Selecting the right flooring for your home

There are many criteria and factors that influence the choice of flooring for your home. Such mentions such as budget, climate, lifestyle, comfort become important parts to determine what type of flooring should be. The choice of flooring should be easier once you determine the factors such as stated below. This will also cover the advantage and disadvantage of flooring option listed. Among criteria you will want to think are:

• What is your budget? There are many ranges of price for flooring. Hardwood flooring is the top of the price range. Among the most popular hardwood flooring is maple, oak and cherry. American cherry first start out as a light red-brown color hardwood. Then, slowly it will become darker over time to a very deep shade of brown. American cherry is among the expensive hardwoods although it is fairly considered soft wood compared to most wood flooring. If you want to use the same American cherry characteristic at a lower range of price, Brazilian cherry is a good alternative. The price is lower and more available than American cherry. Maple wood provides another choice for hardwood flooring. As time goes by, the maple flooring will age and turn its color to deep gold. Maple wood is very hard, so it provides durable and sturdy surface. However, maple flooring is prone to stain, shrinking and swelling with weather changes. The common wood use for flooring is oak wood, which has been a staple choice for over a hundred years. Oak wood has a distinctly open grain, which is less refined than cherry. The most popular choice is red oak which has golden color with red undertones. The cheapest among maple and cherry wood and the hardest. You can choose bleached oak woods or white oak which is similar to red oak but usually has slightly green undertones. The white oak cannot be bleached compared to red oak.
  

  For economical long run usage, it is best to use laminate flooring. The price is quite similar to hardwoods but it is more durable and need less maintenance. Laminated flooring can emulate the look of almost any hardwood you can think of. If you spend more, the quality of laminates flooring will look more like a real hardwood. In fact, there are some high end laminates choices that provide flooring quality even though you cannot tell the difference until you touch it.

  Ceramic is another option for less expensive flooring. You can save more money of hiring a worker to install the ceramic flooring because in most cases you can also install it yourself.

  Carpet can be very inexpensive or cost more than hardwood flooring, depends on which carpet you choose. Expensive carpets range from very plush and dense carpets. Those with shorter and sparser fibers are less expensive carpets.

• Where are you living? The climate become among crucial criteria you have to consider for your flooring. Warm and fairly dry all year climate will not affect the flooring much. However, if you are living in the area that has heavy rainfall, its best to choose flooring which is not from hardwood. As hardwood flooring can be easily damaged by moisture. Carpet flooring suits best in wintery area. Unless if you install in-floor heat in your home, flooring options would not be restricted.
• What type of lifestyle you are living with? Different types of flooring require different levels of care. Choose flooring that is easy to take care of and needs very little maintenance if you are living in a very busy and active lifestyle. If you have small children and pets, opt for flooring which is easy to clean and not prone to stain.

  Additional reading:
  http://www.howtodothings.com/real-estate/a3999-how-to-choose-flooring-for-your-home.html

  Image Credit:
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/465852851/