IN THIS ARTICLE
- Considerations
- Sheet Vinyl
- Luxury Vinyl Flooring (LVF)
- Tile
- Concrete
- Laminate
- Engineered Wood
- Solid Wood
- The Verdict
We would all like our laundry room to be comfortable to work in, attractive, and functional. Function is a factor of many things—layout, size, choice of washer and dryer, lighting—and your laundry room’s flooring is one of the most important choices you will make.
Laundry Room Flooring Considerations
Moisture is a major concern with laundry room floors. In catastrophic events, water can issue from many different sources: an overflowing washing machine, a clogged drainpipe, or a cracked or severed water supply pipe. Even short of those emergencies, water is always present in laundry rooms; it is unavoidable. For this reason, it helps to install a laundry room floor covering that is as moisture-resistant as possible.
You also will want an attractive floor covering that is warm and soft enough to stand on for long periods. You will want the floor to be smooth and easy to clean. You will want it to be durable enough to last for years. Finally, its cost should remain within reason including the option of installing the flooring by yourself.
Sheet Vinyl Flooring
If the best moisture-proof floor covering for the laundry room is a single, unseamed waterproof piece of material, then sheet vinyl flooring is it. As long as the width of your laundry room remains at or less than 12 feet, you can install a piece of sheet vinyl and avoid seaming altogether (sheet vinyl comes in 12-foot wide rolls). Combined with a thermoplastic rubber wall base (a type of baseboard), sheet vinyl flooring is a highly reliable waterproof laundry room flooring. It also holds up well to traffic and if it ever needs replacing, you can lay another sheet right over it.Pros
- Waterproof
- Few, if any, seams
Cons
- Plain appearance
- Difficult to self-install in large spaces
Luxury Vinyl Flooring (LVF)
Luxury vinyl plank, at up to 48 inches long, looks remarkably like real wood from a distance. Today’s rigid, solid core LVF is a beefy 7 mm thick and more closely approximates laminate flooring than earlier iterations of LVF. Luxury vinyl is a do-it-yourselfer’s dream, but care must be taken to tightly seam the boards on all four sides for the flooring to remain waterproof.Pros
- Inexpensive
- 100-percent waterproof materials
- Easy to install by yourself
Cons
- Seamed material, so water may still leak through
- Rigid core LVF requires a relatively solid substrate
Tile Flooring
Ceramic and porcelain tile are classic laundry room flooring materials since they are durable, easy to clean, and waterproof if installed well. Tile can be hard to stand on for long periods, and it is inherently cold—but this can be eliminated with radiant heating.Pros
- Wide range of style options
- Waterproof if properly installed
- Easy to clean
Cons
- Flawless installation can be tricky for novices
- Cold and hard
- Requires solid, inflexible substrate
Concrete Flooring
Concrete might simply be your default laundry room flooring choice because that’s what you already have. You don’t even have to install a floor covering for it to be a hardy, reliable flooring choice for the laundry room. Improve your concrete floor’s look by acid-etching, painting, or staining it. Or add an outdoor area rug to soften it and make it warmer under bare feet.Pros
- Durable
- Generally waterproof
- Easy to clean
Cons
- Cold to the touch
- Can be considered unattractive
Laminate Flooring
Laminate flooring has been the mainstay of economical do-it-yourself installations for decades. While it can be used in the laundry room, laminate flooring runs the risk of damage in the event of flooding or even repeated minor pooling of water. Always tightly seam laundry room laminate flooring, and use a pan under the washing machine as a precaution.Pros
- Inexpensive
- Easy to install by yourself
- Easy to clean
Cons
- Particleboard base will be ruined if in contact with water
- Wear layer and image layers may delaminate
Engineered Wood Flooring
Costly but with great looks to spare, engineered wood flooring brings real wood to homes, without the difficulties of solid hardwood flooring. Engineered wood’s high-quality plywood base is dimensionally stable, which means it is less affected by moisture.Pros
- Valued by home buyers
- Better choice than solid hardwood
Cons
- The veneer may delaminate if flooded
- Expensive
- Can be damaged by laundry chemicals
Solid Wood Flooring
Any solid piece of wood can swell and shrink dramatically when subjected to enough water, and solid hardwood flooring is no exception. If flooded hardwood flooring is not addressed quickly enough, it can dry and cup so much that sanding will not fix it.Pros
- Attractive
- Can be sanded many times
Cons
- Not dimensionally stable
- Difficult to bring back to new if flooded
- Subject to damage from laundry chemicals
The Verdict
It’s all about your preferences and priorities when choosing a flooring. You can go with durable and less conventionally attractive, a floor that helps add value to the house that’s a bit more expensive, or inexpensive flooring that could leak. Once you’ve weighed your own pros and cons, you’ll find the perfect laundry room flooring to suit your needs.
