Hard-Wearing Flooring Options for Busy Homes

What are the most important factors when choosing new flooring? If you have a busy household, an active life or just don’t want your floors to need replacing for a long time, then the first thing you should be asking is what the most durable type of flooring is. Hard-wearing flooring will stand up to the challenges you throw at it with ease. 

At Flooring King, we’re evaluating some of the most durable and hard-wearing flooring types to help you decide which is the best for you. For more information on the different types of flooring, check out our flooring advice guides. 

What is the most durable type of flooring?

Best All-Rounder – Engineered Wood

With a core made up of a solid layer of hardwood, engineered wood flooring combines the timeless aesthetics of hardwood with the easy maintenance of a much cheaper flooring. Engineered wood flooring is backed by high-density fibreboard (HDF), which gives it much greater stability than many other materials; this, alongside being warp-, water- and scratch-resistant, makes it the ideal hard-wearing flooring for any busy home. 

If you’re looking at flooring a particularly high-traffic area, choose engineered wood with a lacquered finish for added durability and UV protection.

It’s important to note that engineered wood flooring is water-resistant, not waterproof, and can only be refinished once or twice if it does get scratched or damaged. However, with proper care, these floors can last upwards of 30 years.

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Most Stain-Resistant – Porcelain or Ceramic Tile

It’s no surprise that tile is one of the most hard-wearing flooring options for your home – porcelain tiles are notoriously difficult to crack, even when moving heavy furniture around.  Tiles can easily last more than 40 or 50 years if they are well-maintained, and they’re stain-resistant and easy to maintain. 

However, tile does come with some major drawbacks – pets and young children might struggle with how slippery tiles are, and they make an unforgiving surface if they do fall over. They can also be colder and harder underfoot than other materials, so if you do opt for tiles, consider pairing them with a washable rug for decoration and comfort. 

Best for Kids and Pets – LVT

If you’re looking for aesthetic versatility in a hard-wearing, durable flooring, Luxury Vinyl Tile, or LVT, may be the flooring for you. Available in a range of pricing options to suit your budget, LVT is stylish and printed with realistic designs to mimic natural wood and stone. It’s reasonably resistant to chips, cracks, stains and moisture, making it a great option for high-traffic areas throughout your home.

With the right underlay, LVT is comfortable underfoot and makes a softer landing when the kids playtime gets out of hand, and being easy to clean with non-slip options, it’s ideal for pets as well. 

You can expect LVT to last at least 15 years and up to 25 years or more; see our guide on how to get scratches out of LVT flooring to keep your flooring looking its best!

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Most Eco-Friendly – Stone

When it comes to the most hard-wearing flooring, you can’t overlook stone; a completely natural option, stone is not only much more environmentally sustainable than many other flooring options, being made with entirely natural materials, but is also extremely durable and holds up well to high levels of foot traffic, with a lifespan of up to 50 years or more with proper maintenance. 

If you’re considering stone, you need to do your research to make sure you get a stone with the right level of porosity, or ensure your stone flooring is resealed every five to seven years to prevent staining or discolouration. Additionally, while stone does come with a unique aesthetic appeal, this does make it tricky to repair and replace if something does manage to break it. 

Like tiles, stone is hard underfoot and can be difficult to install correctly, so it’s best to consult a professional rather than trying it yourself. However, if you do opt for stone, you’ll have a beautiful, natural look to your flooring for many years to come.

Best to Add Value to Your Home – Hardwood

Often considered the go-to for durable flooring, hardwood certainly delivers, with a lifespan of over 50 years if properly cared for. The type of wood that makes up hardwood flooring will determine just how hard-wearing it is – oak is the most common, but you could also look at ash or elm – but as a rule, solid hardwood flooring brings sturdy, resilient flooring that’s supported by a long life. Proper maintenance and regular refinishing can extend the life of hardwood flooring, ensuring your investment is worth it.

Their long life and classic, timeless style are why hardwood floors are ever-popular, and the installation of hardwood is known to add value to homes. However, this value doesn’t come cheap; hardwood floors are some of the more expensive options out there and require careful maintenance. Additionally, you can’t use hardwood floors with underfloor heating, although the wood is typically warmer underfoot than many other flooring options.

Easiest to DIY – Laminate

The durability of laminate can vary, but luckily, it comes with its very own guide – the wear class! 

Laminate flooring’s wear class will typically be between A1 and A5, which is an indication of what type of traffic it will comfortably stand up to – an A1 wear class will only be suited to areas with a very low amount of traffic, while an A3 might be better suited to your living room or hallway. If your home is frequently very busy, you might move up to A4 or A5, where residential wear begins to overlap with small commercial business wear. So, while not all laminate flooring is going to be right for those high-traffic areas, it’s easy to find one which will. 

Laminate flooring can be more susceptible to water damage, so it typically isn’t suited for the bathroom or other moisture-prone rooms, and it cannot be refinished if damaged. You can use our guide on how to repair cracks or chips in laminate to fix minor damage, but for anything major, you may need to replace the planks. 

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Most Cost-Effective – Vinyl

Of course, finding the most durable flooring for your home often means shelling out a little more cash. If you don’t have the budget for some of the more costly options on our list, you might consider vinyl! With many of the same qualities as LVT, vinyl is a cost-effective alternative that is simple to clean and maintain, making it easier to extend the lifespan of your flooring and giving it the best chance of standing up to a busy household. 

Lasting up to 10-20 years means you’ll still get a good, long life out of your vinyl flooring, and even for DIY novices, figuring out how to lay vinyl flooring is a snap, so you can save on installation costs too!

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Most Comfortable Underfoot – Carpet

For a comfortable and warm surface underfoot, you can’t go wrong with carpet – for those with young children or pets, carpet provides good grip and a softer surface for any slips. However, if you’re considering carpeting a high-traffic area, you should keep in mind that different types of carpet will be less and more suited to it. Longer pile carpets can get crushed under consistent foot traffic, which can lead to unsightly indentations of walkways across a room, so a shorter pile might be better for a busy area. 

You may need to replace carpet more often than other types of flooring, but you should still get at least 5-15 years out of a good-quality carpet. 

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When it comes to hard-wearing flooring options, it’s important to know what matters most to you – is it budget, style or comfort underfoot? Whatever your preferences, at Flooring King, you can shop flooring by room or check out our blog for more flooring insights, from the best laminate flooring in 2025 to removing stains from vinyl flooring.