What Is Shop At Home Flooring? Is it Easy?
Most people who don’t have time to go to a showroom can simply set up an appointment to “shop at home” with a flooring specialist. There’s no need anymore to drive to across town to a crowded and hectic showroom. You can take all the time you need comparing flooring and asking all the questions you want, right in your own home. It’s more comfortable. It’s more relaxing. And you get to see what the flooring will actually look like in your home. In addition, there are some other benefits you can take advantage of when you “shop at home.”
We’re going to review some of these today.
Is shopping at home easy?
If you’ve never done it, you won’t believe how easy it is. Ask anyone who has shopped for flooring options at home. All you have to do is call to make an appointment. Everything else is taken care of for you. It’s one of the easiest parts of home improvement, so don’t miss out.
Sit back and enjoy the view, A flooring specialist will bring all the samples right into your home, and you can view how each one of them looks in the room you’re interested in. You’ll get to examine the flooring as much as you like.
See how it looks. Feel the texture. Walk on it barefoot or with your shoes. Feel the weight of it. Hear what it sounds like when you walk on it. When you drop something like a plate on it, will the plate break? See for yourself.
What makes shopping at home better?
No need for geometry, calculus, algebra, and trigonometry. Plenty can go wrong when you try to calculate the amount of flooring you need for a particular room, let alone a whole floor.
Did you know?
- Did you know different flooring materials are calculated in different formats?
- Did you know broadloom is measured in running feet?
- If there are twelve inches in a foot, what is the area of a running foot?
- Did you know that some hardwood flooring is measured in board feet?
- Did you know you have to allow for “waste” when you measure a floor?
- Did you know that different types of flooring have different allowances for “waste”?
Don’t make the “I could swear it looked different in the showroom” mistake
Lighting can make a big difference
The lighting in a showroom is different than the light you have in your home. The type of lighting in showrooms is very different than the light in most homes. Even the amount of sunlight in your home will be different. This can definitely affect the look of the floor.
Furniture, colors, and patterns can clash
Even if you can compensate for the different lighting, the type of furniture, the colors on the walls, and the patterns and prints of the fabrics you have can all affect the way your new floor will look and vice versa.
Size matters
No matter what type of flooring you like, shopping for a tiny room versus planning for an entire floor of your home can affect your choices. A pattern that looks okay in a showroom may look too busy for the living room you were considering. And vice versa, a pattern or design that looks good in a showroom may be too subtle for an expansive floor in your home.
Why DIYers should shop at home
Get started on the right foot. No matter how handy you are, miscalculating how much flooring you need can be a very expensive mistake. Even if the flooring you want is as easy to install as laminate floors, ordering too much or too little is costly.
You may not be able to return the extra flooring. And if you didn’t order enough, to begin with, different lot numbers can make going back to buy more a problem.
What are the composition and the stability of the subfloor? What is the moisture level of the subfloor, and will it affect the flooring I can install?
You could always buy the tools to measure this yourself, but a shop at home flooring specialist can do it for you? How much moisture will be present depending on where in your home your new floor will be installed?
Will you need an engineered hardwood flooring, a luxury vinyl plank flooring, or a water resistant vinyl flooring based on the expected amount of moisture?
How will room transitions be treated? Will the new flooring be higher or lower than the existing flooring in the other rooms? How will the new flooring affect the levels at the top or bottom of a set of stairs or a stepped-down room?
There are building codes in place with safety guidelines for these transitions. For example, if you’re thinking of a standard, ¾-inch solid hardwood floor installation, this might make that first step too high or not within the building code.
What about garage flooring? Depending on where you live and how you use your garage, must you use rubber flooring, or are other options you can consider? Home Depot will have plenty of options for you, but which one will work best in your garage?
Shop at home, then go DIY or go professional installation
Start to finish; it’s really up to you. You owe to yourself to make the first part as easy as possible. That’s why so many people shop at home and then opt for a floor installation service.
It’s whatever you feel comfortable with. In fact, even as an avid DIYer, shopping at home can answer all the things you’ve been wondering about.
If you are a DIYer, shop at home can give you the confidence you need. However, if you’re not interested in DIY, then shop at home couldn’t make it easier for you to get the new floor you want.
Find a trusted retailer in your area
Find someone who specializes in your area. Someone who works and lives near you. Someone you can count on to help you. Buying local is always better for your community.
At Flooring Direct, we always offer a free estimate. Contact us today!
(214) 390-0850
Dan Ratcliff
Dan Ratcliff is the CEO and President of Flooring Direct in Dallas / Fort Worth. Over the last two decades, he has grown Flooring Direct into a premier Shop-at-Home traditional & hardwood flooring company. With a true dedication to customer service and integrity, Flooring Direct has become DFW's largest highest-rated Dallas-local flooring dealer. Dan has lived in Dallas all of his life and was raised in Dallas with family roots and love for the community and local sports. It's with that sense of family that Flooring Direct has contributed to and sponsored children's organizations like Jonathan's Place and scholastic athletics like Plano's Girls Soccer.
