Costs & Planning
What to Bring to a Flooring Showroom in Toronto
Bring your building's flooring rule, your room measurements and a photo of each room, plus a cabinet or paint sample, to a flooring showroom. Ask who installs the floor, what the quote leaves out, and how a sample reads in your own light. In a Toronto condo, get the building's rule first, because it decides what you may put down.
What to bring to a flooring showroom
Bring the facts the showroom cannot guess. For a condo, that is your building's flooring rule and the underlay it accepts, because the rule decides which floors pass. For a house, it is what the floor sits on, since wood joists and a concrete slab take different floors.
- Your building's flooring rule and underlay spec, for a condo or a rented apartment. The property management office holds it.
- Room measurements, or a rough sketch with wall lengths, so staff can size the job and the waste.
- A photo of each room in daylight and again at night, because floor colour shifts with the light.
- A cabinet door, a countertop offcut or a paint chip, to match the floor against what stays in the room.
- What is on the floor now, and what you think is under it, which sets how the old floor comes up.
If you own a condo, read condo flooring and building approvals before you shop, so you arrive knowing the sound rule your floor has to meet and do not fall for a floor the board will reject.
Can you take flooring samples home?
Usually yes, and it is worth doing. A plank behaves differently in your own rooms than under showroom lights, so take two or three home and live with them for a few days before you decide.
Lay each sample next to the baseboard and the cabinets, look at it in the morning and in the evening, and walk on it in bare feet. A floor you like at the counter can look cold or busy once it is down across a whole room. The light in a north-facing unit will pull a warm oak greyer than the store did.
Tape the plank down flat where the floor will run, not propped against a wall, because a plank lying flat catches the light the way the finished floor will. Try it by the balcony door or the brightest window, where glare shows the sheen, and again in the darkest corner, where a dark tone can swallow a small room.
What to check on a flooring sample in the store
Look past the colour at how the plank is built. The wear layer is what takes the daily scratching, and on laminate the AC rating measures it: Floorrable's laminate lines are rated AC4. Check the bevel on the edges, the click system that joins the planks, and the sheen, since a high gloss shows every scuff and footprint.
Hold two or three types side by side to feel the weight and the warmth underfoot. SPC vinyl is firmer and cooler, laminate wants dry rooms, and engineered hardwood is warm but dents. You can compare the five flooring types first to narrow the list before you stand at the rack.
Ask what the shelf price includes and what it leaves out. Underlay, delivery, removing the old floor and the labour to fit it are often priced on their own, so a cheap plank can finish dearer than a pricier one that comes supplied and installed. Get those lines in writing before you compare two floors on sticker alone.
How a showroom visit fits the rest of the job
A showroom visit works best after an online estimate, not instead of one. With Floorrable, you get a price range online in about two minutes, then come in to see and feel the floors in that range, so the trip is about the few that fit your budget and your building rather than the whole wall.
Floorrable narrows the catalogue to floors your building allows and your budget covers, and the samples are at the showroom at 315A Humberline Drive in Etobicoke, Ontario. Seeing how a Floorrable job runs before you go tells you which decisions the visit settles and which wait for the free measurement at home.
Floorrable visits are by appointment, so book a showroom visit and someone can sit with you, your measurements and your samples and work through the shortlist properly.
What to do before you go
Turn up ready and the visit turns into a quote, not a second trip.
- Get your building's flooring rule in writing from the property management office, if you own a condo or rent an apartment.
- Measure the rooms, or sketch them with wall lengths, and take photos of each one in daylight and at night.
- Shortlist two or three floor types so staff can pull matching samples for you to take home.
- Once you have the rule and the measurements, get a price range for your unit. Floorrable confirms the building rule and measures the rooms for free before any material is ordered.
Floors that fit this guide
Browse every floor
Frequently asked questions
Bring your building's flooring rule and underlay spec if you own a condo, your room measurements or a sketch with wall lengths, photos of each room in daylight and at night, and a cabinet door or paint chip to match the floor against what stays in the room.
Most showrooms let you borrow planks, and you should. Take two or three home, set them by the baseboard and cabinets, and look at them morning and evening. A plank reads differently under your own light than under bright store lighting, which changes how the colour and sheen land.
Many showrooms take walk-ins. Floorrable works by appointment, Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, so a booked time means someone sits with you, your measurements and your samples rather than fitting you between other visitors. Starting a Floorrable estimate online first means the visit focuses on the few floors that suit your budget and your building.
Two or three is enough. More than that and the choices blur together, and most people end up comparing the same pair anyway. Pick a light, a mid and a darker tone, test each against your cabinets and wall colour, and keep the one that still looks right after a few days.
