Living in the sunshine state has plenty of perks for Florida residents. Many Florida homes feature sunrooms, or also known as “Florida rooms.” These spaces typically include panoramic windows to let in as much sunlight as possible. They differ from screened-in porches, as Florida rooms are climate controlled, interior rooms while screened-in porches are outdoor areas enclosed to prevent pests from getting in.

Considerations

Because of the increased sunlight, your Florida room will require different needs when compared to the rest of your home, especially when it comes to your flooring. Plus, if your sunroom serves as a point of entry from the outside, you may want to consider a waterproof option.
Best Flooring Options for Your Sunroom
You may be considering adding or upgrading your current Florida room flooring. To help you pick the right choice, we’ve highlighted our top four picks for sunroom floors.

Carpet

Carpet is a great option for a Florida room because it can make the room feel extremely cozy and it’s cost-effective. Carpet is also excellent at temperature control because it will not become too hot in the exposed sunlight. In the colder winters, it will retain heat better, too. Be sure to pick a lighter shade of your carpet to reduce heat.

Before installing carpet for your sunroom, be aware of how much dining will be done in here and foot traffic this room will receive. Carpet is harder to clean from spills and is not a good option if people will be entering your sunroom from the outdoors.

Laminate

Hardwood flooring is not the most ideal choice when it comes to Florida rooms, as it has a higher chance of fading from sunlight and scratching from foot traffic. You can still achieve the hardwood floor look with a cost-effective option: laminate flooring.

Laminate is resilient for your sunroom and mimics the look of real hardwood. Make sure your laminate flooring has UV protection so your new floors don’t fade in the sunlight. Also, laminate flooring is not moisture-resistant, so keep that in mind for your specific sunroom needs.

Tile

Tile, as we’ve explained before, is an amazing option for many different types of spaces, including your Florida room. It’s moisture resistant, easy to maintain, and comes in a wide variety of styles. Lean towards a lighter tile color when picking tile for your sunroom because it will retain moderate amounts of heat, but dark tiles will be too hot to walk on in the sunlight.

Luxury Vinyl Flooring

An increasingly popular option for flooring is luxury vinyl flooring. It can come in either individual tiles to mimic real ceramic tile or planks to look like hardwood flooring. Vinyl flooring has come a long way and luxury vinyl flooring is no different. Tiles and planks give your Florida room the look and feel of real tile or hardwood without the price. Plus, LVF is waterproof and scratch-resistant. So if you need a durable option that is cost-friendly, luxury vinyl would make a great choice for your sunroom.

Need to Upgrade Your Florida Room Flooring? Call Speedy!

If you are updating your Florida room or adding one onto your house, you’ll want the best flooring for your new sanctuary. If you need to remove your current flooring in order to install your new Florida room flooring, contact us! Speedy has served thousands of homeowners with their residential floor removal projects. We’re here to make sure that your removal process is quick, easy, and thorough for your new floor installation.

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Tile flooring is a popular choice for flooring because it’s built to last and comes in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes to fit your taste. Having so many tile options to choose from can overwhelm homeowners. Between styles, finishes, and sizes, it can be hard to pinpoint the right tile for your home.

Different Sized Tiles for Different Tastes

While we can’t recommend one style of tile over another, we can offer guidance when it comes to which tile size is right for your specific space. We’ve broken it down into two broad classifications of tile sizes: large and small.

Large Tiles

Tiles that are 8”x8” or bigger are classified as large floor tiles. These tiles make a big statement in your home and come with added benefits including:

• Expand a Room: Large tiles actually make your smaller room feel much larger than it actually is. This is because there are fewer grout lines in your floor, therefore visually expanding the room without having to knock down any walls. This is ideal for small bathrooms, powder rooms, foyers, or any other areas that are smaller than your liking.
• Easier to Maintain: Fewer grout lines mean less time spent scrubbing your floors. Tile is easier to maintain than most flooring options, but it takes a little more elbow grease to keep tile grout looking clean. With large tiles, you have more tile surface area than more grout lines to clean.
• Modern and Minimalist Feel: Large tiles are popular in modern homes because of their clean lines and simplicity. Opting for large dark tiles gives your space a smooth finish and minimalist look.

Small Tiles

Small tiles can be the best choice for a variety of rooms in your home, including small rooms. These tiles, just like large tiles, can add value when upgrading your floors.

• Mosaic Tiles: Small tiles are most associated with mosaic style layouts. Mosaic tiles can be as large as 2” or as small as 0.5” and are great for smaller areas of your home, such as a half-bath because they create a seamless floor. When you add a mosaic design, you add a beautiful and mesmerizing aspect of the space that in turn, adds value to your home.
• Cozy Feeling: Small tiles also emulate a cozy and comfortable feeling to a room. A small bathroom can feel more inviting or a breakfast nook can feel like the perfect spot to enjoy a meal in your home. If you want an area to be more inviting, choose smaller tiles to create an intimate setting.
• More Flexible Installation: Lastly, installation in tricky areas of your home is easier when you choose a small tile. You won’t have to cut down or trim your tiles as often to overcome obstacles. With large tiles, you’ll have to make adjustments to fit. Small tiles offer more flexible installation and a seamless look once completed.

How to Choose a Tile Size for Your Space

The process for making your final decision on tile size is a simple one to follow:

1. Measure the space(s) where new tile flooring will be installed. – This includes accounting for any obstacles in your home. For example, bathrooms have toilets and showers while kitchens contain many appliances.
2. Decide on color, shape, and texture. – Tiles can come in a variety of options. Before you decide on the right size, you’ll need to understand the overall look and feel of your new space. A modern master bathroom aiming for a minimalist look may fair better with large, gray tiles. Meanwhile, small clean white tiles are better suited for a narrow bathroom.
3. Pick your tile size. – After considering how big your space is and what your needs are, you can decide on the right tile size for your new flooring.

Prep Your Home for New Floors with Speedy

Before any new floor installation project, you’ll need to remove your old flooring. Count on the floor removal experts at Speedy Floor Removal to take care of removing your old tile, carpet, or hardwood floors. We create a clean and smooth surface for your new tile floor to be installed upon.

Contact us in one of our locations around the state of Florida to receive a free project estimate.

When it comes time to install flooring, style isn’t the only factor to consider when choosing between options. Your lifestyle largely affects how long your flooring will last and how much upkeep is required to maintain it.

Lifestyle Affects Floor Maintenance

Your floor, arguably, receives the most wear and tear out of all the aspects in your home. Spills, damage, shoe scuffs, and tracked-in dirt threaten the look and functionality of your flooring. Depending on your unique lifestyle habits, you need a floor that can withstand your habits.

Factors that Determine Best Flooring

Before you fall in love with a certain flooring choice, you must consider these factors:

• Traffic Level: If you constantly have people coming in going in your home, your floors will receive a lot more wear and tear. High traffic areas like the entryway and living room will have a lot of traffic, so it’s best to choose flooring that can take the heightened activity levels.
• How Often You Entertain: Hosting parties and get-togethers in your home can put a strain on your flooring. Messes are inevitable when more people are invited into your home. If you plan on hosting often, you’ll need a floor that can be cleaned easily.
• Who Lives in Your Home: Small children and pets affect your flooring choice. The chance of messes is higher and you’ll need a flooring that can keep up with accidents.

Different Flooring For Different Lifestyles

Not all flooring is made for every living situation. Based on the factors mentioned above, you’ll have to rule out flooring options (or deal with a lot of extra work!). We’ve outlined common lifestyles and the best flooring options for each.

Families with Children

Small children require extra attention and the same can be said about the flooring you choose for your home. Babies and toddlers are bound to make messes and require softer flooring, especially those learning to walk. Carpet is a great option for families because of the soft, cushioning material.

If you prefer a floor that is easier to clean, or is a harder surface, opt for tile flooring. This is better for older children and teenagers. You don’t have to splurge on flooring for durability. Vinyl options have the same look and strength as tile flooring without the higher price tag.

Pet Owners

Pets bring a lot of excitement and happiness into your home. But your floor will feel the effects of these animals over time. It’s best to choose a durable and easy-maintenance flooring option such as ceramic tile. Tile is stain resistant and can be cleaned quickly when your dog or cat tracks in dirt from the outdoors.

If you have pets, you should avoid installing hardwood floors because they can be damaged by stains and scratched by pets’ nails. Carpet isn’t a great choice either because messes are harder to manage and odors can linger.

Those That Love to Entertain

Your home may serve as the meeting place for birthday parties, after school hang-outs, or family holidays. In the case that you always manage to host and entertain in your home, you’ll want a floor that can keep up with your schedule. Tile flooring is the best option because you can choose from an array of styles, plus it’s easy to clean and can take a beating from dropped glassware.

People with Allergy or Respiratory Issues

If you or family members suffer from allergies or other respiratory problems, it’s best to choose a floor that won’t house potential irritants. Avoid installing carpet as it can hold dust, pet hair, and a slew of things that can circulate in your air. Hardwood and tile floors are great because they are easy to clean and don’t hold on to allergens as carpet does.

Ready to Change Your Flooring? Contact Speedy Floor Removal

Whether you just purchased a house or need to adjust your current home’s flooring to match your lifestyle, you might need to replace the flooring to fit your needs. Speedy Floor Removal is ready to take care of your floor removal project to make way for new flooring. With little to no dust left behind and a team of qualified experts, we make floor removal easy and stress-free. Contact us today in your service area to receive a free floor removal estimate.

When it comes to your floors, there is a lot more than meets the eye. In the same way, when it comes time to remove your flooring, you have to ensure that each layer is properly taken care of to ensure a smooth installation of your new floors.

Every Part of Your Floor Matters

Each of the layers in your flooring matters and has a significant purpose to the stability and function of your floor. If one layer is installed or removed incorrectly, it throws off the entire structure of your floor as well as the overall look. This can lead to more money spent to correct the oversight.

Components of Your Floor

When you look at your floors, you may only think of the one layer that you see. Like the ground you stand on, there are several layers underneath the top one that ensures the stability and function of your floor.

Joists

At the very bottom of the layers that make up your floors is what we call joists. Think of these as the bones of your flooring. They are used to frame the layer that will sit upon your home’s foundation. It’s crucial that joists are installed correctly because if not, it will result in a great deal of noise, squeaking, and shifting when you walk on your floors.

Subfloor

After the joists, you’ll find the subfloor. This is the solid base that your floor will stand on and will support the floor covering. The subfloor is most often constructed with concrete. It’s crucial that the subfloor has room to breathe, as in expanding and contracting over the years to make your floor function properly.

Underlayment

On top of the subfloor is the underlayment. The underlayment is installed for noise control because it softens any noise that will result from someone walking on the floor. Not only is it installed for noise cancellation, but underlayment gives the floor covering a smooth surface to sit on. Most often made of foam or cork, underlayment is required for “floating” floors such as laminate or engineered wood. These floors are not attached to the subfloor so they “float” on top.

Padding will be used in cases of carpet installation and can make or break the functionality of your carpeted areas. When you are choosing to install tile flooring, you’ll need a moisture resistant underlayment because water can find its way under tile in the cracks of the grout.

Floor Covering

The last part of your flooring is the top layer called the floor covering. Floor coverings come in a variety of materials and styles. They can be hardwood, tile, stone, carpet, vinyl, or laminate. This is what you think of when you think of floors.

Adhesive

Floor coverings are often secured to subfloor or underlayment depending on the material. With tile, thinset is used to adhere the tiles to the subfloor. Thinset will need to be expertly removed when looking to install new flooring where the tile was once installed.

Importance of Thorough Floor Removal

When you are removing old flooring to make way for new flooring, it’s essential that every part of the removal process is done expertly and thoroughly. The joists and subfloor will remain, but the layers on top of those will need to be removed to give your new flooring its best chance.

This goes beyond just removing the floor covering. The floor covering and underlayment will need to be removed, but also any adhesive present. If thinset or adhesive isn’t properly removed, it will create an uneven surface for your new flooring to sit on. Save yourself from stress and spending more than you have to by hiring qualified and professional floor removal experts to handle your floor removal project.

Floor Removal with Speedy Floor Removal in North and Central Florida

When it comes time to replace your floors, take the stress out of floor removal with Speedy Floor Removal. We do more than just remove the floor covering. We go deeper and thoroughly remove layers down to the subfloor so that your new floor installation goes smoothly. We happily serve parts of North and Central Florida with fast, easy, and expert floor removal services.

Removing your flooring can create almost one pound of dust per square foot. Fortunately, Speedy Floor Removal knows just how important air quality is. That’s why we use equipment featuring HEPA Certified Air Cleaners to capture dust unseen to the eye during our removal projects.

You can breathe easier knowing that your flooring project isn’t going to adversely affect you, your family, or your employee’s health. But what about after your floor removal project is completed? Customers often ask us how to keep their air clean routinely.

Lifestyle changes can be the beginning to cleaner air. These changes include:

• Buying a vacuum with HEPA filters and using it often.
• Using high-quality filters with your HVAC system and changing them regularly.
• Washing your bedding and pillow cases often.
• Replacing bed pillows.
• Removing clutter from your home or office.
• Avoid wearing outdoor shoes inside your home.
• Controlling indoor humidity, especially during the brutal Florida summer. The EPA recommends keeping the relative humidity between 30 to 50 percent to inhibit mold growth, dust mites, and cockroaches.

The Benefits of an Air Purifier

For even cleaner air, you should buy and use a quality HEPA Air Purifier cleaner. Using an air purifier helps to remove smoke and allergens from the air, making it easier for you, your family, and your employees to breathe easier. You can get back to enjoying time in your home and your business.

A typical air purifier help captures up to 99.97% of airborne particles as small as 0.3 microns. This includes pet dander, pollen, dust, mold, and smoke. Also, these air purifiers capture certain germs and odors, making everyone in your home or office breathe easier.

It’s important to note that filters should be cleaned following each manufacturers recommendations to keep filter replacement costs at a minimum. The average lifetime of the main and 2nd stage filters can range from a few months to over a year.

The Top 5 Best Air Purifiers from 2018

We’ve listed our top five air purifiers below that can be used in many different sized rooms and for any environment. You can choose a small portable unit to purify the air in singular rooms or choose a large, higher priced fixed unit to filter your entire space.

Rabbit Air MinusA2 Ultra Quiet HEPA Air Purifier – High Quality, High Price

This air purifier is known for its high quality because it features a state-of-the-art Panasonic brushless motor. It also includes smaller, but still high-quality, components such as foam gaskets on the filters, a magnetic closing mechanism for the latch, and even a pleasant chime. This air purifier goes a long way, making the high price worth it.

Honeywell True HEPA Allergen Remover – Best Value Per Dollar

Consumer Reports rates this air filter extremely high and with good reason! It’s the best and most affordable unit on the market to date. The unit is very simple, very quiet and offers double filtration, credited to the extra thick charcoal filter followed by an extra thick HEPA filter.

AIRMEGA 300 The Smarter Air Purifier – Best Budget Air Purifier

While the Airmega 400 is a larger room appliance, it offers many benefits. It’s quiet, extremely functional, and contains high-quality components. It’s also easy to clean and changing filters is a breeze, making it less work on you. The Airmega Purifier also has a “nighttime mode” for sensitive sleepers. Another mode, smart mode, “reads” the air and filters appropriately. You can turn the “air quality lights” off for nighttime use.

GermGuardian AC4825 3-in-1 Air Purifier – Best Budget Air Purifier for Single Rooms

Overall, this air purifier is a great option while being budget friendly. It features a UV light that kills germs and viruses. If you are a light sleeper, this purifier might not be for you because the max fan setting is loud (air flow wise). The largest unit only covers 335 sq ft., about the size of a single room, making it a good choice if you want to have a portable purifier for a specific area.

Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier – Best Budget for Portable & Compact

For its compact size, the Mighty Air Purifier is loaded with features similar to the GermGuardian. It features a powerful ionizer that kills germs. This purifier also has smart features such as eco mode which prevents the unit from constantly running! Because it’s a smaller unit, it can easily be moved from room to room. You can even take with you when traveling or bring it to work.

Speedy Floor Removal Knows the Importance of Indoor Air Quality

Speedy Floor Removal takes every precaution to ensure that your floor removal project doesn’t negatively affect the quality of your home or office’s air. You can still make air quality a priority long after we remove your flooring. While making lifestyle changes is a great place to start, investing in an air purifier will make it easier than ever to have high quality air year-round!

If you have ever gone through a floor removal or replacement, you know it can traditionally be a grueling process. At Speedy Floor Removal, it’s our job to make your experience with floor removal dust-free and hassle-free! This month, we’re walking you through a dustless floor removal job, from start to finish, so you know exactly what you can expect from our licensed and professional employees.

We are so confident in our equipment that we guarantee your home will be dust-free, or we will pay your cleaning bill.

In Florida flooding can be a concern – especially if you live in a low lying area. Heavy summer rains or tropical storms and hurricanes can bring lots of rain and provide a potential for flooding. Additionally, a broken pipe or overflowing tub or sink adds to your risk of flooding.

If your home floods and you have carpet flooring, you may be worried that you won’t be able to keep your flooring. While wet carpet and padding can be a problem, fast action can save you from having to replace your flooring.

The Hidden Danger of Wet Carpet

The big danger with wet carpet is mold. If your carpet and padding stay wet for a long period of time, mold can begin to grow quickly. Mold loves dark, humid environments – and wet carpet provides the perfect environment for it to multiply.

Mold can be a major health risk. Signs of mold irritation are similar to that of allergies or asthma. It can irritate your nose, eyes, throat, and lungs. A sure sign that mold has begun to grow is a bad smell coming from your carpet. Mold can be cleaned up and eliminated, but it requires fast action.

Elbow Grease Required

The longer you have to wait to clean-up, the more time mold has to grow. Wait too long and you’ll be better off just replacing your carpet and padding. However, if you’re able to start cleaning there are several methods to get your carpet clean again:

• Remove excess water with a wet-vac – Suck up extra moisture and water with a wet-vac in order to get rid of the bulk of the water.
• Use fans to dry carpet quickly – It’s important to dry up all the water as quickly as possible. If you can, rent an industrial fan to dry your carpet fast. If that’s not an option run your fans 24 hours a day for a few days in order to dry out your carpet.
• Use dehumidifiers – Dehumidifiers are also a great option if you’re trying to get your carpets completely dry. A dehumidifier will suck the moisture out of the air helping to stop the growth of mold.
• Get the Bleach Ready – Bleach kills mold. Wash your walls and baseboards with bleach to stop mold from spreading.
• Steam clean your carpets – Whether you rent the machine yourself, or you hire a professional, steaming your carpet can get your carpets clean and the heat can help kill mold.

What About Padding?

While the steps above may help save your carpet, if you have padding underneath you will probably have to replace it. Padding has pores that mold can grow in, and it can be very hard to eliminate it. A carpet pad is like a sponge, it will suck up water – but it is nearly impossible to get it completely dry.

If the flooding in your home was fairly severe, separate your carpet from the padding and throw out the pad. You can replace the padding and restretch your carpet to save money.

Removing Your Carpet

Unfortunately, it isn’t always possible to get your carpets cleaned quickly after flooding. The first 48 hours are critical in stopping the spread of mold. After that, you might be better off removing and replacing your carpet. While it is more expensive, it is also the safer and healthier option.

If you want help removing your carpet, we can help remove it quickly and cleanly. Disposing of carpet can be difficult because it is bulky and heavy, we’ll help you save time, pain and mess with our carpet removal process.