Best flooring for utility rooms

If you’re lucky enough to have a utility room, your flooring needs to be able to stand up to the challenge of all those daily chores. And while it needs to be practical, there’s no reason it can’t be stylish too! There’s an ideal flooring type for your utility room, and we’re going to help you find it.

In this guide, we’ll explain the purpose of a utility room and how its particular function will have a significant impact on the flooring you choose. We’ll also take a closer look at the different flooring for utility room options available for you to pick from and inspire you with some utility room flooring ideas.

In this guide:

What is a utility room?
What is the best flooring for utility rooms?
Types of utility room flooring
Utility room flooring comparison
Utility room flooring ideas
Discuss your utility room flooring ideas with Tapi

What is a utility room?

A utility room is a space in your home for day-to-day household duties. This could be somewhere you do your laundry or ironing, the place you keep cleaning supplies, or even somewhere for your pets to eat, sleep, and do their business!

Utility rooms are usually found just off the kitchen, so often your kitchen flooring and utility flooring will be the same or similar. Our guide on the best flooring for kitchens has some good advice, as it’s a great place to start if you’re going for a full revamp of both rooms and want co-ordinated flooring. Utility rooms might also feature an external door, or in the case of new build homes, the utility might be between the kitchen and the adjoining garage. This means that your utility room flooring needs to be pretty tough but also look good – let’s find out what some of those options are.

What is the best flooring for a utility room?

While the best flooring for your utility room comes down to personal choice, we can give you plenty of guidance on different options. There are three things you need to bear in mind when you’re picking the best flooring for your utility room:

Budget
The main function of your utility room
The condition of your subfloor

Rest assured whatever your budget, we’ll help you find the perfect flooring that suits your wallet, stands the test of time, and looks incredible, too.

Your second thing to think about is the main function of the space as this will determine what you need your utility flooring to do. Does it need to be water-resistant and capable of standing up to anything your pets or children might throw at it? Is it just an out-of-sight dumping ground for coats and shoes, a bit like a boot room? Or maybe it’s just a large cupboard where you store the vacuum and mop?

The final consideration is one that many people might not immediately think about: the condition of your subfloor. Your new flooring will sit on top of your subfloor, so it needs to be dry, level, clean, and stable, something we discuss in much more depth in our subfloor guide.

Vinyl is a great choice if you’re looking for cheap utility room flooring, or if you want it to maintain a co-ordinated look with added robustness, then perhaps consider luxury vinyl tiles (LVT). Keep these things in mind when selecting LVT or vinyl flooring utility room free samples.

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Types of utility room flooring

Alongside floor tiles, the most popular types of utility room flooring include laminate, vinyl, luxury vinyl, and engineered wood. Let’s delve into their features and benefits to help you weigh up which one might suit your home best.

Laminate

Our collection of laminate flooring is perfect for your utility room – it’s a better alternative to wood, as it’s created from multiple layers of composite materials working together to give you floorboards that are sturdy, durable, and won’t need as much care over time. Laminate is a great choice for busy areas, and we even have a collection of water resistant laminate that’s perfect for utility rooms that are full of laundry and prone to moisture.

Choose laminate flooring if:

You love the effect of genuine hardwood flooring without the heavy price tag
You’re looking for something scratch and mess resistant for your pet or family-friendly home
You’re looking for wood-effect flooring that flows from your kitchen to your dining room
You might want to install laminate flooring yourself

Quick Step Capture Cracked Oak Natural

Browse Utility Room Laminate

Vinyl

If you’re looking for low-cost flooring for your utility room, vinyl flooring has our vote. It’s also comfortable underfoot and it’s the toughest flooring when it comes to withstanding moisture and lots of footsteps. Vinyl also comes in a huge variety of different designs like stone-effect or wood-effect flooring. If you want to recreate utility room tile ideas on a budget, take a look at our Moroccan tile patterned vinyl or Victorian tile vinyl – perfect for giving your utility room a little pizzazz. Why can’t your utility room be fun as well as functional?

Choose vinyl flooring if:

You want affordable wood or tile-effect flooring designs that can flow from a kitchen into a utility space
You want flooring that’s quick and simple to install
You prefer flooring that’s water resistant and easy to mop, sweep, and clean
You want something with more sound absorption than laminate or engineered wood
You like the soft and warm feeling underfoot compared to firm laminate
Your subfloor is a little uneven

Browse Utility Room Vinyl

Luxury vinyl

Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) is always a major upgrade for any utility room. It has a clever top layer that acts as a barrier for dust and dirt, so it’s perfect for a house with pets or where there’s a lot of activity. And it’s strong too, made from lots of layers of sturdy material. As an added bonus, it has a realistic wood or tile-effect look and feel, so it easily blends into many different interior styles. Did we mention it’s water resistant too?

Choose luxury vinyl flooring if:

You’d like the choice between realistic stone, tile, and wood-effect designs
You need extra resistance for water and mess-prone areas
You’re looking for scratch resistant flooring suitable for pets
You’re happy to invest in quality utility room flooring that could last up to 30 years
You want multi-purpose flooring that works in other spaces

Montilla Herringbone - Rosa

Everywhere Favour Planks - Scree

£44.99 m²

Mustique - Mara Tile

£42.99 m²

Finesse - Planks Sapin Dryback

£39.99 m²

£35.99 m²

Mustique - Jota Plank

£42.99 m²

Kiri - Matosh Dryback

£36.99 m²

Kiri - Saba Dryback

£36.99 m²

Orla - Bartlett Dryback

£32.99 m²

£29.69 m²

Everywhere Flair Planks - Dew

£69.99 m²

Browse Utility Room LVT

Engineered wood

If your utility room is located off your kitchen or another room, you might want the same flooring, especially if you already have gorgeous wood flooring. Here’s where engineered wood comes in. It’s actually stronger than solid wood, as it’s created from layers of strong material, and while it’s not water resistant, it’s more stable in temperature fluctuations and moisture prone spaces. With the beauty of solid wood on the top, engineered wood is ideal for busy spaces like your utility room, especially if you love this mix of practicality and style.

Choose engineered wood flooring if:

You want flooring that’s more eco-friendly, made from sustainably sourced wood
You want the option for dramatic herringbone and chevron installation styles
You’re happy to invest in wood flooring that stands the test of time
You’re not worried about sound absorption
You want flooring that looks and feels like genuine wood – because it is!

Javor - Lacquered

£74.99 m²

Landscape Prospect Sapodilla Invisible Oiled

£49.99 m²

£44.99 m²

Sierra - Risso Brushed & UV Oiled

£89.99 m²

Zion - Smoked Brushed and Matt Lacquered

£79.99 m²

Negara - Umber Brushed & UV Oiled

£79.99 m²

Negara - Nutmeg Brushed & UV Oiled

£79.99 m²

Heartwood Oak Herringbone Whisp Brushed and Matt Lacquered

£69.99 m²

Melia - Matt Lacquered

£69.99 m²

Melia - Oiled

£69.99 m²

Landscape Aspect - Almanzo Brushed & Lacquered

£54.99 m²

£49.49 m²

Browse Utility Room Engineered Wood Flooring

Utility room flooring comparison

	Laminate	Vinyl	LVT	Engineered Wood
Warm	✓	✓	✓	✓
Quiet	✗	✓	✗	✗
Durable	✓	✓	✓	✓
Low-cost	✗	✓	✗	✗
Comfortable	✓	✓	✓	✓
Water resistant	✗	✓	✓	✗
Easy-to-clean	✓	✓	✓	✗

Utility room flooring ideas

There are so many great ideas out there for different ways you could style your utility flooring. Here are just some of our favourites you could choose:

Black and white checked flooring: This classic style pays homage to the grand kitchens and washrooms of old manor houses and castles, so it’s a great choice for a traditional home.
Pastel tiles: Opting for a pastel-coloured utility room is a great way of bringing some character into a smaller space. Pick between rose pink, mint green, or baby blue for some primary colour fun.
Herringbone: This style, which was first made popular by the French, is very sophisticated, and easily achieved with different types of flooring, from laminate to engineered wood - whichever flooring you love most for your laundry room.
Minimal shades: Grey, white and black are never going to go out of style, so creating a minimal flooring with one seamless colour gives you the opportunity to be more playful with colour in other areas of your utility room, like on your cabinets or with your paint shades

Discuss your utility room flooring ideas with Tapi

Finding exactly the right flooring for your utility room to fit both your needs and your style is a challenge, but with our huge flooring collection, you’ll definitely find something! Pop into your local Tapi store to speak with our expert floorologists about how we can help you find your new utility room floor, or browse our flooring collection online and order some free samples to try out at home. If you need design inspiration, take a look at this utility room transformation - your utility room ideas will come to life sooner than you think!

Post author

Charlie Harris Buying Director

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Published: 20-07-2023

Last reviewed: 11-12-2025