Timber Flooring or Porcelain Tiles?

Our Carlisle Homes package includes ceramic floor tiles to the hallway, kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry, ensuite, bathroom and toilet, but we thought we will upgrade to a more durable flooring so we can minimise problems with cracked or chipped tiles.

Our first choice for flooring was porcelain tiles. We were very impressed with the shiny porcelain tiles on display homes that we visited, we thought they make the entrance hallway look very grand and impressive as they reflect the lights from the ceilings.

 Based on what we have read about porcelain tiles, they are:

• Durable
• Have variety of colours and design
• Stain Resistant
• Liquid Resistant
• Easy to clean
• Easy to replace individually when chipped or cracked

They have disadvantages also like they are more expensive than ceramic tiles, harder to install hence they attract higher labour cost, the grout in between the tiles can attract stains and be difficult to clean. They are also very rigid and hard underfoot.

Come winter time and with the cold starting to set in, we started having second thoughts about porcelain tiles as we know that they can add to cold winter environment. We are now seriously considering timber flooring. If we go for timber flooring this would be our choices:

Premium Oak Blanc in Amberley 27 in Woodlea

Premium Oak Everest in Embleton 29 in Sunbury

Palazzo Limited Grey Oak in Riva 29 in Berwick Waters 

Timber flooring are:

• Durable
• Trendy and timeless
• Easy to maintain
• Comfortable
• Warm and elegant

Timber are also known to be on the most costly range of flooring choices. Our sales consultant told us that our included ceramic tiles costs around $2.5K while these kind of timber flooring cost around $12.5K so the upgrade cost will cost around $10K.

Our build is in May 2017 so we're hoping that we'll have enough budget by then to cover this upgrade cost and with tax time coming, I'm praying that some miracle will happen and I'll get a surprisingly huge tax refund :-)