Best flooring for home offices

Working from home or hybrid working has become the new norm, so kitting out the spaces in our homes to make them into great places to work is no mean feat! Your home office is your quiet space, made for deep concentration, important calls, and brainstorming ideas.

Although the furniture we choose and the technology we pick to work on are crucial, it might surprise you to know that choosing the best home office flooring for your space is just as important. In this guide, we’ll evaluate some of the different types of flooring to help you determine what kind of flooring is the perfect fit for your workspace.

In this guide:

• What is the best flooring for home offices?
• How to choose the best flooring for your home office
• Home office flooring comparison
• Browse home office flooring ideas

What is the best flooring for home offices?

There are different types of flooring you could opt for when you’re considering home office flooring, including:

• Carpet
• Laminate
• Vinyl
• Luxury vinyl
• Engineered wood

Looking after your floors is the number one way to continue to keep them looking good, and you can find plenty of helpful information on how to care for each floor type in our care guides. Now let’s take you through the different pros and cons of each of these flooring types for a home office, and the different reasons why you might choose them. 

Carpet

Carpet provides warmth, comfort, and a wonderfully soft feeling underneath your feet. Home office carpets are available in several different styles, from traditional Berber carpets to modern and fluffy velvet carpets. Each has varying degrees of stain resistance, durability, texture and firmness, and finding the right one for you will take some research. Discover our carpet buying guide or come down to your local Tapi store to try some of our samples today.

Carpet has a high tog rating compared to other flooring types, which means that it locks in all of the heat and can keep rooms cosier for longer. This makes it a great home office flooring option, especially for long working days in the cooler months. It also provides sound insulation to dampen any echoes, although you may want to opt for a low-pile carpet if you intend to use a rolling office chair.

The best part? A good quality carpet will last for a long time – at least 10-15 years when cared for properly – so whether you’re a hybrid worker or work from home full-time, your carpet can stay in great shape.

Choose carpet if:

• You spend long hours at your desk and want to keep your office cosy
• You want to minimise background noise or echoes
• You want a flooring that’s soft and comfortable underfoot

Laminate

Laminate flooring is a contemporary take on traditional wooden flooring, with many different finishes to choose from, and some even have water resistant qualities, so you can have the look and feel of a wooden floor without any of the vulnerability of wooden flooring. Did you accidentally spill your coffee as soon as you sat down at your desk (we’ve all been there)? Simply mop it up and get on with your day!

It’s durable, easy to fit and low maintenance, which makes it popular in heavy-traffic shared spaces like kitchens, living rooms and hallways. If your home office is tucked away in an alcove or has a spot in a shared space, laminate could be a great all-rounder choice for the room.

Even if you do have a separate room for your home office, you may share it with your kids, your partner, a housemate or even pets – those Barketing Officers and Chief Mousers are an important part of your team! Try heavy use laminate for an even tougher flooring solution.

Choose laminate if:

• You want to install your flooring yourself
• You’re looking for a budget-friendly flooring option
• You have young kids or pets in and around your home office, and want your flooring to stand up to wear and tear

Vinyl

Vinyl flooring is often referred to as sheet vinyl because it comes in large flexible sheets that sit on foam or felt to make it soft and a little spongy underfoot. This flooring type is great for water resistance and is used most commonly in bathrooms and kitchens because of its durability and adaptability. It can be embossed and printed in a huge variety of colours and aesthetics, making it one of the most versatile floorings available.

Choose between various styles of wood-effect vinyl and tile-effect vinyl to add some personality to your home office – it’s also great for use on top of underfloor heating, so you can still keep your room toasty when it’s cold outside. Between underfoot comfort and the slip resistant qualities of vinyl, this is also a particularly great option if you like to work at a standing desk.

Choose vinyl if:

• You’re looking for a budget-friendly flooring option
• You have or want to get underfloor heating
• You want to choose from a wide range of styles and patterns
• You don’t want to worry when you accidentally spill your drink!

Luxury vinyl

Luxury vinyl comes in a variety of wood and stone effect planks or tiles. It has the authentic appearance of real timber and stone but it’s so much easier to clean and maintain.

Luxury vinyl planks come in either click fit or dry back installation methods. Dry back (or stick-down) luxury vinyl is stuck directly to the subfloor for greater stability underfoot, which makes it the better option for home offices with a desk chair on castors. Luxury vinyl also comes in an easy ‘click’ fitting system, which has built-in underlay making it lovely and quiet underfoot, helping to create a peaceful and productive working environment.

Choose luxury vinyl if:

• You want high-quality flooring that’s easy to clean and maintain
• You want better sound absorption than laminate or engineered wood
• You love the look of wood, stone, or tile, but don’t love their price tag

Engineered wood

Engineered wood is the cousin of laminate flooring and solid wooden flooring, combining the best parts of both to bring a new option to the flooring world. Made from composite layers with a layer of real wood on top, this flooring type cuts the cost of real wood whilst still giving you the look and feel of solid hardwood. Engineered wood is one of the best options for those who are cost-conscious, but don’t want to compromise on the style of their home office either.

Engineered wood has a much stronger core thanks to the plywood base, making it durable and unlikely to bow, warp or move apart. This durability makes it a great option for busy homes – or those who like to pace back and forth on business calls – and the real wood also makes it a popular pick for those who prefer the aesthetic of real wood floors for a more traditional study look.

Choose engineered wood if:

• You love the traditional look of wood and don’t want to worry about warping
• You want to invest in your flooring so it will last a long time
• You want to have the option to refinish your floors if needed

How to choose the best flooring for your home office

The best flooring for home offices is decided almost entirely by you. Your priorities will dictate what flooring style will work best in your home, so you’ll need to decide what matters most to you.

Cost

There is no one answer to the cheapest type of flooring – it will depend on what type of that flooring you choose, if you opt for any extras or accessories, and whether you need a professional fitter to install it. The most budget-friendly carpets can be some of the cheapest options out there, while engineered wood can be more expensive, but there is a lot of variation within the different types flooring.

When shopping with Tapi, you can filter by price per m² to find the right flooring for your budget.

Installation

It's relatively easy to install laminate and luxury vinyl click flooring if you're a skilled DIYer, while the cost of carpet may be a little higher because it typically needs to be fitted by a professional for a good finish.

Durability

Engineered wood, luxury vinyl tiles, vinyl, and carpet are all very durable, and they can all last for many years with the right care. If you follow our advice on cleaning and maintenance, you can keep your flooring looking its best for a long time.

Engineered wood flooring incorporates a layer of tough, long-lasting real wood, so if marks occur, they can be sanded or refinished. You can't restore laminate flooring in this way, but it is more scuff resistant than engineered wood.

Quality

Each type of flooring has amazing qualities and unique styles all their own. Luckily, Tapi's carpets, laminates, and vinyl come with warranties to give you peace of mind. You also won't have to worry about a thing from delivery to the final step of the process, and we can even make arrangements with professional fitters to make sure your home office flooring is installed perfectly.

Home office flooring comparison

There’s a lot of information to take away here to help you decide which type of flooring is best for your home office. Below, we’ve laid out the main points in a table for quick and easy comparison.

Browse home office flooring ideas

Ready to design your dream at-home workspace, with the perfect home office flooring to match? If you want to nail down the type, colour and finish of flooring, check out our PictureIT tool to see exactly how it would look in your space. Alternatively, pop in-store to chat to our floorologists about the best home office flooring for your home, or book a free home visit and we’ll bring our samples and expertise to you.