Choosing a floor covering

Faced with the need to repair, any host will sooner or later have to make a difficult choice of flooring.The vast majority of people do not bother too much and choose banal linoleum, carpet or tile.Statistics says that such a choice is made 90% of homeowners.At the same few people are interested in the pros and cons of these coatings, not to mention the fact that there are other more attractive options for floor finishes.Take, for example, a laminate, which today is not more expensive than linoleum, parquet, with its eco-friendliness, the cork, which is able to maintain its original shape after deformation.There is also a lot of new products in the construction market, which have quite unique properties and consumer qualities.

What are the requirements for the flooring in different rooms

All rooms in the house have their own functionality.For this reason, and to the floor covering are presented very different requirements.The floor in the hallway should be quite different than in the children's room.On this basis, we consider separately and in more detail the appointment of the premises and a cover suitable for each of them.

Hallway plays gateway function between the house and the street.It is the first room, which includes everyone who opens the door of the apartment or house.So here we have the deposition of sand and dirt entering with shoes on the floor.All this is very serious can damage the flooring, so this room is to choose a very strong and durable material, which is not afraid of water and is very easy to clean.

Toilet and bathroom are almost constant contact with water.Thus, there may happen floods with large amounts of fluid leakage.All this imposes on the floor covering special requirements: perfect water resistance, full tightness, lack of the possibility of mold and mildew, easy cleaning.

The flooring in the kitchen should have the same properties as in the bathroom, but other than that, its surface should be easily removed oil and grease contamination.

Balcony and loggia requires the use of a durable and resistant to temperature changes flooring.Data performance will be enough, if the balcony insulated, glazed or even converted into an extra the heated room.In the absence of any glazing must be placed on the floor resistant to precipitation material: tile, stone.

Most of the time all the inhabitants of the house, as well as their guests takes place in the living room or dining room.This imposes the requirement of special flooring durability and resistance to abrasion.For the bedroom should be selected coating, which has the highest ecological and very easy to clean from dust.He must collect as little as possible of dirt.

Particular attention should be paid to the flooring in the nursery.After all, he must have the same qualities as the material for the living room, in terms of resistance to abrasion, and to be environmentally friendly, both in the bedroom.In addition, it should not pose a danger to children in terms of injury when falling.

In addition to these characteristics peculiar to different floor coverings, there are general requirements, such as the reasonable price and ease of installation.To have a good grasp on what area of ​​your apartment properties of the material will be the most appropriate, it is necessary to get acquainted with the available varieties of flooring, their pros and cons.

What are the different types of coatings for floors

modern high-tech industry produces a large amount of floor coverings that have a huge range of qualities.Among them are often used:

• wooden floorboard.
• Several varieties of laminate.
• Parquet.
• Linoleum different types.
• carpet.
• Ceramic tile.
• Marmoleum.
• Different types of self-leveling floors.
• cork.

Next, consider the main characteristics of all of these types of flooring and determine where best to use each of them.

wooden floorboard

This is one of the oldest flooring.Before floor boards made of solid wood by conventional sawing logs.Today most batten made of laminated wood, which greatly enhanced its quality as bitches are practically absent, and the risk of deformation of the material is minimal.Gender of the floorboard requires a periodic refresh paintwork.As advantages plank floor should be noted its durability and ease of care.Appeared with time worn and chipped paint, or can be treated with lacquer.Among the shortcomings of this material is the most important is the paucity of design choice.After all, it is the board board.In addition, high-quality and smooth lay floor boards can independently not everyone, so you have to resort to professional assistance.

Laminate and classes

To manufacture laminate, MDF necessary panels to handle special resin, and then stick to them a layer of paper, compressed at high temperature andlacquered.This technology allows you to get a few classes laminate.They differ in strength and depend on the choice of MDF panels.Classification is required to use laminate in different rooms.So 21-23 classes used for premises, and for the corridor and the kitchen seems most rational material 31-33 classes.Advantages of the laminate

mainly consist in the simplicity of its installation.Doing this is quite simple, if you read the rules.Mount laminate as you can with glue and without him.However, in the first case, the coating even and longer lasting, but it is impossible to make out already.The second option allows you to create dismantled and coverage, which makes it possible to replace one of the panels, if it is damaged.Any laminate bears the anti-static coating, which makes it easier to care for him.Finally, there are a myriad of design decisions on appearance of the laminate, which allows him to pick almost any interior.

have laminate and disadvantages, including: low sustainability, involving the use in its manufacture of resins, impregnations and varnishes, poor stability when exposed to water, poor ergonomics, low durability, which, however, is highly dependent on the laminate type.High grades are the most durable, but they are an order of magnitude higher than the lower classes.

laminate and parquet flooring

Parquet board made by gluing an ordinary wooden framework of a thin layer (3 - 5 mm), fine wood.Mount floorboard by sticking with glue on the flat surface sub-floor.Parquet board is at the ends of locks, like laminate, so its installation is quite convenient.Unlike boards, parquet boards is a small, raised patches at surface.They are glued to it with a special postmark.

advantages of the parquet in its environmental friendliness, cleanliness and durability.It is very easy to install and easy to maintain.At the same parquet flooring and have a rather limited design, due to the naturalness of the coating.

Linoleum Linoleum - is an artificial material, which is sold in rolls of a width from 1 to 6 meters.Its thickness is of 1.5-5 mm.Furthermore, linoleum and produced as tiles, tiles so-called PVC.Laying linoleum is carried out by bonding special adhesive.Linoleum produced from rubber, alkyd resins, nitrocellulose, and often of PVC.

note the benefits of this coverage:

• Easy installation.
• Loyal requirements to the ground.
• Easy to clean.
• Wide range of design options.
• Moisture.
• Resistance to wear some type of high quality.

The disadvantages include material : low environmental friendliness and ergonomics.

Carpets and its properties

In fact it is the same carpet, consisting of a natural or artificial components.Unlike traditional carpets, carpet is able to repel dirt and can be used for a long time without any consequences for the appearance.He produced in rolls like linoleum and laid on the floor is similar.

list the advantages of this material:

• Easy installation.
• Ergonomics.
• injury prevention.
• Large selection of colors.
• Ecological carpet made of natural fibers.

This carpet is afraid of water, it is difficult to clean, and its synthetic types also have a low environmental friendliness.

Different types of ceramic tiles

With the advent in recent years of underfloor heating systems, many began to give preference to ceramic tile.It exists a large variety of types.Lay the tiles using an adhesive on the concrete base.The advantages of it is that it is durable, environmentally friendly, not afraid of water, easy to operate and maintain.In this case, tile requires special skills when laying and quite traumatic.

Marmoleum

material similar to linoleum, but made from natural ingredients such as flax, jute and hemp fiber.They are bonded using resin coniferous trees mixed with vegetable oils and wood flour.Available marmoleum just like a regular linoleum in rolls and tiles.

material does not cause any difficulties during installation, no special requirements to the ground is sufficiently long service life, improved moisture resistance.It makes it easy to clean the room, without causing any trouble to owners.This is a very eco-friendly natural material.He only has one serious drawback - it is a high risk of injury, as Marmoleum surface is very hard and even more solidified with time.

Cast floors Cast floors

come in several types according to the main component: polyurethane, methyl methacrylate, epoxy and acrylic cement.The latter are the most environmentally friendly, but the epoxy floors have the rich choice of design.The most rarely used are methyl methacrylate flooring, as they are very expensive.

advantages of self-leveling floors are their durability and environmental performance, resistance to water, oil, chemicals, organic solvents.Among other things, for them it is very easy to look after.

disadvantages are low ergonomic and high demands on the ground, which must be perfectly smooth, clean and dry.

floors with cork flooring

This coating is made of veneer or cork, which indicates the total naturalness of this material.Cork floors are:

• Round and tile, which are glued directly on the ground.
• Floating sheets of MDF, which is glued a layer of "plug".Such sheets are simply laid on the floor.

cork floors have a lot of advantages:

• Good sound insulation.
• Sustainability.
• A wide variety of design options.
• Easy to clean.

have plugs have a very unusual feature - the ability to recover its original shape after deformation effects.Laying floating floors types is quite simple.Adhesive coating has a high resistance to water.

The disadvantages include the fact that the adhesive coating when packing can cause some difficulties: it is required to align the surface of the base well.Negative properties of floating floors is too low moisture resistance.

Having examined the pros and cons of all types of flooring, we can summarize that hallway fits best linoleum, Marmoleum and self-leveling floor.For kitchens and bathrooms - tiles, self-leveling flooring, linoleum and Marmoleum.For the living room - laminate flooring and carpet.For the bedroom - carpet made of natural fibers and parquet.For child - carpet made of natural fibers.