4 Pro Tips for Choosing the Best Flooring


Renovating Your Flooring? Follow These 4 Tips

When new home renovators get excited about their first rehabs, they tend to plan updates to the kitchen, bathroom, and paint colors. These are all great places to modernize an older house or fixer upper—but before you set your budget and make your final plans, walk through the house and look down. What state are the floors in? Don’t make the mistake of assuming that the current original floors are good enough, or that you can get away with installing some cheap carpet.

Most potential buyers are looking for a home they’ll want to live in for decades, not a rental with hardy carpet. Increase the value of your home and impress buyers by putting some thought into the type of flooring you will install or restore as part of your rehab. These Rules of Renovation approved tips will help you pick the best flooring while staying on budget.

1. Restore Original Hardwood Flooring

Before throwing down some carpet or tearing up the floor, consider what you already have to work with. If the house has hardwood floors that are scratched and stained, it might be cost-effective to refinish or restain them. If there’s carpet throughout, take a look at what’s underneath—you might find some original hardwood that can be restored, which is common in older houses. This will be much cheaper than new flooring. Plus, hardwood floors are popular right now, and buyers will be impressed to see the original character of the house preserved.

2. Copy the Neighbors

Ok, you aren’t going to go knocking on everyone’s doors, but do a little research on current or former listings on MLS to find out what kind of flooring the neighbors have. If you find marble tiling or expensive hardwood, you aren’t going to get away with something cheap. Likewise, if you go all out with fancy flooring, your home might be getting too pricey for the neighborhood. Try to pick something that fits in well but stands out in quality and design.

3. Consider the Floor Plan

How is your home, especially at the main level, set up? If you have a traditional floor plan marking different rooms with walls—the kitchen, dining room, and living room—you might want different flooring in each area that matches the look and purpose of the room. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to define and separate different areas.

On the other hand, if you have an open floor plan—or if you are tearing down walls to create one—consider a unified flooring across the entire space. A warm colored floor throughout, be it tile, laminate, or wood, will create cohesion and fit in with each area. Using the same flooring throughout, open floor plan or not, will also be good for your budget—you can use the same contractor, who might cut you a deal for buying in bulk and providing a big job.

4. Focus on Important Areas

If you have a limited budget, put the most into the rooms that are most noticeable: common areas, entryway, master bedrooms, and kitchens. If you put nicer flooring in these rooms, you can get away with carpet in other bedrooms or the basement. Just make sure that the house looks great in every room, even if you prioritize one area over another in your budget.

There you go! Use these 4 tips to help you decide how to renovate the flooring in your rehab property. For more tips for renovation success, check out the Rules of Renovation blog.

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