Floating floor, also called floating flooring systems or installation systems, are versatile.
They can be installed in a variety of materials, including linoleum, wood, cork, rubber, carpet, cork veneer, cement board, laminate, terrazzo, solid tile, or even foam.
Unlike plank or solid hardwood floors, they don’t require any special framing or studding, which can often get in the way of your favorite sofa, rug, or furniture.
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What is A Floating Floor?
Floating floor is not a loft floor. It refers to the method of installing the floor decoration. By definition, floating floor means the floor decoration in which its installation you don’t need glue.
It covers your floor so your sub floor has various decorations such as wood motives and many others depend on what types of floating floor you choose.
The point of installing this floor type is to reduce sounds. Usually this type of flooring is installed in dance floor or music production room.
It absorbs voices so there are no much quacking sounds like how the usual floor will produce.
The choice of floating floor is an ideal option if you wish to have quite room such as bedroom, home theaters or office room or even library of your own.
Convenience of floating floor is not as comfortable as ceramic. Sometimes you can still feel the separate part of floating floor. Even so, floating floor installation is way more faster and easier rather than ceramic.
It is due to its floating design that doesn’t require glue. Ceramic takes more time to install because we have to wait for the glue to dry before use them.
Pros and Cons Floating Floor
Even though it is much faster to install this floor type to the point even amateur can do it, there are disadvantages of installing floating floor.
Especially if you feel like you need to create such quite room, it might be beneficial but you need to consider whether kids will mess up water to fall because it will be hard to maintain.
Here is more about advantages and disadvantages of floating floor.
Advantages
First of all, it is much more cost saving rather than ceramic. You can have floating floor installed by yourself and it will save more cost for human resource. Plus, this floor type is easy for DIY.
If you are the type who likes to put DIY into your home then this flooring decoration will make it easier. Another advantage is it is easy to replace and install so you don’t have to worry about replacing them later.
Disadvantages
Some people are fine with this disadvantage but floating floor decrease the luxurious feel. It is not as nice as ceramic even in one look. Floating floor also is not the type of floor that can get refinished.
Plus, you might want to consider the feeling on your feet too. It doesn’t feel as nice as ceramic because still feel the transition between this floor type parts if you don’t like it.
Types of Floating Floors
Floating floors has so many designs. Even though it is somehow resemble nail down flooring now, floating floors has various designs and materials.
To cover up the disadvantage of less luxurious look, you can choose the vinyl luxury material. With this material, you can choose many designs. There are those that resemble ceramic, wood, metal and many other.
Floating Floor Cost
The cost is various based on what material and design you choose. Plus point about installation cost, this floor type is the least expensive rather than any other flooring types.
It is because floating floors is much more easier to install and it has less material rather than ceramic or any other flooring types out there.
For rough cost, luxury vinyl cost about $7 per square foot. For engineered hardwood it will cost between $5 – $10 per square foot and lastly laminate flooring that cost $5.50 per square foot.
How to Install Floating Floor?
Floating floor installation shares almost similar methods for every material and designs. First of all you have to make that the surface of your floor is smooth and even.
This is how you know that your flooring floor will look good later. Make sure that the floor is even because it will leave a different level later if it is not even.
After that you can install the underlayment. It is a subfloor of floating floor to absorb voices when you step on it. Once you are done, you can install the flooring planks on it.
Make sure to leave a gap between the first plank and the wall so it can adjust to your whole room later as time passes by.
Related Post: All About Mezzanine Floor
Floating Floor Design
Even if floating floor is not as luxurious as ceramic, you can set your floor design according to your preferred style. You can easily make DIY from them.
Besides, you can get various designs of this floor type not only from the manufacturer design but also adopt them to your preferred direction and surround them with enough decoration so they look match.
Here are some of ideas:
Bathroom Floor Ideas
Bored of such ceramic bathroom? You can install the wood design of this floor type into your bathroom so you can have a natural vibes.
If you like to have such relaxing feeling in your bathroom, bringing in natural decoration like wood and river rocks will help you to get such feeling. The point of this design is not as main decoration but only part of supports.
Natural Basement Flooring
Here is the example of floor look you can get. It looks simple and you can get the same look from ceramic but ceramic doesn’t have the same advantage as floating floor does.
You can easily replace them once you feel like you need a new decoration. The way this floor type allows you to get replacement easily set you free from ceramic that usually challenging to get replacement.
Wooden Look Kitchen Floor
As you can see the floor looks smooth and even. The secret to this look is you have to prepare your subfloor as even as possible so you can get this look later in the end as result.
But if you don’t prepare your sub floor precisely then you can imagine how the floating floor can get such different levels from one floor level.