Best Floor Installers in Houston
Solid Hardwood
Beautiful. Durable. Valuable. Buying a hardwood floor is an investment, but the best hardwood floor brands make products that can last for the better part of a century (and longer) with good upkeep.
What makes solid hardwood solid? Each plank is 100% natural wood (i.e. one single piece of wood throughout).
Most types of hardwood flooring hold their value very well. Plus, in terms of looks, it’s pretty hard to beat the authenticity of real hardwood. You could probably say there was a time when hardwood was indisputably the best flooring choice available.
However, all that good stuff comes with a pretty steep price. The cost of wood flooring can easily reach $20/sq. ft. once you factor in materials and labor-intensive hardwood floor installations.
Oh, and don’t forget about the cost to refinish hardwood flooring, which you’ll need to do if you neglect to buy a product with a super-durable factory finish.
Additionally, unless you buy waterproof or water-resistant wood flooring, you also can’t get it wet. Many types can scratch easily. And solid hardwood can also be very susceptible to environmental factors like humidity.
But on the bright side, solid hardwood looks really, really good.
Engineered Hardwood
What is engineered hardwood? Instead of being one single chunk of wood, engineered wood is a high-performance material composed of two different types of wood fused together:
- A plywood or oriented strand board base to provide strength and support.
- A veneer of real, solid hardwood to give the floor its gorgeous look.
- You might be thinking that engineered wood can’t be as good as the solid variety, but this isn’t true. The best engineered wood flooring brands make floors that stack up very well (if not better) to their solid siblings.
While there are a few engineered wood disadvantages, these are avoidable by choosing top-tier products and performing proper maintenance. That said, the cost to buy engineered wood can still be steep (though, the cost to install engineered hardwood can be cheaper than installing solid hardwood).
Oh, and you can find engineered varieties of everything from oak to ash flooring, and it can be customized to create different wood floor designs like herringbone parquet flooring!
Laminate
A lot of buyers confuse engineered hardwood with laminate flooring, but they’re not the same thing. So: what is laminate flooring? It’s what you get when you want the look of hardwood, but not the price.
Laminate is almost completely artificial, but don’t let that dissuade you: the best laminate flooring looks and feels just like real wood, but it’s way more affordable ($1–$6/sq.ft., and the cost to install laminate flooring doesn’t add much more).
In particular, many people compare laminate vs. engineered hardwood because they both use a wood composite base, but that’s about where the similarities end. Laminate tops this base (which is usually made of HDF rather than plywood) with a photorealistic image layer as well as a protective wear layer—not a wood veneer.
Translation: engineered wood is real wood—laminate is not.
That said, laminate is highly durable and the best brands are extremely scratch resistant. On the other hand, some homebuyers don’t like the idea of having artificial floors that can’t be resurfaced or refinished.
So, to sum it up: the pros and cons of laminate flooring come down to affordability and durability vs. authenticity and longevity. You can get convincing wood floor patterns with laminate, but it’s not the real thing—even if it is pretty hard to tell them apart.
One last thing: non-toxic laminate flooring is a good resilient flooring choice for buyers that prefer to avoid harsh chemicals.
Linoleum
Linoleum is another composite flooring option—in fact, people often compare linoleum vs. laminate—though it’s becoming less and less popular as laminate (and LVP) continue to eat up the hardwood alternatives market.
Anyway, linoleum has been around for over a century and it’s made of wood products and other (mostly) natural materials like pine rosin. So: it’s biodegradable, comfortable underfoot, and fairly inexpensive. But it’s also harder to find and tends to lack many options (including wood-look styles).
Suffice to say, linoleum still has a niche—but it’s far from the best flooring option available today. However, Marmoleum (by Forbo)—a hi-tech, modern version of linoleum that recently emerged onto the flooring scene—is starting to make waves as an environmentally-focused successor to the early 20th-century invention.
Bamboo
The best bamboo flooring is a fantastic and durable substitute for hardwood.
And while good bamboo flooring costs about the same as hardwood, but sustainable production generally makes it a more eco-friendly flooring choice (and some prefer bamboo flooring vs. laminate for similar reasons).
Like wood, there are a few different types of bamboo flooring, including solid and engineered varieties (check out the pros and cons of engineered bamboo flooring for more info on that). Most types of bamboo behave very similarly to hardwood, too—you shouldn’t get it wet, it needs regular maintenance (yes, you can refinish bamboo flooring), and it looks fantastic.
Cork
Cork flooring is a bit of a departure from other hardwood-adjacent floors for a number of reasons. The biggest? It looks, well, unique. This natural flooring is sustainably produced (though the need for shipping may make it less green) and looks oddly similar to plywood.
Otherwise, the pros and cons of cork flooring include a spongy, comfortable feel, excellent insulation, natural resistance to bacteria and mold, and renewable production—but it’s also at the complete mercy of water and heavy foot traffic. The disadvantages of cork flooring also include a hefty maintenance requirement.
One more note: we would avoid cork flooring from big box stores, like the cork flooring Lowe’s sells, because it tends to be lower quality.
Sheet Vinyl
Sheet vinyl was the first type of PVC flooring to hit the market. When it first came out, it was immensely popular as a budget alternative to hardwood and laminate. In fact, your parents or grandparents probably had sheet vinyl in their kitchen or bathroom.
However, the immense popularity of vinyl plank flooring has largely pushed sheet vinyl to the sidelines, though you can still find it sold nearly everywhere. These days, though, it’s more popular for basements and mudrooms than it is for kitchens and bathrooms.
In terms of construction, most sheet vinyl is made from a single layer of PVC (polyvinyl chloride), often with a cushioned backing—making it durable, relatively scratch-resistant, and perhaps most importantly, waterproof.
Vinyl Plank and Vinyl Tile (LVP/LVT)
Luxury vinyl plank flooring, or LVP, upgrades sheet vinyl with multiple layers and authentic looks and textures. It’s supremely durable, fully waterproof, and provided you don’t do anything weird to it, will last a long time. It comes in planks, just like hardwood (hence the name).
The best vinyl flooring can stack up against any flooring options with only one key weakness: it’s not eco-friendly (though recyclable and low-VOC vinyl flooring exist). Otherwise, the disadvantages of vinyl plank flooring aren’t very serious at all and you can put it anywhere inside your home.
In terms of looks, just about every hardwood species has an LVP counterpart, including a full range of wood floor colors. Even better, LVP does an incredible job of mimicking the feel of real wood. Most buyers actually have a hard time telling the difference against high-quality products.
Also: you can also find luxury vinyl in tile form (i.e. luxury vinyl tile, or LVT), which more commonly mimics stone and ceramic tile flooring. Before you ask, any problems with luxury vinyl tile are essentially the same as the problems associated with LVP (it’s basically the same floor, just cut and patterned differently).
Best of all, quality vinyl plank flooring usually sells for around $4 to $6/sq. ft., although you can find plenty of options both north and south of that price.
Natural Ceramic & Porcelain Tile
There are a lot of different types of floor tiles, though most are made of either ceramic or porcelain. Ironically, porcelain tile is ceramic tile—both are made from superheated clay—except porcelain is more heavily refined and glazed.
Both options tend to be found in bathrooms and kitchens but you can actually put them anywhere, in theory. Despite this, porcelain and ceramic tile aren’t the best choices for bedrooms or living rooms because they’re not very comfy (e.g they’re usually cold and hard, which is why many prefer wood floors vs. tile for relaxed settings).
Of the two types, porcelain is probably the preferred option because it’s less porous than ordinary ceramic tile (i.e porcelain is easier to clean). However, it’s worth noting that either option can be installed outdoors.
But as far as styles go, the options are virtually unlimited. From wood-look tile to random geometric patterns, you can find tile flooring that fits any aesthetic.
Natural Stone Tile
Stone tile behaves pretty much the same way that ceramic or porcelain tile does, except it’s made from various types of stone instead of clay. Sandstone and limestone are probably the most common, but quartz, granite, and onyx are also popular—if not more expensive.
Carpet
If you only care about comfort, carpet is arguably the best flooring choice available. No other floor emphasizes coziness as much as carpet does (and this tends to be the deciding factor between carpet vs. hardwood and other non-fuzzy floors).
There are also quite a few varieties of carpet, ranging from expensive natural-fiber options to cheaper synthetic floors made of materials like nylon. Anyways, the soft texture of carpet is hard to beat. Cork flooring is probably the only common type of flooring that comes close, but even cork isn’t as soft.
And in terms of installation, peel-and-stick carpet tiles make it a breeze (curious about how to install carpet tiles?)
Also: low-VOC carpet exists if indoor air quality is important to you!
Alternative Flooring Options
The options above are the most popular flooring choices but they’re hardly the only choices. Here are but a few more options for your reading pleasure!
- Rubber — Rubber flooring is mostly used in gyms, though “futuristic” products targeting commercial spaces are starting to pop up too.
- Terrazzo — Terrazzo is a composite flooring made of stone and clay products. It’s almost exclusively used in commercial and industrial settings.
- Concrete — Believe it or not, concrete flooring that looks like wood has begun to carve out a small share of popularity among hardwood floor alternatives.
- Hemp — Hemp flooring is a super eco-friendly option that’s also incredibly durable. It’s fairly new and kind of pricey, but if you’re looking for something unique among the best flooring products, hemp flooring may be your answer.
Source: flooringstores
About Fantastic Floors, Inc. We are a successful company with more than 25 years of experience in the market. We have the infrastructure, high quality equipment, materials and supplies to achieve and exceed the expectations of our customers, allowing us to gain the confidence and loyalty for our services. We have more than 500 residential, 300 properties and 25 commercial customers totally satisfied with our services.
Best Floor Installers in Houston
Fantastic Floors, Best Carpet Installers in Houston, Best Floor Installers in Houston, A/C Duct Cleaning in Houston, Best Carpet Cleaning in Houston, Best Carpet Installation in Houston, Best Carpet Shampoo in Houston, Best Floor Installation in Houston, Carpet Cleaning Companies in Houston, Carpet Cleaning in Houston, Carpet Installation in Houston, Laminate Installation in Houston, Carpet Sale in Houston, Ceramic Tile Sale in Houston, Commercial Carpet in Houston, Commercial Flooring in Houston, Emergency Water Damage in Houston, Floor Installation in Houston, Flooring in Houston, Flooring Companies in Houston, Hardwood Floor Installation in Houston, Professional Carpet Installation in Houston, Professional Floor Installation in Houston, Tile and Grout Cleaning in Houston
