Choosing From High-Traffic Flooring Options That Last

Your floor takes more abuse than almost anything else in your house and most “wear and tear” problems are actually choice problems. We sit down with Jason from BPS Southeast to get clear on what holds up in real homes, not showroom homes, and how to pick the best flooring for high traffic areas without wasting money on the wrong specs.

We walk through the big contenders homeowners compare every day: laminate flooring, luxury vinyl plank, hardwood, and the fast-growing world of hybrid flooring. Jason explains why laminate earned a mixed reputation, why luxury vinyl became the go-to for waterproof performance, and what to look for when brands throw around technical terms. You will learn how laminate AC ratings connect to scratch resistance, why luxury vinyl wear layer thickness matters, and how newer hybrid and engineered wood products can deliver a tougher “wood look” option for families with pets, kids, and nonstop foot traffic.

Then we get practical about maintenance. We talk about the simplest habit that protects any surface, why dirt behaves like sandpaper, and which cleaning products can quietly ruin a great floor. If you have ever used a “make it shine” polish and ended up with dull paths and weird scuffs, you will want this part. We also cover when professional cleaning is worth it, especially in heavy-use spaces.

If you want floors that last and still look good, follow the show, share this with a friend planning a remodel, and leave a review so more homeowners can find it. What is the toughest spot in your house to keep looking new?

To learn more about BPS Southeast Flooring visit:
https://www.BPSSoutheast.com
BPS Southeast Flooring 
Servicing Rutherford, Polk, Henderson and Cleveland County 
828-532-2141 

Transcript

Welcome And What We Cover

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the BPS Southeast Poor Podcast, where beautiful spaces start from the ground up. Hosted by Jason Crick, owner of BPS South East, serving homeowners, businesses, interior designers, remodelers, and flippers across Western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. From luxury vinyl and hardwood to carpet and tile, if it goes underfoot, we've got to cover it. Expect practical tips, money-saving insights, and the occasional bad dad joint. Because around here, it's flooring for everyone. Let's roll without the bubbles.

Choosing Flooring By Style And Budget

SPEAKER_00 0:40

If your floors take a daily beating, choosing the right material can save you money, stress, and constant repairs. Welcome everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer with Jason Trim, the owner of BPS Southeast. Jason, thank you so much for joining us. We're looking forward to learning from you.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

So, how do you decide what's the best flooring for high traffic homes for your clients?

Laminate Vs Luxury Vinyl Durability

Ratings That Predict Scratch Resistance

Hybrids And Waterproof Wood Options

SPEAKER_02 1:05

For one, we have to consider what they want for color, for style, and then also consider their budget, because that's going to be a big point too, what they can afford. So for those who are in a tight pinch, we do offer financing. If you get in a situation where they have to do something, but they don't have the finances. So we'll try to provide something with high durability, like a high-quality laminate, and provide financing. So you get an entry-level cost range and then not and then still get a high durability product. But overall, most people think of scratch resistance that a lot of a lot of people are going towards luxury vinyl. Um, that seems to be what a lot of people are looking towards now. Um, laminate used to be the go-to product for a long time when it first came out in the 90s and early 2000s, but what they ran into is it became so popular that they tried to get it cheaper and cheaper to try to get it provided to the masses. But when you cheapen a product, you also cheapen the quality. So then they had a lot of failures with spills and leaks and mopping of it swelling. So then in 2012, luxury vinyl came out and it became the new rave and slowly just gained traction and has taken over the market pretty heavily. So those are the two predominant factors would be laminate, has a good scratch resistant. Luxury vinyl is a waterproof scratch resistant floor, not as strong as laminate, but still really good. Laminate, you see different ratings on it. It's rated differently if you're looking for scratch resistance. So there's a number you'll see on the side called an AC3 or an AC4 or an AC5. There's a technical term I can't think of, but it's basically the higher the number, the more scratch resistant it is. For luxury vinyl, they'll talk about mill ware layers or whatever coating they have on it. Everybody has their own aluminum oxide or ceramic bead coating or all these little terms that just exterior top coatings, but it's just a film on the top of the print. So what you want to look for is if it's a 6mm, 12 mil, 20 mil, 30 mil, that's basically how thick that clear coat is on the top of the actual print. So the thicker the middleware, the more scratch resistant it will be because that clear coat gets thicker as you get a higher build number. The benefit now is you're actually getting um coming into the market are hybrid flooring. So those follow a different category. So you may end up with a laminate surface on a luxury vinyl core, or you may end up with hardwood flooring now that is a hardwood flooring surface stuck on a luxury vinyl core, and then you also have certain luxury certain wood flooring now that is treated in a way that it can be rated with laminate because it has the same hardness as laminate, but it's real wood. So they've upgraded the scales. You have laminate, luxury vinyl, and then new hybrids and engineered woods that will work as scratch-resistant flooring. So there's a pretty large variety of options, but as you go from laminate to luxury vinyl, it can step up in price, and then once you hit hardwood, it steps up in price again. So that budget is a concern of what you can afford, but also what do you really want? If you if you can afford hardwood, I would go with hardwood because it increases the value of the home a lot more. And if you're even considering living your house, you want to enjoy hardwood, but then looking at selling it, hardwood will get you an 80% return on investment compared to laminate or vinyl, which are technically just plastic floors.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Yeah, thank you for breaking that down. Is hardwood definitely the most popular request that you have? And then I was also curious about how do customers maintain it, the you know, keep it intact, because it seems like it's more challenging these days.

Hardwood Beauty Vs Real Life Wear

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Hardwood is the most popular look. Everybody loves the look of hardwood, but they don't want the maintenance of hardwood. So that that's that's always the fine line. I mean, if you think of luxury vinyl laminate, what are they duplicating? They're duplicating hardwood flooring as best as they can for a price point. Hardwood flooring is my favorite to show because it is it's always unique. There's always character. There's when you get inexpensive laminates and vinyls, you get a number of let's say six to eight prints that are within a whole box or a floor. So if you really look at a floor, eventually you'll see the same boards through the floor because they're prints, they're recreated images. The higher the value, the more prints they have, they can get up to like 30, 24 different prints. So you can go maybe a hundred and some square feet and not see a repeat, but it's still a synthetic floor. Wood is always gonna be natural, it's always gonna be individual looks, and there's a richness with wood flooring that you won't get with vinyl or laminate. The problem with wood is if the family has issues with, okay, we have pets, we have children, we have all these things. What's gonna be the best product to hold up that we're not having to worry about scratches, we're not having to worry about spills, we're not having to worry about okay, the water balloons being thrown in the house, the water, the rollerblades, the tricycles, the cars, the dolls, the painting, all the things that come with children. So synthetic floors tend to clean up a little easier, and if they get damaged, you haven't put that much investment in it. So there's a fine line of, yeah, I think a lot of people would love to have wood floors, but they also know that okay, I live on a farm, I got five animals, three kids, and we're coming in and out from the barn all day. Wood may not be the best option because we're gonna just destroy it over time. So it's a what is the best for your family, your customer, your individual need to get the right product. There is there isn't a good one answer. If you really have to take time with each person and find out what their needs are and what they would really like, because you can find hybrid products. Like I have a wood flooring, I have a like an eight-ounce steel ball that you can literally throw on the floor and it will just bounce off of it, not even dent it. Once it's clicked together, water and liquids won't even go through it. So it's a waterproof wood flooring, it is actual wood, but you're okay, your costs are gonna be anywhere between seven to nine to ten dollars a square foot, depending on the size plank and what you want. If you're looking at laminate, okay, you're looking at$350 to$550, maybe six dollars. If you're looking at vinyl, okay, you're starting maybe under four, going all the way to almost eight. So there's a range of costs for each one, and you have to kind of see where you need to fall for cost.

Maintenance Rules That Prevent Damage

SPEAKER_00 8:22

And you personally have a lot of pets, which I'm a big fan of that you're an animal lover. Um, so we know that you are giving us your professional opinion and personal opinion. So we appreciate that. And just a last question for you are there any maintenance tips that can help extend the life of high traffic flooring? Any tips for us?

SPEAKER_02 8:42

The best thing is to keep it swept and keep the dust off of it because dirt will act like sandpaper over time. So it doesn't matter what flooring you have, if you leave a lot of dirt and grime, and I mean having dogs that like to go around in the creek and come in, you tend to get sand and dirt and things on the floor. So you just need to keep it swept because you walking on it, eventually it's like a little abrasion, like sandpaper over your floor. It'll wear it down quicker than if you keep the floors clean. Biggest thing is sweep it if you have one of those dry vacuums that are easy to run over hard surfaces. Some people like the robots. I have seen some great pictures of cats sitting on those robots and getting driven around the house. I mean, if I if you had big dogs like me, that wouldn't work because they'd probably pick it up and start chewing on it. So you can't, it's not a one-answer situation, but keeping the floors clean is the first point of longevity. Using the right cleaning products is the second. If you have beautiful floors, don't put polish on it. Don't put anything that says make your floors look new again. Don't put anything on it that makes it look shiny. Because what that does is that adds it in a polish or an acrylic finish on top of the surfaces. It's a very soft finish, so it will look shiny for a period of time, but the dog's traffic will eventually scratch it, it will look dull. You'll see where it looks like someone's dragged a chair and it scratched the finish where it really didn't scratch the finish, it scratched the polish. So it's it starts changing the way it looks, and the only way to get that off is literally going in with a machine and stripping it off, which we do that. I mean, I've gone into homes and just gotten junk off the floors, and there is equipment to professionally clean your wood floors as well. So if you have wood floors through most of your home, including like your kitchen and other areas, it does occasionally require professional cleaning because cleaning products, the pH and the strength of the cleaning products and this market for most homeowners is not as strong as what you can get professionally, plus the professional equipment gets it on the floor and gets it off fast, so there's no damage to the surface. So there are things to consider that whatever surface you have, cleaning it, maintaining it is a big point. But every flooring product, there is a professional out there that can clean those products. And we would recommend if you got a lot of heavy traffic, clean it more frequently with professionally than waiting until it really looks like it's starting to get warm. Because if you wait until it visually looks damaged, you usually go too far.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Okay, Jason, thank you so much for breaking that down clearly. We really appreciate your insight, and I think that you gave a lot of great tips. So you're helping a lot of us.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

I appreciate it.

Free Estimate And Closing

SPEAKER_01 11:33

That's today's step in the right direction from the BPS Southeast Flooring Podcast. Ready to finally love what you're standing on? Call Jason for a free estimate at 828-532-2141 or visit bpssoutheast.com. Luxury vinyl, hardwood, carpet tile, flooring for everyone. Thanks for listening. And remember, great rooms don't just happen, they're installed.