You're getting your house ready to put it up for sale ... or your apartment ready to be rented. The bathroom floor is in really bad shape, so you need to do something about that first. Should you look for some cheap flooring to save money, or should you use something more expensive?

Don't you hate to have to make decisions like this? You would like your house to look really great, but you just hate to spend any more than necessary. After all, you're not going to be living there yourself.

So let's take a closer look at what's involved. BTW, I know that the word "cheap" has negative vibes. But try thinking of it as meaning "inexpensive", not tawdry.

What's the issue?

• You would like flooring that's durable, and is easy to maintain, particularly for a rental unit. You don't want to be installing a new floor each time a tenant moves out.

• The flooring should be low cost, but you don't want it to appear shabby. Can you find something that fits this description?

• If the floors look "dated", nobody will want to live there. Forget about those shag carpets from the 70's!

• You can command a higher price if the floor makes the place look classy enough. Isn't there a way to get cheap flooring that looks just like exotic ?

Carpeting or Wooden Flooring?

Wall-to-wall carpet is slowly but surely becoming less popular, and wooden flooring is replacing it. One reason carpeting was popular is that it is comfortable to sit on. But it certainly isn't as sanitary as a wooden floor. And wood floors nowadays can have warm air ducted beneath them, so they aren't chilly to walk on any longer.

Actual Hardwood or a Look-alike?

It's true that actual wood definitely looks a lot more elegant, but some of today's new flooring materials can be tough to detect. Laminate flooring and engineered flooring are now manufactured using an upper layer that is a photographic image of real wood, covered with a hard transparent acrylic material. So at first, you can't tell it from the actual hardwood.

So What's the Answer?

You still don't know whether to install cheap flooring or expensive flooring? That's not surprising. I'm not about to give you an answer to that question! You are going to have to decide for yourself.

But I Need Help!

Yes, you do. You'll need to look into the different types of flooring to see if any of them can do what you want done at a reasonable price. And you need to find out what's the cheapest flooring of each type. But not to worry - help is on the way - keep reading.