How to Keep Your Floors Warm and Cozy
How to Keep Your Floors Warm and Cozy
.jpg)
There is nothing like warm, cozy flooring to make you feel right at home.
While warm floors are a boon for any home, warmth is often neglected in favor of style or material. Because of this, some rooms never feel inviting or homey.
Forgoing warmth for less tangible factors is one of the biggest mistakes homeowners make when installing new floors. Warm floors make for a happy, comfortable lifestyle and more manageable heating costs.
Your floors react to temperature and moisture. When it is cold outside, some flooring materials retain heat for a comforting feeling, while other materials lose it causing your floors to become frigid and unwelcoming.
Whether you are looking to install new floors or keep the ones you have, there are steps you can take to add warmth to your flooring.
In this post, we will go over some actions you can take to make your floors retain more heat.
Warmer Floors, Warmer Home
If your home needs a complete revamp when it comes to warmth, then replacing your flooring is a great place to start.
Homes that are full of cold, heat-resistant flooring (like stone and wood) will struggle to retain heat, especially in the winter. The only solution is to replace your cold flooring with warmer materials.
Carpet and luxury vinyl can be one of those solutions.
Carpet
Carpet is an excellent material when it comes to absorbing and retaining heat. Since it is a poor conductor, heat takes a long time to escape from the carpet.
Think of it as a blanket for your floor. Heat enters the carpet from a source such as a sun or your vent and the carpet traps it in its fibers. The carpet then feels warm to the touch when your body (a better conductor than carpet) absorbs the leftover heat.
Carpet is an excellent insulator, meaning your home must generate less heat to stay warm as your carpet prevents excess heat from escaping your home. When paired with underlaying or padding, the carpet becomes even more efficient at retaining heat.
With that said, sensibly selected carpet can actually lower the amount of energy it takes to keep a room cooled or heated, as well as keep your floors cushy and warm.
Luxury Vinyl
You might not think it to look at it, but vinyl flooring is one of the warmest floor materials around.
Durable, waterproof, long-lasting, vinyl flooring can mimic nearly any other type of flooring material.
Vinyl retains heat in a way that natural materials cannot while emulating their style.
Adaptable and user-friendly vinyl is a great choice for floors that want versatile style along with refreshing warmth.
Accessories for a Warmer Welcome
If you are happy with the floors, you already have and simply want to add a little extra warmth to your floors, there are steps you can take that do not require you to rip up your current floors.
Use Smaller Rugs
Short of installing wall-to-wall carpeting, you can use small carpets and rugs to help insulate your home. Area rugs can help with rooms that have chronically cold floors by just warming a room with small, smartly placed rugs.
Consider the following factors:
- Lifestyle. Do you have pets? Kids? How often will you need to clean your rugs? Some materials are easier to clean than others. If you can expect your rugs to see regular messes, choose a rug that stands up well under strain.
- Size. Larger rugs that cover more area are better insulators than small rugs that sit in the corner. If your room is small or unconventionally shaped, then a large area rug may not be an option for you. Smaller, overlapping rugs may be a better option.
- Material. Different materials are better insulators than others. How much extra heat does your room need? The answer will decide what type of material you need.
Install a Radiant Heating System
Radiant heating systems pump heat directly to your floors by installing pipes full of hot water, or strategically placed electrical wires underneath your floorboards. This causes every inch of your floors to radiate heat.
Radiant heating systems are ideal for ceramic floors such as bathrooms or kitchens, but they can work with other types of flooring too, even thin carpeting.
A Warm Welcome Home
There is nothing better than coming home to warm, welcoming, and stylish floors. However, despite the draw of warm floors, many homeowners live with chronically cold flooring.
Keeping your floors warm starts with the materials your floor is made from and ends with proper insulation.
If you are looking for a flooring store that will help you focus on the small details and always put the customer’s experience first, then it’s time to stop by A Step Above Flooring. For selection to installation, A Step Above Flooring goes a step above the rest to ensure that you have floors that make your home yours.