Choosing the Best Flooring Material for Your Kitchen Remodel

Home renovation and remodel projects require a lot of planning and thought. Most projects involve a lot of small details that bring the entire room together. Most rooms require decisions about the paint color, the appliances, the floor design and material and the individual furnishings that will go into the room. A kitchen remodel is one of the most popular types of home remodels. Most people spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and thus want to improve the quality of it. The kitchen is also an important part in the home buying process, encouraging homeowners to put a lot of thought into the kitchen for resale value.

Planning and preparation should come before the actual remodel takes place. It can be extremely helpful to plan every detail of the room before beginning the remodel. You may change your mind as you go along, but minor decisions changes are easier than planning the entire remodel as you go. If you are unsure of appliance, paint and flooring decisions prior to the work begins, you may slow down the process and it may end up costing you more in the end.

When remodeling the home?s kitchen, you will want to put great care into the appliance decisions. They will match with other features of the kitchen, including the wall colors and the flooring material. Homeowners may also consider having their walls professionally painted, to prevent stains and grease marks from ruining the paint.

The flooring is perhaps, one of the most important decisions of the kitchen remodel. There tends to be a lot of foot traffic in the kitchen. The kitchen may be the front or back access to your home, resulting in a lot of dirt or exterior debris being tracked onto it. These are all factors that you will want to take into consideration when choosing the kitchen flooring. Homeowners have many options when it comes to kitchen flooring, some more ideal than others. There are options such as carpeting, hardwood, travertine and terrazzo flooring.

Some homeowners may choose to keep their existing floor and simply restore or repair it. Terrazzo floor restoration, for example, can be completed on terrazzo flooring to make it look new again. Terrazzo floor restoration can become a part of the kitchen remodel process. However, 95% of consumers prefer hardwood for the common living areas.

Consumers can also choose to keep the same flooring material throughout the entire common living areas, or they can choose to break up each room with different materials. Installing a material like hardwood flooring or terrazzo flooring throughout the entire common living areas can create a nice open spaced look.

Floor covering categories market share wholesale dollars are Carpet and Areas Rugs 52.1%, vinyl sheet and floor tile 12.6%, ceramic floor and wall tile 12.5%, laminates 4.8%, hardwood 10.4%, stone 5.9% and other resilient (cork, rubber and other plastics and linoleum) 1.6%. These may all be flooring options for the kitchen remodel.

The homeowner should also consider how much care and cleaning will be required of the flooring they choose. Terrazzo floor restoration projects will still require proper cleaning. The best way to clean terrazzo floors will be provided by your terrazzo installation or repair contractor. You will also have to focus on things like terrazzo cleaning, terrazzo polishing and you may need further terrazzo floor restoration later on, again.

Tile floor coverings are very similar to that of terrazzo floor materials. Tile flooring may require special tile cleaning and tile floor cleaning with special cleaners. However, ceramic tiles tend to be a popular kitchen remodel option. Ceramic tile accounted for 12.5% of total U.S. floor coverings dollar sales of $18.76 billion dollars in 2012.

A kitchen remodel can leave a home looking new. It can also increase the functionality and the resale value of the home. A lot of thought and careful consideration should go into any kitchen remodel. Decisions like the type of flooring that will be installed are important. Homeowners will want to consider the functionality of the flooring and any special cleaning or repair requirements.