Best flooring for aged care: 7 options compared.

Aged care floors have a harder job than most. They need to be easy to clean, kind to residents who may be unsteady on their feet, comfortable for staff who walk them all day, and homely enough that the place doesn't feel like a hospital. No single product does all of that well.

That's why we plan aged care floors zone by zone rather than picking one product for the whole building. Wet areas, rooms and corridors usually need different answers. Here are the seven options we see most often, and where each tends to suit.

1. Healthcare sheet vinyl

Sheet vinyl with welded seams is the workhorse of hospitals and aged care. The welded joints and coved skirting leave nowhere for water and dirt to collect, which is why it's specified for hygiene. It suits corridors, utility rooms, clinical spaces and many resident rooms. Tarkett's commercial vinyls, including the iQ ranges, are common in these settings. See Tarkett.

2. Safety vinyl for bathrooms and ensuites

Wet areas need slip resistance as well as hygiene. SA HB 198:2014 recommends P3 for hospital and aged care bathrooms and ensuites, with a barefoot classification of B, and P2 for wards and corridors. Safety vinyls from makers such as Forbo and Tarkett are designed for this. Our guide to slip rating requirements covers the numbers in more detail.

3. Luxury vinyl tile (LVT)

LVT gives you a timber or stone look in a resilient floor, which helps lounges, dining rooms and resident rooms feel less clinical. Karndean makes timber and stone looks in several formats, and the right one depends on the subfloor, traffic and how quickly the area needs to reopen. LVT has joins rather than welded seams, so check whether it suits each wet or clinical area. See Karndean.

4. Carpet tiles

Carpet is warm, quiet and soft underfoot, and many residents and families like a carpeted room. Tiles make it practical, because a damaged or soiled tile can be swapped out instead of replacing the whole room. Carpet does need a proper cleaning program in aged care, including on-site spot cleaning. Shaw Contract and Godfrey Hirst both supply carpet used in aged care. See our aged care carpet cleaning page for how we look after it.

5. Linoleum

Forbo's Marmoleum is a linoleum made from natural materials. It's used in schools, hospitals and aged care, and it suits facilities with sustainability goals. It needs different preparation and installation to vinyl, so make sure your installer knows the product. See Forbo.

6. Cork

Cork is quiet underfoot, comfortable to stand on and made from renewable bark. That makes it worth considering for lounges, activity rooms and staff areas. It needs periodic cleaning and resealing to keep its finish. See Comcork and Comcork cleaning.

7. Flocked and textile-look floors

If you want a soft look but carpet is a cleaning risk, a flocked floor such as Forbo Flotex is a middle ground. It looks and feels closer to a textile while being cleaned more like a hard floor. It can suit lounges and corridors where spills are frequent.

Whatever goes down, the details between floors matter as much as the floors themselves. Transitions between carpet and vinyl should be flush and well fixed, because a lifted edge is a trip hazard for someone with a walker. Contrast between floors can also help residents see where one area ends and another begins.

Installing in a live facility is its own skill. Residents can't be moved out for a week. We work zone by zone and after hours, and write up access hours, lift windows and resident constraints before anyone starts. Subfloor preparation and moisture testing come first, because a new floor over a damp slab fails early. More on how we run these jobs is on our aged care flooring page.