Pros and Cons of 5 Popular Bedroom Flooring Materials

By Bradley Cooper | 15 March 2021

Full article with thanks to https://www.thespruce.com/best-bedroom-flooring-options-1314786

The flooring in your bedroom is a particularly intimate surface. It is the first thing your bare feet step onto in the morning and the last thing they touch before climbing into bed each night. The effect that bedroom flooring has on a person is both physical and psychological, making your choice of materials a particularly important design decision.

There are many criteria you can use to choose the best bedroom flooring material. Some of these may be obvious, such as the feel of the floor underfoot, or its visual appeal. You may also be concerned about environmental issues—does the flooring off-gas chemicals, is it created in a green manner, and will it be recyclable someday when it is time to replace it? And there are also care and maintenance issues, as well as longevity to consider. Some of these elements may be more important to you than others, but all should be considered when you make a flooring choice for your bedroom. Every flooring material has both advantages and disadvantages, including the five most popular options for bedroom flooring.

Carpeting

Carpet is a very popular choice for a bedroom flooring surface in North America and many other western nations, largely because it is soft and warm on the feet—an obvious advantage in a room where you are often bare-footed. That tactile comfort helps to create a sense of lush luxury in the room while also protecting you from cold toes on chilly winter mornings. But there are other reasons that carpet is popular, as well as some reasons you might not want to use it.

Pros

Thermal insulation: Carpeting, combined with a good-quality pad, can insulate a floor against heat loss, ensuring that the bedroom will remain toasty warm.
Sound-dampening: In a room where you sleep, carpeting can absorb outside noises and keep a bedroom quieter. Carpeting is the very best flooring for this.
Economical: Price is another factor that makes carpeting in the bedroom so popular. In recent decades, the manufacturing process has gotten so efficient that the cost for low-end materials can be as low as $2 to $3 per square foot installed, considerably cheaper than most other options. Keep in mind, though, that the price for higher-end specialty materials, such as wool carpeting, can be quite a bit higher. And carpeting has a shorter lifespan than some alternatives, such as hardwood.
Cushioned surface: This can be a matter of safety in bedrooms used by children or older adults since a fall on carpeting is unlikely to cause injury the way that a hardwood floor or other rigid surface can do. A good-quality pad beneath the carpet can increase the cushion.

Cons

Difficult to keep clean: Liquid stains can seep deep into the padding and remain permanently. And carpeting tends to attract both dust and small microscopic organisms, which can compromise to the air quality of the bedroom.
Traps allergens: Carpeting can trap pollen and other allergy-causing particles. No amount of deep vacuuming can completely remove allergens that become trapped deep in the backing and padding of a carpet. Carpeting is not a good choice for the bedrooms of allergy sufferers.
May off-gas chemicals: Although carpeting manufacturing processes are much better than they once were, some carpeting can still off-gas chemicals such as formaldehyde, especially when the carpeting is new. For people with chemical sensitivities, this can be a serious health concern.
Usually not recyclable: Although some installers will haul away old carpet when they install new flooring, this carpeting—and the synthetic materials used in its manufacture—are usually destined for landfills.

Hardwood Flooring

Next to carpeting, hardwood flooring is the most popular choice for bedroom flooring. Among real estate professionals, genuine hardwood is usually regarded as one of the best flooring materials. Not only is it beautiful and hard-wearing, but it’s also relatively warm and durable. Even better, it’s environmentally friendly.

Pros

Attractive surface: Hardwood extends a warm, natural beauty to a bedroom. The look will vary depending on wood species and finish, but wood almost always lends a feeling of primal beauty to a room.
Warmer and more resilient than tile and stone: While it’s obviously not as soft as its carpeting, hardwood planks do have some yield and are softer and warmer underfoot than most tile and stone alternatives. Hardwood can be combined with throw rugs and area rugs to make the floor even more amenable.
Improves real estate value: While it wasn’t always the case, in today’s real estate market, hardwood flooring is a much sought-after flooring, and homes with hardwood tend to sell faster and for a slightly higher selling price.
Durable, long-lasting material: When cared for properly, hardwood flooring can last as long as the house itself. It is unlikely your hardwood floors will need to be replaced unless you do it for aesthetic reasons.
Recyclable material: At the end of its life, old hardwood flooring almost always has a market as a second-hand material. Many recycling centers accept old hardwood flooring, and if a landfill is the only option, hardwood breaks down naturally.
Non-allergenic: Hardwood is easy to sweep and wipe clean of dust, pollen, and other allergens. For allergy sufferers, hardwood is an ideal flooring.

Cons

Maintenance is tricky: Hardwood flooring is fairly resistant to stains and damage, but when damage does occur, it can be hard to repair. And hardwood needs to be sealed occasionally and eventually will need to be stripped and refinished.
Relatively expensive: Quality solid hardwood is one of the pricier flooring choices. Materials plus installation costs range from $6 to $25 per square foot, depending on the type of wood selected.
No thermal or sound insulation value: Hardwood floors offer no insulation value, and they are noisy, with no sound absorption or dampening effect.
Harder than cork or carpeting: Although not a fully rigid surface, a child or older adult on hardwood flooring still runs the risk of injury from falls.

What About Bamboo?

Bamboo flooring is often lumped together with hardwood, since the products are similar in quality and use the same installation methods. However, the bamboo plant is actually a form of grass, not a wood. Bamboo grows very quickly, making it a completely renewable material, and flooring made from bamboo fibers is actually harder than most hardwoods, making it a very durable flooring. This easy-to-care-for flooring usually costs less than $5 per square foot for materials, with installation adding about $5 per square foot. This makes it comparable to mid-range hardwood flooring. The look is quite unique, and it is worth checking into bamboo flooring if you are already considering hardwood.https://e39d0fdd01000ae7b240ec7657722bbb.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

Cork Flooring

Although it is still a relatively unusual flooring material, natural cork flooring is becoming more popular in bedrooms, where it has many virtues. Among its most important features is its ability to insulate between floors. This can help provide soundproofing while also helping keep heat and air conditioning where it belongs.Pros

Spongy and soft underfoot: Cork is a yielding surface that is extremely comfortable on the feet. Next to carpeting, this is one of the most forgiving floors when a person falls.
Warm underfoot: This material is warmer than hardwood, though not as cozy as carpeting.
Insulation value: Cork is filled with millions of tiny air bubbles, which serve to offer both thermal and sound insulation value.
Easy maintenance: Unlike carpet, which can be a chore to take care of, cork flooring is relatively hassle-free. As long as the surface seal is properly applied, and the seal is periodically reapplied, the material itself will be virtually immune to stains.
Anti-allergy, anti-microbial: Cork is naturally resistant to microbes and dust-trapping static, which means that it doesn’t cause the same air-quality problems often caused by carpeting.

Cons

Less “green” than hardwood: While cork itself is a natural material that doesn’t pollute, the manufacturing process uses resins and adhesives that use synthetic chemicals. You may have trouble finding a recycling center that will accept old cork flooring. But cork is still better for the environment than carpeting, vinyl, or laminate flooring.
Easily scratched: The big problem with cork flooring is that it is a relatively soft material and will easily scratch from pet claws, furniture legs, and high heels.
Shorter lifespan than hardwood: Cork will have to be replaced periodically,, although some products can be refinished a few times between installations. Well cared for, however, a cork floor can still last 25 years.
Relatively expensive: Cork is nearly as expensive as hardwood, with thicker, higher quality, longer-lasting cork floors costing as much as many hardwood options.

Vinyl Flooring

Whether it takes the form of sheet vinyl, vinyl tiles, or newer luxury vinyl flooring (LVF) tongue-and-groove planks, vinyl is a surprisingly versatile flooring choice for bedrooms. This is no longer a flooring reserved only for bathrooms and kitchens. A wide variety of looks is now available, with luxury vinyl products that are almost indistinguishable from wood, ceramic, or stone. The downsides relate to the fact that vinyl is plastic and, as a result, off-gases chemicals and cannot be recycled.Pros

Nearly waterproof: Although this is more important in bathrooms and kitchens, the waterproof nature of vinyl may be of value in bedrooms with adjoining en suite bathrooms. The waterproof nature also makes this flooring easy to clean.
Easy maintenance: Bedrooms are relatively low-traffic rooms, and vinyl is easily kept clean by sweeping and occasional damp mopping.
Somewhat soft: Although not as soft as carpeting, vinyl flooring is a second-best choice in rooms where you are concerned about someone falling.
Easy installation: Vinyl flooring, especially tiles and luxury vinyl planks, are relatively easy for DIYers to install.
Inexpensive: According to national averages, sheet vinyl costs about $3 per square foot to install, while luxury vinyl planks average about $7 per square foot, though these costs are much reduced if you install the flooring yourself. This puts vinyl flooring at the low end of costs for recommended bedroom flooring.
Relatively long-lasting: Because bedrooms are relatively low-traffic areas, a good-quality vinyl floor can easily last 10 to 20 years.

Cons

Not a “green” choice: The major drawback to vinyl is that it is relatively bad for the environment. Its production uses non-renewable petroleum resources and it requires considerable energy to manufacture.
May off-gas chemicals: New vinyl installations, especially those that use glue-down application methods, may emit VOCs and hazardous chemicals such as formaldehyde for several weeks after they are installed.
Not recyclable: When vinyl flooring reaches the end of its life and is removed, it is probably destined for a landfill, with its synthetic materials likely to last for centuries before breaking down.

Full article with thanks to https://www.thespruce.com/best-bedroom-flooring-options-1314786

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