When it comes to your home, you always want the best. Whether you just bought a house, or are renovating your home, your floor matters. The decision you have to make is what you want to walk on. Whether you’re looking for flooring in Toronto or flooring in Mississauga or flooring in whatever city/town you live in, it is really important you do some basic research. Things you need to keep in mind:
- What is your budget?
- What kind of lifestyle do you have? (Family with little kids, animals-in particular dogs and cats, etc)
After you answer these two questions you can start to see which type of flooring you want and if it will work with your two main criteria. An example of this is if you have three dogs running around your house, you do not want anything sensitive to scratching. The next thing you need to do is: a bit of research, going on websites of local companies and seeing what they have to offer like The Floor Shop – a Toronto flooring company, they show you six options that can be done to your floor. If you’re not satisfied you go to another website, and most companies will have a similar layout. Once you find two or three companies you seem to like, you can call and ask for a quote or go see their show room. Note that some places have an interior designer that you can refer to for advice; they become really helpful in some situations if you are not sure if the rest of your house will welcome your new floors.
Other Tips and Things to Consider
- If you plan on painting your house, do it before the floor, nothing is worse than having your floor stained by paint, or scratched by ladders that are used to paint your house.
- Are you planning to get new furniture? Wait until the flooring is done, don’t go through the hassle of moving everything around—if you’re not getting new furniture than put plastic covering on it and move it to a room that is not being floored. Note to be careful when carrying furniture on floor, try not to drag!
- Do it all at once, don’t do one room now and the rest later-like next month. Most of the time it never ends up getting done, or it takes so long that you’ll get so tired of the whole process you won’t get to appreciate the work that was done.
- Be prepared that what may look good in a showroom or in a picture of someone else’s home, may not necessarily look that good in your home on a larger scale.
- If your house or apartment has stairs, you need to consider them!
- You can leave carpet on one floor if you’d like—even just have it in one room, don’t recommend it, but it is possible.
Have fun, and don’t rush.
Stan D. Jr. of Granite Countertops Toronto