By CHRISTOPHER KAZARIAN
These days when it comes to flooring, there is a wide array of options for consumers to consider. From vinyl to cork to laminate to engineered wood to solid hardwood, each has its advantages and disadvantages depending on its use in one’s home.
While solid hardwood floors have to be nailed in place, the others generally click or snap together, floating above the sub-floor.
Of all the types, regular hardwood floors are the most traditional, having long been the only choice for homeowners. “I’d say most of our clients are okay with the new manufactured flooring, but you do get the tried-and-true types who definitely want the old type of solid flooring,” said Mike Katon, senior project manager for The Valle Group. “It’s a personal preference with what they know and what they grew up with.”
The benefit of solid hardwood is that it is durable, long-lasting, and homeowners can repeatedly sand and refinish it during its lifetime. Most hardwood flooring is 3/4 inches thick and is typically 2 1/4 inches wide.
From an installation perspective, Mr. Katon said, solid hardwood flooring takes longer because it has to be finished onsite, which can increase costs. “Prefinished flooring eliminates a big step in the construction schedule,” he said. “And durability doesn’t seem to be an issue, especially with advances made in the last five years or so. With plank flooring they find it holds up better as far as the typical expansion and contraction you get with natural wood.”
Because there are so many options to consider, Mr. Katon suggested an architect, designer or builder can determine whether a homeowner is marrying the right flooring with the right application. “It is all about matching the specific application with the specifications of the floor,” he said.
Today, more homeowners than ever are choosing to go with engineered floors. “Where we live in a high moisture area and with floating floors being more stable, they are becoming more and more popular,” said John Augusta, a materials buyer at Falmouth Lumber.
These types of floors—vinyl, laminate, cork, or engineered wood—are particularly fashionable in basements “because you obviously can’t nail down hardwood floors onto cement,” Mr. Augusta said.
With vinyl floors, he warned that they are susceptible to sunlight and changes in temperature, making them a poor choice for sunrooms and similar spaces that experience heat fluctuations.
Stone Plastic Composite (SPC) is a relatively new product—it is made of stone dust and plastic composite—that does not expand and contract like vinyl. “We’ve been selling a ton of that for basements and home remodeling projects,” Mr. Augusta said.
The cost of the newer floating floors is much cheaper than its solid hardwood counterpart. “You can get some for as little as $2 a square foot whereas engineered hardwood floors are usually between $5 and $7 a square foot,” he said. The cost of solid hardwood floors goes even higher.
Whatever flooring a customer chooses, “it has to be installed properly,” Mr. Augusta said. “Proper installation is the most important part of anything you purchase these days.”
Still, the installation of floating floors is easier than solid hardwood and some can even be put in by the homeowner to further reduce costs, said Michelle Gemborys, a sales representative at Botello Lumber Company in Mashpee. “It’s not nailed down so it’s basically got tongue and grooves where you click and lock it,” she explained. “Think of it like a puzzle. It’s less labor-intensive than solid hardwood, but solid hardwood is always going to give you your biggest value as far as what you put down.”
The most durable of floating floors, she said, is vinyl, which also has the advantage of being waterproof. Because of this characteristic, she said, these floors are now being used a lot in kitchens and bathrooms.
Laminate is the least expensive of the flooring options. That is the route to go, she said, “if someone is on a budget and wants to put in a wood-looking floor.”
Her preferred choice of flooring is engineered wood, which contains a thin layer of natural wood over stable plywood. “It can be floated or glued down and you can go really wide with the plank,” Ms. Gemborys said, which can be aesthetically pleasing in one’s home. “If I could get whatever I wanted, I would do a thick engineered wood floor because I know it is going to be really, really stable no matter what. And I would get the wood where I have the option to refinish it again later and get the wide planks, which is really trending now.”