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Footprints Floors is here to answer your flooring contractor FAQs in Downers Grove / Bolingbrook.

Flooring Installation FAQs


Flooring Contractor FAQs in Downers Grove / Bolingbrook

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There’s no better way to freshen up your space and add value to your home. But before you update your flooring, there are many choices to make. We’ve rounded up some flooring contractor FAQs in Downers Grove / Bolingbrook to help you with your decision-making process. If you want more information, check out our web pages dedicated to different kinds of flooring.

No matter the flooring you choose, you can trust the qualified contractors hired by Footprints Floors to do the job right.

FAQs

The first thing to figure out when updating your flooring is what flooring is right for the space. For a bathroom or kitchen where there will be lots of moisture and potentially water on the floor, something like tile or vinyl flooring is ideal because it’s durable and water-resistant. Hardwood flooring is a classic choice for other areas of your home, but you still need to choose between solid or engineered hardwood. Consider the upkeep of different flooring and the wear — do you have young kids or pets? Does the room receive much sun? Answer these questions first to help you decide the kind of flooring that will suit your needs.

It depends! Laminate and vinyl flooring can be installed directly over existing flooring, and solid hardwood can be glued directly onto concrete. Consider factors like the age and condition of your existing flooring and whether it will serve as a sturdy base for new flooring.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not difficult to care for wood flooring. You can simply vacuum hardwood floors to remove grit and debris and use a damp cloth or mop to wipe away dust. To reduce potential scratches, ensure footwear (i.e., heels) has proper plastic caps to prevent scratches, or ask guests to remove their shoes. As a bonus, you can switch up the look of your hardwood floors at any time through staining or refinishing.

You probably bumped into three terms when looking up hardwood flooring online: "painting," "staining," and "refinishing." "Painting" is obvious, but what about the others? A wood stain, usually applied by hand, is used to darken the color of the wood. The "finishing" process involves applying varnish and a coating of sealant, which adds gloss and protects the wood. "Refinishing" is the process of redoing your current flooring finish, revitalizing, and rejuvenating it.

Refinishing or restoring existing wood floors can save you tons of money! If you have old wood flooring that doesn’t look great, it can be tempting to rip it out and start over. But wood flooring is resilient and made to last. Most damage can be repaired, and refinishing or restoring can make wood floors look new. If you’re unsure whether your wood flooring can be saved, the experts at Footprints Floors can assess it.

This is another “it depends” situation. Solid hardwood flooring is more expensive than engineered hardwood. However, solid hardwood can be sanded and refinished more than engineered hardwood, so it may last longer. Engineered hardwood is more affordable and is more resistant to moisture and humidity. If you live in a place with high humidity or greatly varying temperatures, engineered hardwood flooring may be the right choice. Both look beautiful and are easy to take care of.

Laminate flooring is a budget-friendly type of layered flooring that can be made to look like pretty much anything. It’s typically made up of wood fibers compressed into a board or a plywood board. The board is then covered in an “image” layer — basically, a photo of whatever you want the flooring to look like (stone, wood, etc), and a “wear” layer, or protective layer. Some laminate may also have a backing layer made of cork or felt. Laminate is an affordable way to get the look of more expensive wood or stone flooring. It’s pretty durable, making it a great choice for homes with pets or kids, and it’s easy to clean. However, prolonged exposure to water can cause the wood part of the laminate to warp, making it unsuitable for rooms like bathrooms.

Laminate’s wood component makes it susceptible to water damage. Vinyl is an entirely synthetic material, which means it’s waterproof. As long as laminate is installed correctly, it’s fairly water-resistant, but still probably not a suitable choice for bathrooms or mudrooms where water might linger. Vinyl is extremely durable and comes in various of colors, textures, and styles. Both laminate and vinyl are great choices for homes with high traffic from kids and pets, and they’re easy to take care of — but whereas vinyl can go in any room in your home, remember to keep laminate out of the bathroom.

There is a much wider variety of colors, textures, and designs in tile flooring than in hardwood. Tile floors have a lifespan of over a century. Whether you're looking for a traditional or modern look, there is a tile pattern to suit you. Regarding durability, aesthetics, maintenance, and cost, tile is an excellent choice. It's also considered one of the most eco-friendly options for flooring in your home.

Ceramic tiles are made up of clay or other minerals that have been tightly compressed and heated in an oven. They can be glazed or unglazed and come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Porcelain tiles are ceramic tiles that have been heated at an even greater temperature, making them more durable and less porous. Porcelain tiles are better suited for rooms with high moisture content like bathrooms, but their durability makes them an excellent choice for any room. However, ceramic tile is more affordable and still offers great durability.

We hope these flooring contractor FAQs in Downers Grove / Bolingbrook have been helpful to you as your start your flooring journey. Contact Footprints Floors for a free estimate when you've found flooring you love. You can feel confident in a job well done with our licensed and certified contractors.

Hardwood floor installation in Downers Grove / Bolingbrook.

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Footprints Floors provides flooring installation services in Downers Grove / Bolingbrook for both old and new homes. We handle the demolition and removal of the old flooring, as well as the necessary prep work for new flooring. We will even remove baseboards and reinstall them after completing the flooring installation.

Covering everything from design and installation to clean up, our team helps increase the value of your property with brand new hardwood floors. Contact us today to request a free estimate!

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What Our Customers Say

I would certainly recommend Footprints to everyone. Chuck and his team were the best. Floors were done in a timely manner and the finished product is amazing.
W. R. Norful 12/10/24 — google
Chuck is personable and he did an amazing job on our floors as well as going out of his way to make sure I was happy
sandra coyner 10/23/24 — google
I am happy to share my review on Footprints Floors. This week I had some hardwood repair under my dishwasher that had leaked. A few boards had to be replaced and I met with Chuck to discuss the project. Chuck is very knowledgeable and came by to assess the extent of damage after I moved the old dishwasher. He worked hard to match the hardwood as best he could. The floors are 25 years old but you can see the nice job he did in the attached picture. In addition he touched up a spot that had a cracked hardwood board and you can't even see the repair!! Kyle came out to do the actual job and he was thorough and really cleaned up after he was gone. I plan on having Chuck and his team replace my laundry room floors and 2 upstairs bathroom floors in 2025 with porcelain hardwood tile and expect that the craftsmanship I see on this small project will be shown once again. They really take pride in their work and it shows. I highly recommend this company to all those who want to know that their floors will be done correctly, look great and will last for years to come.
Sharon Peete 09/20/24 — google
Chuck and his team did a superb job with repairs to an old floor with many missing and damaged boards and did a great job with the refininshing where there was a lot of stains. They were responsive, on time, on budget and very conscientious and it was clear they wanted it to look great at a competiitive price. I highly recommend them and would hire them again!
Brad Tocher 09/19/24 — google
Good communication and timeliness - on time for the estimate - called to adjust job arrival time. Did nice job on small entryway tile removal and replacement. May use again for other flooring projects and recommend to others also.
Margaret Fleming 08/26/24 — google
Chuck and his crew where very professional, cleaned up all scraps and left the area very clean.
Jim Weil 08/15/24 — google
Chuck was very thorough with explaining the whole process and his team did a great job of refinishing our wood floor.
Kelly Karns 07/23/24 — google
Chuck knew exactly what to do for my damaged hardwood floors.He was, above all, professional, knowledgeable, and made my options easy to choose with very low costs! I will definitely use Footprints Floor again as well as highly recommend them to all my friends and colleagues..
Rosalyn Haley 06/21/24 — google
We are thrilled with our relationship with Footprints Floors. Both Chuck William the ower, and Kyle, his installer, have exceeded our expectations. We started with a small project to replace our master bath floor due to a toilet leak. The leak was missed by the original installer who did a new shower and floor and returned to address the leak with a new wax ring. Thanks to Chuck and Kyle they discovered a faulty sewer flange which was repaired by Stephen's Plumbing. Both agreed, if missed, we could have been looking at a new floor and posible family room ceiling. Happy with the initial project we gave Footprints new issues to solve: a leaking hall bath shower and defective broken tiles in our family room and kitchen, with no spare tiles. Chuck did the caulking and grouting to seal the hall bath leaks, and cleaned the harvested tile, and Kyle laid the new foyer flooring while harvestimg the extra tiles for the repairs. The results are outstanding. We had initially contacted another vendor for the project who ghosted us (possible the job was to small for their taste). Our win!
John Wray 06/18/24 — google
Professional quality service at a good price! Chuck and team believe in customer service and making sure you get what you paid for. Thanks again team!
William Maynie 05/30/24 — google
I’ve NEVER had more of an amazing experience than with Footprints Floors, particularly with Mr. Williams. He helped me cut through the multitude of choices that I often find overwhelming with ease to come up with a choice that enhanced the beauty of my home in a way I never thought possible. Thank you, Charles. My home is beautiful, my wife is happy and I have a new appreciation for customer service!
Scott D. 05/30/24 — google
Fast, informative, professional, above and beyond
J J 05/29/24 — google
Chuck and team listened to our vision to update what was a very uneven and thin-- 3" concrete slab floor in our basement. Its a nearly 100yo converted root cellar. He gave us options and contingency plans-- all things were considered! He wasn't quite familiar with the finished look we requested, but he did a lot of research and pulled it off! The install team was great. We love the result.
Hanna Auza 04/27/24 — google
I cannot say enough about Chuck and staff. We have had a-lot of contractors do work for us over the years and i have to say that footprints have by far exceeded all our expectations. They did an amazing job on our wood floor refinishing and really stand behind their work! Chuck is very professional and courteous unlike most contractors we have dealt with in the past. You can hire them without concern. They truly are worth it!
carmen Lollino 04/27/24 — google
We recently had the pleasure of working with Chuck and Kyle from Footprint Flooring of the Western suburbs. They were professional, fast, and their work was of high quality. Chuck came by to look at our floors and spent a good amount of time explaining everything in detail that was needed to repair our floors and made sure all of our questions were answered. I was so pleased with the outcome of our flooring. We had our LVP floor repaired and it truly looks amazing. I would highly recommend Footprint Flooring to anyone looking to install or repair their floors. I called around to other flooring companies and I am so glad we chose FootPrints. I got the best vibe from them and now I know why. I can honestly say we are so happy and satisfied with our floors and would use them again.
Caterina DeBenny 04/27/24 — google
Chuck and his team were very friendly and thorough. Spent a lot of time answering my questions and explaining things for my peace of mind. The job was done right the first time! Pricing was comparable to other companies in the area, didn’t have to pay more for top-quality work. Thanks, Chuck!
Ellen Gatien 04/2/24 — google
I would highly recommend Footprints if you are looking for flooring work. In our instance we had frozen water pipes that burst and damaged a 4x5 swath of our hardwood flooring. Footprints came out promptly to evaluate the damage and proposed it’s solution. We actually thought we would have to replace a lot more of the floor area than we ended up replacing. Footprints was able to lace the new wood into the existing hardwood and when the work was finished, I could not tell any difference. They matched it perfectly. Footprints was extremely competent, polite and neat. I also found their rate to be very reasonable especially given the high quality of the work. I found the owner of the company dusting in our powder room with a duster after the work was complete! I highly recommend Footprints Flooring.
Betty Tsamis 03/12/24 — google
Chuck is an outstanding business man very polite and charged a fair price. Kyle did an outstanding job on my bathroom floor and I would definitely hire these guys again!!!
Diane Boyd 04/21/23 — google
Footprints floors did an excellent job restoring my hardwood floors. The floors were in exceptionally bad condition prior to their restoration. They restored my hardwood floors to an almost new state. The hardwood floors are now absolutely gorgeous! I cannot recommend them highly enough for all work they did at a fair price. Thank you!
Ms. M Wms 03/22/23 — google
Very personable and thoughtful. Crew cleaned up after themselves at the end of each day. Chuck new what he was doing. Delivered on all of his promises. Exceeded our expectations.
Karen Schmiege 03/16/23 — google

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Customer Satisfaction


Footprints Floors is a one-of-a-kind residential flooring installation and restoration business. We offer high quality flooring installations and, with over a decade of dedication, we have quickly become the largest flooring contractor by striving to bring a higher level of customer service and sophistication to an industry where it was severely lacking. Our family-owned business is focused on customer satisfaction and quality results, all while passing savings on to you and yours through our low overhead model.

Footprints Floors is a one-of-a-kind residential flooring installation and restoration business. We offer high quality flooring installations and, with over a decade of dedication, we have quickly become the largest flooring contractor by striving to bring a higher level of customer service and sophistication to an industry where it was severely lacking. Our family-owned business is focused on customer satisfaction and quality results, all while passing savings on to you and yours through our low overhead model.

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