Residential Flooring
From Floor Coverings
What is Residential Flooring?
What was the first residential flooring used?
Residential Flooring has changed tremendously over the years. In early North American homes, sand and dirt covered the ground below your feet as you went about your day. However, over 5000 years ago, the Egyptians began using stones and bricks for residential flooring. The Middle Eastern countries turned rug-weaving skills into beautiful carpets and rugs over 4000 years ago. Persian rugs are still a treasured piece of home decor even today. About 3000 years ago, Greeks began making mosaic tiles to decorate their floors and the Middle Ages saw the introduction of wood flooring. In 1863, Frederick Walton patented linoleum and in 1926, Dr. Waldo Semon discovered vinyl sort of accidentally.
What type of selections are there for residential flooring?
Since there is such a variety in people with regard to their tastes in home decor, it makes sense that there would be a wide variety of selection as to residential flooring. Carpet, area rugs, hardwood, tile, stone, marble, ceramic, porcelain, vinyl, linoleum, cork, rubber and bamboo, concrete and laminate are the main choices for residential flooring.
Although Rubber Flooring is not a common selection for residential use, it is beginning to gain some popularity especially for use in the kitchen. Rubber flooring has among its benefits, a comfortable surface, especially for long periods of standing. It’s easy to clean and maintain and it is slip-resistant. And although, concrete is also not a common choice for residential use, it can be used. Durable, but boring, easy to clean, harder to maintain. Concrete is porous, so it will need to be sealed so that stains don’t soak in. If you have a talent for art, concrete flooring can be decorated with anything that comes to mind. Or if you desire, Concrete Flooring can be covered with vinyl, wood or rubber.
Carpet flooring for residential flooring.
Carpet was the most popular choice for residential flooring during the 1970’s, so was paneled walls, but that has changed quite a bit too. Carpet adds a sense of luxury to a home and it comes with a wide variety of colors and textures. Carpet can be difficult to keep clean and sometimes carpet has been known to cause breathing problems because of allergies caused by the chemicals used during the manufacturing process. In addition, it may not be practical to carpet certain rooms, like the bathroom due to the susceptibility of mildew or the kitchen due to spills and higher traffic.
Hardwood flooring for residential flooring.
Hardwood flooring is an excellent choice for just about every room except the bathroom for reasons of moisture causing the wood to warp. However, it’s durable, beautiful, easy to clean and maintain and it can last a lifetime. Hardwood flooring is available in several colors and styles of wood. Solid hardwood flooring add a certain warmth to the room. Tigerwood Flooring, Brazilian Cherry Flooring and Brazilian Teak are examples of exotic hardwoods used in residential flooring. Bamboo and cork are exotic softwoods and eco-friendly since they can be replaced quickly and recycled. Engineered hardwood flooring saves the environment because less wood is used during the manufacturing process.
Ceramic tile for residential flooring.
Ceramic tile is a popular choice for kitchens and vinyl usually finds itself in the bathroom. This is due mostly to their ease of care and cleaning and waterproofing features. These materials are also durable for high traffic areas. Ease of installation is another reason for choosing tile, vinyl and laminate products. Manufacturers these days design much of these materials with tongue and groove design, making the installation of them practically a weekend project.
Marble and Stone for residential flooring.
Marble and stone are expensive but beautiful. Extremely durable, but require special care with regard to cleaning. Household cleaners should not be used on them, but rather clean water and special cleaning agents that do not contain acids or oils.
