New flooring options: Luxury vinyl, soft carpet

Homeowners looking for new flooring have an option beyond carpet, ceramic tile, wood and standard vinyl.

It's called luxury vinyl tile - and plank - and it's the hottest category in flooring today, said Bill Daley, the owner of Abbey Carpet Gallery in Davenport. Made by several different manufacturers, luxury vinyl has many different looks, including ceramic and wood, but with more warmth and less maintenance and expense.

Daley is one of the many exhibitors who will be at the 34th annual Home Show of the Quad-Cities Home Builders Association on Friday-Sunday, Feb. 10-12, at the QCCA Expo Center, Rock Island. The show is an opportunity for the public to meet many different building, remodeling and financing businesses all in one place and perhaps get started on a home improvement project.

There are three layers in luxury vinyl; the top is a protective wear layer that provides durability and resistance to scratches and scuffs. The second layer is the printed design that provides realistic ceramic, stone, wood or other visuals. The bottom layer is the tile backing.

Luxury vinyl can even look like fabric, and Daley has done a recent installation in which three colors - gray, cream and clay - were mixed to create a kind of checkerboard pattern in a kitchen/dinette/laundry area.

Luxury vinyl planks are also popular. "And with today's digital imagery, you cannot tell the difference between this product and hardwood," Daley said. The product even has a textured grain. And it's much easier to clean than wood, which is averse to water.

If one of the tiles were to get dinged, it could be removed with the application of heat and a new tile put in its place.

The price is about $9 per foot installed, compared with about $10 (and up) per foot with tile, Daley said.

In the area of carpet, patterns - in both texture and color - are popular, Daley said.

And advances in manufacturing technology are creating softer, less scratchy carpets. Daley admits he was skeptical at first, wondering whether a soft yarn would stand up to wear, but it does.

Another product Daley will be showcasing is decorative glass tiles that add sparkle to backsplashes and showers. It's more costly than ceramic, but you don't use as much. "You get a lot of bang for the buck," he said.

Read the original here:
New flooring options: Luxury vinyl, soft carpet