You’ve already chosen to design your dream barndominium because of the low cost to build and high opportunity to customize. But which personalizations matter most for your barndominium? More specifically, how do you pick the best barndominium flooring for you? Do you keep your flooring budget low, or is there a higher-priced option that better fits your everyday barndominium way of life?
Barndominium veterans will tell you there are five main questions to ask to help you decide which of the seven main contenders you should consider as the best flooring for barndominiums. Read on to learn all there is to know about how to pick to best barndominium flooring for your barndominium home.
Best Barndominium Flooring
Remember, the two main building materials used to create a barndominium are the metal post frame design and concrete slab floor. From there, every style detail is up to you and your budget.
The open concept structure of a barndominium already includes a living space and an easily customizable open floor concept. But what exactly you include in your barndominium floor plan is left for you to decide. You can use your extra floor space as a mechanic’s dream shop, a crafting studio, a home gym, or even a designer kitchen – you dream it, the barndominium can be personalized to fit it.
The lifestyle you choose to live and the money you have to spend are the two biggest factors that will determine which flooring option is best for your barndominium. Use the questions below to help you start bringing your barndominium flooring vision to life!
Finding barndominium flooring for you
Here are the top 5 ideas you need to consider when choosing the best flooring for your barndominium:
- How will my family live? – Choosing to live alone in your barndominium is one thing, but if you plan to have pets or children around, your flooring will see a lot of foot traffic. Both the number of people and their everyday mobility on your flooring will play a big role in the durability of the material you should choose.
- How long do I want my flooring to last? – You don’t just want to pick flooring because it looks pretty at the design store. Barndominium flooring that is installed well and has an extended warranty will look great over the years and could be worth the bigger dollar amount.
- How much care do I want to put into maintaining my flooring? – Again, just because a flooring option is visually appealing doesn’t always mean it’s worth the money or time for upkeep. Make sure to research the daily cleaning requirements for your ideal barndominium flooring to look good. Can you mop the flooring if there’s a major spill, or do you have to buy a specific kind of polish or wax? Is your flooring naturally waterproof and stain-resistant? You also need to look up if the flooring needs to be resealed or refinished every few years to stay looking great.
- How much money do I want to spend on flooring? – Is your barndominium a project that needs to be done immediately, or are you okay with spending money on your barndominium over an extended length of time? This can make a huge impact on your overall building budget. If you’re comfortable with your barndominium being a work-in-progress for a few years, maybe you choose cheaper flooring to start, and then you upgrade to higher quality barndominium flooring in the future.
- What is the weather like where I’m building my barndominium? – The location of your barndominium will play a role in how long your flooring will last. If you’ve chosen to build in a climate that changes temperatures with every season, this will cause more strain on your barndominium flooring over time. You also might choose to install heated floors to combat colder weather, which means you need to pick barndominium flooring that will best retain heat.
Top barndominium floors to consider
Below are the top 7 barndominium floors, organized from lowest to highest cost:
Stained Concrete Flooring
Since your basic barndominium package already comes with concrete slab flooring, this is one of the most affordable options to consider for your barndominium design. The process of staining a concrete floor involves putting a very basic seal over the concrete slab base. Or you can customize your concrete flooring even more with different paints and stains. Stained concrete flooring is one of the easiest options if you anticipate messy cleanups or a need for naturally waterproof flooring in your barndominium lifestyle.
Laminate Flooring
Laminate flooring is very similar to vinyl flooring, and it is another budget-friendly option for your barndominium design. Laminate is easy to install and has the ability to look like the more upscale options like hardwood, tile, or stone flooring. It is also naturally stain-resistant and scratch-proof. The biggest difference between laminate and vinyl flooring is water resistant. Vinyl is waterproof, while laminate is prone to water damage without the proper upkeep.
Despite this downside, laminate is a great starter flooring option. It comes in a variety of colors and designs. Plus, you can always upgrade to a higher-quality flooring in the future of your barndominium home.
Vinyl Flooring
After stained concrete floors, vinyl flooring is your next best option to keep flooring costs low and quality high. Vinyl is best known for its durability and working as a more affordable alternative to real hardwood or stone floors. One square foot of vinyl flooring can cost as little as $0.50!
Overall, vinyl flooring is waterproof, stain-proof, and scratch-proof, which makes it great for high-traffic homes. It doesn’t need to be regularly refinished, and it is easy to replace without hiring someone to do it.
Brickwebb Flooring
Brickwebb flooring is a great option for the do-it-yourself barndominium home designer. This is an easy-install material that can be used to create a brick floor or wall facade. You can even put it on your ceiling if you want!
There are two main brick facade flooring options currently on the market. Brickwebb flooring is different from thin brick in that it only comes in a few main styles, and you pay a little more for the installation ease. The brick material of Brickwebb flooring is pre-set on fiberglass webbing that allows you to put it in place just like tile. All you need is a good adhesive and a little time to cover your floors with the Brickwebb product. You can get the straight lines and beautiful design of a brick feature in your barndominium without the hassle or money involved in spacing out each brick!
Tile Flooring
Tile flooring is great for more than bathrooms! In fact, porcelain or ceramic tiles can add an artistic flair to your barndominium home. Tile flooring allows you to pick a pattern or color scheme to upscale a specific room, or you can cover your whole open concept floor plan in one type of tile.
Also – one of the best kept secrets of ceramic tile flooring is that it is resistant to the growth of bacteria, mold, and mildew! Not only does this mean your barndominium floors will naturally stay cleaner, they also are a great hypoallergenic option if your family struggles with major allergy health concerns.
Natural Stone Flooring
Natural stone flooring gives you a unique opportunity to tell the story of the land where you’ve chosen to build your barndominium. Natural stone flooring is a type of tile cut directly from large rocks like marble, granite, travertine, limestone, and slate. If any of these rock types are unearthed in the building of your barndominium, you could repurpose them as flooring for your new home.
Stone flooring retains heat best, so this is a great option if you want to install heated floors throughout your barndominium.
Wood Flooring
Wood flooring has made a comeback recently, especially if you are looking to create the modern farmhouse aesthetic in your barndominium home. Hardwood floors come with a variety of unique staining options, which can really add character to a single room or entire floor of your barndominium home. This is one of the priciest options for barndominium flooring, but it just might be worth your investment.
In fact, there’s more than fashion to appreciate if you choose to purchase wood flooring for your barndominium. Wood flooring lasts longer than any other flooring option. Hardwood floors are easy to clean and sustainable over the life of your barndominium home. They also include little upkeep to good-as-new over the years. Just sand, restain, and repeat!
Conclusion
Now that you’ve read through our barndominium flooring guide, the only thing left is to start building your barndominium! Check out our barndominium FAQs, including your ultimate guide to barndominium plumbing.
If you want to learn more before you commit to building your barndominium in Maine, check out our program “Barndominiums Made Easy.” It’s affordable, informative, and will give you every resource you need to confidently move forward with your barndominium build.
