When it comes to building a home there are a multitude of flooring options available but not all options are suitable for all spaces, and not all flooring options will suit your specific needs. These days, there are no rules when it comes to the types of flooring you choose for your new home and with the latest developments in hard flooring technology, you can now put laminate and timber into bathrooms and other wet areas. So, how do you decide what flooring type to put in your new home?
To help get you started, our flooring partner, Flooring Xtra takes us through the different flooring options available to you for each space in your new build.
What Flooring Should I Use In My Kitchen?
A kitchen is a high-traffic area where you’ll likely spend lots of time cooking and washing dishes so you’ll need to consider a durable option for this space that is both stain and water-resistant. At Flooring Xtra we recommend a couple of flooring options for use in the kitchen:
Laminate: an affordable yet incredibly practical and stylish option for kitchens. We are seeing more and more homes, particularly those that are being built new, feature a laminate floor. Open-plan living, dining and kitchen spaces lend themselves well to a laminate floor for a consistent look throughout.
Engineered Timber: the latest developments in engineered timber flooring technology mean that most high-quality timber floors now offer a water-resistant surface, making them a great option for kitchens for those who can’t go past the look and feel of real timber. Although less stain-resistant than a laminate floor, a timber floor is a premium choice that provides style, durability and water resistance for this space. Similar to laminate, choosing an engineered timber floor gives you a consistent look throughout an open-plan kitchen and living space.
LVT or Sheet Vinyl: LVT and Sheet Vinyl offer cost-effective, durable flooring options for the kitchen that are easy to maintain and clean. Depending on the quality, these floors may be more prone to fading from sun exposure. Available in a range of styles covering wood, stone and tile-looks, they offer a variety of stylish choices that could also be applied to other areas of the home for a consistent look throughout.
Now the fun part, choosing the colour scheme and style, this is something our team of colour consultants help you with when building a Latitude Home. Our colour consultants will assist in ensuring that there is a consistency of style throughout your home and create harmonious transitions between surfaces.
What Flooring Should I Use In My Lounge?
The flooring you choose for your lounge will largely depend on the layout of your living space. If your lounge is separate from your kitchen and dining, most will opt for a carpet for warmth and comfort underfoot. However, we are seeing open-plan living areas becoming increasingly popular and customers are leaning towards the use of a hard flooring option throughout the whole space, including the lounge room.
Hard Flooring: if you are opting for an open plan kitchen, dining and living room and prefer to use a consistent flooring choice, we recommend using a laminate, engineered timber, LVT or sheet vinyl for a durable and stylish look.
Carpet:
Unsurprisingly, carpet continues to be the most popular choice for a New Zealand lounge room. Coupled with our standard build specifications of pink batts, double glazing and a heat pump, carpet adds the final layer of warmth to reduce long-term heating costs. There are four carpet fibres to choose from and our flooring experts at Flooring Xtra, explain the difference between each to help you decide what is right for your new build.
Wool is a longstanding, popular choice for New Zealand homes as it creates luxurious warmth and comfort underfoot. It’s also anti-allergenic, fire retardant, and resists most stains. Whilst Wool is considered a premium product, it is available at varying price points to suit most budgets. You’ll find styles in both a cut and a loop pile to suit your individual taste and vision for your home.
Solution Dyed Nylon tends to be a more cost-effective option than Wool and offers good stain and fade resistance, making it a great option for young families. You’ll now find Solution Dyed Nylon in a loop or textured pile as well as a cut pile, offering more choice than ever.
Polyester is the less expensive option of man-made fibre carpets and is lovely and soft, but better suited to low-traffic areas as they wear quicker than nylon.
ECONYL is a new, sustainable type of carpet that recycles fishing nets to create carpet fibre similar to a Solution Dyed Nylon in look and feel. Available in both a cut and a loop pile, this is a great option for those looking to make an environmentally conscious choice without compromising on style.
What Flooring Should I Use In My Bedroom?
Similar to the lounge room, carpet continues to be the most popular flooring choice for bedrooms for obvious reasons however we are seeing some customers opt for hard flooring throughout the entire home, paired with rugs for comfort and warmth in bedrooms.
What Flooring Should I Use In My Hallway?
Depending on what you’ve used in other rooms it will influence your choice of flooring, as it can start looking a bit hap-hazard having too many choices and variations throughout your home. Things to consider are that a hallway is a high-traffic area, as such needs a durable option that won’t show wear and tear quickly. Sensible options for this high-traffic area would be laminate or timber with a rug or a more hard-wearing carpet such as a heavy duty Solution Dyed Nylon or wool.
What Flooring Should I Use In My Bathroom?
The main requirement of bathroom flooring is for it to be waterproof and durable. A popular choice is tiled flooring, especially when creating a wet room.
A cost-effective alternative to tiles and a popular flooring choice in bathrooms is vinyl flooring. Especially since vinyl flooring can come in; tile look, wood look, stone look options, and modern surface replications such as stone look are incredibly convincing and can look like a full coverage floor as opposed to the heavily patterned vinyl of the past. Vinyl also has the ability to complement your bathroom tiles used around baths and vanities.
You can then choose to have your main bathroom/family bathroom flooring match your ensuite or treat your ensuite as a separate oasis and match it to your bedroom style.
If you like the idea of extending your Laminate or Timber into the bathroom, the developments in hard flooring technology now give you the option to use a waterproof surface Laminate or Timber in this space. Speak to your local floor expert at Flooring Xtra to discuss the options available to you.
Underfloor heating can be used with most hard flooring types and is an addition to your bathroom that you won’t regret!
What Flooring Should I Use In My Laundry?
Similar to a kitchen and bathroom, your laundry too requires durable flooring that can withstand water and spills. Based on what you’ve used in your kitchen and bathroom, whether that’s laminate, timber, vinyl or LVT, this will likely impact what you choose to use in your laundry. Generally being a smaller room you could choose to have a bit of fun and play with bold colours or pattern options. If this sounds like you, check out the range of patterned Vinyl at Flooring Xtra.
Now that you’ve chosen your flooring types throughout your new home, you can get to the fun part, choosing the colour scheme and style. This is something our team of colour consultants help you with when building a Latitude Home. Our colour consultants will assist in ensuring that there is a consistency of style throughout your home and create harmonious transitions between surfaces.
As you can see, there are many great flooring options that will work well in your home, and suit your needs and budget. The Latitude Homes team are with you each step of the way, with the support of our flooring partner, Flooring Xtra to guide you through these decisions when building with us. Feeling inspired to look at flooring options?