How to tell if you need to replace your flooring

Your flooring is one of the major aspects of every room in your home, and it should be replaced every 10-15 years to make sure it keeps looking clean, fresh and feels good too. However, it can sometimes need to be replaced earlier if there are problems with your flooring – so how can you tell if you need to replace your flooring?

We’ll take you through the six telltale signs that something is wrong and you need to replace your flooring, as well as the reasons why your cost to replace your flooring will vary, and also take a look at the different ways you can replace your flooring. Let’s get into it.

When is the right time to replace flooring?

There are six telltale signs your flooring needs to be replaced:

Water damage
Cracks, breaks, and tears
Noisy flooring
Bad smell
Allergy flare-ups
You don’t like it anymore!

Let’s take a look at each of these in turn.

Water damage

Water is the dreaded enemy of most flooring, as it causes the natural elements in each flooring type to warp and change shape. This goes for carpets, laminate, engineered wood, and even some types of vinyl – although our range of water-resistant vinyl can put up a good fight for a very long time! You can see water damage on your flooring as you’ll be able to see water stains where water has infiltrated the flooring from both above and below. If your laminate floor is spongy, it might be damaged from water - our guide includes some fixes to try.

Cracks, breaks, and tears

Another obvious sign that your flooring needs to be replaced is if you can see visible wear and tear on it – large cracks, breaks, tears and stains can be unsightly, and everyone wants their homes to look clean, cosy and inviting. It’s also worth noting that those cracks, breaks and tears can go on to cause bigger problems too, like water damage, or even become hazardous to you. So replacing worn and torn flooring as soon as possible is important.

Noisy flooring

If your flooring starts to make a lot of noise, creaking when you stand on it, or making squeaking or grinding noises, then it likely means that your flooring is either getting worn down, or there was a problem with its initial installation. For example, some floating floors like laminate and LVT can sound different to carpet or vinyl, which is stuck to the ground, because it has more give in it. But if the sounds you’re hearing are getting louder and don’t sound right, there could be an underlying problem and your flooring may need to be replaced.

Bad smell

If your flooring begins to cause a bad smell in your house, then you definitely want to investigate this further. It might be that there is something underneath your subfloors causing an issue, or it could be that water damage is causing a damp smell to rise from your flooring. Sometimes it can also be caused by a spill or stain that hasn’t been cleaned properly – check out our care guides to keep your flooring in tip-top Tapi condition – and these need to be replaced.

Allergy flare-ups

When coughing and sneezing begin to get worse – and we don’t just mean in humans, pet allergies can flare up too – it might be time to look at what’s wrong in your home, and this can often be your flooring. There’s always a chance that your floors could be more worn and more damaged than you think, and this causes more carpet fibres to swirl in the air around you, causing you to cough and sneeze.

You don’t like it anymore!

Probably the simplest reason on our list – but often the hardest one to justify getting new flooring for! Your style will change as time goes on, and you might prefer different types of flooring now to the type you initially like before, and that’s completely normal. Changing your flooring doesn’t need to be a big hassle either if the thought of having to sort it out yourself is what’s putting you off – here at Tapi, we organise fitting for you, as well as removal and disposal of your old flooring when you buy your new one from us.

How much does it cost to replace flooring

The cost to replace a floor will depend on these factors:

Size of the room
What type of flooring you pick
How long you want it to last in the future
Whether you book a professional or try to DIY

All of these factors together will determine how much new flooring could cost, but you can be assured that if you get in touch with our sales team, we’ll be able to talk you through all the different options Tapi can provide. We’ve also got a carpet calculator you can use for estimating the cost of our flooring, you just need to fill in the dimensions of your room!

New flooring is an investment for your home, especially since it should last for up to 15 years if you take care of it properly. Some flooring will last longer than others – laminate and vinyl products perform much better than solid wood flooring thanks to their protective top layers, and they look just as good as solid wood too. It all depends on what style you’d like to go for.

How to replace flooring in your home

When it comes down to how you replace the flooring in your home, the simple answer is you come to Tapi! Our expert floorologists are always happy to help talk you through the process of removing your old flooring and replacing it with something brand spanking new – you can even organise a free home visit for us to come to you, and we can give you our evaluation of the best replacement for your flooring. Alternatively, if you're ready to take the plunge, discover how you can prepare your room for new flooring.

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Published: 06-03-2023