INTEK-Types-of-Flooring

Tile, carpet, hardwood…how do you know which flooring type to pick?

If you want to install new flooring in your home, you have plenty of options. The three most popular types of flooring are tile, carpet, and hardwood. You might have a favorite look in mind, but have you considered which one is the most practical for your home?

Below, we’ve ranked the different types of flooring in terms of cost, the difficulty of installation, durability, and difficulty of maintenance.

Cost of Materials

  1. Tile: Ceramic tile wins the award for the cheapest type of flooring. Not only is it inexpensive to install, it’s also highly cost-effective to maintain. Individual tiles can easily be replaced if necessary.
  2. Hardwood: While it’s true that hardwood floors can be pricey to put in, they are extremely economical to maintain. They never have to be replaced, and they require little cleaning costs over the long run. Hardwood floors also have a high resale value.
  3. Carpet: Carpet is pretty cheap to lay, but considering its expensive maintenance, you’ll end up spending whatever you saved in a real hurry on carpet cleaning services and replacement.

Installation

  1. Carpet: Since carpet tends to be the cheapest to install in terms of both materials and labor (running about $3,000 for 500 square feet), we give it the highest honors for installation. Carpet squares are also pretty simple to place.
  2. Tile: At about $3,700 for 500 square feet, tile is slightly more expensive to lay than carpet. However, it makes a fairly doable DIY project for those of you who have the tools and techniques to manage it.
  3. Hardwood: Hardwood flooring is daunting to install, as it’s both expensive in materials (around $4,800 for 500 square feet) and intensive in labor (requiring sanding, staining, and finishing). Fitting hardwood floors is not for the faint of heart–or funds.

Durability

  1. Hardwood: Hardwood floors are known for their long-lasting durability, which is why many homeowners are starting to replace their current flooring with hardwood. While it is incredibly wear-resistant as is, hardwood can be sanded and refinished many times if necessary.
  2. Tile: Like hardwood, ceramic tile is also very sturdy. With a waterproof, stain-resistant surface, tile makes a practical choice for both indoor and outdoor flooring. Over time, though, tile may begin to crack, making it a slightly less durable choice than hardwood.
  3. Carpet: If you care for it well, carpet can last a long time, but on average, it needs to be replaced every ten years (compared with hardwood, which can last thirty years or more). Especially if you have children or pets, your carpet will probably start to look worn, outdated, or even damaged before long.

Maintenance

  1. Hardwood: Once again, hardwood steals the show with its ease of maintenance. Once its difficult installation is over, you can enjoy your hardwood flooring worry-free, as it’s extremely easy to clean. In most cases, a simple sweep or mop will do–no need to hire a professional cleaning company.
  2. Tile: With its smooth, hard surface, tile is also very simple to clean. However, grout lines can stain easily and are pretty difficult to treat; you may need to call in the professionals for some deep cleaning.
  3. Carpet: Carpet is comfortable, but it’s not exactly easy to maintain. Not only does carpet stain more easily than other flooring types, those stains are also more difficult to remove. Carpet also absorbs smelly odors from pets and soil. If and when you decide to clean it, you’ll likely have to go with a professional carpet cleaning service.

Floor Cleaning Services in South Dakota

Do you have dirty carpet or tile floors in your home? Perhaps you’ve tried to clean them yourself and gotten no luck.

When your own floor cleaning prowess won’t do, enlist the help of the pros. At INTEK, we offer two affordable, high-quality floor cleaning services in SD:

  • Carpet cleaning: See why we’ve been voted the best carpet cleaning company in Sioux Falls for several years running. Our hot water extraction process gets the dirt out of those high-traffic areas without leaving any residue.
  • Tile floor cleaning: We’ll help you get the grime out of the grout! Our step-by-step tile cleaning process is incredibly thorough for a deep-down clean.

Our floor cleaning services are available at both our Sioux Falls and Yankton locations. If you’re in either area, please give us a call, and let us take care of your floor cleaning for you!

Request a free floor cleaning quote »

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Sources: AOL Real Estate, ImproveNet, Today’s Homeowner, About.com, Lifehacker