By Julie Schmale

What’s the BEST type of flooring?

We get asked this a lot! Should you go with hardwood, laminate, or vinyl?

Well, that’s a tough question to answer because when it comes to flooring, there are a lot of things to consider; is this a flip? Reno? Forever home? What stage of life are you in? Do you have little kids? Dogs? Are you retiring? Does it need to be tough enough for a wheel chair? Is having a natural product important to you? Do you like that your home tells the tale of a life well lived? Are environmental factors a big deal to you?

The brands of hard surface flooring we carry at Liliidae are Kentwood, Abode, and Evoke. This post is written with these brands in mind.

Most often, people pick flooring based largely on colour and price tag. But a lot of factors actually play into the final decision -or drag out the decision to go with this one or that. They all have great qualities -but to say which one is “the best” is not that simple. Read on to find out why.

Laminate has had a huge come back with their new waterproof line “Surge”. This has a coated HDF core, a higher content of glues and polymers, and has been pressed so hard, that it’s nearly impossible for water to get into the core and swell. Swelling has been the biggest downfall of the old school laminate, but the price point was so good that it was kinda accepted that this wasn’t going to last forever.

The surface of laminate is tougher than other types of flooring when it comes to scratches from furniture, shoes and pets. That is still true for these newer improved laminates, and for install you still need the underlay, same as before.

I personally have laminate floors in my home, and I love them! One of the downfalls of my lighter laminate is, that if you drop something on the floor, the surface chips off and reveals the darker core underneath (When I say “you” I mostly mean my four children who now all use the kitchen, cutting their apples, emptying the dish washer, setting the table, and doing all those chores that give plenty of opportunity for sharp objects to be dropped). My floors are the older version and do swell when it gets wet. I seal the chips with a colour matched nail polish, but in the kitchen area it has for sure taken a beating! Laminate can also be a bit slippery -the vinyl floors on the other hand are not at all!

Speaking of vinyl… this option is the new cool kid on the block -and for good reason; the water-proof feature has been a huge! You can now use consistent flooring on your main level and basement, and even in your entrance and bathrooms. When we were picking flooring for our new build, vinyl was new and very expensive, there were not many colours to chose from and they honestly looked so fake. Evokes “Unreal Flooring” looks very realistic and there are so many colours to chose from! Some are medium sized planks, some are wide plank. They have even come out with a few herringbone options that match the regular straight lay, which allows you to mix up how your flooring looks. Think old European apartments with an inlaid “area” in the floor almost like an area rug, but without the rug. If you follow us on Instagram and Facebook you know we loooooove herringbone and we really push for this option of mixing the two with some of our clients! It looks more custom and adds that craftmanship we all desire. They say it’s all in the details and we tend to agree.

Vinyl even though it’s waterproof, is not as scratch and dent resistant as the laminates. You can still scratch the surface moving furniture around -especially if you don’t use protective pads under the feet of your furniture. BUT you should ALWAYS protect your investment and add floor protectors under your furniture! If you don’t have any, come see us, we stock them.

If your children are the four-legged kind, you know that your furniture will eventually show wear and tear from their nails -it’s the same with vinyl floors. You’ll never wear through the surface but you can scratch the surface layer as you and your family live life in your home.

Showing wear and tear brings us to hardwood flooring. This is probably the biggest complaint people have when they come talk to us; their hardwood is scratched up so badly! It’s outdated and the shiny finish shows footmarks and all kinds of stuff, you have to clean it daily to keep it looking good. Yikes! Ain’t nobody got time for that!

The process of manufacturing hardwood floors improves all the time. Most of what you can purchase now is engineered, which means you have a thin top layer of wood attached to a base of fillets of cheaper wood or a crisscross plywood type. This makes the floor more stable in changes to humidity and temperature, and it’s also cheaper to manufacture. The way the surface is sealed also keeps improving, and we’ve gone completely away from shiny surfaces, not just in the flooring industry, but everywhere! We want natural looking products, and the hardwood samples we have in the showroom look exactly like that; natural and beautiful.

There is nothing like the feeling of hardwood under your feet. It feels softer and warmer somehow, but will show wear and tear over time. Some people hate this, while others see this as one of the features of hardwood; you can see that you have a family, that life goes on in your home, that you live with your beloved pet and you’re okay with these signs of life. Hardwood does require a bit more care, you have to keep your humidity level within a certain range (not a big deal considering it’s the same for human wellbeing). You’ll want different flooring in your bathrooms and entryway, and the price tag is higher. With hardwood though, you buy it once and with proper care, have it for life. Interestingly enough -as the price of plastic goes up, some of the vinyls have almost reached the same price range as a few of the hardwoods.

Often times I think it also depends on what we’ve lived with before. Did you hate your hardwood? You’ll likely want the new fancy vinyl option. You’ve had vinyl that separated in the seams and you’ll never buy vinyl again? Makes sense. Our rep always says “You get what you pay for” and that is very true. The cheaper deals we have all fallen for to save some money will not last as long or perform as well as a higher quality floor. It’s like garden peas versus store bought peas (or carrots!). They look the same, but they are not comparable at all!

“It’s funny that we’re okay with spending lots of money on most materials we put in our homes, but when it comes to flooring, we opt for the cheapest deal we can find. Flooring is literally THE most hardworking interior finish and it goes in EVERY room of the home!”

— Ritch Dejeet, Metropolitan Floors (paraphrased)

How well your flooring performs, also comes down to proper care. You should never wet mop your floors, water dripping off a wet mop, leaving water behind as you clean is a clear no-no. Using cleaning solutions with bleach will actually break down the surface of your floors, making them more prone to damage from things that otherwise wouldn’t have been a problem. (So will pet urine, FYI)

Lastly, do you care about the environment? If so, this might also play into deciding which floor to chose. Our Surge laminate floors are 95% biodegradable, whereas vinyl floors take millions of years to break down -not a great footprint to leave behind on the earth.

As you can tell, it’s hard to give a straight answer to people who come to us and ask “What type of flooring is the best?” They are all good. They all have pros and cons. It just depends on what matters to you and how you live your life… We did however put together a quick guide for you here at the end: