10 Types of Flooring and How to Choose the Right One for Your Home

With so many types of flooring available, which one is best for your home? The right flooring should match your desired aesthetic and durability needs while keeping costs within budget.

Here are the main types of flooring that you should consider for your home.

Hardwood Flooring

Best for: Entire home, except for wet environments

Hardwood flooring has remained a top flooring material throughout history for many reasons. It’s durable, can last several lifetimes, and is unmatched in authentic beauty. After all, it’s the real thing, not a replica.

Oak is the most commonly used hardwood flooring species, but other species like cherry and maple are popular options. Every hardwood species can be further customized through patterned layouts and finish options.

Solid hardwood flooring costs from $3 to $12 per square foot.

Laminate Flooring

Best for: Bathrooms, kitchens, basements, whole home

Laminate flooring is perfect if you want the look of hardwood flooring without the high price point. Though most laminate looks like wood, it can also reliably mimic the look of stone and tile.

Many laminate options even feature an embossed wear layer to add a texture that makes the imitation more convincing.

Laminate flooring costs about $1 to $3 per square foot. Labor to install laminate flooring costs about $2 to $8 per square foot,

Vinyl Flooring

Best for: Bathrooms, kitchens, basements, whole home

Vinyl flooring is inexpensive and highly durable, making it a great flooring option for those with kids and pets. Best of all, vinyl flooring is easy to install, saving you the cost of professional installation. A downside is that vinyl flooring requires a perfectly level, smooth, and flat subfloor. Other types of flooring can bridge minor imperfections, but vinyl flooring cannot.

Vinyl plank flooring costs from $1.50 to $3.83 per square foot.

Tile Flooring

Best for: Kitchens, bathrooms, commercial use, laundry room

Tile flooring is an extremely popular option with supreme durability and easy maintenance. From large-format tiles to penny tiles, the scale can be adjusted to better fit different-sized spaces, while the various materials, colors, and patterns offer plenty of stylish combinations.

Tile installation costs $2,880, on average, per project.

Bamboo Flooring

Best for: High-traffic areas, whole home, commercial use

Bamboo flooring is a low-maintenance, durable alternative to hardwood flooring. This highly renewable material is often mistaken for wood when it’s technically a type of grass. However, as a flooring material, it’s comparable to wood in terms of appearance.

Carpet

Best for: Bedrooms, hallways, playrooms

Carpet has remained a popular flooring option for decades. While it’s rare to see high-traffic areas like living rooms and dining rooms carpeted these days, many homeowners still opt for carpet in bedrooms, hallways, and bonus rooms like playrooms.

Carpet installation costs an average of $780 to $2,800 per project, for an average price of about $1,800.

Stone Flooring

Best for: High-traffic areas, kitchens, bathrooms, outdoors

Stone flooring is one of the most luxurious flooring options on the market. However, this luxury comes at a high price. Whether on its own or paired with other natural materials like hardwood, stone can make a major style impact on your space.

While natural stone flooring is generally low maintenance and easy to clean, some varieties can stain easily.

Concrete Flooring

Best for: High-traffic areas, whole home, commercial use

Concrete floors are as low maintenance as they get. Concrete is easy to clean and has unmatched durability, so concrete is the best choice for high-traffic areas.

Concrete floors aren’t always the first choice of many homeowners, as they yield a specific aesthetic. However, you can manipulate the concrete’s appearance by painting it, staining it, or by adding area rugs and furnishings.

Cork Flooring

Best for: Bathrooms, kitchens

Cork flooring isn’t as popular as traditional materials like hardwood, tile, and carpet, but its many unique qualities make it a flooring material worth getting to know. Cork is naturally pest-resistant, offers a soft underfoot feeling, and even has insulative qualities that dampen sounds.

Linoleum Flooring

Best for: Bathrooms, kitchens

Linoleum is highly regarded for its durability and budget-friendliness. Often mistaken for sheet vinyl, linoleum is available in sheets and tiles with a nearly endless list of styles.

Choosing a Flooring Type

Once you’ve established your budget and identified some viable flooring options, use the list above to determine which flooring will perform best in your home. If you’re renovating a kitchen, bathroom, or even a basement, stick with flooring that can handle moisture and water exposure.

If you’re looking to cozy up your house, you can’t go wrong with hardwood flooring. Need something affordable and easy to clean? Vinyl flooring sounds perfect for you. As long as you match the flooring material to your needs, you can’t go wrong with any option on this list.