Every home deserves to look its best. And one of the leading ways to ensure your home makes the grade is to have high-quality floors to greet your family, friends, and guests with. There are countless affordable options available, and at Floor Trendz -- one of the most modern and forward-thinking flooring companies in Calgary -- we want to assist you with finding the best flooring to meet your needs, all while staying within your budget. So in this article, we will be exploring 5 affordable flooring ideas for your home.

1. Tile

With the tile option, we have two variations to consider: ceramic tile and porcelain tile. Let’s take a look at each and see how they compare to one another.

Ceramic Tile

The robustness of ceramic tile makes it an exceptional flooring choice, and the economical price tag only adds to its appeal. With a competitive cost of less than $1 per foot, this is a very wise decision if you want durability with bargain-basement prices. For the best deal, ensure you get a tile that’s ranked at a minimum of 3 on the Porcelain Enamel Institute (PEI) scale. A ranking below a 3 will be too slim and frail to handle an ample amount of foot traffic.

Porcelain Tile

Porcelain tiles are best used in areas where moisture and humidity are particularly prevalent. Rooms such as your bathroom, kitchen, or even your basement would be ideal places. As a result of its production processes, porcelain tiles are thicker and more adept at fighting off water than their ceramic counterparts. And even though the prices are a little higher, it offers more and in many cases -- looks better too (you do get what you pay for).

2. Carpet

Carpeting has always been a great choice for homeowners. And for good reason, the options are plentiful, they almost always look well-groomed, and longevity adds to their attractiveness as most carpets can last for 10 years -- or longer if properly taken care of.

But it’s always important to look at both ends of the spectrum. Although carpets are great, they are certainly not perfect. They can last a long while if maintained, but if they are neglected, the wear and tear can show up much quicker than other types of flooring.

Additionally, carpets are limited to living rooms, bedrooms, and common areas. If you were to install them in a space with ample amounts of moisture, like a bathroom or kitchen, you would eventually have to deal with mold problems.

The variations of carpets include wall-to-wall carpets as well as peel-and-stick carpeting:

Wall-to-wall Carpeting

This is a cheaper option when it comes to carpets. However, the installation process can be quite difficult and cumbersome, and as a result, should be left to a professional. Typically, it requires several people with certain tools that can precisely and accurately install the carpet.

Peel-and-stick Carpeting

The peel-and-stick carpeting option is a much easier-to-install alternative. It comes in small-sized tiles that can be installed both quickly and effortlessly. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any easier, these carpet tiles come with their own glue, which means, all that's required of you is to ensure the floor is free of any garbage or debris. From there, all you have to do is peel the stickers and add the tiles.

3. Cork

Cork is an environmentally friendly carpeting option for your home. Produced from the cork oak tree, this sustainable asset is utilized to produce planks, sheets and floor tiles. Beginning at around $2 per square foot, the price will increase with enhanced levels of thickness and quality.

One major benefit of the cork carpeting option is its softness. So if a soft finish is what you’re in the market for, then cork flooring could be the solution you need. However, that doesn’t mean that this quality is without its drawbacks. With its softer disposition, the cork carpeting is more prone to craters, dints, and scratches. Furthermore, it shouldn’t be installed in any rooms where high levels of humidity congregate as the material can easily split or rupture.

4. Laminate

Laminate consists of a plethora of materials and imitates the appearance of hardwood. It is comparable to vinyl sheets in regards to pricing, however, it lacks the longevity of vinyl and shouldn’t be installed in water-sensitive places such as bathrooms and basements.

Additionally, laminate flooring is a floating floor. This entails that the tiles fall into place using a click and lock method instead of glue being applied to paste it head-on to the subfloor. Preparing the space properly for installation may require some time, however, the installment process itself is actually quite quick once everything is prepared beforehand.

5. Vinyl

With the vinyl flooring option, you can take your pick of sheets, planks, or tiles. Vinyl flooring is mainly produced with PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride), which gives it a deep-rooted and durable composition. This, in turn, makes it very versatile and waterproof, permitting installation to take place anywhere within the home.

Regular upkeep is minimal -- just vacuuming/sweeping is sufficient to maintain its quality. Moreover, it is one of the most economically friendly options on the going market. When proper installation has occurred, you can expect this brand of carpet to last upwards of 25 years!