If you’re going to be working for hours on end and investing a sizable amount of effort and cash into furnishing your room, then knowing how to choose home office flooring that’s perfect for your needs and requirements is a must.
Nobody’s going to want to work in a home office that looks or feels cold.
Nor will you want to buy some flooring only to find out that it could be creating way more cost, noise and dust.
Read on to educate yourself on the best tiles for budget and cutting down on cleaning. Plus, find out which types of flooring are easiest to install.
Let’s get started.
Solid wood flooring can have a lifespan as long as 100 years or more. Source
How to choose home office flooring
When to choose a flooring for your home office or for any room, you’ll need to consider the activities that you perform, the environment that you live in along with personal preferences. The below factors will help you to choose a flooring:
- Comfort of home office flooring
- Budget for home office flooring
- Traffic on home office flooring
- Safety of home office flooring
- Maintenance and cleaning of home office flooring
- Noise of home office flooring
- Durability of home office flooring
- Style of home office flooring
Comfort of home office flooring
Choosing an office flooring which provides the look and feel of comfort goes a long way to making the home office an inviting area to work in.
If you’re walking around barefoot in a cold environment, then cold tiles are less inviting to work on.
One of the most comfortable and inviting types of home office flooring is carpet; it’s warmer and softer to walk on than hardwood floors. However, it is more difficult to maintain.
Furthermore, if you stand at a heigh-adjustable desk, you may need to consider a softer flooring.
Alternatively, placing an anti-fatigue mat in the area you stand could make it more comfortable to stand there.
Budget for home office flooring
The prices can vary significantly depending on the type of flooring finish that you opt for. For instance, hardwood floors are notoriously expensive compared to more budget-friendly options such as vinyl or laminate flooring.
The short-term cost of fitting is only one consideration. What also should be considered is the long-term cost of the flooring.
By paying for the cheapest type of flooring, it could have a shorter lifespan, it could deteriorate rapidly and need to be replaced in a few short years.
Some of the cheapest flooring options include:
- Vinyl
- Sheet vinyl
- Carpet
- Laminate
- Linoleum
However, selecting an office flooring which is genuinely suited to the environmental conditions of your home office could save you money in the long run.
While hardwood floors and luxury vinyl tiles tend to carry a higher price tag, their lifespan can reach 20 years or more.
Plus, by purchasing from a retailer that offers a long warranty, you can always leverage the warranty for years to come if the floor does start deteriorating.
An initial cost that you may have to bear is that of installation fees.
If you’re capable of cutting or laying the flooring yourself, then this won’t be much of a concern.
However, if not, then bear in mind that the installation fees can be higher depending on the:
- Duration of time required to install flooring
- Materials and equipment required
- Difficulty involved in setting the flooring
Carpet tiles and vinyl floors are some of the easiest floors to install. Tiles and hardwood flooring are some of the most difficult floors to install.
Broadloom carpet which is the traditional rolls of carpet flooring tend to be more cumbersome as they require cutting shape and are awkward to handle.
The majority of the time, your floor can be cleaned with a damp mop.
However, you may need to use a suitable cleaning agent occasionally to maintain the finish of the floor, especially for hardwood floors.
Tip: The cost of appropriate cleaning agents for floors can add up in price too.
Traffic on home office flooring
In most home offices, traffic going through the area is unlikely to be high. However, if you run a practice or have clients over frequently, the traffic volume could be more substantial.
In those scenarios, you’ll need to opt for a durable flooring which is designed to withstand large volumes of people.
Vinyl, tiles, luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) and engineered wood are durable flooring options for high traffic areas.
However, tiles can be lack grip which we’ll discuss in the next section.
Carpet is one example of flooring that tends to deteriorate and look worn or faded after repeated exposure to high volumes of footfall.
Safety of home office flooring
Anti-slip properties on flooring will be a priority if you have frequent visitors to your office. Besides visitors, you’ll also want to minimize the risk of yourself slipping or falling while you work!
When purchasing the flooring, ask the company if it has good grip properties.
Tiles and wooden floors tend to offer very little grip, especially on wet days.
Fortunately, an anti-slip coating, such as Floor Grip, can be applied to floors, such as tiles, hardwood floors, engineered hard woods, vinyl and laminate.
This acts as a non-slip sealer to increase the anti-slip properties of floors.
If your concern is that someone could slip with wet shoes, you could also consider placing a mat at the entrance to the door. Just ensures that the mat doesn’t pose a trip hazard to people!
Tip: Opting for a matte finish on flooring can increase the grip for walking on.
Maintenance and cleaning of home office flooring
Cleaning your office floor on a regular basis is a must. This is even more true if the area is subject to high traffic, if you eat at your desk (al desko), the activities that you perform are prone to dust or dirt generation.
Luxury vinyl tiling is one example of flooring that requires minimal maintenance.
Another factor worth considering is if you have pets which could walk into your home office and carry dust and hairs into the area.
If your pets or even your own hair fall on the carpet, it may be more difficult to vacuum them up.
Most floors can be easily cleaned by dust mopping or even with a sweep of a brush or vacuum.
Spills and stains are the biggest problem in terms of maintaining a floor. If they are not cleaned up quickly, they can dry into the flooring. This can make it difficult to clean them out of the grooves in the floor.
Furthermore, temperature can affect the condition of your flooring. Wood floors can buckle if it expands or create gaps if it contracts.
Therefore, it’s not the best option for environments with hot or cold climates or room temperatures.
The appropriate cleaning agents for floors should be used, such as for hardwood floors. Using the wrong cleaning agent could cause a reaction, damage or stain the flooring.
Carpet is one of the most difficult types of flooring to maintain.
Furthermore, if it’s carpet, often you can’t simply wipe the spill up. You may need to employ a carpet cleaner to remove the stain, especially if it’s a bright colored carpet.
If you’re keen to choose a color that minimizes the amount of dust and dirt showing up, then check out these points: Best Office Floor Color – Plus Most Popular & Ones To Avoid
Noise of home office flooring
Nobody wants to work in a noisy environment where every footprint and pen dropping echoes around the room.
The flooring option that you choose will dictate how much noise is generated from activities including walking, rolling a chair around and even dropping items.
The best flooring choice for noise-dampening is carpet as it absorbs the sound of footprints and equipment moving.
This is a more important factor for people who share an area, are regularly on the phone or video calls, or if you work from home during noise-sensitive times.
Hardwood floors and tiles offer poor noise dampening properties.
If you do desire a hardwood floor effect without the noise, maintenance or buckling of hardwood floor, there is an alternative!
You could opt for wooden plastic composite or stone plastic composite WPC/SPC vinyl plank flooring with a wooden effect. It is also stain-proof and waterproof.
Durability of home office flooring
The flooring option that you choose should be able to withstand day-to-day wear and tear.
Ideally, it should also be abrasion-proof so that it can minimize scratches and scuff marks from items dropping or equipment or chairs rolling across the floor.
Hardwood floors are one of the least durable floors available.
They can be easily scratched and damaged by water, chemicals and temperature variances.
Engineered wood flooring is more water-resistant that hardwood floors.
While they are very scratch-resistant, tiles can be prone to chipping and cracking if items drop on them. This can be difficult to repair since it involves ripping up the tiles and laying new ones down.
Floors which have the best scratch-resistant properties include:
- Tiles
- Laminate
- Luxury vinyl tiles
Hardwood floors tend to scratch easily, and so they are not a good option if you own pets.
Resistance to water and chemicals may be a factor for you if you use these materials in your office.
Examples of flooring which are water-resistant include:
- Tiles
- Luxury vinyl tiles
- WPC vinyl plank flooring
- Waterproof laminate flooring
Chemical-resistant floors are typically required in industrial settings, such as labs or workshops.
Epoxy floors are a popular chemical-resistant flooring option.
Another problem that can occur is denting of floors by heavy equipment, such as chairs, desks and active office furniture.
Related: Active Workstation Pros And Cons – Guide To The Best & Worst
Style of home office flooring
The overall theme or style of the home office will be a determining factor in your choice of flooring. Whether you’re looking for a warm or cold effect patterns tiles wood effect modern luxury.
Fortunately, most types of flooring options come in an array of styles, shapes and patterns to suit your needs and desires.
You can even get flooring that imitates the appearance of a wood floor without the costly expense of a hardwood or engineering hardwood floor.
The color of the flooring will be a contributing factor to how easily it can be maintained.
Brightly colored floors tend to be more difficult to maintain and keep clean since they show up more dirt.
Additionally, if a permanent stain occurs, it’s bound to be more visible on bright colored flooring than dark flooring.
That said, very dark colors, such as black, can also show up dirt. Therefore, options such as grey and medium-toned floors are often popular to mask the presence of dust.
Conclusion
When choosing the best type of flooring for a home office, the above factors will be important to consider. They type of environment and activities in the home office will dictate what type of flooring best suits the area.
Don’t underestimate the value of researching the type of flooring to lay down. The last thing that you want is for it to start deteriorating or delaminating before your very eyes.
My aim with this website is to help you on all matters related to your home office and your work area. With that in mind, if you have any questions or comments on the above, please drop them in the box below. I’d love to hear them!
