01Choosing by room
Different rooms want different floors.
One material through the whole apartment reads calm and simplifies the job, but it will compromise somewhere. Most homes end up with two: a hard floor through the living areas and something warmer in the bedrooms.
02The materials
Eight options, and most homes use two of them.
Every material below is available in Dubai and every one of them is priced per square metre plus laying. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive is roughly ten times, and most of that is material rather than labour.
03Porcelain tile
The default, and usually the right answer.
Fired harder and denser than ceramic, which is why it survives a hallway and a balcony. Check the slip rating for wet areas and the thickness if it is going over underfloor heating.
04Ceramic tile
Cheaper, softer, still useful.
Fired at a lower temperature than porcelain, so it is more porous and chips more easily. Perfectly good on walls and in a guest bathroom; not what you want in a hallway.
05Natural stone
Unique, expensive, and it needs looking after.
No two pieces are the same, which is the point and also the problem — order the full quantity in one batch or the second delivery will not match.
06Engineered wood
Real timber that survives humidity.
A hardwood veneer bonded to plywood layers running crosswise, which is what stops it cupping when the air conditioning goes off. Solid timber does not survive Dubai.
07Laminate
The cheapest convincing wood look.
A photograph of timber under a wear layer, on a fibreboard core. It looks better than it used to and it still cannot take standing water.
08Vinyl plank
Waterproof, quiet, and better than it sounds.
Luxury vinyl plank is the most practical floor for a rental or a family apartment. It takes water, absorbs sound and forgives a dropped pan.
09Microcement
No joints anywhere, and no margin for error.
A cement-based coating two to three millimetres thick, applied over what is already there. Beautiful when done well; cracked and blotchy when not. The applicator matters more than the product.
10Carpet
Warmth and silence, in the right rooms only.
In Dubai, carpet belongs in bedrooms and offices. Anywhere it can get damp, it will hold the damp.
11Laying patterns
The same tile, laid four ways, is four different floors.
Pattern is where labour cost lives. A straight lay and a herringbone use the same tile and can differ by half again on the fitting, plus more waste from cutting.
12Subfloor and installation
What goes underneath decides how long it lasts.
Most flooring failures are subfloor failures. A floor laid over an uneven or damp screed will lift, crack or drum no matter what was paid for the material.