Hey party people!
If you are a regular Parties for Pennies follower, you know that we had quite an unfortunate event over a month ago. One of our pipes cracked, resulting in a very wet basement, mold discovery, and needing new flooring upstairs and downstairs.
That’s the problem, but thankfully, Mohawk Flooring and Builder’s Floor Covering provided the solution. No, they don’t take care of mold too, BUT they do provide flooring that will help prevent problems in the future.
Mike and I visited Builder’s Floor Covering in Buckhead (area of Atlanta) to choose what type of flooring we wanted for our upstairs and downstairs. The one thing we were pretty sure of was that we wanted was either laminate or luxury vinyl tile (also referred to as LVT).
Why? Here are our reasons:
* Laminate or Luxury Vinyl Tile is much easier to maintain than hardwoods.
* It’s resistant to sunlight, stains, and wear.
* Many types are water resistant. Even though all of our plumbing is now updated, living in a house built in the 60s, we just wanted extra assurance.
* Laminate and LVT flooring can be installed over almost anything – wood subfloors, concrete, etc. Our upstairs has wood subfloors and our downstairs is concrete so this covered our bases.
* We love the look of hardwoods without the price.
* We had carpet downstairs beforehand, and even though our dog loved nuzzling his head in it, we were ready for a change.
While we knew we wanted laminate or luxury vinyl tile, we weren’t sure which one. Here’s a side by side comparison…
Laminate and Luxury Vinyl Tile are both great choices, overall. They both look and feel like hardwoods. They’re easy to maintain and clean. Not to mention, they’re sustainable. Mohawk Laminate Flooring uses 74% pre-consumer recycled material.
Specifically, though, luxury vinyl tile had our hearts when we heard how water resistant it is! Luxury Vinyl Tile works great in bathrooms and laundry rooms…and now in man caves (at least those with post-flooding fear disorder). We decided Luxury Vinyl Tile was the WAY TO GO in the man cave.
For upstairs, we weren’t as concerned with the water resistance as with all the traffic up there. While both options are very durable, we decided on laminate for upstairs to combat the possible scuffs and scratches.
That settles what TYPE of flooring we wanted, but that’s only the beginning. There are so many things to think about! Through our decision-making process, I learned several tips on choosing flooring that may help you.
If you are able to sit down and discuss all of this, it will make your decision process so much easier.
First, decide what you’re wanting. Write down what type of look you want for the room. Do you want a more traditional look? Do you want a rustic look? Most people replace their flooring every 7 years or so. Think about a look that you know will still look great in 7 years.
We had to decide what type of look we wanted for two totally different rooms: Living/Kitchen area and the Man Cave Basement. For the living and kitchen area, we wanted a warm feel that was updated. Our flooring before was more of a light caramel color. You can kind of tell in the picture below.
While it wasn’t a big enough deal to make us re-do the flooring before, we always wanted a darker flooring.
For the man cave, we always had in mind darker walls (spoiler alert) so lighter flooring seemed to make sense to balance it out.
Living/Kitchen/Dining Area = Updated, Warm, Cozy Feel
Man Cave Basement Area = Rugged, Dark Feel
Secondly, think through how you will use your flooring on a daily basis. Is it a high traffic area? Will there be kids crawling around on it? Pets? Will you be moving heavy things across the floor frequently?
Our answer for the LKD (Living, Kitchen, Dining) area is it’s a high traffic area where spills are frequent, scuffmarks are expected, and Guinness (our dog) runs around on.
For the man cave, it’s not a high traffic area. Scuffmarks shouldn’t be a problem. Since it is in the basement, our main concern is water resistance and sound reflection.
You may have no clue what finish or texture you want for your flooring, but one thing you should decide on is whether you want light or dark flooring. That will help your decision-making process tremendously.
Light flooring opens up a room but scuffmarks are more visible. Dark flooring warms up a room, but shows pet hair much more.
We decided on darker flooring for the LKD area because we wanted to warm up the room and we already had lighter kitchen cabinets, wall color, and accessories. We also knew the darker flooring wouldn’t show spills or scuffmarks. The only problem is the pet hair. Our little G-dog sheds already, so we were pretty used to cleaning hair up frequently.
For the man cave, we went the direction of lighter flooring. We were already tossing around the idea of doing darker walls, so the lighter flooring would help balance it. Down there, we don’t really need to worry about scuff marks as much.
This tip really helped us solidify our decision. Most of the time you can get samples from the store to take home. Do it! More than likely, you’ll be stuck with this flooring for at least seven years so make sure you love it. Think about any future changes you are planning to do to that room – painting, new cabinets, etc. Choose flooring that will mesh well for years down the road.
We took both our samples home and tested them against our kitchen cabinets, walls, existing furniture, etc.
Another option, if you can’t take the samples home, is to go to MohawkFlooring.com and print off the swatches that you are considering.
You can at least get a good idea of how the color will mesh with the rest of the room.
Here’s Mike as we were deciding between our final selections.
This is Christa, from Builder’s Floor Covering. She was so helpful in our decision-making process. She’s actually an interior designer, so she has the incredible knowledge of Mohawk Flooring and she also has great advice for the overall look of the room.
Wanna know what we decided on?
We loved the brightness of the orange for the man cave and the dark blue for the LDK area – Gator colors, which make my husband very happy.
Just kidding.
We chose Mohawk Flooring’s Montclair Laminate in Warm Cider Oak for our LDK area. The dark color was perfect and it really does LOOK like real hardwoods. It’s textured to feel like hardwood flooring and even has ridges along the seams. It’s scratch and water resistant which makes it perfect for our kitchen area. Although it may show Guinness hair more, he can run on it all he wants and it won’t scratch.
For the man cave, we chose Mohawk Flooring’s Luxury Vinyl Tile Configurations 7.25 in Barnwood Chestnut. We fell in love with the weathered look, the mix of grey and browns, and it’s hardwood-like texture. It will lighten up the man cave without going too light.
Again, the Barnwood Chestnut luxury vinyl tile is water resistant and is easy to install over concrete.
We have our order in, so our next step is setting up the install. We are soo thrilled that we won’t have to stare at our cut out wood subfloor in the kitchen, or concrete floors in the basement from the ripped up, water-soaked carpet anymore.
What do you think? Do you think we chose wisely?
Can’t wait to show what a difference this Mohawk Flooring is going to make in our home!
I’m partnering with the “Mohawk Floors Me, as Told by Bloggers” program, but as always, all opinions, experiences and home projects are my own.
