5 Things to think about when buying a floor covering

What area are you going to do?

1) Does it get wet? perhaps in a Laundry room or a Bathroom the only floor a manufacturer will reccomend is a Ceramic Tile or a Vinly Floor. I have put a lot of hardwood floors in Kitchens especially Brazilian Hardwood floors that naturally repel moisture.

2) What kind of Traffic does the area get? Animals, Kids, Commercial setting with a lot of foot traffic? I am partial to hardwood but it does dent and it can scratch, Laminate flooring is a cheaper atlernative and it is normally a harder surface. Nylon carpets have a better memory than most Polyesters and Olephins, this means that they will come closer to original form after you clean them professionally. I think sculptured carpets and carpets of lower pile tend to wear longer. Solution Dyed Polyester carpets are becoming more popular do to how stain resistant they are.

3) How do you clean your floor? How often do you Vacuum/Sweep your floor? How often do you have it professionally cleaned? What kind of stains are you cleaning up? The industry reccomends you clean your high traffic areas daily and your other areas 3 times a week. Most of my customers think that hardwood floors are the easiest floors to keep clean because you just have to sweep them. If you clean your carpets regularly by a professional? if so your carpet will last longer and you have to clean softer carpets more regularly on average.

4) What do you do in this room? Do you entertain in this room? Is this the room the family watches TV in?

5)Do you have any special concerns? Are you putting new flooring over a concrete slab? Do you have someone in the home in a Wheel Chair or another concern that you want a smooth hard floor? Do you have any Allergy concerns? Are you concerned about your Carbon Footprint? you can put down 3/4 plywood down if you want to nail down some 3/4 hardwood floors or there are special cushions that are more moisture resistant, any floating floor or glue down floor is also suitable for concrete. If you have a wheel chair however there are really three options; Tile, Naildown hardwood floor and Sculptured carpet with a fiber hair pad underneath. If you have allergies there are cushions for carpet that are hypo allergenic such as Tripple Touch by Shaw industries and the carpet if properly and regularly cleaned can keep the dust down. However if you have a hardsurface the dust will not be held like it is in carpet it floats around the room and you must sweep and dust regularly.

Cork tile and hardwood flooring leaves the smallest carbon footprint. Shaw specializes in type 6 nylon which is recycled.