Flooring: types, cost, and where to use them
The floor is one of the largest surfaces in the home and one of the hardest to change once it is down. Matching the right material to each room, and getting the boring practicalities right, matters more than the colour you pick.
- Match the material to the room: durability and water resistance first, looks second
- Wet and high-traffic areas need water resistance and slip rating
- Check the subfloor and the height transitions between rooms before you order
- In an apartment or 'strata' scheme, confirm the acoustic underlay rules first
Match the floor to the room
Start with how the room is used
The best floor for a room is decided by wear and water before it is decided by looks. Wet areas need water resistance and a suitable slip rating. High-traffic zones like the entry and kitchen need durability. Bedrooms can trade hard-wearing for soft and warm. Choose for the demands of the room, then choose the colour.
The materials in depth
A real hardwood wear layer of 3 to 6 mm bonded to a plywood core, warm and premium underfoot and dimensionally stable.
One piece of hardwood, sanded and refinished many times over decades. Moves with humidity, so it needs acclimatisation and an experienced installer.
A printed timber look over an HDF core. Modern boards are hard-wearing and convincing at a distance, but damage cannot be sanded out.
A rigid waterproof core with a timber-look surface, quiet underfoot and forgiving of minor subfloor flaws.
Porcelain and ceramic are the hardest-wearing floors available. Cold underfoot without heating; slip rating matters in wet areas.
Soft, warm, and the quietest floor in the house. Fibre choice decides how it wears and cleans.
A ground and sealed slab with real thermal mass. Very hard and cold underfoot; it must be planned before the slab is poured or confirmed suitable for grinding.
What flooring costs
Ranges below are indicative supplied-and-installed costs per square metre. Site preparation, subfloor levelling, and floor removal sit on top, and they are often where quotes diverge, so compare itemised quotes on the same scope.
Treat as a starting point only; costs vary by state, product grade, and the condition of the floor underneath.
Room-by-room recommendations
| Room | Best | Also works | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry and hallway | Tiles, hybrid | Engineered timber with mats | Carpet |
| Kitchen | Hybrid, tiles | Polished concrete, engineered timber | Laminate at the sink run |
| Living | Engineered or solid timber | Hybrid, polished concrete, carpet | High-gloss tiles |
| Bedrooms | Carpet | Timber or laminate with rugs | Tiles |
| Bathroom and laundry | Slip-rated tiles | Hybrid in the laundry | Timber, laminate, carpet |
| Alfresco | External-rated tiles | Sealed concrete | Anything rated for indoors only |
Timber: solid versus engineered
Both give you a real hardwood surface; they differ in construction and behaviour. Species matters as much as format: spotted gum and blackbutt are hard-wearing Australian choices, and wider boards of 180 mm and above read more contemporary but move more with the seasons.
Choosing carpet
Fibre decides how a carpet wears and cleans; pile decides how it looks and feels. Loop pile hides footprints and wears hard; cut pile is softer and more classic but shows tracking; a twist pile sits between the two.
Ask about the subfloor first
The condition of the subfloor is invisible in a showroom and decisive on site. An out-of-level slab, a spongy chipboard subfloor, or old coverings that must come up all add cost and days before a single new board is laid, and they are the items most often missing from a first quote.
Ask the installer to inspect the subfloor and price any levelling or pre-treatment as line items, not allowances. Questions to put to them:
Laying practicalities
Subfloor, transitions, and sound
A floor is only as good as what it sits on, so confirm the subfloor is level and sound before ordering. Think about the height transitions between rooms; a change in material or thickness can leave a lip or a trip. In apartments and 'strata' schemes there are usually acoustic requirements for underlay, so check the by-laws before you choose, because a rip-up-and-redo is expensive.
Acoustic rules in apartments
Strata / OC / CTSReplacing carpet with a hard floor in an apartment changes how sound travels to the lot below, so most strata schemes, owners corporations (OC), and community title schemes (CTS) regulate it through by-laws. Typically you must lodge the proposed product and its acoustic rating for approval before installation.
The specification to watch is the acoustic underlay: by-laws commonly require a tested system meeting a stated impact-sound rating rather than a generic foam. Ask the flooring supplier for the acoustic test certificate for the exact underlay and floor combination, and keep it in your records for the OC.
Remember
Common mistakes
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