WHY FLOORING CHOICES MATTER

Gone are the days of carpeted bathrooms, 1970s-patterned linoleum, and mismatched flooring throughout the home. As nostalgic as the idea of stepping onto moss green carpet after a shower might be, thankfully, that era is behind us. As it should be.

As a local, Luxury Real Estate Agent in Studio City, one thing has become clear in the current home market: It is ultra important that flooring materials are top-notch, especially in luxury homes but in flip properties. At least it should look great and it should look like a perfect fit for the home. To be clear, flooring choices will not make your home appraise any higher (or lower). The added value comes from the eventual buyer, or pool of buyers, setting the higher value. Exceptional, high-quality materials that are obvious top-of-the-line will tend to do that. It’s about the whole house coming together to make itself a “must-have” and the flooring is the base-line.

Choice of flooring materials and fixtures along with some fairly simple design choices have the power to transform your remodel’s appearance to much higher-end and higher quality than a quick-flip. You never want a luxury or ultra-luxury home left looking like a quick flip. It won’t survive on the market.

What do I mean?

For example, when you enter a $15 million home that has vinyl or laminate flooring material that you’d find in a much lower end flipped home, it’s definitely a sign that there’s possibly many other areas where workmanship and quality of building materials may be sub-par. When I see it, a little rhyme goes through my mind as follows: “little putty; little paint, make it look like what it ain’t.” Right then and there I’m on high alert looking for problems!

While vinyl and laminate flooring is durable, do they really belong in a high-end luxury home? When I, as a local luxury agent, enter a home that’s seeking a sale price of multi-millions or even tens of millions of dollars, I would expect to see hardwood or a high-quality engineered flooring.

It’s true that engineered flooring and hardwood flooring can be much more expensive than laminate or vinyl flooring. They are also not as easy to install correctly. Don’t you expect that, though, when the subject property is many times more expensive than the average home?

Follow the “Yellow Brick Road”

It’s important to choose the right flooring for any home remodel – whether luxury or flipped home – because the flooring in a constant throughout the home from room to room. It sets the foundation (almost literally) for the house. If your floors are right, your home is right. It’s like following the “Yellow Brick Road,” where the road is in your house, all paths leading together cohesively.

High quality flooring includes high-end materials (exotic woods, natural stone flooring, and custom tiles), craftmanship (intricate patterns, inlays, and designer detailing), longevity (durable, scratch-resistant surfaces), and a luxury aesthetic (a finish that enhances your home’s look).

Not sure what to choose? Here are some tips:

Hardwood and engineered hardwood: Part wood floor, part man-made materials, engineered wood flooring offers the best of both worlds. The real wood veneer layer offers the style and unique look of naturally occurring planks.Engineered wood features a thin veneer top layer of solid wood. The natural top layer makes engineered wood just as durable as traditional hardwood and provides the same classic, timeless look.

Some of the brand options you might go with are DuChateau, Castle Combe, Mannington, or Shaw. For luxury, either DuChateau or Castle Combe are clear choices. For engineered vinyl, Mannington has some options in that department as well, though you might also look at brands like Armstrong Flooring, Mohawk and Coretec. For laminate, Mannington and Mohawk are options as well as Quick-Step and Pergo.

Wood floors or wood flooring: Types of materials for wood floors or wood flooring range from vinyl (often like a huge decal on a roll) to laminate and engineered hardwood to actual solid hardwood planks. With both vinyl types of flooring and laminate, you may likely find repeating patterns in the “print” that you’re generally not going to find with engineered hardwood or genuine hardwood planks.

High quality laminates: Laminate is a low-cost alternative to natural wood. It is a durable floor that comes with a highly realistic image layer that mimics wood planks (or other materials like stone or even metal). Beneath this layer is a core of particleboard made from heat-pressed wood fibers. There’s some high-quality laminates, engineered vinyl and engineered wood flooring options that are durable and great choices. The rolled-vinyl decal might be the cheapest option; however, one tear in your floor from moving the refrigerator in and you’ll likely regret going with the cheapest.

To note: Laminate flooring and engineered hardwood are sometimes confused with each other because they can look similar. However, despite similar appearances, there are key differences between them. Most importantly, engineered wood contains a top layer of solid wood while laminate uses a photographic layer coated with a wear layer to achieve the wood-look surface.

The Goldilocks Zone

There’s a Goldilocks Zone for flooring quality based on the segment of the market where your home might be categorized. For your typical, suburban, 3/2 or 4/3, it’s probably overkill to choose the very highest quality flooring. It’s personal choice and you may want to do that– but you won’t get full value from future resale. Likewise, high-end luxury and ultra-high end demand highest quality and if you miss the mark, it’s going to cost you in multiples as far as resale.

Buyers want turnkey, done, done, and ready to move-in quality finishes these days. You do that and you have the power and potential to soon be deciding between multiple offers on the table. Ripping out and replacing flooring in an entire home (or a large part of it) is enough to give pause. It’s not a preference for would-be buyers.

Getting to the bottom of it

When you walk into a home, your feet are standing on the foundation. According to the Elevated Magazine article, “Why Flooring is a Key Element of Sophisticated Interiors,” the “Material beneath your feet plays a role in how that space feels, functions, and connects. It influences how sound travels, how light reflects, and how rooms relate to one another.”

Beyond choosing the right materials, when a buyer is interested in your home, it’s important that they feel they are considering a high-end, quality home that has thought behind it. They don’t want to question whether the home has been sloppily decorated or built. They want peace, ease of mind and confidence that your home – and its floors – will be their happily ever after.