Best Flooring for Laundry Room

Doing laundry is something we do almost every day. It is an activity that you do in one particular room called the laundry room, with all the equipment to wash your clothes, shoes, or anything. Laundry involves water, detergents, and dirt in most cases.

Having a wrong flooring option would cause you so much trouble, such as replacing the floor many times, or having your laundry room flooring looks kinky.

Things to Consider in Choosing Laundry Room Flooring

Laundry involves many activities. It requires you to separate some dirty clothes, dealing with detergents and cleaning liquid, also wash them with water in a washing machine or in a manual way, by hand.

Those activities could potentially cause some accidents, such as clogged water source, flooded washing machine, or spilled detergents to the floor.

You must at least consider these points below before you choose one particular flooring option for our laundry room.

• Water-resistant. It’s better to be waterproof, though. But the thing is that you have to pay attention to water and moisture. Your choice for laundry room flooring must be able to withstand those. Otherwise, you’re gonna have your flooring get damaged in a few days once you spill water again and again, which normally happens in the laundry room.
• Easy maintenance. You’re gonna have spills, splashes, or even mud dirt in the laundry room. If your flooring is tricky to clean or treat, you’ll have more difficulties in keeping your laundry room flooring. You could have a messy floor and some mold may appear. Make sure you know how to keep a well-maintained flooring if you choose one.
• Durability. Dealing with water, moisture, and chemicals, laundry room flooring must be able to withstand those things. It’s not a pleasant thing to do when you get your flooring damaged and need to replace it again and again due to the cause you know you’re gonna have in that room.
• Sensitivity. This one is very important. Detergent or cleaning liquid may contain chemical substances that could make stains in your flooring., Having a stain-resistant flooring is a wise choice. Also, sensitive flooring may be difficult to maintain.

Best Flooring Options for Laundry Room

When dealing with moisture and sensitivity, you don’t have many choices for flooring. You do have, though, but many of them are risky and better not to choose.

Below are the top 5 best flooring options for a laundry room you can consider.

1. Vinyl

As we know, vinyl floor comes in plank, tile, and sheet. Those have different specs for the laundry room.

First of all, both are waterproof. Water cannot damage vinyl flooring. Therefore you can install it in your bathroom as well.

However, both have different detail when it comes to seam and leaked water. LVT  and LVP are not that seamless when it comes to this point.

There is still a possibility that the water leak into the flooring. However, later you can change or repair it individually. Meanwhile sheet vinyl is seamless.

Second of all, vinyl flooring always comes in various designs, colors, and patterns. It is a good point to complement the style of the room or your preferences.

But when it comes to the cost, LVT and LVP are more affordable than sheet vinyl. Sheets cost $2 to $7 and planks and tiles cost $0.35 to $3 in range.

In that regard, sheet vinyl has a more complicated installation that you’re gonna need a professional to do it. On the opposite, LVT and LVP are both improved and it is so DIY friendly.

Considering the strength of vinyl in the laundry room, it is one of the best because it is water-resistant and it is easy to clean. Damp mopping is fine to do. Even water spill is okay to be on the floor. That makes the maintenance easier.

2. Ceramic Tile

Ceramic tile comes in square shape in different sizes. It comes in either glazed or unglazed.

The glazed ones are more shiny and glossy, very smooth, while the unglazed one has more texture and it’s more earthy, in the taste under your feet and its appearance.

Ceramic tile flooring has so many designs, patterns, and colors as well. You can choose which one suits the room color best.

Ceramic flooring is one of the best ideas for a laundry room because it is 100% waterproof. Even a big flood will not damage ceramic tiles.

What about the stain and the maintenance? Well, the color of ceramic may fade, but it takes tens of years to fade. It doesn’t stain and it’s very easy to clean.

If water flooding couldn’t harm this, then what could?

However, it has that grout in every edge of the tile after you install ceramic tile flooring. That makes you have to do daily sweeping and mopping to keep it clean.

The installation is relatively uneasy. It needs cement, water, and sand as well. It should be installed on an even surface.

Calling professionals is the only option if you’re not a handyman. Because when the surface is uneven, ceramic could crack.

One thing you should’ve probably known is that ceramic flooring is very slippery.

Moreover, we’re talking about cleaning liquid or any water that could be spilled to the floor surface. Always be careful, or wear anti-slip sandals in the laundry room.

3. Natural Stone

Speaking of durability, natural stone flooring is the strongest among all. Natural stone flooring comes in many different kinds, such as granite, marble, limestone, and some other.

Both have a very hard surface and both are totally waterproof. Therefore many people have this flooring outside in their front park.

Even different temperature changes also don’t harm natural stone flooring, it does in some kind though, but generally not.

Natural stone flooring is also very much stain-resistant. The color would stay the same, moreover if you give it refinishing periodically.

That would definitely look good and surely adds the value of your house cost. Yes, natural stone is like your future investment. Installing this in your laundry room is a great choice.

Nevertheless, natural stone has its hard surface which can make it very slippery when it has water on it, be very careful.

Also, it’s quite heavy and it comes in abstract shapes and tiles. Yes, it adds uniqueness, but it makes it difficult to install. You need to pay more for a professional to help you.

As a future investment, you see, natural flooring is also quite expensive, to begin with. It could cost around $5 to $10 per square foot.

At this level, you should measure how many would you probably need the tile in your laundry room.

4. Concrete

Going simple now? Why not? Having a ‘bare floor’ in your laundry room is not gonna be a problem. The natural feel and look from concrete flooring may suit the room for washing, right?

Concrete flooring is waterproof, no doubt on that. The good news about concrete flooring is that it is not sensitive towards detergents or any liquid with high or low pH water.

One thing you should be very careful about concrete flooring is making the surface even and balanced. Otherwise, the simplicity of concrete is not gonna leveled up.

The feeling of concrete flooring under your feet can be quite cold, but you can wear anti-slip sandals if you want. You can add some rugs as well to the room. That would complement the decoration, too.

Speaking of which, you can decorate your concrete flooring by painting it or staining it with acid-etching sort of way. That way you could embrace one simplicity to its best.

5. Wood Flooring and Its Alternatives

We’re gonna talk about wood flooring in one discussion. That is because both have similar weak spots that make them vice versa if we compare them to be in a laundry room.

Both are okay if they are installed, as long as they don’t get severe water spill or much splashes of cleaning detergents.

Let’s go with solid hardwood first. Solid hardwood is very sensitive to moisture. This natural element in one plank could shrink and damaged because of the waterflood.

What about its alternatives, like the laminate or engineered hardwood?

Laminate flooring has its natural element at the base that is sensitive to moisture and the wear layer that could not withstand waterflood, just a water spill that is wiped right away.

Meanwhile, engineered hardwood has its veneer layer that cold delaminate once it gets flooded by water. Once delamination happens, it could delaminate the entire layer of the surface.

Some ways can be done to strengthen these wood floorings to be installed in a laundry room.

For example, you can glue the click-and-lock edge of the plank from laminate or engineered wood to prevent theater to warp into the layer. Or, you can have rugs covering the flooring.

However, the risk is still there. If you can handle the risk later by giving maximum maintenance, go for it. But some of us maybe not be that excited when it comes to repairing.

Which One You Gotta Choose?

You gotta choose what’s best for your very own laundry room, of course! Each house has a different laundry room size and equipment as well.

The homeowner also has different habits in washing. Some of them may be very neat that they rarely splash water to the floor.

Having vinyl flooring, natural stone, ceramic tile, and concrete flooring is the best choice you can choose because they are all 100% waterproof.

You shouldn’t worry about water damaging your flooring anymore. However, pay attention to each flooring’s sensitivity. Some of you may be okay, some maybe not.

For the wood flooring like solid hardwood, and its alternatives like engineered hardwood and laminate, I believe they are okay.

But they have weaknesses when it comes to water. It’s kinda risky, but still, it’s possible to install it in a laundry room and protect it with the best maintenance we could give.