7 Floor Materials Contractors Never Use (and You Shouldn’t Either)

Some floor materials are durable, easy to install, and look great for years. But other flooring comes with a host of problems that devalue your expensive purchase.

We spoke to home designers and contractors to find out which flooring materials they don’t like and suggestions for better options—even if you’re on a budget.

Small Tiles

Tile is an excellent flooring material. It’s hard, durable, easy to clean, and available in various styles. But seams are tile’s weak point.

For this reason, Amanda Kuhlman is cautious about small-format tiles. The smaller the tile, the more seams the floor will have.

“The kitchen can be a really dirty place with food droppings and grease splatters,” Kuhlman says. “In kitchen design, I avoid small-format tiles like penny tiles or mosaics, simply due to how much grout there is to keep clean.”

Alternatives

Unless you love cleaning your floors all the time, Kuhlman recommends using larger-format tile to prevent a dirty grout look.

Install 12-inch by 12-inch or larger tiles to reduce the number and length of grouted seams.

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Bamboo Flooring

Bamboo flooring is a popular alternative to solid wood flooring. But it’s not as hard as many types of solid hardwood or engineered wood flooring, and it doesn’t fully live up to its environmental cachet.

“I don’t recommend bamboo flooring for my clients as it is a very soft wood easily susceptible to dents, gauges, and scratches,” says interior designer Alexandra Peck. She adds that bamboo flooring also bleaches in direct sunlight. 

Bamboo has a reputation as an environmentally friendly material since bamboo is renewable and takes just three years to mature.

But recycling bamboo flooring is difficult. It is often laminated over core materials like medium-density fiberboard (MDF), which isn’t recyclable.

Alternatives

Peck recommends French white oak or ash as alternatives to bamboo flooring. Both types of natural wood are highly durable.

Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring is a DIY favorite because it’s easy to install. But it doesn’t get high ratings from some professionals. Mitch Coluzzi, a contractor at SoldFast, strongly dislikes laminate flooring.

Coluzzi says that laminate does have a strong wear layer and it can look amazing when it goes in, giving the illusion of tremendous value. But it’s not durable over the long term.

“The click mechanism is not always protected,” Coluzzi says. “If you drop an ice cube that melts, have kids who spill, or have a sloppy dog, the floor will deteriorate over time.”

Alternatives

Luxury vinyl plank flooring is the waterproof alternative to laminate flooring. The difference is in the materials.

Laminate flooring has a wood fiberboard core, which swells upon contact with water. Vinyl plank floor is entirely synthetic, making it waterproof.

Gray Vinyl Plank

Gray luxury vinyl plank flooring is ubiquitous. Stores sell so much of it because it fits in with a broad range of home styles. But the problem with gray flooring is its overwhelming blandness.

“I generally advise against specifying gray wood-look flooring/luxury vinyl plank,” Kuhlman says.

Instead of meeting all home styles halfway, the cool gray tones wash the vibrancy out of a space, she says.

Alternatives

Instead of limp, lifeless gray vinyl plank, Kuhlman recommends a medium wood tone with minimal color variation. It still offers the neutral foundation of a gray floor, but it brings warmth into the space. 

Parquet Wood Flooring

Parquet flooring is made of small slats of wood arranged in a repeating pattern. It’s a busy, showy look that evokes a Renaissance style and works well in smaller quantities. But the problem, Peck says, is in the way the flooring is constructed.

The smaller pieces of wood easily lift off the ground and often break or creak underfoot, she says.

It’s also difficult to sand parquet flooring since the wood grain runs in at least two different directions. 

Alternatives

If parquet wood flooring is your thing, get it—but have it professionally installed, and be sure to treat it with care. Avoid scratching the parquet since it’s so difficult to refinish.

Glue-Down Flooring

Glue-down flooring is frequently used in commercial spaces. But it’s less than desirable in residential applications, Coluzzi says.

“Proponents argue that it can last a long time, but it’s not easily serviceable with stains, chips, or corners,” he says. “It’s also highly labor-intensive to remove if you ever want to replace it.”

Coluzzi’s aversion to residential glue-down flooring includes carpeting. He points out that glue-down carpeting has no padding, which is important for comfort in the home.

Alternatives

Floating flooring is an alternative to glue-down vinyl, wood, or engineered flooring. Floating flooring planks or tiles connect from side to side but are not attached to the subfloor. 

The soft alternative to glue-down carpeting is wall-to-wall carpeting that connects to the subfloor with spiked nailing strips arranged around the room’s perimeter. 

Self-Adhesive Vinyl Tiles

Peck concedes that self-adhesive peel-and-stick vinyl tile is an affordable option for entry-level budgets. But that’s the only good thing about this type of flooring.

“It requires adhesive to stick to the flooring substrate, which can easily shift out of place over time, exposing the sticky adhesive and creating an unsightly mess,” Peck says.

Alternatives

Most floating floors are plank-style with a wood appearance. But you can find some types that come in square (12-inch by 12-inch, for example) or rectangular (12-inch by 24-inch) shapes, mimicking tile flooring. Both shapes are simple for DIYers to install.

Sheet vinyl flooring is a superior alternative to self-adhesive vinyl tiles. The 12-foot-wide sheets can span smaller rooms, requiring no seams. A DIYer can install sheet vinyl flooring in a room with few cut-outs.