The choices are many on remodeling, there are wood, tile, or linoleum flooring, and they come in many various styles, colors and designs. Each kind needs a different skill to place them but to get the floor ready is the same for any type of improvement. The type and tone you determine to use all depends on your inclination and wishes for your home.

Wood flooring comes in many thickness from 1/4″, 5/16″, 3/8″, 1/2″, 5/8″ to 3/4″ or (6 mm, 8 mm, 10 mm, 13 mm, 16 mm and 19 mm). It can be solid wood, or engineered. It can be tongue and grove or interlocking planks. It can be pre-finished wood flooring or unfinished which requires they must be sanded and finished after they are laid down. The engineered flooring will normally have a wear layer of 2 mm to 4 mm thick. They can be fastened to the sub floor by nailing, gluing or floating.

Which method is recommended or required for the flooring you want to use. What is your sub-floor, cement or wood? Cement sub-floors are normally on the ground or below ground level and need to be checked for moisture content. If they exceed the recommendations, a moisture barrier must be installed over the cement. Check for the manufacturers recommended practice.

You can install this flooring as a do it yourself project, learn all the recommendations, by talking with knowledgeable people. Decide which material you want to use and how are you going to fasten it.

If you glue the floor down, check to see if the manufacturer requires that you use their glue, they some times put a tracer element in their glue to verify that you have used their glue. They may require that a professional installer installs the flooring if there is a warranty claim.

Tile flooring can be either ceramic or vinyl. If the application is for a high traffic area such as a hall way or entrance or if it is a high moisture area such as bathroom?

Ceramic tile can either have a thin top layer or glaze that is very pretty but can easily be scratched in high traffic areas. Other types of tile will have the color clear through the tile and resist scratching very well. Ceramic tile can be installed over a cement or wood sub flooring. The sub flooring must be structurally stable. You may need to install a cement board recommended for wood sub floors and attached it to the sub floor per manufacturers recommendation.

Vinyl tiles can be the least expensive tile and easiest to install. They may be installed over an existing resilient flooring, over plywood on wood floors or on dry concrete. Clean, dry and level the sub floor, remove all oil, wax or grease. Study all the pros and cons for the flooring you select and the job it must do.

Linoleum can be fabricated from natural materials such as linseed oil, wood or cork powder, resins and ground limestone which are environmentally prudent. Linoleum can come in many rich colors and patterns. It comes in a sheet that is usually 2 meters wide (6′ 7″) and 2.5 mm thick is suitable for household use.

It can be installed over most sub floors but if installing over concrete, the moisture emission rate must be with in limits set by the manufacturer. A high pH level of the concrete can ruin the adhesive and the adhesive may not bond to the concrete if it has a sealer on it. If two sections of linoleum are butted together, they must be sealed either with special seam sealer or a color coordinated linoleum rod that is melted with a specialized welding tool.

Linoleum tends to expand in width and shrink in length over time so this needs to be taken into consideration when installing it.

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