If you’re renovating your home and need to focus on choosing the most suitable flooring, there are several options that might be perfect for your needs. Among the endless possibilities, the most exclusive and appreciated are terracotta flooring and parquet: two extraordinary products that perfectly suit any style and provide a wonderful sense of comfort.
Let’s take a closer look at the main characteristics of both products to make an informed choice based on your expectations.
Handmade Terracotta Floor
Being a 100% natural product, terracotta flooring offers great versatility, allowing it to be paired with any style: from rustic to modern, Shabby Chic, or Scandinavian. Its warm tones (ranging from yellow to soft pink) enhance the simple lines of modern style (often referred to as modern terracotta) or the very light tones of the walls (white, dove gray, aqua green, etc.).
It can be used both in a countryside villa or in a historic center home (in all its rooms) as well as in the living room of an apartment in the heart of the city. Moreover, due to its durability characteristics, terracotta flooring has an intrinsic resistance that protects it from physical impacts and weather elements. Its ability to withstand shocks and especially thermal fluctuations (with a firing temperature over 1000°C) has led more and more people to consider terracotta flooring for outdoor spaces, such as a pedestrian walkway in the garden or for paving the area near a swimming pool.
For this reason, we can confidently say that terracotta flooring is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, regardless of the water- and oil-repellent treatments or waxing that can be applied in both environments.
Parquet Floor
Parquet flooring is also a solution that has always been synonymous with elegance and refinement. It is a product chosen for various types of spaces and styles: in the living room, dining room, and especially in the bedroom.
However, unlike terracotta flooring, parquet has less impressive durability and resistance over time. This is why it is often avoided in kitchens and almost never used outdoors, where its lifespan is particularly short.
To maintain its characteristics, periodic maintenance interventions are necessary (especially if the floor is open-pored, meaning non-varnished products), which allow the wood to be properly nourished and preserve its beauty over time. Wood, for its part, is certainly a prized material and adds a significant advantage to a residential environment, not only in terms of elegance but also in terms of comfort, thermal insulation, and acoustic properties.
How to choose between terracotta and parquet floor
To make the optimal choice between terracotta flooring and parquet, several factors need to be evaluated. First of all, terracotta is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, while parquet is only recommended for indoors (it is strongly discouraged for outdoor use, and its lifespan is very limited in such conditions).
Beyond the cost per square meter (it’s important to evaluate the most suitable option based on the set budget), another consideration is the flooring’s longevity. Terracotta flooring generally has a longer lifespan due to the inherent characteristics of the material: it wears less and can withstand significant physical stress. This is one of the main reasons why terracotta is preferred over parquet in the ground-floor flooring of country villas.
Terracotta requires less maintenance and is less delicate compared to parquet (which could be damaged by excessive humidity or prolonged exposure to sunlight, often leading to discoloration or oxidation). Since both materials are natural and may be treated with water- and oil-repellent finishes, it’s important to handle them with care and, most importantly, experience. It’s always recommended to consult a professional in the field to discuss the costs, potential issues, benefits, and everything else needed to make the right decision.
Finally, it’s worth emphasizing that terracotta is far more suitable than parquet when combined with underfloor heating systems due to its much higher thermal conductivity.
