And in Conclusion

Choosing flooring is an important part of the interior decoration. Therefore, you need to choose a floor that fits in with the overall atmosphere of the room, was practical in use and had an attractive appearance. Any material can decorate the apartment or house with proper installation and maintenance.

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