The way we shop is changing, and flooring has kept up with the times. Instead of ordering online or walking the aisles of brick-and-mortar stores hoping to find the perfect flooring solution for your home, you can have a professional flooring specialist come to you. This way, you can streamline the process, build a trusted working relationship with your consultant, view samples in context and save time.
We’ve put together a short list of six key reasons an in-home flooring consultation is right for you.
There are many reasons to stay at home instead of going out in search of the ideal flooring for your bedroom, dining room or study. Luckily, in-home flooring consultations are flexible, easy and schedule-friendly. Whether you’re working from home, taking care of the kids, waiting for a delivery or doing some spring cleaning, being relieved of the task of driving to a hardware store is a welcome gift.
Doing your flooring consultation from the comfort of your home has become a wildly popular choice for homeowners, and it’s easy to see why. You save money on gas, save energy better spent on more pressing tasks and save time sitting in the car and meandering around stores. Premium flooring consultants also allow their customers to decide when they’d like to discuss their design and decor plans, sometimes even outside of normal working hours like weekends or evenings.
While online shopping does come with the convenience of staying at home while perusing options, you might want to ask questions or get opinions from someone who knows flooring back to front. The best you’ll get while online shopping is the product description and short list of specifications. Choosing flooring is a big and exciting commitment, and speaking directly with an expert gives you the confidence and understanding you need to choose wisely.
If you were traversing the aisles of a big box store, you could liaise with an employee about which materials to choose, how long they’d last and how to get them installed. This employee would likely be an all-rounder, though, knowing a bit about the store’s massive selection of products. When a flooring specialist visits you at home to discuss options, you know you are speaking to a specialized professional with intricate knowledge of flooring solutions. This knowledge is especially important if the room has special requirements like anti-slip flooring for older adults.
If you’ve ever bought box dye to color your hair, you’ll know that colors in photographs don’t always depict real-life results. The same is true for flooring. A deep, luxurious brown hardwood could look spectacular on the laptop or smartphone yet appear a much brighter shade of orange in the light of day. You may even think you’re buying elegant ceramic tiles for your kitchen, but upon delivery, discover you’ve actually bought 170 square feet of vinyl.
When a consultant shows you their array of flooring samples, you’ll be able to analyze, feel, and compare them and ask questions about your options on site — no guesswork needed.
A sample you’ve found on the department store floor could look one way under the cool neon lighting and another under the warm white lights of your living room. Lighting significantly changes the way colors appear in a space, so the only way to know for sure what will look good is to view the flooring from the very room you’re decorating. At home with a specialist, you can also look at the flooring samples in different lighting contexts by opening the curtains, turning on the table lamps or making the room dark.
Lighting is not the only aspect of your home’s aesthetic that needs to gel with your new flooring. Furniture, rugs, paint, wallpaper, wall art and decor all work together to bring out the beauty of a room, and you’ll need to see how your flooring choice complements all these facets before making a final choice. Having an in-home flooring consultation lets you do this with multiple samples, giving you more freedom to be creative and the peace of mind that everything will look lovely together.
Rooms come in all shapes and sizes, so getting a precise measurement of open floor space requires patience and an experienced eye in most cases. If a professional meets you at home to discuss flooring options, they can take care of all the measurements and calculate exactly how much luxury vinyl, hardwood, tile, carpet or laminate you need. They can then use this precise measurement to give you a quote accurately reflecting reality.
Ordering flooring online can lead to sheets of extra material left over after installation. It can also come up short of what is needed to finish the project, extending the timeline and leaving you longer without finished floors. With the customization and precision that in-home flooring consultation provides, your home will be taken care of timeously, cost-effectively and without waste.
It can sometimes feel like a juggling act with all the vendors and service providers needed to get a renovation or build completed from start to finish. If you order hardwood or vinyl online or at a physical store, you’ll still need to arrange for that flooring to be installed. It’s crucial to ensure the installers have experience with the material you’ve chosen so you get the best value for money and quality possible. In-home flooring consultations relieve you of this step altogether.
The best flooring providers to work with are one-stop shops. They bring samples and expertise to your door, help you decide what will best fit your vision, needs and budget, and install whatever flooring solution you choose. By using the same team to provide the materials and install the flooring, you build trust with one dedicated provider, skip having an extra installation consultation with a separate company and know your floor is being installed by people who know the materials better than anyone else.
