Let's imagine for a moment that you are given the opportunity to redesign your entire house, top to bottom. This would be a moment for celebration but also of consternation. After all, it is exciting to be able to choose all the new features and fixtures your house, but then you also have to make all those decisions. You may not know that much about home improvement. This is especially true with flooring. Even though the floors are one of the most important parts of your living space, most people just take them for granted. However, there are many different types of flooring, each of which is best suited to a different part of your house.

We'll start in the basement. Here, you should just be able to pour the subflooring and leave it. Subflooring is the layer that goes under the floor on which you walk. A lot of the time, subflooring is poured concrete or clay. On upper stories it is often wooden joists that serve as both ceiling and floor support.

In your basement, leaving your floor clay or concrete makes for easy clean up, especially if you are prone to flooding or teenagers. You can still lay area rugs, a non-permanent flooring option, over the concrete if you are looking for a softer sitting place.

In your kitchen, there are many great hard flooring options. Your kitchen floor will probably be subject to dampness and spills, so getting something easy to clean is a must. However, poured concrete looks so utilitarian. Instead, try using fired clay tiles or stone tiles set with mortar. You will be able to easily wipe up spills, but your kitchen floor will also resemble an old manor house or an Italian villa depending on whether you choose flagstone, terracotta tiles, or marble.

Once you are no longer in danger of daily spills and wetness, the most popular flooring options are hardwood or laminate floors. These types of floorings are easier to keep clean than carpet and give your house an old-fashioned charm. They also give you the option of decorating with area rugs.

Hardwood floors are gentle on bare feet and don't hold in the cold like a stone or concrete floor will. Laminate flooring mimics the look of hardwood without the cost or environment impact of harvesting old growth trees to make floorboards. Laminate flooring is made from the detritus of sawmills. All the sawdust is further processed and compressed into medium density fiberboard. It can then be treated to resemble hardwood.

In your bedroom, or your children's bedrooms, you might consider wall to wall carpeting. If the little ones are on the floor all the time, it gives them a cushioned place to play. You can keep it dirt free with a vacuum cleaner. If you choose cheaper carpeting, you can pull it up after the child is ten or so and then lay down a nice laminate floor.

Now, if you miraculously get the chance to redo your entire house, you will have an idea of what kind of flooring will best suit you.