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  tanding firm on a stylish foundation. No, it’s not the most glamorous task in the designing and construction of your new home, but flooring is a key component in creating the unique look and feel of your ultimate home environment. Fortunately your choices today are greater and more varied than ever before, allowing you to consider details well beyond durability. Aesthetics, too, are now a legitimate factor in the process of selecting your flooring. Think about how hardwood floors can add a glow to your family room or offset your oriental rugs.
Hand-painted tiles can instill exotic European flair in the most simple bathrooms. Even carpet today, with its myriad of textures and colors, can transform the atmosphere of any room in your home.
The key, of course, is to look at both your budget and your needs simultaneously. Indeed, sometimes the best and most practical effects are not the most expensive ones. That’s why it’s imperative—again—to do your homework, consulting with flooring professionals whose job is to help you find the best flooring you can.
Don’t forget, too, that styles change. Years ago, it was shag or plush carpeting and terrazzo or wood flooring, with carpeting being the floor covering of choice. Today, carpet weaves have tightened up, with Berber weaves, sisal or sisal looks, kilims and Orientals. On the hard surface side, tiles and woods—including the durable laminates—are king, while terrazzo has faded. Concrete has come indoors and found new dimensions. So think about your floor coverings early on. Do you want a hard surface? The choices here include wood—or its laminates—slate, marble, Mexican tile, vinyl, and concrete, which can be scored and dyed to look like anything but concrete. In fact, one local homeowner achieved a rich, worn leather look on his floor which was used as the basis for a design scheme of rich, elegant neutrals and monochromatic tones to achieve a stunning and dramatic, but very inviting look in the living and dining rooms.
Carpets and area rugs, however, still make a distinctly wonderful design statement, and should always be considered, particularly in those areas where you like the luxury of warmth and elegance underfoot, or where cushioning provides an additional safety factor. Designers and carpet professionalshave been innovative in creating new carpet looks — custom, beveled or sculptured area rugs are an excellent example — which enable the homeowner to truly have a one-of-a-kind type of rug. Sisal carpets or their equivalents, are another popular option, echoing the lowcountry’s love of things natural and casual. Kilims have also grown in popularity, both in the lowcountry and beyond. The versatility of the look they afford is an excellent alternative in our hot, humid climate to heavier, more cumbersome Oriental rugs.
Area rugs help define the room and enhance the beauty of the flooring underneath
Wood, of course, is always a popular option, both aesthetically and practically speaking. Southerners, especially revere their ancestral woods — pine and oak — taking great care to preserve old floors from barns and such and reinvigorate them by installing them in new construction.
Wood is simple and a classic flooring with finishes and species that offer any look or style your room desires, and since it is so popular today wood is suitable for virtually any room in the house. It feels warm underfoot as well as makes a good thermal insulator. What makes wood uniquely beautiful is its natural grain. The beauty of wood can be enhanced with high quality finishing.
Finish/ Most of today’s wood floor finishes are suitable for kitchens and high traffic areas. Clear water-based finishes are often best because they retain the wood’s color and can be easily touched up or recoated. The strongest water-base finish is a factory applied, acrylic-impregnated finish that penetrates the wood instead of just coating the surface. Oil base finishes sometimes fade and make future touch ups difficult.
Sheen. Finishes come in sheens from low shine satin to high gloss. Satin-sheen is best because they hide dirt and food particles. Species. Wood has two classifications: hardwood and softwood. Hardwoods are cut from deciduous trees that lose their leaves in the fall. Some well known hardwoods are: red oak, white oak, maple, birch, walnut, cherry and mahogany. Exotic hardwoods which are beautiful include merbau, angelique, iroko and mutenye. Softwoods are from “conifers” evergreens and include southern pine, douglas fir, redwood and western hemlock.
Wood flooring is sold either prefinished or unfinished. Prefinished flooring must be installed with extreme care to ensure it does not get scratched. Unfinished flooring is sanded and stained and coated on site after installation.
Whatever the look you want to achieve, all hard surfaces have one distinct advantage over carpets: they are much more easily maintained. When protected with the proper sealers, cleanup is easier, making hard surfaces the perfect choice for those with respiratory problems or allergies. While sealers do need to be reapplied periodically, usually every three to seven years, depending upon traffic and wear and type of surface.
Each option does have its own distinct advantages. Be sure to coordinate these with your family’s needs and the other design elements of your home. Each room’s distinctive appeal can begin with the floor. Floors are as important to your new home as those features found at eye level, and today your choices are unlimited.
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