Your Guide to Choosing and Installing New Flooring
Hardwood, LVP, tile — making the right choice for every room
By Trish Tipton
Flooring is one of the most impactful changes you can make to a home, affecting both how it looks and how it feels underfoot. With so many options at different price points, making the right choice requires balancing aesthetics, lifestyle, durability, and budget.
Hardwood flooring is the gold standard for beauty and resale value, but it's expensive, requires acclimation before installation, and cannot be used in areas prone to moisture. Engineered hardwood offers real wood on the surface with a more stable core and can be installed in basement and kitchen settings where solid hardwood cannot.
Luxury vinyl plank (LVP) has transformed the flooring market in the past decade. It looks convincingly like real wood, is completely waterproof, comfortable underfoot, easy to install as a DIY project, and dramatically more affordable than hardwood. For families with kids and pets, LVP is often the most practical choice without significant aesthetic compromise.
Tile is the right choice for bathrooms, laundry rooms, and mudrooms where durability and waterproofing are essential. Large-format tiles are trending and make spaces feel more open, but they require a flatter subfloor and are more challenging to cut and install. Proper underlayment and substrate preparation are crucial — tile fails at the subfloor level, not at the tile level.