When choosing flooring for your home, there are multiple aspects you need to consider. The needs of your family should be top of your list along with your budget. Add to that your personal preferences regarding style and feel and the combinations of options available start to increase.
To help you identify which flooring option is best for your home when you have kids and pets, Amtico have provided some useful information to keep in mind when planning any changes.
Keep your budget in mind
When you have a family, managing your budget becomes more important than ever. This relates to all aspect of your life, including your home.
Whenever you choose flooring or furniture for your home, you must keep your budget in mind. Spending more than you can afford is unwise and could lead to issues in the future.
With children and pets, unexpected expenses are never far away, so knowing you’ll be in a position to pay for anything which comes up should be a priority.
With that being said, there are still plenty of options available for a range of budgets in numerous styles of flooring. Doing plenty of research before you commit to anything is crucial.
Flooring is meant to be a long-term investment, so no matter how much you’re spending, you want to be sure you’re getting value for money and something you’re going to be happy with for years to come.
It is worth looking into what kind of warranties are available from flooring providers as well.
Specific room needs
Understanding that each room in the house will have different flooring requirements is essential. When you have children and pets, you need to think strategically about the type of flooring you put in specific places.
Pets and children love to play outside, and if your home has a garden, they will likely spend a lot of time outside. During autumn and winter months, particularly when the weather is worse, it’s very easy for both pets and children to get muddy feet. Making sure their feet are clean before walking back through the house is not always easy.
For this reason, having a floor which is easy to clean in areas where people are coming in from outside your home is important.
As a result, carpet or hardwood floors don’t make good options for conservatories, entrance hallways or anywhere else which connects directly to the outside. Easy to clean options like vinyl or laminate flooring are better choices for these areas.
Other rooms which need to have flooring which is easy to clean and can withstand spilt liquids are kitchens and bathrooms. With a family, spills and drops are common, particularly in the kitchen where food is being prepared and eaten.
Having a floor which can withstand these spills and drops, along with being easy to clean and not staining, is vital. Vinyl flooring is one of the most durable options available, and some brands also offer vinyl which is scratch resistant. Vinyl tiles, therefore, makes a good option for areas of high usage.
From a hygiene perspective, carpet should be kept out of the bathroom as the moisture can penetrate the carpet and result in mould. The reason some people want carpet in their bathroom is for the heat and feel underfoot. The warmth and softness is appealing, particularly in a room you enter first thing in the morning.
Getting out of bed and being shocked by a cold floor underfoot is not what most people want. However, there are ways around this. Underfloor heating combined with improved vinyl tiles can provide a soft cushioned flooring option which is warm.
This makes it a great choice for bathrooms but could also be installed in kitchens or hallways. This is an advantage to vinyl flooring as real stone or wood floors do not work well with underfloor heating.
Visual aspects
While it’s important for your flooring to be easy to maintain and long-lasting, how it looks is also important. For kids, particularly when they’re young, exciting patterns and colours can be popular choices for bedrooms.
Carpets can offer you this, but again the risk of stains is always there. In recent years vinyl floor has produced some great designs and styles which are visually appealing and attractive.
When it comes to your living room, carpet is always a popular choice. If you have pets, however, particularly some breeds of dog, carpet can be problematic as it can hold a significant amount of hair.
Because of this, you may find yourself hoovering more than usual. With other flooring options such as wood or vinyl, you can simply sweep the pet hair away, quickly and easily. For this reason, it may be wise to have less carpet and stick to adding rugs placed in strategic areas to gain a similar effect.
If you like the look of wood flooring but prefer the durability and lower maintenance needs of vinyl, there are a vast range of vinyl designs which offer that style. There are natural looking wood styles along with stone and ceramic. Vinyl can also be laid in a variety of patterns such as stripwood and parquet.
Overall for a family with children and pets, where the level of maintenance needed should be low, while still providing comfortable and stylish floors for rooms throughout the house, vinyl floor seems to be the best option.
The huge range of styles available for vinyl flooring also means you can find a design which will fit in with your home, while still providing the advantages you need with kids and pets.
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