#5 Flooring 101 - Clean It or Replace It

Home Staging Tips and Suggestions by Melinda Potcher

http://MAPConsultants.houzz.com

Depending on how long you have lived in your home before you think about putting it on the market, as well as the level of traffic through the home (you, kids, pets) and also weighing current trends in flooring, you may want to either have floors professionally cleaned, or replaced in part or in whole.

If your floors look worse for wear, ask your Realtor and Home Stager for their opinions.  They will always have your best interest at heart and don’t want you to spend any more money than is necessary to get your home sold quickly for as much as possible.

Firstly, if you have wall to wall carpeting and it has stains, ask for a recommendation to a professional carpet cleaner.  Your Realtor will have someone they know and like for their work and their affordability.  Same thing goes for ceramic tile – if it and the grout lines need professional steam cleaning, get a referral from your Realtor.

Secondly, if your carpet is wrinkled, stretched out or needs repair work, get an estimate for the work, then get an estimate to have it replaced and weigh your options.  Again, apply the same school of thought to chipped or broken ceramic tile – can you replace it with an exact matching tile, or is it cheaper to replace?

Thirdly, if you are considering replacing carpeting, please do not replace just the areas that need repair – if it needs to be replaced, replace it all, and consider other options to wall to wall carpet in the mix too.  Likewise for ceramic tile and/or old vinyl or linoleum floors – you want the kitchens and baths flooring to match, so replacing just one room or using scraps to fill in damaged areas may not be the wisest decision.

Fourth Option – you may consider offering a flooring allowance (consult with your Realtor) to potential purchasers if you are tight on cash or concerned you may make the wrong choice.

What I can tell you as a Professional Home Stager is that in our area currently people would prefer hardwood or wood laminate flooring options to carpeting.  Many people have kids, pets, and allergies.  Wood floors, or wood laminate floors, can be easier to keep clean for many people and by and large they look nicer than carpeting (unless you have some really high end carpeting, which I’ve also seen and liked).

Additionally, I have sourced a newer flooring option that is really catching on, looks great, wears great, feels great and it is glue-down vinyl plank flooring.  Looks like wood, very durable, it's applied directly to the concrete slab, so there are no "noises" like with floating floors or click and lock products.  It's very affordable and has a green score too.  Check it out; 

http://www.gohaus.com/vinyl-plank-flooring/smoked-sage-pro.

Tile floors are preferred in kitchens and baths to linoleum, and no (zero) grout lines or darker grout lines are easier to maintain than larger, lighter grout lines.

Whatever you decide with the advice of your Realtor and Home Stager in cleaning or replacing your flooring, it is an investment in your home that has a substantial return on investment (ROI) if you are trying to sell, according to the National Association of Realtors, 110%-233% ROI, see http://styledstagedsold.blogs.realtor.org/2015/05/25/10-cheap-ways-to-increase-a-homes-value/.