How to choose flooring

The short answer

To choose flooring, start with the room and what happens in it. Wet rooms such as bathrooms, laundry rooms and entries favor tile or vinyl. Living areas and bedrooms suit hardwood, laminate or vinyl. Kitchens can go either way, depending on how much you trust yourself and your household to wipe up spills. After the room, think about the subfloor, how long you plan to stay, and how the floor will meet the surfaces next to it.

Start with the room

Water is the main thing that separates good flooring choices from bad ones. Ask three questions about each room:

• Will water reach this floor regularly, or only in a spill or a leak?
• How much foot traffic, grit and furniture dragging will it take?
• Is the floor on a slab, over a crawl space or upstairs?

The answers narrow the list fast. A hall bathroom with kids in the tub is a different problem from a quiet guest bedroom.

Hardwood

Solid hardwood is nailed or glued to a wood subfloor and can be sanded and refinished more than once. That is its main advantage: a worn floor can be renewed rather than replaced. It reacts to humidity and to standing water, so it is a poor fit for bathrooms and a risk near sinks, dishwashers and refrigerator water lines. Engineered hardwood has a real wood surface over layered backing and is more stable. It can handle more kinds of installation, but the wear layer limits how often it can be refinished. Over a concrete slab, moisture in the slab has to be dealt with first.

Laminate

Laminate is a printed surface over a fiberboard core, usually installed as a floating floor that clicks together. It is a practical way to get a wood look, goes down quickly and does well against scratches. Its weakness is water at the seams and edges: once the core swells, it does not go back. Choose it for bedrooms, offices and living areas, and be wary near sinks and entries. It cannot be refinished, so a damaged area means replacing planks.

Vinyl plank and sheet vinyl

Modern vinyl plank is waterproof at the surface and comes in wood and stone looks. It handles kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and basements well. A good installer will still care about the subfloor: vinyl is thin, and bumps, ridges or gaps underneath can telegraph through. Thicker, firmer products hide more. The trade-off is that it dents under heavy point loads and cannot be refinished, so repairs mean swapping planks. Quality varies a lot between products, so ask to see and handle samples.

Tile

Porcelain and ceramic tile are the standard for wet areas, and they last. They are also unforgiving. Tile needs a flat, rigid base, because a floor that flexes cracks tile and grout. Setting it right takes prep, mortar and cure time, and grout lines need sealing or a grout that does not need it. It feels cold and hard underfoot, and dropped dishes rarely survive. Our tile contractor page covers how tile jobs run, and for showers and walls see the bathroom remodeling page.

Comparing the four by room

Room	Best fits	Use with care
Bathroom	Tile, vinyl	Hardwood, laminate
Kitchen	Tile, vinyl, engineered wood	Laminate near the sink and dishwasher
Entry and mudroom	Tile, vinyl	Hardwood and laminate
Living areas	Hardwood, laminate, vinyl	Tile if you want warmth
Bedrooms	Hardwood, laminate, vinyl	Tile
Laundry room	Tile, vinyl	Hardwood, laminate

The subfloor decides how it turns out

Most flooring failures are not the material. They are the floor underneath. Before anything goes down, a good installer checks that the subfloor is flat, solid and dry. Squeaks get fixed. Soft spots get repaired. Low spots get leveled. If the house has had a leak, the cause is fixed before anything is covered up. Our plumbing leaks guide explains what to look for.

Transitions matter too. Different materials sit at different heights, and the pieces that join them should be planned before the work, not improvised at the end. Baseboards, door casings and cabinet toe-kicks all interact with flooring thickness, which is why it helps to choose the floor before ordering cabinets.

Where flooring fits in a remodel

In a kitchen or bathroom remodel, flooring usually goes in after demolition, rough plumbing and electrical, and wall repair, and before or after cabinets depending on the plan. Floors that run through several rooms look best when installed as one continuous surface. If you are planning more than one room, ask us to walk through the order. Our flooring service handles installation, and our kitchen and bathroom teams build it into the schedule. For more on picking materials, see best bathroom flooring materials and choosing kitchen cabinets and countertops.

Flooring: questions