What is the Best Flooring for a Sunroom? | Ideas and Options

February 13, 2023, by: Jamie Sandford

Ceramic, porcelain and stone tile is certainly the most popular flooring option for a sunroom, but as you will see from our sunroom flooring ideas, hardwood, laminate, vinyl, epoxy and even carpet can all work well in a sunroom depending on your climate and budget.

In this Home Flooring Pros report we outline eight sunroom flooring ideas that will be sure to impress regardless of your budget and location.

Sunrooms are typically a transitionary room between the interior and exterior of your home. When choosing the right sunroom flooring option for your home the question you must answer is whether your sunroom feels more like and extension of your interior or whether it si a place to invite your exterior landscape indoors?

If your sunroom most closely matches your interior then you may be drawn, as most homeowners are, to tiled floors. On the other hand if your sunroom is more an extension of your interior then even carpet can work as a sunroom floor.

Read on for the Home Flooring Pros choice of the best sunroom flooring ideas.

SUNROOM FLOORING IDEAS

What is the best flooring to use in a sunroom?

The best flooring for sunroom installation should:

• Blend well with what you’ve used throughout the house
• Fit your lifestyle, budget and your personal preferences
• Take into account climate conditions experienced in the room

As you read through these sunroom flooring options, consider which of the “boxes” above each checks. If it’s 2 or 3, you’ve probably found a winner.

There’s a section on Sunroom Flooring Options for 3 season, 4 season and potential wet areas below.

ENGINEERED HARDWOOD

Gorgeous, versatile and a good fit for a 3 season sunroom, engineered hardwood cuts a little cost compared with solid hardwood.

Most hardwood flooring brands offer an engineered version – a solid hardwood top layer, that can usually be refinished at least once, and a plywood or fiberboard base that handles temperature and humidity changes common to a sunroom. Check out the cost to install engineered hardwood.

Ideas – Lighter shades of hardwood resist fading over the years, which is worth considering in a room drenched in sunlight.

Some designers recommend a high gloss finish if the room isn’t super-bright. The finish will reflect upward, optimizing the available light. However, if the room is well-lit by natural light, a glossy finish might produce an unbearable glare.

SOLID HARDWOOD

If the room is heated or your climate is mild and dry, solid hardwood can be considered. It’s a “forever” floor for those who desire permanence in the materials they employ in their home.

Ideas – Tone and finish ideas given for engineered hardwood apply here.

Additionally, solid hardwood is best suited to sunrooms that are an extension of your home, wood-framed and insulated and served by a heating and AC system. Find out more about hardwood installation cost.

LAMINATE

Laminate is loved for its photorealistic wood look without the hardwood price tag. It also handles climatic changes like a champ.

This is a DIY-friendly, click-together flooring popular when the sunroom is a distinct space but near hardwood-covered floors. Learn more about installing laminate flooring over a concrete slab.

Ideas – Waterproof laminate flooring is a great sunroom flooring when it might get wet from pool-to-house traffic or entering from outside in rainy weather. But the waterproof performance is limited; the flooring shouldn’t be used where water might sit on it for more than a few hours.

And laminate flooring isn’t the best sunroom flooring when the area gets very hot in sunny, summer weather, because warping might be an issue.

LUXURY VINYL

It’s impossible to discuss sunroom flooring ideas without adding luxury vinyl planks or tile (LVT) to the list.

Luxury vinyl is taking market share from laminate due to competitive cost, durability and true waterproof performance. Softer than hardwood and laminate, it beautifully mimics the real thing right down to the woodgrain texturing and shading. Stone and tile looks are available too

Ideas – Luxury vinyl planks and tiles are the sunroom flooring of choice for rooms that are screened part of the year and rain is a strong possibility. Got a hot tub in the sunroom? LVT should be on your short list. Coretec luxury vinyl plank is a popular option.

CERAMIC, PORCELAIN AND STONE TILE

Tile earns a place on everyone’s list of sunroom flooring ideas because of the fabulous range of color, size and shape choices.

And talk about performance! Waterproof, fade-resistant, tough and OK with changes in temperature and humidity, it installs nicely over concrete and wood subfloors.

Tile prices start low and go as high as you like. You should also get familiar with tile installation cost.

Ideas – Warm up the sunroom tile floor with area rugs for cooler months.

If starting from scratch, consider picking a colorfully patterned tile and building your sunroom from the flooring up with colors for the walls and furniture inspired by the flooring. That said, the best tile for a sunroom floor is the one you fall in love with! Have you considered Terrazzo tile?

And keep it safe with tile that has a slip-resistant finish. Naturally textured stone tile is a good choice for safety.

EPOXY

Epoxy is great as a basement floor or for the garage, but sunrooms? Yes!

Waterproof and extremely durable, epoxy gives you tile’s performance at a fraction of the cost. And handy homeowners have DIY success with many epoxy finishes.

Ideas – While metallic flake epoxy coating might be a perfect fit for you, options that look more like marble, granite or stone pebbles are out there.  But stone looks are harder to achieve, and hiring a pro for installation of one makes sense.

Further Redaing: Epoxy Flooring for the Kitchen

CARPET

Gasp!

Sure, it’s a bad choice for sunroom flooring that gets wet and muddy unless you go with indoor/outdoor or marine carpet. But then you’ve got aesthetically limited choices.

But before you laugh off this potential sunroom flooring, consider the “right” places to use it. Carpet works best when the sunroom is an extension of the home – a living room floor that flows into the sunroom. It can work in enclosed, 4 season sunrooms too.

Ideas – Sunrooms in chilly climates are an ideal setting for carpeting. Consider flooring with a short pile carpet texture for warmer climates. And when the sunroom includes an entrance from outside, synthetic material is best – or plan a tiled or vinyl-covered entryway where shoes can be wiped or removed.

Got kids that play in the sunroom? Carpet tiles are cheap, DIY and easy to replace when you want to upgrade your sunroom flooring.

CONCRETE

The floor’s already concrete, you say.

Perfect! Transform the drab gray into something closer to natural stone with staining, tinting and polishing. Creative installers use their talents and techniques like stenciling to deliver one-of-a-kind designs too.

If the sunroom is a new addition, a concrete floor makes sense for another reason – it’s a fitting subfloor for most other flooring types should you choose to change it later. Fresh concrete is a candidate for stamping as well, giving the sunroom flooring a brick paver look.

Ideas – Cool underfoot in summer, the space might need a few throw rugs for cold months. Rugs will also reduce noisy echoes and the hollow sound of a room that is mainly glass and concrete.

THE BEST FLOORING FOR SUNROOM USE WHEN…

Here’s a short list of sunroom flooring ideas for various settings.

BEST FLOORING FOR A 3 SEASON UNHEATED SUNROOM

You’ll need something that handles humidity changes and the expansion and contraction that comes with temperature swings.

Engineered hardwood is better than solid hardwood.

Laminate works if the space doesn’t get blistering hot.

Luxury vinyl is a good fit for a 3 season room in all but the hottest climates too, and it performs better in damp environments than laminate.

You can’t go wrong with tile, concrete or carpeting either, as long as you consider the pros and cons mentioned above for each.

BEST FLOORING FOR A 4 SEASON HEATED SUNROOM

Here’s where solid hardwood finds a place, if it’s in the budget.

And anything suitable for a 3 season room is an option in climate-controlled space.

BEST WATERPROOF SUNROOM FLOORING

Tile has been the choice for millennia, so why not now?

Sheet vinyl is a cheap alternative, and today’s options don’t scream, “budget!” like yesteryear’s.

Luxury vinyl planks and tiles offer the closest thing to wood in a sunroom that gets wet or experiences high humidity.

And then there’s concrete – another waterproof sunroom flooring with tremendous design potential.

About the Author:

Jamie Sandford

Jamie Sandford is the Owner and Chief Editor of Home Flooring Pros (find out more). After 12 years’ experience in screen and stage set construction, followed by a further 15 years working in the home renovation/remodeling business, he now writes and curates online home improvement advice.

“Buying and installing home flooring should be a fairly straightforward process, but often it isn’t. After more than 15 years experience in home flooring and remodeling, I started Home Flooring Pros in 2013 to help homeowners navigate the often-over complicated process of choosing, buying and installing a home floor. The aim is to save you time and money by helping you to make better floor buying decisions.”