Flooring Buying Guide

HomeAdvisor, the home services website, estimates that it costs $3,131 to install new flooring in a standard, 320-square-foot living room (20 feet by 16 feet), with budget installations of, say, sheet vinyl at a bit under $1,000 and flooring like tile that requires more time and expertise to install costing up to $7,000.

Below, we detail different flooring types to help you choose based on how much foot traffic, sunlight, and wear and tear you expect your floor to endure. We’ve also outlined some often-overlooked details you’ll need to decide on, such as flooring textures and underlayments. Our flooring ratings can help in your search; we put the most common flooring types and brands—including Armstrong, LL Flooring (formerly Lumber Liquidators), Pergo, and Tarkett—through a series of tough tests that assess resistance to foot traffic, scratches, stains, dents, water, and sunlight. We also grade floors on slip resistance.

To test flooring for foot-traffic wear, we rub abrasive paper discs back and forth against 6x6-inch flooring samples, checking for wear after every 50 cycles. The best flooring is unscathed after 500 cycles, or 50,000 abrasive rubs. 

To test a floor’s resistance to denting, we drop a heavy, blunt weight that simulates a saucepan or large can of tomatoes, plus a lighter, pointier object that stands in for a dropped knife or fork. Our testers drop the weights from progressively higher release points, examining the flooring for visible damage after each drop. The higher the drop before damage becomes evident, the better a floor’s dent-resistance rating.

We evaluate potential for fading by exposing part of a flooring sample to ultraviolet rays for two weeks straight, then comparing the exposed portion to an unexposed portion. This shows us what happens over time to a section of flooring that gets more sunlight than the rest of a room.

Where Will the Flooring Be Installed?
The type of flooring you choose will be determined in part by where you plan to install it, and over what type of surface. Solid wood flooring, for example, cannot be installed directly over concrete and is a poor choice for humid areas such as basements and baths. Ceramic or porcelain tile requires a stiff, flat surface underneath to prevent cracking.

How Will the Floor Be Installed?
Different types of flooring are installed in different ways, some of which are DIY-friendly. For example, “floating” floors—typically laminate—consist of interlocking floorboards that use no adhesives; this easy-to-install design is popular with DIYers. But ceramic or porcelain tile is bound to the subfloor with thinset, and the gaps between the tiles are filled with grout. Solid wood flooring is typically nailed down or glued. Installation of either is better left to professionals. Consumer Reports flooring ratings show which installation options are available for each rated product.

Will the Flooring I Choose Need an Underlayment?
Underlayment materials include foam, cork, rubber, felt, and specialized soundproofing mats. The different function that each type performs will affect your choice—as will the type of flooring you’ve chosen and the existing subfloor. “If you’re installing hardwood flooring over a concrete subfloor, use an underlayment that offers moisture protection,” says Stefan Bucur, founder of Rhythm of the Home, a website specializing in home improvement. “Similarly, if you’re installing laminate or engineered flooring over an uneven subfloor, consider an underlayment that provides additional cushioning and helps to even out the surface.” Some luxury vinyl floors in CR’s ratings have thin foam pads attached to their bottom surfaces, replacing the underlayment. Thicker underlayments generally are more expensive, Bucur says.

How Important Is a Flooring Material’s Thickness?
Thin vinyl flooring is more likely to split or break during installation. That could mean you’ll have to buy more flooring to cover those accidents. Focus on vinyl flooring with a thickness of 7 mm or more; you can find thickness information on the product’s label or online product page. Thickness can be a factor in the durability of other flooring materials—and for solid wood, its ability to be refinished. (New solid wood planks are typically ¾ inch thick, enough to withstand multiple refinishes.) Check Consumer Reports’ flooring ratings for our test-based durability judgments of dozens of flooring models. 

Does the Thickness of a Floor’s Wear Layer Matter?
The wear layer is the clear protective coating applied to the top surface of a manufactured floorboard. Home Depot lets you search flooring by wear-layer thickness, shown in mil (thousandths of an inch). A thick wear layer sounds like it would protect better against foot traffic. But in Consumer Reports’ tests, we found that wasn’t necessarily so. For instance, between two vinyl flooring products with 20-mil wear layers, one earned an excellent score for foot traffic resistance while the other ranked below the middle. Bottom line: Don’t depend on the reported thickness of the wear layer alone. Consult reviews and Consumer Reports’ flooring ratings for the full picture on wear resistance.

What Should I Know About Surface Textures and Edge Styles?
The type of edge on the tile or planks you choose will have a bearing on how your floor looks—and how easy it is to clean. Prefinished wood and some laminate planks have beveled edges, which makes for a more forgiving installation but can trap dirt and grit later. Tile edges may be pressed (traditional) or rectified—meaning they’re mechanically cut to fit precisely together, which allows for thinner grout lines and an appearance that’s almost seamless, and a floor that’s easier to clean. Flooring with a textured surface can also trap dirt over time, but some texture is advisable in bathrooms and other wet areas to prevent slips and falls. Consumer Reports’ flooring ratings indicate which products are smooth, very textured, and in-between. Both texture and edge styles can influence floor care.

• Compare samples. Before you buy, get samples of your top flooring choices. Compare them side by side where they’re going to be installed, and look at them from different angles and in different light.

• Consider consistency. Manufacturers try to match solid and engineered wood flooring for color and grain. But variations can occur from one batch to the next, so buy all the flooring you’ll need at one time, and shuffle boards from multiple packages when installing. That tactic also works to reduce pattern repetition in laminate boards from the same box.

• Measure to avoid mistakes. To determine how much flooring you’ll need, measure the room’s square footage by multiplying its length by its width. (Divide an irregularly shaped room into smaller rectangles, calculate the square footage of each rectangle, and then add them together.) Then buy 7 to 10 percent extra to allow for mistakes, bad samples, and waste. Consider buying an extra box of flooring, in addition to the 7 to 10 percent extra, for future repairs or additions.

• Know your traffic patterns. Common high-traffic areas are entryways to rooms and to the house itself. Consider very resilient flooring for family rooms and other areas that pets and kids frequent. Our top products performed best in simulated foot-traffic tests. For less busy areas, consider one of the top engineered wood or bamboo floors for their natural veneer and easy installation.

• Don’t rush installation. Before installing wood or laminate flooring, unpack it and let it sit for one to three days in the space where it will be installed so that its temperature and moisture content will find equilibrium with the levels in the room. This is a critical step to prevent buckling or unsightly gaps between boards.

• Check for certification. Vinyl floors with the industry’s FloorScore certification emit relatively low levels of volatile organic compounds. For wood flooring, certification by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative offers some assurance that your flooring comes from responsibly managed forests—a plus for the planet. Check packaging for product and manufacturer certification.

• Seek estimates from multiple providers. The extra work is worth the effort. When nonprofit Consumers’ Checkbook compared flooring suppliers’ and installers’ estimates, it found prices offered by the large players to be typically—but not always—lower than those at independent stores. However, the organization said it can be hard to compare estimates from the big players—Empire Today, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Lumber Liquidators (now LL Flooring)—that sell private-label products that you won’t find elsewhere. 

• Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples. Get a total price, in writing, from every contractor. Details count—such as whether you want to replace baseboards after the installation, or just reuse them.

• Check prices with overstock discounters. They buy directly from manufacturers and often sell flooring below list price. 

• Save on opened or damaged boxes. You can save on flooring with minor flaws if you can install it where it won’t be noticed—say, in a basement laundry room.

• Install a floating floor yourself. Your chance of success is best if the subfloor is flat. (Our flooring ratings indicate which floors are floating.) Any floor that needs to be glued, stapled, or nailed is better left to professionals.

• Save hundreds by doing some prep work yourself. Pull up carpet and remove the tackboards. Bang protruding nails or staples down into the subfloor, and vacuum up any dirt or dust. Remove the baseboards, and flatten out any high spots by nailing or sanding them down.

• Consider how to pay. Paying a flooring installer in cash can shave a few percentage points off the price. If that’s not going to work for you, research financing options. Home equity lines of credit, for instance, typically have lower interest rates than home equity loans. If you plan to put the project on a credit card, look out for 0 percent offers; those are most beneficial if you can pay the full amount before the promotional period is over. Alternatively, check your existing credit cards for cash-back features for this type of purchase.

For additional helpful information, see our flooring ratings.