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

Hardwood Flooring

Best for: Entire home minus wet environments

Hardwood flooring has remained a top flooring material throughout history for many reasons. It’s durable, can last several lifetimes, and its beauty is unmatched.

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.

Laminate Flooring

Best for: Bathrooms, kitchens, basements, whole home

Laminate flooring is perfect for those who want the look of hardwood flooring without the high price point. However, laminate can also 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.

Vinyl Flooring

Best for: Bathrooms, kitchens, basements, whole home

Vinyl flooring comes in many forms, such as sheet vinyl, vinyl tiles, and LVP, which stands for luxury vinyl planks. Vinyl 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 yourself, saving you the cost of professional installation.

Tile Flooring

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

Tile flooring is an extremely popular flooring option that offers 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.

Bamboo Flooring

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

Bamboo flooring is often chosen as 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 many ways.

Carpet

Best for: Bedrooms, hallways, playrooms

Carpet has remained a popular flooring option for decades. While you don’t see carpeted living rooms and dining rooms much these days, homeowners still opt for carpet in bedrooms, hallways, and bonus rooms like playrooms, as the comfort of carpet is second to none.

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. Incredibly easy to clean and with unmatched durability, concrete is the best choice for high-traffic areas.

Concrete floors aren’t always the first choice of many homeowners, as they yield a very specific aesthetic. However, you can manipulate the look of concrete with 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.