The most popular flooring found in new homes today has changed significantly in the last few years. Carpet used to be a common choice for bedrooms, hallways, and living areas. However, wood floors are the more modern choice of flooring in 2023 – and their use is expected to remain in style for many years to come.
Keep reading to explore the most popular flooring in new homes today 2023.
Top 6 Most Popular Flooring in New Homes 2023
The most popular flooring in new homes is wood floors, including prefinished hardwood, unfinished hardwood, and engineered wood followed by laminate, luxury vinyl tiles, and luxury vinyl planks.
Prefinished Hardwood Flooring
Prefinished hardwood flooring is a popular choice for new homes in 2023. It offers strength, resilience, and a highly desirable aesthetic. Made from real, solid wood, prefinished hardwood is extremely durable and long-lasting.
Different styles are available, which each add their own unique character to a home. For example, ingrown bark offers a more natural, authentic look, while hand-scraped surfaces create an immaculate wood effect.
Pros:
Strong, resilient, and long-lasting
Highly desirable when selling
Natural, authentic wood aesthetic
Cons:
More costly compared to laminate or luxury vinyl
Requires refinishing every 7-10 years for maximum protection
Needs cleaning with a hardwood floor mop and hardwood floor cleaner
Unfinished Hardwood Flooring
Unfinished hardwood flooring offers similar benefits to prefinished flooring, except it needs to be finished after installation. While this requires some extra effort, it ensures a smoother, more uniform look once completed.
Unfinished hardwood offers homeowners more customization in terms of the stain and color used in the final stages. Plus, because the surface is finished after installation, it provides maximum protection for your floors, with every cut sealed to perfection.
Pros:
Colors can be completely customized
Offers maximum protection after installation
Provides an impeccably smooth finish
Cons:
More costly compared to laminate or luxury vinyl
Requires finishing after initial installation
Engineered Hardwood Flooring
Engineered hardwood is extremely durable, which is why it’s another popular floor for modern homes. It’s fortified with additional protective wood layers to give floors a sleek, long-lasting finish.
The real wood surface and cross-layered softwood core used in the construction of engineered hardwood also make it highly resilient to impact. The most popular styles for homeowners in 2023 are oak, hickory, maple, walnut, and cherry.
Pros:
Highly resilient to impact
Available in an array of colors and stains
Cons:
Easy to scratch ( felt pads should be used under furniture)
Laminate Flooring
Popular for its quick and simple installation, laminate flooring (like our TORLYS range) is one of the most common floors found in new homes today. Due to its ease of cleaning and waterproof finish, it’s the ideal choice for new family homes.
Muddy paw prints are easily cleaned, spills won’t damage the surface, and the multi-layered fiberboard is highly resilient to dropped items. Homeowners frequently choose laminate for its affordability, timeless aesthetic, and ease of installation (with most people choosing to DIY).
Pros:
Highly suitable for family homes
Waterproof
Durable and long-lasting
Affordable and timeless
Available in a wide range of colors and styles
Easy to DIY
Cons:
Not as desirable as hardwood when reselling your home
Can scratch if felt pads are not used under furniture
Luxury Vinyl Tile
Another type of floor that’s risen in popularity in recent years is luxury vinyl tile. Constructed to imitate tile, stone, or slate, this flooring offers homeowners the benefits of tile, without the risk of cracks.
Its synthetic construction offers homeowners waterproof flooring that’s easy to clean, with no need to deal with stained grout (a common problem with real tiles). Luxury vinyl tiles are also simpler to install than real tiles, with no expertise needed.
Pros:
Easier to install than real tiles
Strong and doesn’t crack on impact
Strong stain resistance
Cons:
Luxury Vinyl Planks
A more modern flooring for new homes is luxury vinyl planks. Offering a similar aesthetic to real wood without the expense or extra maintenance, it’s a popular alternative to hardwood.
As a synthetic material, it’s waterproof and robust. When you choose a product with a thick wear layer, you won’t need to worry about water damage or heavy foot traffic damaging the planks. Made with a slightly grained surface, vinyl planks offer both the look of natural wood and the feel of it underfoot.
Pros:
Similar aesthetic to hardwood, without the added maintenance or price tag
Suitable for high-traffic areas
Offer a soft feel underfoot
Provide an authentic, grained look
Cons:
Needs cleaning with a microfiber mop and vinyl floor cleaner
What is the Most Popular Flooring in Homes Today?
The most popular flooring in homes today is wooden flooring – like luxury vinyl, laminate, or hardwood floors.
A few decades ago, carpet was more popular in homes compared with wooden floors. People generally preferred carpets for their warmth, comfort, and soft footing.
However, homeowners today have very different priorities. They prefer flooring that’s cleaner, easier to maintain, and lasts a long time.
With more research revealing how dirty and bad for the environment carpet is, it’s more common for homebuilders and homeowners to opt for wood floors vs carpet – especially in laundry rooms, bedrooms, and living rooms.
Wood floors are the most popular type of flooring in 2023. Carpet is not as popular in new homes today compared with a few decades ago. It’s harder to keep clean and wears away quickly.
Compared to carpet, wooden floors are significantly cleaner, less hypoallergenic, and more eco-friendly. They also last longer and are easier to clean (with a microfiber mop and wood floor cleaner).
Recent studies found that carpet in the home hosts over 200,000 bacteria in every square inch (source). That doesn’t include the additional dust, pollen, pet fibers, and mold that build up in carpets.
Vacuuming doesn’t clean carpet as well as it does with laminate, hardwood, and luxury vinyl. Wood floors can also be mopped. Whereas carpet requires routine deep cleaning with a special machine, which costs more.
Because of its natural ability to collect dirt, carpet is also not recommended for kids’ bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, or hallways (according to the National Institute of Health).
Carpet also isn’t as eco-friendly as wooden floors, like luxury vinyl, laminate, or hardwood – which is another reason why it isn’t used in new homes or home renovations often.
What Flooring Never Goes Out of Style?
Since the introduction of wood floors in homes, it’s never gone out of style. This is completely different from carpet, which quickly goes out of fashion. It also wears away quickly, frays, and looks shabbier the dirtier it gets.
When choosing a wood floor that won’t go out of fashion, it’s important to carefully consider the color. Neutral colors are the most popular flooring – and have been for the past few decades.
Even though home fashion is continuously changing, neutral colors are always a timeless choice over anything too bold. Wood floor colors that never go out of style include light brown, gray, cream, white, and whitewashed wood.
Hardwood floors can add value to a property (source), so it’s the best choice for long-term investment. Because it’s considered a luxurious floor and lasts a long time, it’s highly desirable for new homeowners.
What Color Flooring is in For 2023?
Flooring with lighter hues is the most popular for new homes and home renovations in 2023. Colors including gray, light brown, gray-brown, white, and whitewashed wood are the most popular colors in 2023.
Most people opt for luxury vinyl planks or laminate flooring, which are both affordable options that last a long time. Our best ranges for new homes are Raintree waterproof wood, TORLYS laminate, and Happy Feet luxury vinyl.
More luxurious floors include prefinished or unfinished hardwood and engineered hardwood. These last longer and are more durable. A popular choice that never goes out of style is our Anderson Tuftex Engineered White Oak.
Summary
Homeowners today have very different priorities compared to 20 or 30 years ago. New homes are commonly found with laminate or vinyl flooring because of their affordability, ease of installation, resilience, and hygienic nature.
Some homeowners choose to install hardwood floors to add value and benefit from a long-lasting solid wood floor. However, hardwood is not quite as popular in the average home compared to laminate or vinyl – because of its higher expense and extra maintenance.
Carpet used to be in fashion, but this trend has quickly disappeared and isn’t expected to return any time soon. While some people still opt for carpet in some areas of the home, it’s not the most modern choice in 2023.
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