Vinyl

Vinyl and resilient flooring have gotten a bit of a bad rap in recent years, because of the trend toward hardwood and ceramic tile in the areas of the home that have traditionally utilized vinyl, like the kitchen, the foyer, the mudroom and the bathroom. Today's consumers are converting back to vinyl/resilient flooring in many cases due to some of the drawbacks of hardwood and ceramic tile. Of the three, vinyl flooring is far and away the easiest to maintain. It doesn't dent and scratch like hardwood or have the grout soiling and cracking issues inherent to ceramic tile. It's much warmer and softer than either hardwood or ceramic tile, and from a cost standpoint, more affordable than either hardwood or ceramic.

Additionally, in 10 to 15 years, when you may tire of the look of your choices from today (remember that avocado green ceramic tile in your mother's bathroom?) it's a much easier and far less expensive redo (another layer of vinyl is usually able to be added to an existing one) than having to perform what amounts to demolition to remove old ceramic tile or nailed down hardwood.

But possibly the greatest reason to consider vinyl/resilient flooring is the wide array of styling choices. Prepared to be blown away by the realistic natural patterns that look like they're cut directly from the earth or some of the patterns that are specifically styled to be used with today's stainless steel appliances for that "Soho loft look."

If you'd like to know more about the important things to consider while looking for vinyl/resilient flooring, click here to read our Vinyl 101 document.