stone flooring Archives - Inspired Remodels

Orange County homeowners eschew carpet for living areas and love hard floor options. But even when you set aside carpet options, the wide variety of flooring types can be overwhelming. Inspired Remodels, an Orange County flooring contractor breaks flooring options into broad categories to make the selection process easier.

Tile Flooring Options

Tile flooring continues as a popular choice for Orange County homes. It offers both durability and an incredible variety of shapes, textures, sizes, and styles. Tile floors break down into 3 broad categories.

Ceramic Tile

Ceramic tile floors appear in bathrooms, kitchens, hallways, and living areas. You’ll even find ceramic tile in Orange County bedrooms. People love these tiles for their durability and versatility. They come in almost any color you can imagine and many different shapes and sizes. Tile floors require grout.

Porcelain Tile

Porcelain tiles are ceramic tiles on steroids. They offer more durability and water resistance than standard ceramic tiles. Confused?

All porcelain tiles are ceramic, but not all ceramic tiles are porcelain.

Porcelain tile provides the ideal solution for areas with high moisture. Find these tiles on Orange County bathroom and kitchen floors.

Natural Stone Tile

Natural stone floors, such as marble, granite, and slate, offer a luxurious and timeless look that elevates the design of any room. Because they are made from natural stone, each tile presents a unique, one-of-a-kind appearance.

Natural stone requires extra maintenance to keep it looking great. Stone floors also require grout.

Orange County flooring contractor after photo engineered walnut hardwood flooring in hallway

Engineered hardwood flooring in walnut

Wood Flooring Options

Wood flooring adds warmth and elegance to any Orange County home. Like tile, you face many options. This includes:

hardness of the wood species
plank width
finish

Harder woods like hickory and oak provide more resistance to dents and scratches, making them perfect for high-traffic areas. Wide planks make a room look larger and offer a modern look, while narrow planks create a more traditional appearance. Wood flooring falls into 3 broad categories.

Solid Hardwood

A solid hardwood flooring plank represents a single piece of wood. When it comes to longevity, hardwood shines. Sand and refinish over again to make it look like new. Homeowners love oak, maple, and cherry in Orange County for different reasons. Oak offers a classic look, maple brings hardness, and cherry provides a rich color.

Engineered Hardwood

Engineered hardwood consists of a top layer of real wood veneer fused to several layers of plywood. This construction makes it more resistant to moisture compared to solid hardwood. Engineered hardwood options cover many different wood species, finishes, and plank widths.

Bamboo Flooring

For the environment-minded buyer, bamboo offers a sustainable and eco-friendly flooring option. Bamboo flooring might technically come from grass, but bamboo flooring scores higher on the Janka hardness scale than wood flooring from trees. Look to bamboo for a unique and contemporary look for your Orange County home.

Floors that Look Like Wood But Aren’t

Look again. That wood flooring might be made from another material. Faux wood floors go where real wood cannot, and require less maintenance. Orange County flooring contractors install wood-look porcelain tiles in bathrooms to achieve spa looks and luxury vinyl plank all over the house.

Orange County flooring contractor photo after installing wood LVP in kitchen with green cabinets and white countertop

LVP looks just like wood

Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP)

LVP mimics the look of real wood. Manufactured from multiple layers of PVC vinyl, LVP offers a flooring option that is highly durable, water-resistant, and easy to maintain. LVP allows you to get a wood look without the special maintenance or higher costs associated with wood.

Orange County flooring contractor uses wood-look tile to create spa feeling with white marble walls and white soaking tub

Wood-look tile creates a spa feel in the bathroom

Wood-Look Porcelain Tile

Advances in manufacturing technology make it possible to create porcelain tiles that emulate wood right down to the grain. These tiles combine the beauty of wood with the durability and water resistance of porcelain. Install in wet areas like bathrooms and kitchens for the look of wood and the ease of tile.

Experienced Orange County Flooring Contractor

Flooring impacts the look, feel, and functionality of your home. Whether you prefer the classic appeal of wood, the durability of tile, or the versatility of wood-look alternatives, Inspired Remodels, an Orange County flooring contractor installs floors you’ll love for years.

This article was originally published on April 8, 2016. It has been updated to reflect the most current trends in Orange County flooring.

Wood, wood-look tiles, and bamboo flooring continue to be trendy. Designers and homeowners love the way wood and bamboo flooring bring warmth to any room. If you ask a flooring contractor, they will tell you the benefits of hard surface floors for almost any home. Inspired Remodels, the expert flooring contractor in Orange County, shares 3 reasons to love hard surface flooring.

Hard Flooring For Better Health

Hard surface flooring offers health benefits you just can’t ignore. Every flooring contractor knows carpeting harbors dust, dust mites, pet allergens, mold spores, and pollen. These substances comprise the most common household allergens. So, why would you ever put them in a house where people with allergies live? Many companies offer products and surfaces to clean carpets. But no method or product can properly clean the carpet to the backing and remove allergens. Most carpet cleaning methods end up making allergies worse as they leave carpets and rugs damp and promote the growth of mold.

When you clean a hard surface floor, it is clean. While you might get mold growth in the grout between tiles (especially in a badly designed bathroom with poor circulation) mold will not grow on the tile itself. Vacuuming, damp mopping, and dry mopping remove dirt, debris, and allergens from a hard surface floor. Cleaner floors result in better indoor air quality, fewer allergies, and better health.

Ceramic and porcelain tile made to emulate wood creates a spa-like feeling to Orange County bathrooms. It looks like wood, some tiles even emulate the texture of wood grain, and only you will know its tile.

Hard Flooring is Easy to Maintain

Hard surface flooring such as wood, tile, polished cement, or stone is relatively easy to maintain. It resists stains. You can track in dirt and debris and it can be easily removed by cleaning.

Spill wine on your tile floor and it wipes up. No one cries over milk spilled on a wood, tile, or stone floor. Kitchens across Orange County cry out for hard surface floors!

With carpeting and rugs, you cry over every spill, every stain, and every footstep that dirties the surface. Not so with hard surface flooring.

Flooring Contractors Know Tile & Wood Flooring Lasts

When you hire a reputable Orange County flooring contractor like Inspired Remodels to install your floors, you know your flooring will last. Wood and bamboo flooring require acclimation before installation. If your flooring contractor skips this step, prepare for problems. That’s never a worry with Inspired Remodels.

With proper care and cleaning, your tile and stone floors last for 20 years or more. When wood floors become scuffed, scarred, and worn-looking, simply refinish them.

Can any carpet stand up to 20 years of daily use? When it looks bad, can you refinish your carpet?

No, of course not! When you consider higher initial cost over a much longer life, you’ll agree with flooring contractors that hard surface flooring provides a cost-effective option.

Best Flooring from the Best Flooring Contractor

If you are thinking about new flooring for your Orange County home, talk to the best Orange County flooring contractors. Make an appointment with Inspired Remodels. Inspired Remodels is the Orange County flooring expert.

Inspired Remodels recommends a hard flooring surface that fits your style and budget. Whether you need to replace the flooring in one room or the whole house, Inspired Remodels has you covered.

Need inspiration? Let an Inspired Remodels designer help you pick the hard surface flooring right for you.

Contact us today.

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