Table of Contents
- What to Consider When Choosing Laundry Room Flooring
- Best Types of Flooring for Laundry Rooms
- Tips for Choosing Laundry Room Floors
- Schedule an Appointment with 50Floor Today
You spend a lot of time in your laundry room washing, drying, folding and organizing your clothes and other linens. So, you want your laundry room’s flooring to be attractive and easy to clean and maintain. Your laundry room will likely see lots of different types of messes that your flooring will need to be able to handle. For example, if your washer or dryer were to malfunction and cause a leak, you want flooring that can withstand significant water damage.
Deciding what kind of flooring to use in your laundry room will require you to research and weigh out the benefits of each option. You’ll have several factors to consider when choosing your laundry room floors, and your decision will ultimately depend on your personal preferences, lifestyle and how you plan to use your laundry room.
What to Consider When Choosing Laundry Room Flooring
As with any big decision you make as a homeowner, upgrading your laundry room floors will require you to carefully consider your options. A few factors to consider when choosing laundry room flooring include the following:
- Purpose: How will your family usually use the laundry room? For example, if a mudroom also serves as an entrance to the home, you might want flooring that can withstand heavy foot traffic and muddy sneakers. If, on the other hand, it’s a separate room in an entirely different area of the house, your flooring might not have to be quite as heavy-duty. Ask yourself how often you and your family will use this area, then decide about the remaining factors accordingly.
- Price: How much money are you willing to spend on your laundry room flooring? Every type of flooring will vary in price based on the material. Depending on how often you plan on using the laundry room, it might be worth investing a bit more money into a more durable or attractive type of flooring. If, on the other hand, your laundry room likely won’t see too much use, you might decide to choose a more affordable type of flooring. Consider the size of your laundry room when you set your budget, as purchasing flooring materials to cover a larger room will cost more.
- Aesthetic: People planning to spend a significant amount of time in their laundry room may prioritize how aesthetically pleasing the flooring is. You might also want a great-looking laundry room if it also serves as an entrance to your home that guests may use. Hardwood and luxury vinyl are the most aesthetically pleasing flooring types for laundry rooms.
- Durability: Does flooring in your laundry room need to be more durable than anything else? This consideration is especially important for households with pets that might be running around with long nails and tossing around hard chew toys and bones. Kids might also be rough on your laundry room flooring if it’s in an area of the home where they might run through it. Think about how much activity this room will see, then decide how durable your flooring will need to withstand it.
- Location in your home: Where is your laundry room located in your home? It could be in your basement, the garage, the second floor, the first floor or another area of the house. The placement of the laundry room will affect the type of flooring you choose because it changes the environment the material must be able to exist. For example, basements typically have more moisture than other rooms of the home, so you’ll need a more moisture-resistant type of flooring if your laundry room is downstairs.
- Maintenance requirements: How easy to clean do you need your laundry room floors to be? If you can already see the kids tracking their muddy sneakers and dirt-covered soccer cleats through the laundry room or anticipate many spills and other messes in this room, make sure you choose a type of flooring that can stand up to this. Remember, you may be using cleaning products such as laundry detergents and fabric softeners that contain chemicals that could leave stains on some types of flooring. For households that might not use the laundry room quite as often, easy maintenance may not be as important to you as saving money.
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Best Flooring for Laundry Rooms
Now that you know what to consider as you update your laundry room floors, you might wonder about your specific choices. Although everyone’s preferences and situations vary, a few types of flooring are typically the best option for most households.
Here are four of the best flooring types for a laundry room:
1. Luxury Vinyl
Many homeowners choose luxury vinyl flooring for laundry rooms because it’s one of the best materials for durability and endurance. This flooring is ideal for laundry rooms with lots of use, such as those that serve as an entrance through the garage. The synthetic materials and high-quality construction of luxury vinyl tile (LVT) or luxury vinyl planks (LVP) offer increased protection over many natural flooring options.
Additional benefits of choosing luxury vinyl for laundry rooms include:
- Appearance: Luxury vinyl offers an extensive selection of colors and patterns, including materials replicating the look of natural woodgrains and stone.
- Waterproof: This flooring holds up better against splashes and spills than many other flooring options, making it the perfect choice for laundry rooms. Many luxury vinyl options are also stain-resistant.
- Affordability: Luxury vinyl is among the most economical flooring styles. Fast and easy installation allows you to save even more money.
- Low maintenance: Basic care for luxury vinyl flooring involves regular vacuuming, sweeping or applying a damp mop.
2. Laminate
Laminate flooring contains certain synthetic materials that replicate hardwood. Although laminate flooring doesn’t have the exact look and feel of hardwood, it comes close and is typically lower in price. This flooring is also highly durable and can withstand the toughest stains and spills.
Several of the primary benefits of using laminate in your laundry room include:
- Water resistance: Laminate flooring can withstand small spills and leaks. As long as the material isn’t completely soaked, it can handle more moisture than other options, like hardwood.
- Easy care: It’s easy to wipe up spills and dirt from laminate flooring, and it’s also exceptionally stain-resistant. Maintaining laminate is as easy as sweeping or applying a wet mop.
- Budget-friendly: Laminate flooring is a more economical option than some other materials. Seamless installation offers even more cost savings.
- Comfort: Laminate’s core and backing layers offer significantly more comfort than options like porcelain and ceramic tile, especially for those who spend a lot of time in the laundry room loading, unloading and folding clothes.
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3. Tile
Another common choice for laundry room flooring is tile. Although traditional tile styles like porcelain and ceramic were popular years ago, many of today’s homeowners prefer luxury vinyl tile (LVT) because of its increased benefits. As a result, 50Floor exclusively offers LVT in a broad selection of patterns and colors, enabling you to create a look that complements your style preferences.
Luxury vinyl tile has become a top choice for laundry rooms among today’s homeowners because of the many advantages it offers over more costly materials like porcelain and ceramic. Although these natural materials were popular for laundry rooms years ago, LVT offers greater protection and durability at a fraction of the cost. Additionally, LVT comes in a comprehensive range of patterns and colors, including designs that mimic natural stone or woodgrains.
More benefits of choosing LVT over natural materials for your laundry room include:
- Cost: Low material costs and ease of installation make LVT much more economical than natural wood or ceramic tile.
- Durability: Luxury vinyl tile’s technologically advanced construction stands up much better to the chips and cracks that occur in porcelain and ceramic.
- Diversity: LVT comes in more colors and design choices to complement your existing paint schemes and lighting.
- Waterproof: LVT offers protection against minor splashes, spills and leaks common in laundry rooms.
- Easy to Maintain: LVT is stain-resistant, requiring minimal effort to wipe up most minor spills. Regular care is simple with a damp mop, a broom or a vacuum cleaner.
4. Hardwood
Homeowners often view hardwood flooring as the most luxurious option for flooring. It looks elegant and comes in many different types, so homeowners can customize their flooring with colors and stain patterns. You can even adjust the thickness of the wood, depending on your aesthetic preferences.
Engineered hardwood is often a more practical option for laundry rooms because of its synthetic construction and enhanced protection against moisture. With a similar appearance to natural hardwood, engineered hardwood offers many of the same aesthetics.
Additional benefits of choosing hardwood for your laundry room include:
- Longevity: With proper care and maintenance, engineered hardwood can provide decades of reliable use and service.
- Strength: Engineered hardwood’s construction offers protection against moisture and humidity and can maintain its shape without expanding, contracting or warping.
- Versatility: This flooring comes in an extensive selection of colors and finishes, from walnut and oak to birch and maple, to complement your existing decor.
- Cost: If pricing is a priority, engineered hardwood offers similar aesthetics to natural hardwood at a lower cost.
Tips for Choosing Laundry Room Floors
Now that you’re familiar with your laundry room options for flooring materials, you might still need some guidance on how to make the decision. Here are some tips to help you choose the best flooring for your laundry room:
- Be realistic:Whether it concerns your budget or how much use your laundry room will see, be realistic about your needs. Don’t spend extra money on extremely durable or attractive flooring for a laundry room you’ll only use a few times a month. Instead, you can put that money into nicer flooring for your living room or other high-traffic areas of the home.
- Examine your current flooring: Look at the flooring in your laundry room. Is it damaged or dirty? If so, you might want to invest in more durable flooring that’s easier to maintain than what you have now. On the other hand, if you’ve had the same flooring for years and it has no sign of wear and tear, you might not use the space enough that it calls for such high-quality materials.
- Consider your home’s resale value:If you’re planning on selling your house eventually, you might want to consider how the flooring you choose will impact its resale value. Investing in top-of-the-line flooring may be worthwhile if it will boost your home’s resale value and help the house stand out in the real estate market. Be sure to consider both quality and appearance if you plan to sell soon.
- Look at samples in person before deciding:Everything looks different in person compared to online, including types of flooring. You want to see the material, color and style in person before going through the installation process only to realize it doesn’t look quite right. Whether you visit a store or have a flooring professional bring samples to your home, taking the time to look at your options in person will pay off in the long run.
- Get advice from a professional:Talking with a flooring specialist is a smart way to ensure you cover all your bases when choosing your laundry room flooring. They’ll be able to bring up points you might not have thought of, as well as suggest laundry room floor ideas specific to your unique situation. By working with a company that will send a knowledgeable team member to your home with several flooring samples, you can see each option in person in your home’s environment while getting individual assistance from a professional.
Laundry Room Flooring Ideas and Inspiration
Although they may not have much space, laundry rooms are great for implementing personal aesthetics through flooring colors and styles. If you could use some extra inspiration for your laundry room, consider these few design choices that can make your vision for the perfect space come to life:
Colors
Colors are fascinating because they can create illusions with only a single shade. For example, lighter floor colors allow a room to look larger than it is because it draws attention to other furniture, decorations and wall colors.
If you want your laundry room to look more spacious, consider choosing beige, white, light gray, light brown or pastels for your floor. If your top priorities are cleanliness and easy maintenance, you can also go with a darker floor that hides messes easily. In laundry rooms, stains and spills are incredibly common. While light colors might make these messes more evident, dark shades mask them and add elegant style to your laundry room.
Styles
Adding different layouts and patterns to your floor can give your laundry room extra flair. Luckily, with the various shapes and sizes that luxury vinyl, laminate, hardwood and tile floors come in, the possibilities for any aesthetic laundry room are endless.
Here are a few different styles you can choose for your laundry room floors:
- Rustic with a modern twist: Nothing says cozy quite like the look of hardwood. You can go with the relaxing ambiance that hardwood, luxury vinyl and laminate flooring offer. With these wood appearances, you can choose gray, beige, white or black floor panels that give your laundry room a cozy cabin feel with styles that complement modern trends.
- Timeless tile: Many homeowners and business owners have hexagon, penny and other shaped tiles in their laundry rooms. While the idea may seem dated, the look fits perfectly with modern flooring trends. Create visually aesthetic floors by installing shaped tiles in your laundry room.
- Symmetrical patterns: Patterened tiles and luxury vinyl come in aesthetic patterns that can fit boho, minimalistic and other styles you love. With designs that include flowers, curved lines and dots, there are many symmetrical patterns you can create for a modern aesthetic in your laundry room.
Schedule an Appointment With 50Floor Today
When you trust 50Floor to help you choose your laundry room floors, you get an in-home shopping experience that surpasses other options.
A flooring consultant from 50Floor will come to your home with several flooring samples for you to see. You can look at each option in the room where you plan to install it to see how it will look in your home’s lighting and setting. Everyone’s flooring preferences are different, so seeing your choices in person and having assistance from a flooring professional will make your decision much easier.
If you’re ready to update your laundry room floors, schedule an appointment with 50Floor today. You can also contact us with any flooring questions or request more information about our products and services. We look forward to helping you with all your laundry room and other flooring needs!