Commercial Flooring Options for Hot & Humid Climates
Commercial flooring should be built to last. After all, the cost of installing and maintaining it is almost always higher than that of any residential flooring setup. Unfortunately, climate conditions won't always agree with what you'd like.
This applies especially in humid, hot environments where the natural wear and tear of regular use combined with destructive airborne moisture can wreak havoc on the wrong kinds of flooring materials. With that said, let's take a look at what both your worst possible and most durable choices are so you can know how to get the most from your project before you've even laid down a single square foot.
Understand Your Options and Limitations
With the right quality of installation and the right levels of maintenance, almost any floor material can be installed in nearly any environment. There's no honest way to say that you simply CAN'T use certain materials in humid places. However, the keyword here is maintenance: If you use less-than-ideal materials, they may look good and work well enough, but only if you constantly repair them.
This is hardly practical if you want minimal fuss over the years, especially for typically large commercial quantities of floor space. Keep that in mind for the following.
Avoid Carpeting
Carpet is quite possibly one of the worst options out there for commercial flooring in general and especially for flooring in humid environments. Carpeting absorbs enormous amounts of dust, grime, moisture, stains, and other materials that even minimal humidity can latch onto with a vengeance. This will cause fungus and mold infestations that you absolutely don't want. Carpet floors are a bad commercial idea in most settings and they're a downright health hazard in humid places with lots of foot traffic.
Hardwood Is a No-Go
The beautiful finish of varnished hardwood floors can look and feel strong and makes for a lovely option in many homes. In commercial properties, however, the high quantity of foot traffic that you can expect makes hardwood a less than stellar idea even if your geographic location is arid. Why spend the money on such a fine type of floor if numerous people trampling it will wear the wood down over time?
A further problem of hardwood is that it reacts badly to moisture. While careful installation and sound maintenance can let a hardwood floor look good for years, wood expands and shrinks as it goes from moist to dry and back. In a humid environment, this will inevitably mean cracking, displacement, and the loosening of boards. Despite a topcoat of varnish, moisture will also find its way under the protected surface to cause mold infestations that have to be dealt with.
Laminate Flooring
Laminate is an affordable, easy-to-install commercial flooring option that gets lots of use worldwide. However, the material itself does tend to absorb moisture. Over time, this will usually cause it to swell, buckle, and eventually peel away. In other words, though installing and maintaining laminate flooring might be fairly cheap, it will also become a frequent chore in a humid environment.
Terrazzo Tile
Quite possibly one of the most versatile, robust, and extremely durable flooring options out there, terrazzo is truly built to last. These molded cementitious ceramic tiles can be impregnated with chips of any hard material of your choice and built to custom sizes or colors of any kind.
They are set in place with a thin set material. With Terrazzo, you get higher durability than regular ceramic tiles offer, along with a far greater range of aesthetic and size options. It makes them perfect for ultra-long lasting decorative flooring in any climate.
The availability of extra-large tile sizes makes it even tougher than most types of conventional ceramic tile floors. Terrazzio manufactures terrazzo tiles in several standard size options while also offering customization on color and dimensions as needed. Start by requesting a sample so you can see the difference and strength for yourself!