Tile flooring: how does it affect value of house?

awaeryum

Hello everyone,

I'm in the final stages of buying a property, and the list of things to do includes new flooring. 

Coming from Italy, I've always lived in and seen houses with tile or hardwood flooring (or a combination of the two). Therefore, I'm not used to carpet/vinyl/laminate as it's seen commonly here.

The idea would be to use tiles everywhere, but I'm concerned that this would be a problem when I'll sell the house as it could devalue it. Reselling the house in the future is my plan but obviously, I'd also like to make it comfortable for me while I live there.

I'm aware of the pros and cons of tiles and all other flooring options. I would just like to know if, thinking about selling the house in a few years, it makes more sense for example to tile just downstairs (kitchen, dining, living and utility rooms) plus bathrooms, and use laminate for the first floor (bedrooms and study room).

What is the general opinion about this? Am I thinking too much and should I just tile everywhere?

Thanks!

Doozergirl

If you must have tiles, please get underfloor heating or you'll regret it!   Even with radiators, the floor will be cold.  That's the main reason we don't do it in this country!  Tiles are fabulous during warm summers, not so through long, dark, cold winters. 

 We have LVT over our concrete floor.  I haven't turned the UFH on yet but I do need slippers as the floor is getting colder now, even with masses of insulation under it.  In mid winter it will act like a refrigerant.  Electric UFH is *incredibly* expensive to run, wet UFH run off the boiler is far better.  

I don't think it will affect value very much, but it is a personal choice.  You're never going to please everyone so there's
little point trying, IMO.  

lucypilates

I just think brrrrrr when I think of tile flooring in a bedroom in this country and that would put me off of there was a lot of other houses to choose from!! It depends on what the market is doing at that time … 

onomatopoeia99

One of the things I love about Italy (apart from the food, people, history and art) is the climate, which makes tile / stone floors are perfectly comfortable without underfloor heating.  In this country that isn't true, wood is OK but when I installed slate tiles in my kitchen I retrofitted (wet) underfloor heating before doing so.  It was really noticeable after the floor was down walking around the bits that were heated and the bits where base units or appliances were to be placed, so unheated.  It was decidedly uncomfortable without shoes on the unheated sections from about October through to April.

No reason to avoid tiles though - I'm replacing all the carpet in my house with either natural stone tiles or engineered wood as I prefer them to carpet, just be aware that you should seriously consider underfloor heating in tiled areas.

sew_what

I think floor construction is another consideration - tiles laid over timber floors that have any movement will result in crack to the tiles or the grout

-taff

I wouldn't tile upstairs here for the simple reason that most houses are wood built on the first storey, so the floors are going to move very slightly. In Italy they use brick on all the floors which doesn't move and can be tiled safely.

kdotdotdotdot

It would put me off as a buyer, simply because this is a cold country and I know I'd have to re-do the floors [replace tiling] before moving in.

That said, the question is how long do you plan to live in this house?  Nobody knows what the future holds and if it's for more than just a couple of years, then it makes sense to do what you want in your own home and worry about reselling in the future.  But do consider putting in underfloor heating first, as others have suggested otherwise you'll freeze to death!

twopenny

When buying I didn't look at houses with tiled floor. So seldom warm enough in this country. They did take a lot of time to sell comparex to other properties.
You also have the noise all over so you eliminate families and the older generation. You would be reducing your selling public.
Also my experience in Italy was coming in after a downpour the tiles got slippery when wet. There it dried pretty quickly as temperatures would rise afterwards but here with a month of rain at a time in our global warming era they would stay wet or the moisture condense inside.
A whole house tiled would predict a lot of money and time to restore so an immediate no-no as a buyer.

maisie_cat

We tiled the open plan living/kitchen area in our old house with wet UFH. It was lovely summer and winter and our buyers loved it. Here we have slate floor in a victorian stone cottage with no UFH and it's only slipper cold in mid winter. It didn't put us off, it is less dusty and easy to clean. There is only one carpet in this house and it's 20 years old!

JGB1955

I wouldn't dream of buying a house that didn't have fully carpeted bedrooms. It would seem cold and uninviting.

TELLIT01

The only place we have ceramic floor tiles is in the conservatory.  I have just switched the underfloor heating on because the floor is so cold.  Kitchen has laminate flooring and that is much warmer.