Today, people demand floors designed to be lived on – they want exceptional style, value, functionality, and efficiency. In turn, flooring manufacturers continue to get more creative and innovative with the products they offer every year.
Here is a look at some of the top flooring trends and new advances in flooring technology that you can expect to see more of in coming years:
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Going Green
Options like cork, bamboo, reclaimed wood, and engineered wood are popular choices for those looking to add flooring from sustainable sources to their homes.
Cork is taken from the bark of the cork oak tree and is non-toxic. These trees also regenerate after every harvest and can live for up to 200 years. Engineered wood floors are more structurally sound than real wood – they won’t buckle, gap or twist – can be installed directly to concrete and use half as many trees as solid wood floors.
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Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring/Tile
Demand for luxury vinyl floors is growing rapidly. These floors are typically waterproof and stain resistant and have lookalike qualities that are getting harder to distinguish from real wood and ceramic tiles.
Leading brands include COREtec and Mannington. Their collections feature planks with beveled edges, raised ridges to mimic the feel of wood, and graining patterns to appear as wood floors to the naked eye. These floors don’t experience any seasonal variation like real hardwood or bamboo floors.
Congoleum’s DuraCeramic looks exactly like true ceramic tile but is much more resilient. They have a protective layer that repels dirt and stains, and don’t scratch or damage as easily as true ceramic.
These are not the vinyl flooring days of old. The new age of luxury vinyl allows you to create floors with stylish variation, patterns, texture, and real-look graining or marbling.
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Carpet Remains #1
More carpet is being removed from homes than ever before. However, carpet still remains the market-share leader. We can explain.
Bedrooms, living rooms, office spaces, and basements tend to be the most popular carpeted spaces in homes. So, carpet still accounts for about 50% - 60% of the typical home. Carpet is offering more variety in patterns, colors, the feel of the material, and unique cuts than ever before. Industry leader Mohawk produces carpet that is stain-proof and feels as soft as silk.
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Floating Floors
Many luxury vinyl plank floors are now designed to be installed directly over any existing floor or surface, with no underlayment required. They feature a simple locking system between the planks that keeps the floor in place. In particular, COREtec floors feature a natural cork backing that makes them naturally mold and mildew resistant.
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Wood-Look Tiles
Tiles have been getting bigger and bigger for some time, with many closely resembling wood plank flooring in terms of shape and size. So, wood-look tiles were a natural progression, and they look incredibly realistic thanks to upgraded inkjet technology.