HARDWOOD FLOORING

If you are like most people you probably love the look and charm of a real hardwood floor. For centuries people have used wood floors throughout their homes to add warmth and charm. Hardwood floors never seem to go out of fashion and can add real value to your home. Today, many designers recommend hardwood floors as the main base-layer and then suggest a rug to enhance the room's overall interior color scheme.

The manufacturing of prefinished hardwood flooring has dramatically improved the finish, durability and ease of maintenance of hardwood flooring. No more paste waxing your hardwood floors! With the introduction of engineered wood floors you can use hardwood floors in many different areas in the home that 3/4" solid wood floors are not recommended for. Also, engineered wood floors waste less of the tree during production. Many engineered wood floors can now be floated over a variety of sub-floors and without having to staple, nail or glue-down the planks to the sub-floor.

It is truly amazing today how many new colorations, wood species, and widths are available to homeowners. Besides the common North American hardwoods (such as oak, maple, hickory and ash), many wood flooring manufacturers now offer exotic hardwood species from all around the World. If you are looking for ways to really express your own personal interior decorating tastes with a more unique looking wood floor you need to go see the exotic wood floors offered by many of the hardwood flooring brands.

TILE FLOORING

Ceramic tile offers unlimited decorating possibilities

With today's technology advancements manufacturers many new tile designs and tile applications are available for both homeowners and commercial facilities. If you have never used ceramic tile before or it has been a long time since you have done so, you will be amazed at the wide selection of colors, sizes, shapes and new textures that are now available.

Ceramic tile is a natural product made up of clay, a number of other naturally-occurring minerals and water. Ceramic tile comes in both glazed and unglazed tiles. Glazed ceramic tile has a ceramic coating applied to the tile body which gives the tile its color and finish. Ceramic tile is a popular choice for your interior floors and walls and offers unlimited decorating possibilities.

LAMINATE FLOORING

It's amazing to see how many new laminate flooring styles and colors are available today. As laminate technology has improved so have the designs, realism and plank shapes of laminate flooring. Laminate flooring is not just offered in wood plank designs, many manufacturers offer a wide range of colors in realistic stone, slate and tile designs with grout lines.

Laminate floors are often confused with laminate wood floors. Laminate wood floors are really engineered wood floors and are constructed totally from wood plies laminated together. Whereas, laminate floors consist of some type of fiber core body with a print layer and a top coating of melamine.

There many advantages to laminate floors. Laminate floors can give you realistic looking ceramic or stone tile appearances without the hassle of having to clean soiled grout joints and is far less costly to install. Also, if you are concerned with upkeep of a wood floor (especially with large pets) than a laminate floor may be your answer. If you are concerned with tearing up your old floor than a floating laminate floor may be a great alternative for you. (Floating refers to the floating installation method, where the individual planks are locked together but never attached to the subfloor underneath. Laminate floors have a special tongue and groove locking system that tightly join the planks & tiles together. No glue, nails or staples needed.

VINYL FLOORING

No other floor covering category offers the variety of colors and patterns as vinyl flooring! Thanks to some great advancements in styling and technology, today's vinyl floors (also called resilient floors) have been changed forever.

The unique manufacturing processes used today can replicate the look and textures of real ceramic tile, stone and wood grains. Vinyl floors are manufactured in both sheet and tile. The vinyl sheet floors are offered in both 6 foot and 12 foot widths and the vinyl tiles come in various sizes and thicknesses. Both types of vinyl floors come in a wide array of patterns and colors.

Vinyl tiles are ideal for the do-it-yourself projects in kitchens and bathrooms. They come in both self-stick tiles (adhesive pre-applied at factory) or dry back tiles for glue-down installation. Vinyl tiles range from 1/16" thick to 1/8" thick. Sheet vinyl can be a little trickier to install for the do-it-yourself person. For information about installing a vinyl floor you should always refer to the manufacturer's written documents

CARPET

Carpet not only quiets a room but also offers homeowners more warmth and softness to touch than any other flooring product. Carpet is also more forgiving when installed over uneven subfloors, such as an uneven concrete slab.

The newest trends in carpet are more sophisticated elegant patterned designs. Many patterned textured carpets such as multi-looped berbers are becoming popular with homeowners. The result gives a more three-dimensional appearance and pattern-on-pattern gives carpet a more artistic and elegant look and also helps hide traffic patterns.

Advancements in carpet fiber technology and in carpet construction are making carpets softer, more stain-resistant and helping retain their like-new appearance far better than ever before. Among the most popular choices in carpet construction with homeowners today are berber carpets, patterned carpets and textured cut pile saxonies that don't show foot prints or traffic patterns.

Even carpet cushions have dramatically been improved. Carpet cushions are now available that will block spills from penetrating the cushion and soaking into the subfloor. Some cushions help eliminate odors in your carpet as well.