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Choosing flooring that survives a Central Texas house
Slabs that move, humidity that swings, sun that fades. What that rules in, what it rules out, and what actually decides the result.
People ask me which flooring is best. There is no best. There are a few plain facts about houses around here that make some choices easier to live with than others, and one thing that matters more than the choice itself.
What our conditions actually do to a floor
- Slabs move. The clay under a slab swells when it rains and shrinks when it does not. Lay a floor with rigid joints over that and it will eventually tell on the slab.
- Humidity swings hard. Solid wood takes on moisture and gives it back with the air. That is normal, and it is why wood flooring needs an expansion gap around the perimeter, hidden under the baseboard.
- Sun. A west-facing room with big windows will fade a floor unevenly over a few years. Almost everything fades to some degree.
The honest short version
- Luxury vinyl plank is everywhere here for good reason. It does not care about moisture, it takes slab movement in stride, and it survives kids and dogs. The cheap end looks cheap, and that is where nearly all the regret comes from.
- Engineered wood is real wood over a stable core. It is far happier over a slab than solid wood is, and it can usually be refinished at least once.
- Solid hardwood is beautiful and it is the fussiest thing on this list. It wants a steady house and real acclimation before it goes down.
- Tile is the most durable thing you can put on a slab and the most sensitive to whatever is underneath it. The movement joints matter more than the tile does.
What actually decides whether you are happy in five years
Not the product. The preparation. A floor is only as flat as the thing it is laid on, and slabs are rarely as flat as people assume. Skipping the leveling is the most common shortcut there is, and it shows up later as hollow spots, movement underfoot, and joints that separate. Most of the flooring work I do happens before a single plank is in the room.
The other one is acclimation. Flooring that goes down the day it is delivered has not come to the temperature and humidity of your house, and it will move once it does. Waiting is not laziness. It is the one part of the job you can do sitting down.
Bring me a sample and tell me which room it is going in. Half of this decision is about the room and not about the flooring at all: sun, traffic, whether it sits on the slab or upstairs.
Related: Flooring & Hardwood
I get asked for flooring & hardwood most often in Round Rock.
More from the blog
- How I price a job, and why I won't guess over the phone
- The new-build punch list your builder never came back for
- Is your shower failing, or just ugly?
- Before you call anyone: the photos to send
- One visit or three? How to group a punch list
- Drywall cracks: which ones matter and which ones don't
- Why a texture repair shows, and how matching actually works
- Gutters: what they are actually protecting, and when to clean them
- After a Texas storm: what to check, and in what order
- Cabinets: reface, repaint, or replace?
- Interior painting: the preparation is the job
- Building outdoors in this sun: what actually lasts
Ready to get that list handled?
Send a few photos and I'll tell you what it takes, in writing, before anything starts. I work across Leander, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Round Rock and the towns nearby.