Best type of floor

[SoCal]

I’m looking to replace carpeted areas with a more accessible type of floor. What would you guys recommend?
the other parts of the house are tile

[Sheri]

Good for you to be rid of carpeting! I’d never choose it but it was already here in the bedrooms. Tile is great in terms of no maintenance and you never get stressed about ruining it. But it’s HARD. I love wood floors but you’ve always got that slight bit of stress about scratching and dinging them. I ended up needing to replace bedroom carpeting and refinish wood floors in order to sell our previous house.

[JoeMonte]

Ceramic tile comes in many varieties. We just tiled our Lanai with 6" x 36" tile that looks like wood. easy to clean and roll on.

[SoCal]

Good for you to be rid of carpeting! I’d never choose it but it was already here in the bedrooms. Tile is great in terms of no maintenance and you never get stressed about ruining it. But it’s HARD. I love wood floors but you’ve always got that slight bit of stress about scratching and dinging them. I ended up needing to replace bedroom carpeting and refinish wood floors in order to sell our previous house.

Isn’t hard good to make propelling easier?

[Sheri]

It definitely is but I find wood equivalent for locomotion. When you drop something on tile, it shatters more easily. Others should comment, tho, as I mostly use a scooter. Maybe the wood finish is a little sticky for chair wheels and creates resistance?

[SoCal]

Ceramic tile comes in many varieties. We just tiled our Lanai with 6" x 36" tile that looks like wood. easy to clean and roll on.

Those look nice from what I googled. Was it a big mess cutting the tiles?

[smity50]

Polished concrete.

[ChesBay]

Polished concrete.

i am on a slab in a 73 year old house. When I redid my floors about 12 years ago I looked into polished concrete. For a couple practical reasons I didn’t go that route… BUT, I was very impressed with the look and practicality of it. Love the look and a lot of possibilities.

[SoCal]

Does anybody have experience with vinyl?

[ejl10]

I just moved from an apartment with hardwood floors to a house with laminate artificial hardwood. Both seem to work very well for me, though I put a rug in the bedroom along side and underneath the feet of my bed, because I find that the chair slides a bit while transferring on hardwood. Definitely don’t want that!

[SoCal]

I just moved from an apartment with hardwood floors to a house with laminate artificial hardwood. Both seem to work very well for me, though I put a rug in the bedroom along side and underneath the feet of my bed, because I find that the chair slides a bit while transferring on hardwood. Definitely don’t want that!

do you feel like the relative softness of laminate makes it any harder to propel than on say ceramic tile?

[ejl10]

I haven’t noticed, but it would stand to reason. Hard to do a fair comparison without both options side-by-side. Better than carpeting either way!

[Oddity]

We were hardwood and slate tile everywhere until a kitchen water disaster necessitated redoing the entire room. We actually decided on a commercial flooring product, from Forbo. The slate was OK, but grout and kitchen floors don’t mix when you’re as messy in there as I am. I even cracked 2 of the tiles at the bottom of my short ramp into the kitchen, over ~12 years of dive bombing the same spot (ramp is 2x ADA grade.)

So far, I really like it. It’s basically the stuff you find in offices and hospitals and Universites etc on high traffic high wear areas. It comes in tiles and planks and sheets, we went for a solid sheet for the whole room, like an old school “linoleum”, but not. Very hard, thick, durable. All natural (gypsum) backing, etc etc. Super heavy.

This commercial flooring was actually cheaper per sq/ft than similar high end residential stuff, designed as harder and more durable for high commercial traffic, and the array of designs and styles Forbo offers was dizzying. I‘ll use them again I think, when it comes time to redo the tile in all the bathrooms.

[stephen212]

Does anyone have experience with cork flooring?

[quadvet]

We were hardwood and slate tile everywhere until a kitchen water disaster necessitated redoing the entire room. We actually decided on a commercial flooring product, from Forbo. The slate was OK, but grout and kitchen floors don’t mix when you’re as messy in there as I am. I even cracked 2 of the tiles at the bottom of my short ramp into the kitchen, over ~12 years of dive bombing the same spot (ramp is 2x ADA grade.)

So far, I really like it. It’s basically the stuff you find in offices and hospitals and Universites etc on high traffic high wear areas. It comes in tiles and planks and sheets, we went for a solid sheet for the whole room, like an old school “linoleum”, but not. Very hard, thick, durable. All natural (gypsum) backing, etc etc. Super heavy.

This commercial flooring was actually cheaper per sq/ft than similar high end residential stuff, designed as harder and more durable for high commercial traffic, and the array of designs and styles Forbo offers was dizzying. I‘ll use them again I think, when it comes time to redo the tile in all the bathrooms.

What Forbo product are you recommending? They offer many on their website, just glancing at it. I'm looking for something that can withstand heavy power wheelchair use. Thanks in advance

[Oddity]

What Forbo product are you recommending? They offer many on their website, just glancing at it. I'm looking for something that can withstand heavy power wheelchair use. Thanks in advance

Oh, sorry. We went with the Marmoleum, with the Top Shield Pro. We looked up our local sales rep on their site and called them. They had a list of contractors they use in our area, too, experienced with their flooring since it’s not exactly like anything else.

https://www.forbo.com/flooring/en-us...eld-pro/p8elem

I can’t attest to power chair use, but for me, manual chairs, it’s great. We installed it over a softer backing than typical, for standing in kitchen, and I don’t notice rolling. It is hard. It could take a gouge, if you really tried, though. It’s kind of like very thick, hard linoleum, in an all natural C02 neutral product, with a very tough top color/design coat. It isn’t rock hard. Easy to repair, we hear, but no issues thus far. Can look like wood or tile or old school linoleum or concrete etc.

[quadvet]

Thank you very much for your quick response, I'll contact them.