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Each type of floor has its own merits and demerits. There is no single flooring material which can be suitable for all circumstances and for different purposes in different buildings such as residential, institutional, industrial, and go-downs. However, the selection of flooring should be made by considering the following factors:
- Initial Cost
- Appearance
- Cleanliness
- Durability
- Damp-resistance
- Sound Insulation
- Thermal Insulation
- Smoothness
- Hardness
- Comfort
- Fire-resistance
- Maintenance
- Light reflection
- Floor design
- Initial Cost: The cost of laying and maintenance is very important. It widely varies for different types of flooring materials. The marble, granite and rubber tiles are considered to be the most expensive whereas the floorings, viz., Terrazzo, mosaic, vinyl, ceramic tile are moderately expensive. The floors, made of concrete and brick, are the cheapest type of flooring. It should be ensured that the comparative cost of for different floors, i.e. the costs of both, final laying and preparation of sub-floor to be accounted. Usually high quality flooring reduces long term maintenance and repair expenses and cheaper or lower cost flooring is often les durable. When flooring material graded only on appearance not on strength may wear easily. Hence, the selection of flooring should be made keeping in view the available budget for flooring.
- Appearance: Flooring should 'produce a desired beautiful effect in conformity with the building. Generally, floorings of ceramic tiles, marble and granite provide a good appearance while concrete; brick flooring gives an ordinary appearance. However, it should reflect personalized aesthetic expression and satisfaction.
- Cleanliness: Flooring should be non-absorbent and capable of being easily and effectively cleaned. All joints in flooring should offer a water-tight surface. Greasy and oily substances should' neither spoil the appearance nor should have a destroying effect on the flooring materials.
- Durability: The flooring material should offer sufficient resistance to wear and tear, temperature, chemical action, so as to provide long life. The flooring should be strong enough to withstand the effects of anticipated foot, material and furniture load traffic without undue deterioration. It should withstand severer load abrasion, weight of furniture and equipment.
- Damp-Resistance: Ground floor, should offer sufficient resistance against dampness in the building to ensure healthy environment. Normally the floors of ceramic tiles, concrete, bricks are preferred floors against dampness. The use of flooring material, like wood, Rubber, linoleum, cork. should be avoided for floors in damp situation.
- Sound Insulation: According to modern building concepts, a floor should neither create noise when used nor should transmit noise, particularly in a vertical direction. In case of ground or basement floors, the sound vibrations are less because of the contact with the mass of the earth. Hence, it is more important factor for upper floors, where they are supposed to act as horizontal barriers for the passage of sound in vertical direction. However, the flooring material should be such that it either produces no noise or less noise when travelled over, specially for buildings such as Libraries. Hospitals, Educational buildings, Theatres. Rubber flooring provides excellent sound insulation.
- Thermal Insulation: It should be possible for a building to maintain constant temperature or heat inside the building irrespective of change in the external temperature. The flooring should reduce the demand for internal heating during winter and cooling in summer. The floors of wood, rubber, cork, are best suited for this purpose.
- Smoothness: The floor should be of superior type so as to exhibit a smooth and even surface. But at the same time, it should not be slippery, which will otherwise endanger the safe movements over it.
- Hardness: It is desirable to use good quality floor materials which do not give rise to any form of impact mark imprints, when used for supporting the loads or moving the loads over them. Normally the hard surfaces such as concrete, marble, granite, and ceramic tile do not show any impressions whereas, rubber, and cork; do form the marks on the surfaces.
- Comfort: The flooring material should be such that it gives comfort to the occupants under relaxing and working conditions. Comfort is a matter of personal preference such as warm cold, cushioning, smoothness, noise control and light reflection.
- Fire Resistance: Relatively this is an important factor in the selection of upper flooring material. However, the flooring material should offer sufficient resistance to fire, in order to safeguard the life and goods within a building. The floor material should be made of fire-resisting or non-combustible materials. The floorings of combustible materials like. cork, linoleum, should be laid on fire-resistant base only.
- Maintenance: It is always desired that the maintenance cost should be as low as possible. Generally ceramic tiles. Marble and concrete, require less maintenance as compared to the wood floor. Maintenance is less when floor material resists stain bleach and absorption of liquids. Maintenance cost includes repair, polishing, and waxing.
- Light reflection: The floor should reflect more light. Color of the floor is important for light reflection. White ceramic tile reflects more light than concrete floor. Light color reflects more light than dark color flooring.
- Floor design: In the selection of flooring one should consider the slip resistant and transition area in the floor design. Walking from carpet floor or non-slippery floor to a glazed tile floor or more slippery floor, walking surface could increase the chances of slip and fall due to the individuals lack of detection of the transition because of change in the slip resistance and adjustment accordingly. In general flooring should have slip resistance property when transitioning between different types of flooring. Another important consideration is surface roughness. Surface roughness affects friction. Selection of flooring material with adequate surface roughness may potentially reduce slip and fall accidents.
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