What floor to lay in the children’s room

When decorating a children’s room, you should carefully consider the choice of floor covering. The floor is the main place of play, so it must withstand harsh operating conditions. In addition, its characteristics affect many areas of a child’s life, starting from development and ending with health. Choosing which floor to lay in the children’s room is difficult, but taking into account all the nuances and your financial capabilities, it is not so difficult to make it, especially since there are many suitable options.

Floor covering requirements

A children’s room is a special room in the house, the choice of decoration of which should be approached with all responsibility. This is especially true of flooring. Many requirements should be taken into account:

• The floor must withstand high dynamic loads. This especially applies to children’s, designed for preschoolers or children of younger grades, who are constantly running, jumping, dancing, throwing something.
• Moisture resistance. Children are very fond of games with water and paints, but due to age, the child is not always neat. The floor in the nursery often comes into contact with liquids.
• Durability. Many toys and games lead to the fact that the floor covering can be left with scuffs, chips, scratches and other damages.
• Resistance to pollution, ease of care. The floor in the nursery will often get dirty, so it is important that it can be easily cleaned.
• Environmental friendliness. The floor covering should not accumulate dust, cause allergies, or contain dangerous substances.
• The surface of the floor should not be slippery, otherwise the child may slip and get injured during the game.
• Amortization of steps. The floor covering in the children’s room should not be hard, so as not to overload the spine of the child, which is not yet strong.

As you can see, there are many requirements, and this only applies to the technical characteristics of the floor covering. The coloring of the floor will also be important. After all, children love to draw, and felt-tip pens, pens, pencils, paints can be used not only for creativity on paper. Sometimes it is difficult to wash them off the floor, so it is advisable to choose a pattern so that the stain does not immediately catch the eye.

Let’s now look at the main existing floor coverings and their compliance with the strict requirements of the children’s room. Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution, each floor has its own disadvantages, so the choice will depend on which of the disadvantages you are willing to put up with.

Stopper

A cork floor is considered the most suitable for a children’s room. And it is not surprising. Here’s what you need to know about the cork if you decide to put it in the nursery:

• Excellent sound insulation. Neighbors from below are unlikely to hear all the noise made by the baby.
• High thermal insulation. There is no need to additionally cover the floor with carpets, the cork floor always remains warm and pleasant. If you decide to put a warm floor in the children’s room, then you will have to abandon the cork. This combination is ineffective due to the high thermal insulation of the cork coating. Thermal energy will practically not pass through it to the outside.
• Amortization and elasticity. The cork covering not only cushions steps, it also quickly recovers traces of furniture.
• Environmentally friendly material.
• Moisture resistance, but this quality applies only to the adhesive cork coating. A floating cork floor or cork parquet (laminate) is better not to get wet again and not to be placed in a room with high humidity, as it can swell and deform.
• Durability. It serves for quite a long time, but over time in places of intense traffic, the protective layer may wear off. It is easy to restore by removing the old varnish and covering the floor with a new one.
• High price. Not everyone can afford a high-quality cork floor. It is advisable to buy a high-quality cork, since cheap options will not last long and are only a fake, not possessing even a part of the characteristics of the original.

Cork coating, as you can see, has no serious disadvantages. This is an ideal solution for a nursery, so if funds allow, choose it.

Linoleum

Universal floor covering. This is an excellent choice that has a lot of advantages. Among the advantages of linoleum, it is worth highlighting:

• Antistatic. Does not attract dust.
• Fire resistance.
• Resistance to aggressive environments and household chemicals.
• Durability.
• Ease of care.
• Soft coating.
• Relatively cheap floor covering.

But not every linoleum is suitable for a children’s room.

It is generally accepted that linoleum is a budget floor covering. In fact, this is only partially correct. Indeed, relatively cheap linoleum is often found on sale, but it is undesirable to use it in a nursery. Such materials are often made of health-hazardous components and are intended for non-residential premises.

Natural linoleum or made of environmentally friendly elements should be placed in the nursery. The cover is chosen with a rough or embossed surface to reduce the risk of injury. The protective layer must be thick enough (at least 0.25 mm) to withstand the load of the nursery.

Carpet

A controversial decision for a nursery. The advantages of carpeting are also its disadvantages.

This is a fairly soft floor covering that retains heat well. On such a floor, the child will be comfortable to crawl, play, there is less risk of slipping and getting injured.

On the other hand, the carpet collects dust, which can cause the development of allergies in the baby. To avoid this, you will have to clean it often, using special means. It is also difficult to remove stains from carpets.

If you decide to put in a children’s rug, then choose natural fabrics with dense and short pile and dirt-repellent impregnation. In this case, the coating will absorb less dirt and dust, reduce the risk of allergies and facilitate the cleaning process. The weaving should be tight enough so that the child cannot pull out individual hairs and swallow them.

And it is better to choose a carpet floor tile, which will allow you not to suffer with the removal of another stain, but simply replace the damaged area.

Laminate

This floor covering is often used in children’s rooms. Let’s find out why it is so attractive and what features of laminate should be paid attention to when choosing.

• Strength. There are several classes of laminate strength depending on the place of use. Class 22 and 23 are suitable for residential premises. Class 22 is the optimal solution, but if you want the floor covering to last longer, especially if there are several children living in the nursery at once who like active games, then it is better to buy a stronger class 23 laminate True, it will cost an order of magnitude more.
• Water resistance. Laminates have a special top layer that protects against moisture. However, water can seep through the gaps in the joints and lead to deformation of the floor. If your children like to play with water, then you can take a special laminate for a wet environment, or save money and simply treat the joints with water-repellent glue.
• The laminate floor is quite noisy, any jump of the child will be clearly heard on the lower floor. To avoid this, you need to lay the laminate only on a flat floor and take extra care of sound-insulating pads. And these are additional costs.
• The possibility of replacing the damaged part of the floor. There are adhesive and lock types of laminate fastening. It is better to choose a lock option in the nursery. In this case, damaged boards can be easily replaced without having to change the entire floor.
• “Cold” and hard coating. It will be uncomfortable for a child to play on such a floor.
• Compatible with underfloor heating. There is a special laminate (has the appropriate marking) that can be laid on top of a warm floor. The rest of the laminate options, as in the case of cork, will make heating ineffective in view of good thermal insulation properties.

There is an opinion that laminate emits melamine, acrylic, formaldehyde resins. This applies only to cheap fakes. Be sure to ask for a quality certificate when buying a floor covering.

Laminate is an acceptable floor covering for a children’s room, but you should carefully approach its choice and take into account such features as the need for additional sound insulation and insulation, for example, with a carpet.

Parquet and parquet board

Such a floor covering is very demanding and difficult to care for. It is suitable only for calm, neat children who do not play active games in the nursery. Also suitable for a teenager’s room.

Buying parquet has many advantages. It is environmentally friendly, hypoallergenic and static material. It does not attract dust, absorbs sounds and retains heat well. But in view of the above requirements for the floor in the nursery, parquet has more disadvantages than advantages:

• Parquet has a natural base that is prone to damage, scratches, dents. Of course, the surface can be restored with special means, but in the conditions of the nursery it will have to be done very often.
• Removing stains from such a floor covering is quite a difficult task, so you will have to accept that in six months to a year the floor will be decorated with indelible paint, felt-tip pens and other impulses of children’s creativity.
• Does not tolerate high humidity and temperature changes. Parquet poured by a child quickly swells and deforms.
• And the main disadvantage is the high price. Given the risks of rapid damage to the floor and the near impossibility of restoring its appearance, such costs will be impractical.