Flooring 101: Guide to Flooring

Thinking about upgrading your flooring?  When budgeting home renovations, flooring is typically the biggest expense, so it’s important to ensure your investment will generate the biggest return. You may be considering re-flooring so that you’ll enjoy the new floor yourself, but you should always consider the potential value for re-sale. This is our top advice regarding flooring:

1. Avoid multiple types of flooring throughout the home:

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Living room flooring should be cohesive-not choppy

Frequently, owners decide to re-floor a room at a time. This is ONE of the biggest mistakes because then homes look choppy or it gives the appearance of running out of money in between projects. When standing anywhere in your home you shouldn’t see more than two types of flooring. For instance, you don’t want to see multiple types of carpet when looking down a hallway at bedrooms or a variety of types of flooring – wood, tile, laminate, carpet, etc., all within eyesight.

  • Ideally your main living areas are cohesive and then bedrooms or bathrooms can be something different, but ideally no more than two types of flooring in a home.

2.  Rooms with carpet inset in tile

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Pairing carpet next to tile is a no no and takes away from the space

We often see a family room or great room that has been floored with a tile border, but the center of the room is carpeted.

  • Keep the entire room cohesive with ONE type of flooring.
  • Buyers have a hard time envisioning furniture placement when they see carpet inside tile.  It immediately makes the room appear smaller and less functional.
  • Every time I show a house with carpet and a tile border I hear – “I wish they had just floored the whole room.”

3. General Flooring Tips:

 

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Ditch carpet and stick to tile that looks like wood 

  • Tile that looks like wood is very popular.  If you install this type of flooring, keep the grout lines very thin to make it look more like wood.
  • Travertine is a popular choice, but keep in mind that it’s a natural stone, so it requires more maintenance than tile.  Additionally it’s one of the hardest surfaces, so it’s harder on your feet and ankles.  If you stand in your kitchen for long periods of time, your feet and legs may hurt.
  • Carpet is the least favorite selection for buyers.  If you’re going to install carpet, we recommend limiting it to bedrooms.
  • If you have carpet in a bathroom,we recommend replacing it with tile.  Buyers immediately consider replacement costs when they see carpet in a bathroom.

We hope you find these tips helpful.  If you’d like us to visit your home to help you make upgrading selections that will translate into good investments for future re-sale, let us know and we’ll be happy to visit your home.  

This post was originally published on http://bestinazhomes.com/about-me/  

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Realtor Holly Henbest holly@henbest.com 480-266-8785