Buying

Luxury Vinyl Tile VS Ceramic Tiles

Filed Under: Buying

Ceramic tiles have always been a popular choice for household flooring, particularly in warmer climates and rooms such as the kitchen or bathroom. However, new materials such as luxury vinyl tile offer many advantages over ceramic and are easily accessible at any home improvement store or over the internet. They are also easier to install as a DIY project than tiles, as they come in self-adhesive formats that don’t require thin-set or grout which may be difficult to handle for those new to DIY home improvement.

Open Studios Day 5 - Classic Vinyl Flooring — Open Studios Day 5 – Classic Vinyl Flooring (Photo credit: Jacob Whittaker)

There are many other benefits to luxury vinyl tile besides the ease of installation. For example, did you know that this material is soft and warm under your feet, naturally? This makes it perfect for a bathroom or other areas where you will be walking barefoot. It can also be installed with or without grout, in case the idea of cleaning grout regularly doesn’t appeal to you. If you install vinyl tiles with grout most people will confuse them with high quality porcelain, just softer and warmer and less likely to cause people to slip.

Cleaning luxury vinyl tile is also a breeze. This kind of flooring material comes with stain resistant finishings, and fade or wear through warranties that make them a great investment. If you buy an extra pack of luxury tiles when you install the floor you can also use them to replace any tile that chips or cracks. With ceramic tile, if a chip or crack occurs you are stuck with it, and if it happens in a very visible part of the room you may end up having to replace the entire floor which isn’t cheap or convenient. Vinyl is also resistant to water and humidity, so you won’t need to fear accidental spills like you would do if you had installed wood or natural stone tiles.

Luxury vinyl tiles are very versatile. They come in a variety of styles and colours, from 70s psychedelic patterns to more traditional wood and stone imitation. They can be installed with or without grout, though if you choose to install them without the space between the tiles may accumulate dirt, so you will need to be extra careful about keeping it clean. This effect is particularly visible on light coloured vinyl tiles. You can also choose to install a combination of different colours to create a unique pattern on your floor. And if you want, you can combine vinyl luxury planks with tiles to create a wood and tile look that will look like you hired a team of professionals to design your house.

The fact that luxury vinyl tile is affordable doesn’t mean you are more limited in terms of design than when using real tile. You can create inlays, borders and any design your imagination can come up with. This material has excellent flooring properties, and they don’t look cheap or fake looking like older and cheaper vinyl tiles. It is well worth keeping your options open when choosing a new type of flooring tile for your home, as luxury vinyl tile is a great alternative to more traditional materials and offers many benefits.

Bathroom Flooring: Vinyl Floor Tiles Or Ceramic Tiles?

Filed Under: Buying

There are several flooring options for bathrooms that can be installed by anybody with a certain degree of familiarity with DIY, but two of the most popular ones are without a doubt vinyl floor tiles and ceramic (or porcelain) tiles. Both have their advantages and their disadvantages, and choosing one over the other will depend on your needs and DIY skill level.

Bathroom Vinyl Tiles

Vinyl tile (or sheet vinyl flooring for that matter) is a popular choice for bathrooms for many reasons, but the main one is without a doubt its great pricing. Even luxury vinyl tiles are considerably more affordable than any other flooring material, and with adequate care and a proper installation can last for years.

Laying vinyl floor tiles is something that anybody can learn, as it’s a very accessible DIY project (however, in order to avoid having the bathroom out of use for days it’s worth getting help if you are new to DIY). Self-adhesive vinyl doesn’t even require the use of adhesive, and if you are after a traditional look for your bathroom you can also install vinyl tile with grout instead of as a seamless surface.

Laying Vinyl Flooring (Photo credit: Jacob Whittaker)

Once installed, vinyl can last for a few years as bathroom flooring, and it’s a very comfortable choice as, unlike porcelain or ceramic, it’s warm to the touch and can be purchased with effective non-slip coatings, perfect to avoid accidents after a bath. However, you will need to be careful about your cleaning methods, as harsh cleaners will take away its glossy appearance.

Ceramic Tiles For Bathrooms

Ceramic has always been a popular choice for bathrooms, and the fact that properly installed it can last for decades makes it a cheap choice in the long run. It won’t increase your home equity as marble or granite would, but it’s a good choice in the medium price range. Porcelain is also totally waterproof, immune to humidity and impossible to scratch, though it can crack if something very heavy lands on it.

In terms of cleaning, you can clean porcelain and ceramic with almost anything and it will still look good. This is one of the reasons it’s a material used in schools, hospitals or public places, as it can be disinfected easily. Vinyl is much more delicate in terms of handing.

Porcelain and ceramic flooring for bathroom has a beautiful, stone-like appearance and can look similar to more expensive materials such as granite. If you are after a classic look for your bathroom, grouted ceramic tiles will give it and if you are good at DIY you may want to try and install it yourself. However, keep in mind that botching the job can be expensive, and unless you measure things carefully you may end up with uneven rows of tiles.

If you are unexperienced at DIY, looking for a very cheap solution for your bathroom or want to create a really funky look with textures that aren’t found in ceramic, vinyl tiles are probably the best choice. If you have more money to spend, want a more classic look or want a DIY challenge, porcelain tiles are a classic that never goes out of fashion and will give you great service for years.

The Best Cheap Garage Flooring Choices

Filed Under: Buying

You can have cheap garage flooring without sacrificing quality, as long as you are aware of your choices and know where to cut costs without sacrificing quality. Choosing high quality flooring for your garage means it will be able to withstand the tough wear and tear this kind of surface usually suffers, but there are affordable garage flooring options that promise a good balance between toughness and price.

Paint

There is nothing cheaper than just painting your garage concrete floors with concrete paint, and repainting as necessary when the wear and tear shows too much for your tastes. Paint is only suitable if your floor is in good condition, and it’s more of an aesthetic improvement that won’t protect the underlying concrete or repair damage to it.

Rubber Garage Flooring

Rubber is the least expensive garage flooring option, but it’s also the less versatile. It is perfect if you intend to use your garage as a workshop, storage facility or even a home gym, but it’s too susceptible to petroleum based products (oils and grease) and heat, and can melt if you park a car hot from the outside. Not pretty! It is softer than a concrete floor and has good insulating and sound buggering qualities, so it’s the perfect flooring for a kid’s playing ground.

PVC Roll-Out Flooring

PVC or mat flooring is slightly more expensive than rubber, but it makes a notable difference in terms of durability and resistance. It is also extremely easy to install without professional help, which makes it one of the best cheap garage flooring choices provided you aren’t too bothered about the looks. To install PVC garage flooring you don’t even need adhesive, and you can pick up the mats and hose them outside if they get really dirty. They also come in a variety of colours and patterns, which means you can achieve a bit of a designer look. But admittedly, it looks very much like you just covered your garage floor with overlapping PVC mats, and not particularly pretty.

PVC Garage Floor Tile

PVC or high quality vinyl flooring tile is easier to install than epoxy, while giving a more aesthetically pleasing result than Roll-out flooring. Interlocking tiles create a seamless look, and can be installed by anybody with a minimum ability at DIY, time and the right cutting tools. They come in a variety of colours and patterns that you can combine, so it’s perfect if you intend to use the garage as a workshop or care about how the flooring looks like. Cheap garage PVC tiles mar and dent relatively easy, but there are also self-correcting versions that will recover their shape after a few days.

Epoxy

Installing an epoxy flooring on your garage is not a task for the inexperienced and it’s not cheap, but it looks great and protects the floor underneath, as well as lasting ages impervious to wear and tear, stains, grease and chemicals that will inevitable fall on it if you like tinkering with your car on your garage. You should look for high quality epoxy, and be prepared to spend time installing it adequately. For example, the floor needs to be perfectly clean before installing, and that may require using substances and tools that require more than a passing familiarity with DIY. But the result is absolutely worth it, and if you are looking to increase the value of your home this is the best option.

Choosing the Perfect Flooring for Your Home

Filed Under: Buying

Choosing flooring for your home is a task that the majority of people take very lightly. It is an extremely important part of the design of the house and is fundamental in representing its appearance. With a range of factors such as price, style and location to consider which dictate your decision, it can become hard to choose the right flooring for you. This guide will help you evaluate the different factors that influence your choice, helping you decide on the flooring that is perfect for you.

Budget

Probably the single most influential factor to consider is the amount you are willing to spend. Get an idea in your head of how much you are willing to spend, and it will allow you to fine tune your options to specific flooring within your budget. As a result, you will save the time and hassle of choosing flooring way out of your budget, which you then have to return or struggle to pay off. Ask yourself questions such as; how many rooms am I buying flooring for? Or what is the most I am willing to spend in total? This will be very helpful in making your decision.

Type

Another very important thing to consider is the type of flooring that you are interested in. Even if you have particularly high standards or taste, having pets, kids or just clumsy family members is going to influence your decision. Wooden flooring might be more appropriate because it is easier to clean up after spills. On the other hand, wooden flooring can be quite cold and that is unappealing for many people. Carpets are a good choice if this is an issue for you, however obviously you will not want to spill anything on a brand new carpet, as it won’t clean up as easily! These types of things you will need to take into consideration when choosing the perfect flooring for your home. It is all about weighing up the pros and cons of each and making a decision based on that.

Here is a list of the types of flooring you might be interested in:

Wooden
Carpet
Laminate
Ceramic Tiles
Hardwood
Marble

Choosing the flooring most suited to your home is going to be all about personal preference and the amount you are willing to spend. Flooring is a big investment so make sure that you plan well and make sure you are not making a mistake you will later regret.

Daniel blinman recently chose N and S Flooring when choosing his flooring for his new home. He highly recommend them!

Finding the Best Prices For Vinyl Flooring Online

Filed Under: Buying

If you are worried about cost, vinyl flooring is without a doubt one of the most durable and affordable flooring materials for your home renovation project. Vinyl flooring price varies depending on the type of vinyl you are buying, the quality and thickness of the vinyl tile squares or sheets and the guarantees offered by the manufacturers. It is also important to keep in mind that finding the best prices for vinyl flooring can be achieved easily by using the Internet to do your research instead of just buying at your local home improvement store.

Prices for vinyl flooring vary a lot: You can pay as little as $1 per square meter for basic vinyl flooring tiles, or splurge over $5 per square meter on luxury vinyl tile that could pass for natural stone. Depending on the surface you want to cover and the level of quality desired, you may need to look around to find a distributor that offers the style and format you want within your budget. Keep in mind that higher quality vinyl flooring will last longer and will suffer less wear and tear damage. You need also to take into account installation costs if you don’t know how to install vinyl floors yourself, or prefer to leave it to a professional. However, you can achieve significant savings by choosing a type of vinyl flooring that you can install yourself, such as no glue vinyl sheets or peel and stick vinyl tiles.

Lower Vinyl Flooring Costs Buying Online

Once you have decided on a budget and a decorative style, you can do two things: Go to your local home improvement store and see what they have available, or open your favourite browser and check out the Internet. You can buy vinyl flooring materials from all types of websites: from independent manufacturers to trading giants such as Amazon. If you are after a real bargain, EBay often has some really good deals from retailers that want to get rid of excess stock, or home remodelling companies going out of business or getting rid of excess from a past project. It is always a good idea to shop around for the exact design and style you want, and make sure to read the specifications. The thickness of the vinyl tiles will affect how long they’ll last, and each package should specify how much area the entire pack will cover.

Other Things You’ll Need To Buy

Depending on the type of vinyl flooring you are choosing you may also need to buy some extra materials in order to install it yourself. Unless you are using self-adhesive vinyl tiles or no glue vinyl sheets, you will need to purchase vinyl floor adhesive separately. Vinyl can be cut with an utility knife, but you may need specialist materials to level the surface on which it will be installed. For example, if you are installing vinyl flooring over concrete you will most likely need to repair cracks and use a self-levelling compound to make sure the floor is perfectly flat. Other things that may come useful but you may already have at home are a broom to be able to clean the entire floor area before installing, chalk to paint the outlines of existing countertops or toilets, and a tile roller (or a rolling pin from your kitchen). You can often buy everything from the same store you bought your tiles from.

Vinyl flooring price is also affected by the end use it is designed for. Commercial vinyl floor materials are designed to endure heavier use and so are usually more expensive, while vinyl designed for decorative usage on domestic environments is often much cheaper. High end vinyl manufacturers often include a guarantee with their flooring, sometimes subjected to the floor being installed by a professional and restricted to domestic use. Check this out if you are opting for high quality vinyl flooring and want to protect your investment from accidental damage. Vinyl is highly durable, and can last for decades with the correct care provided it was installed correctly.