The Skinny on Stone Flooring

Stone flooring is one of the most beautiful flooring options.  It has many benefits as well as drawbacks, and deciding if it is right for you can sometimes be difficult.  Here we will examine both sides of the stone flooring debate, helping you to decide if it is the right option for your home.

The first thing to know about stone flooring is that it is an environmentally friendly flooring option.  It is made and mined from the earth and unlike trees does not require the destruction of living things.  If you buy your stone locally, you also save of fuel expenses and shipping, another environmentally friendly choice.

Stone flooring has many benefits.  First and foremost, stone is exceptionally durable.  Stone floors can withstand almost anything.  They are elegant and do not stain as easily as other flooring types.  In addition, stone always feels very cool to the touch, making it an excellent flooring option for hotter climates, where the cool feel of stone would be welcomed.

There are some drawbacks to stone, though many depend on the type of flooring or the location of the home.  First, stone can be more expensive to have installed.  You can save by installing yourself, but a professional installation is typically recommended.  The flooring is hard on the feet and back when standing for a long period of time, and this should be taken into consideration when deciding what rooms should have stone floors.  The flooring can get very cold in the winter, particularly in a front walkway or entrance that may not be heated.  Last is cleaning.  While stone floors such as marble are typically easy to clean, any textured or uneven floor will be harder to clean than a smooth surface.

While there are drawbacks to stone for some people, these are largely variable, and there is certainly a stone option for most any home.  Stone is an excellent flooring option for many people and is in fact one of the longer lasting and more elegant flooring types.  When coupled with the fact that it is considered a "green" flooring option, stone is an appealing choice for a great number of builders and homeowners.