How to Select the Best Flooring for Every Room in Your Home

Top Choice: Porcelain Tile
A natural fit for high-traffic areas of the home, porcelain tile outperforms every other flooring material we test for resistance to scratching, and it resists dents from light objects like falling utensils very well, says Li Wang, the CR engineer responsible for rating flooring. 

Porcelain tile comes in a range of styles to fit any decor. You can get small-format hex tiles for a traditional early-20th-century house, for example, or 4-foot faux reclaimed-ash planks that, when laid tightly together with a matching grout, will convincingly create the look of wood. Tile is also low-maintenance—requiring nothing more than vacuuming and mopping to stay clean.

Wang has one cautionary note about porcelain tile: It’s vulnerable to heavy objects that fall on it. “It’s probably the best choice for kitchens and mudrooms, but one has to be aware that it may crack when something heavy, like a full can of vegetables, is dropped on it,” she says.

Runner-Up: Vinyl Flooring
Sheet vinyl floors became popular with homeowners in the 1950s (sometimes with layer ­upon layer put down as tastes changed) for several good reasons. First, vinyl flooring is an affordable way to cover an expan­sive space. Of the vinyl flooring we test, vinyl planks and tiles come in at around $3.42 per square foot, on average, cheaper per square foot than porcelain tile and second in affordability only to laminates, at $2.82 per square foot. Vinyl planks and tiles are also among the easiest types of flooring to install yourself.

“Customers constantly mistake the luxury vinyl planks on my showroom floor for real wood,” says Joan Slaughterbeck, founder of Slaughterbeck Floors in Campbell, Calif., who has installed luxury vinyl planks throughout entire homes in Palo Alto and other upscale Bay Area communities.

Today’s vinyl products are also more durable than those of the past, but some may be prone to scratching. Therefore, keep felt bumpers on the feet of kitchen stools to protect vinyl flooring, and buy an extra bundle of planks now to ensure that you have a perfect match down the road. If any planks get damaged, you can remove them and install replacements as needed.