15 Types of Flooring: Which is Best For Your Home?

polished concrete floor in living room with stove and view of dining table
(Image credit: Simon Maxwell)

The types of flooring you choose in your home will act as a backdrop for the rest of your new interior decoration scheme. And it is not just the look of your house that your flooring affects — the right flooring will have a practical impact on how well each room performs too.

The flooring you choose will be influenced by the room you are fitting it in. The perfect living room flooring will not necessarily work in the kitchen, for instance. If you are adding flooring to a new home, you have complete autonomy to choose whatever you want, but in a period property, your decision is likely to be dictated by the style of the home, and trying to match what is already there. 

Claire Lloyd

Claire is Editor in Chief of Homebuilding & Renovating website and magazine. She became Editor of Homebuilding & Renovating in 2016 and has been a member of the team for 15 years. An experienced homes journalist, her work has also appeared in titles such as Real Homes and Period Living.


She has a particular interest in green homes and sustainability, and interior design is a passion too; she has undertaken qualifications in this area. 


After finishing a major renovation of a period cottage, she is now onto her next project: overhauling a 1930s property in the Shropshire countryside.