There are plenty of good options when it comes to your flooring options – and different things will be good for different lifestyles. For us, we are looking to renovating our home and the flooring that came with it. Currently, we have some old vinyl (ick!) in the kitchen area. It’s the first thing that needed to go, and two years later we are finally getting around to it. I wanted to share some of what I learned about the different flooring options. The top two that I was trying to decide between was real hardwood flooring, and tile planks. I love the look of hardwood – there is something for the real thing. Tile on the other hand is a second good option, and it’s not necessarily better or worse. I did a search on tile planks vs hardwood flooring and I was able to come to a decision. Overall, tile planks was the right decision for my family. I wanted to outline the three top reasons we decided to go with tile, as well as a couple of drawbacks to it.
- It’s (mostly) scratch-proof. We live in a home with many cats, dogs, and toddlers. I am afraid that with real hardwood, we would be in great danger of wrecking the floors in a short period of time. Also, if you do a lot of entertaining it is worth reconsidering hardwood, as chairs can easily scratch it as well.
- It can be installed anywhere, as it’s virtually waterproof. As I said, we are in the process of renovating our entire house. We are finishing the basement, and plan to put a second kitchen down there. The problem with basements is they can be prone to moisture and sometimes flooding. With the tile, we don’t have to worry about potential moisture wrecking the floors. Also, if we decide we want to add the same flooring to our bathrooms (also prone to getting wet) we can do so and have it match the rest of the house. Again, kids and dogs mean that it’s really smart for us to make sure we install flooring that can get wet without getting harmed.
- Color options. Although I definitely can appreciate the beauty of a deep cherry hardwood floor, I personally prefer cooler grays for my flooring. There are just more color options when it comes to tile, so it’s easier to get exactly what you’re looking for.
There are many drawbacks (like anything else) to using tile planks for your flooring. There were only two drawbacks that I found to be important for us. These include:
- Tile is cold. If you live in a colder climate, you may want to rethink getting tile. We have very warm summers and very cold winters where I live. Because of this, I know that a little part of me will probably regret the tile come wintertime. Hardwood flooring will be warmer on your feet. Luckily, there are things you can install under the tile to help warm your flooring. This is definitely something we are going to get, although I don’t know how much of a difference it will make yet. Also – tile is HARD on your feet. That’s another thing to keep in mind.
- Expensive. Cost was a huge factor for us when considering flooring options. It was much more expensive for us to get tile flooring installed. In the long run, it will require less maintenance so for US, we felt that it would be cheaper over time.
Overall, I think that for a large family tile is going to be a better option. If you don’t have kids or dogs, hardwood may be a better option. Hardwood never goes out of style, whereas tile becomes dated much faster. They are both good options for different reasons.
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