Finding the right type of flooring for your family’s comfort is important to making your house feel more like a home. Read on to learn about the types of residential floors that are most kid-friendly and how they can benefit your family.
Types of Kid-Friendly Residential Floors
Why Kid-Friendly Flooring?
Having children is incredibly rewarding, but it can also mean you need to make some changes to your home. While nobody likes big changes, making your residential flooring kid-friendly is going to greatly benefit everyone. There are many safety considerations to think about when choosing a floor for your home, for your children and yourself included. This safety goes beyond the most obvious consideration: cushioning. Beginning with tummy time and extending well past the daredevil and acrobat phases, your kids are going to be spending a great deal of time on the floor. You need a floor with good support that isn’t too hard for their needs. It also needs to be able to be easily cleaned and maintained. This balance is hard to strike, but it’s easy to do when working with residential flooring contractors near you.
Popular Options to Reconsider
Hardwood flooring is a fine choice for aesthetics, but with children, you may want to consider other options. While you can use accent rugs for cushioning, you must also think about the tripping hazards hardwoods can pose. You can’t protect your kids from every bump and fall, but you can reduce the likelihood of them happening. Carpeting might seem like the natural choice for kids, and in terms of softness, it can’t be beat. But there are cons to carpeting as well. Children are especially susceptible to indoor airborne allergens like dust mites and pollen, and carpets are the flooring equivalent of a magnet for these allergens. On the other side of things, kids are also fairly messy! So carpets are going to take the most abuse of any of your soft flooring options. Stains, physical damage, and spills are all hugely destructive for carpeting. While carpeting is the best in terms of cushion, it definitely has its downsides as a kid-friendly choice.
The Best Bets
What is the best flooring for a house with kids? Laminate and luxury vinyl tile/plank flooring are perhaps your best bet for kid-friendly flooring, and here’s why. Laminate and vinyl flooring are both soft flooring options that strike a balance between comfort and support. Laminate and vinyl floors are both softer options than hardwood or residential concrete floors, but they are even easier to clean. Vinyl floors are hypoallergenic, meaning they don’t attract and hold in allergens like carpet. Simply clean the surface regularly, and you’re all set. Vinyl and laminate floors are also incredibly resistant to spills and are perfectly waterproof when installed properly. If you don’t have kids yet, trust us—that’s a huge perk when you reach the age of sippy cups and oatmeal. These floors also last, meaning that you won’t notice wear and tear until long after your kids have grown up. There are ways to make any flooring work for kids, so whether your budget supports a new flooring installation or smaller changes, it can work. Even with concrete flooring and other hard floors, rubber tiles can transform a room that seems like a fall risk into a fun space that’s safe for play.
No matter your needs, having a kid-friendly home is achievable with the right support from the experts. Give us a call at Ozburn-Hessey for a free kid-friendly flooring consultation and estimate, and have some peace of mind that at least your floors are prepared for children.
