What is the best low-maintenance flooring?

A low-maintenance home, including your floors, can be a great way to have peace of mind in these busy times. Let’s face it, everyone is busy and spending an hour vacuuming or sweeping up the floors isn’t something that’s high on many people’s priority lists. There are many stylish, low-maintenance flooring options.

Hardwood Look with an Easy Clean

Many homeowners dream of hardwood floors, but they can be expensive and difficult to maintain. Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT), is the solution. LVT floors can look like real wood floors, as well as stone or ceramic. They are more durable and easier to maintain than traditional wood floors. You don’t have to worry about furniture getting scratched. Or kids. Or your pets. You can have floors that mimic the textures and colours of natural wood or stone without the hassles. It sounds simple.

Hardwood Isn’t So Difficult

If you’re looking for beautiful hardwood floors, they are a great low-maintenance option. Hardwood floors are timeless and can be resold for many years as long as they are installed by an experienced professional.

Not Your Grandma’s Carpet

Carpet is often considered to be a more difficult flooring option due to the need to vacuum occasionally. Modern carpets are a far better option than traditional carpets. Many carpets are now treated with stain- and soil-resistant chemicals, making them much easier to clean. A spillage or pet accident is now much less stressful. Carpets are safe for children, especially toddlers, who may fall or drop items. Carpet can also be one of the least stressful flooring options.

Time-Tested Tile

Tile can also be an excellent choice for low-maintenance flooring. It’s why tile is so popular in bathrooms and kitchens (hello, water sloshing around the tub). Tile is durable, no matter if it’s unglazed stone tile in high traffic areas or waterproof stone tiles for the kitchen. And moisture. Dogs.

Five low-maintenance commercial flooring options: These are 5 options to consider

You should carefully consider maintenance requirements when choosing a flooring material for your facility. They can sometimes outweigh the initial material and installation costs.

It is important to consider long-term costs when selecting material. To put it another way, value engineering principles should be used to choose your material. This means you need to evaluate the upfront costs, long-term expenses, and durability of each material in order to choose the right material for your application.

Let’s take, for instance, the two options available for your commercial kitchen.

Quarry tile is the most affordable option when comparing initial material costs. With the high foot traffic, grease spills, and constant wear, durability is a concern. This is where the draw lies: both materials can withstand kitchen environments. They are both low-maintenance options for flooring. Both porcelain and quarry tiles can be cleaned with a sweeper and mop after each shift. After weighing all factors, quarry tiles would be the best option for long-term cost savings.

Flooring material selection should focus on long-term value. These five durable materials generally require less maintenance.

1. Granite tile

Quarry tile can be as durable as any flooring product, but it has limited design flexibility. You can choose from standard 6×6 or eightx8 squares.

Quarry tile is the perfect choice for areas where form and function are paramount. Quarry tile is a standard in commercial kitchens for many decades and can also be used in back-of-house areas like receiving areas or loading docks.

Quarry tile requires minimal maintenance. For day-to-day maintenance, you can quickly sweep and mop with a degreaser following each shift.

Quarry tile is low-maintenance and cost-effective, making it a great flooring option for areas where durability and wear resistance are important.

2. Carpet tile

Carpet tile is the best soft-surface flooring option. It’s also the most durable and easy to maintain. If a wide loom carpet becomes damaged, it is necessary to replace the entire roll. You can replace a carpet tile if it gets stained. It takes less time, materials and labour to maintain carpet tiles than broadloom carpet.

Carpet tile’s added functionality and ease of maintenance are far more important than its higher initial cost in many commercial applications. There are now many places where you can install carpet tiles, thanks to the availability of high-strength tiles and moisture-resistant adhesives.

3. Luxury vinyl tile (LVT).

The most cost-effective vinyl flooring option is luxury vinyl tile (LVT). Vinyl composition tile (VCT), while cheaper, in the beginning, requires regular stripping, waxing, and polishing to keep its surface protected. LVT has an outerwear layer so it doesn’t need polish. It can be cleaned by regular mopping and sweeping.

LVT is more expensive than other flooring options, but it offers greater design flexibility. It can be made to look like any type of material, including stone and hardwood. LVT flooring systems are low-maintenance and long-lasting, making them aesthetically appealing over their entire life.

4. Epoxy flooring systems

Epoxy flooring systems are made from a thermosetting resin that is added to concrete substrates for increased durability and aesthetic appeal. These systems are easy to install, cost-effective and durable. If the coatings are properly applied, they will be chemical- and/or abrasion-resistant for many years.

Epoxy flooring requires very little maintenance. Sweep once a day, do a deep clean every couple of months, and then clean any spots as necessary. Epoxy systems are low-maintenance for industrial and commercial applications.

5. Polished concrete

Polished concrete is ideal for industrial applications. It’s easy to install and inexpensive to maintain. For polished concrete to be installed, you first need to treat the concrete substrate with chemical densifiers for an increase in hardness. We then polish the concrete with a grinder and seal it with a sealant. There are many colours available to give it a different look.

Polished concrete can withstand oil stains, chemical spillages, and forklift traffic. Polished concrete is similar to epoxy systems. It requires regular spot and periodic cleaning with occasional deep cleans. Although it is more costly than VCT or laminate, the minimal maintenance required results in a shorter life cycle.

These systems, while not an exhaustive list of low maintenance commercial flooring options, will provide long-term value due to their durability and ease of maintenance.

The first step in choosing the right flooring material is to choose the right flooring contractor.

This guide is designed to help you maximise your floor’s value and save money.