Flooring Options on a Budget for Your Commercial Space

Photo: Scoops N Smiles ice cream store by Mindful Design Consulting

As a background for your entire interior decor, the type of flooring you use in your store or restaurant is a defining part of your design. While you may want to use it to make a statement, you must remember that this is the only decor element in consistent and direct contact with your customers. Choosing a type of flooring that can sustain heavy use is essential, especially if you are dealing with a tight budget and want to avoid additional costs down the road. Here are the budget-friendly flooring options our clients usually want to discuss with us, along with our recommendations.

Carpet. The cheapest of all the flooring options, carpet gives your space a cozy feel and acts as a noise insulator. The “cozy” factor is exactly what makes it attractive, since the soft texture of the carpet greatly appeals to the eye and makes your clients feel at home. The wide availability of colors, patterns and designs may go a long way in creating the custom look you want. However, carpet is difficult to keep clean in a commercial space, so be prepared to change it when in need.

Photo: Natures Craft carpet from Philadelphia Commercial

Concrete. With all the industrial design trends changing the look of today’s interiors, concrete may just be the perfect flooring option when updating your space. While this may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you are trying to put together an elegant interior, give concrete a chance. The many colors and patterns that can be used with this material can turn it into a spectacular design feature. To cut down on the cost, you can always use an existing slab, but keep in mind that this has to be sealed.

Photo: Concrete floors by Transparent House, via retaildesignblog.net

Vinyl. An easy solution, with lots of colors and designs to choose from and a breeze to clean, vinyl offers you both function and looks. However, even though it may look good when you install it, vinyl scratches easily. With heavy foot traffic, it soon loses its looks, its shine and its color. In addition, vinyl is not an environmentally sustainable choice. It is not only that this material is hard to recycle, but its manufacturing process releases chemicals highly hazardous to humans and that are known to be carcinogenic. Because of its dark history of loss of life related to its production, we do not recommend vinyl to our clients.

Tile. Whether porcelain or ceramic tile, this is one of those flooring options that make sense long-term due to their durability. Tile does not scratch easily (ceramic tiles are in fact scratch-resistant), does not fade in the sun and does not lose its appeal in time. Tile is water and stain-resistant, as well as fireproof. Easy to clean, it gives an interior a crisp, clean look, and is perfect for heavy-traffic floors. We prefer porcelain tile because of its superior durability and due to the fact that its colors are consistent all throughout the space. Finally, if porcelain chips, the damage is not easy to spot, which makes this type of tile ideal for heavily used commercial spaces.  

Photo: Tiles from the WARP collection by estudi{H}ac, via  retaildesignblog.net

Please take a look at our Before and After images of selected projects from 2018 HERE.

If you are thinking to open up a new business or in a process of rebranding and remodeling your existing business, contact us to get a free consultation from Mindful Design Consulting. Click HERE to price your project design.

Also, take a look at “Branding By Interior” e-book, the only book written on this subject at this time. It brings insight on how you can turn your business into a market-dominating competitor by using human cognitive responses.