The Best Flooring Options for Commercial Offices: A Complete Guide
The best flooring for your commercial office is the one that blends durability and style to stand up to daily traffic while impressing clients.
Most offices also use a mixture of different flooring types for workspaces, meeting rooms, canteens, and other spaces – so, in most cases, you won’t be choosing one flooring type but at least two to kit out your office.
You probably already know a few flooring types, such as carpet tiles, vinyl, and hardwood, but the best flooring for an office isn’t always obvious.
Join us below to discover the best flooring options for commercial offices based on cost, aesthetics, functionality, and long-term maintenance.
Carpet tiles
Carpet tiles are the best choice for most offices because they are comfortable underfoot and deaden sound when moving chairs and walking around.
Another benefit of carpet tiles is that they are exceptionally durable. The low-pile nylon stands up to virtually anything. Should a carpet tile get damaged, replacement is as simple as pulling it up and slotting in a new one.
The downside to carpet tiles is they require regular cleaning to look their best and may fray and show wear in high-traffic areas over time.
Luxury vinyl tile (LVT)
LVT is available as a click or glue-down product. Click LVT is a ‘floating’ floor suitable for installation over floorboards, while glue-down LVT bonds straight to a concrete substrate and doesn’t need an expansion zone around the perimeter.
Glue-down LVT is superior, but the subfloor needs to be perfect—there should be no bumps or odd dips that will show through the relatively thin plastic tile.
Whatever works for your office floor, LVT is exceptionally durable and long-lasting. The floating version is available with a built-in underlay.
Hardwood
Hardwood is the ultimate flooring choice for high-end offices, adding warmth, elegance, sustainability, and an organic feel to what is a traditionally sterile space.
Wooden flooring can be refinished over time, and a good lacquer will waterproof the surface to ensure no penetration from small spills.
The problem with hardwood flooring is it is susceptible to water damage, so a leaky pipe in the wall or a spill that flows underneath a cabinet can ruin it.
If you want wooden flooring in your office, consider an engineered product — engineered wooden flooring resists water better, looks and feels like hardwood, and is cheaper, making it a better choice for most commercial offices.
Polished concrete
Polished concrete suits large, open office spaces to enhance sound clarity thanks to its reflective surface.
It lacks warmth and comfort underfoot but offers superior durability to any other floor finish. Your existing slab might be suitable for polishing, although the best finish might come from pouring a speciality mix over it and polishing that.
The best thing about polished concrete is that it is eco-friendly and suits all commercial spaces, from reception areas to meeting rooms and toilets. Plus, it is a continuous surface, with no need for a transition between rooms for a seamless appearance.
Summing up
Carpet tiles are warm and deaden sound, LVT flooring is durable and low maintenance, wooden flooring is organic and high-end, and polished concrete is seamless and offers the longest lifespan.
There isn’t an outright best flooring but there is the right one for your space. Smooth and impervious flooring is generally best for offices, so you should lean towards LVT and polished concrete when longevity is your biggest concern.