How to compare finishes: what the room asks, cost per year and care
Start from the room, not the material. Write down what each surface has to handle, put two or three candidates side by side on those questions, and turn installed cost, care and a life figure you can source into a cost per year.
Start here Essentials
At minimum: what one room asks of one surface, two candidates side by side, and a cost per year for each. If you are only caring for what is there, the first two steps are the whole job.
- Write down what the room asks of the surface, most important first. Water, scratches and dents, stains, heat, sun, falls, quiet, care time and repair (what the room asks).
- Name two or three candidates, or name what is already there. One row each on the comparison sheet (candidates side by side).
- Fill each row from the maker's own sheets, and leave blanks as blanks. A blank tells you what to ask next (where the facts come from).
- Enter installed cost, yearly care, periodic work and a life figure with its source. The cost per year calculator does the rest (cost per year, life figures).
Minimum time: about an hour for one surface, plus the time to find the makers' sheets. Done when: the comparison sheet has two candidates for one surface, each with its care needs and a cost per year. If you are not choosing: the room's questions are written down and one row names the surface and where its care sheet is.
1. What the room asks Understand
Most comparisons start with two materials: granite or quartz, oak or vinyl plank. This manual starts one step earlier, with the room. A finish, in this manual, is any surface a room is finished with: a floor, a counter, tile, a cabinet door, a sofa's fabric or leather. The same floor can be a sound choice in a guest bedroom and a poor one at a back door where a large dog comes in from the rain. The material did not change. The questions did.
So the first record is a short list of what the room will do to the surface, written before anyone looks at samples. We call these the room's questions. Using them as the frame for every comparison is our convention, built on the way design schools teach materials selection: properties and performance first, then maintenance, then budget. This manual's convention
| Question | What to ask about the room | Where an answer comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Water | Spills, a wet entry, a tub or shower, a laundry, a floor below grade, humidity that swings by season | The maker's installation sheet (where the product may go) and the warranty's water terms. NALFA says laminate is not suitable for bathrooms unless the maker specifies it as waterproof, and "waterproof" has no industry standard (what waterproof covers) |
| Scratches and dents | Pets' claws, chair legs, grit from outside, heavy furniture, dropped pans | Janka for the dent resistance of solid wood only; indentation figures on a vinyl spec sheet; a scratch test on a sample; the warranty's scratch exclusion |
| Stains | What gets spilled here: coffee, wine, cooking oil, pet accidents, ink, makeup | The maker's stain chart; a home stain test on a sample; for stone, the absorption test; for fabric, the cleaning code |
| Heat | Hot pans set down without thinking, a slow cooker, a radiant floor, a heat register | The maker's heat statement and care sheet; the warranty's heat exclusion |
| Sun | Windows that put direct sun on the floor, the counter or the sofa | The maker's care sheet; for wood, the federal Wood Handbook on color change |
| Falls | Wet floors, rugs, stairs, someone in the household at risk of falling | Tile's DCOF, read with what it does not predict (slip resistance); rugs and paths (Carpet and rugs) |
| Quiet and warmth | A neighbor below, bare feet, a cold slab | For laminate, the underlayment's sound ratings; for warmth, no rating we found |
| Care time | How much time the household will really give: a quick weekly routine, or more | The maker's care sheet, read in full; Cleaning by surface |
| Repair | If one part is damaged, can it be fixed, refinished or replaced alone? | The maker's sheet; spare material kept from the installation; for wood, how much wood is left to refinish (Wood floors) |
Put the questions in order. In most rooms two or three decide, and the rest break ties. A family kitchen where hot pans land on the counter and a dog runs across the floor puts heat, stains and scratches first. A rented living room where nothing is being chosen puts stains, scratches and care time first, because those are what the tenant controls. The priorities you choose in setup set this order on the rooms sheet, and you can change it there.
Some questions have ratings, most do not
A few questions have a lab number attached: Janka for dents in solid wood, wear cycles for laminate, a wear layer in mils for vinyl plank, DCOF for tile, double rubs for fabric. Each measures one thing under one set of lab conditions, and several of the bodies behind them say so on the page. The ASTM abrasion standard for fabric says its results should not be relied on to predict wear life (ASTM D4157). The tile slip standard says DCOF does not predict whether a person will slip (ANSI A326.3, free copy from TCNA). NWFA says Janka values do not apply to engineered wood (NWFA, Durability). Each rating is introduced on the comparison sheet as one column, and Samples, ratings, labels and warranties reads them one by one.
The questions without a rating are answered by the maker's own sheet, by a test on a sample, or by asking. A maker's sheet often answers more than its marketing. Wilsonart's quartz care sheet calls the material extremely heat resistant and, on the same page, says not to place hot cookware directly on it (Wilsonart Quartz Care & Maintenance). Cambria's care page says its surface is not heat-proof and asks for a hot pad or trivet under pans and countertop appliances (Cambria, Quartz Product Care). For a household that sets pans down without thinking, those care lines answer the heat question better than any word on the sample. Product-specific
Two or three candidates, side by side
A candidate is one specific product you could install: a material, a maker and a product line, not a category. "Quartz" is a category. A named quartz in a named color, from a named fabricator, is a candidate. The comparison sheet gives each candidate one row, with a column for each room question, then installed cost, care needed, repair, the life figure and its source, the warranty term, its main exclusion, the rating or label that matters, and the sample result.
Two or three candidates per surface is our working number. One leaves nothing to compare. More than three spreads the sample testing thin and makes the sheet hard to read. If you start with five, the room's first two questions usually remove two of them. Preference
The sheet has no score and no total. It does not rank materials or say which is best. It puts what each maker says next to the room's questions, so that the tradeoffs are written down where you can see them. The choice is yours, and it may rest on things no sheet holds: how a floor looks in your light, how a counter feels, what you can afford this year.
Where the facts for a row come from
Fill each row from the maker's own documents, in this order:
- The care and maintenance sheet. What to clean with, what to keep off it, what protectors and mats to use. This is the most useful document you can get, and the one you keep after you buy.
- The installation instructions. Where the product may go (bathrooms, basements, over radiant heat), and the overage the maker asks for.
- The warranty. Its term, what it covers, what it excludes and how to claim. Read the whole document, not the box.
- The spec sheet. The ratings, with the test each number comes from.
Leave a cell blank when the maker does not say. On the comparison sheet a blank cost reads "unknown", not zero, and a total that includes a blank says it is incomplete. A blank is information: it is the next question to ask the seller, the installer or the fabricator. Write each one on the questions sheet with whom you asked and the answer when it comes. A cell filled from a salesperson's words, or from a general web page about the material, is weaker than a blank, because it looks settled when it is not. This manual's convention
If you rent, or you are keeping what is there, the sheet has one row per surface: what it is, the maker and line if you can find them, and where the care sheet is. The landlord decides changes to the home, and the lease says how to ask; Stains, damage and older homes covers asking in writing. The room's questions still matter, because they decide which care steps come first.
Cost per year
Installed price alone compares unlike things. One counter costs less to install and needs replacing sooner. One floor costs more and needs a maintenance coat every few years. A third needs nothing but a damp mop and a pad under each chair leg. A cost per year puts them on one footing: everything you expect to spend on a surface over a set number of years, divided by those years.
The method comes from life-cycle costing. NIST's handbook for federal energy projects defines life-cycle cost as the total cost of owning, operating, maintaining and disposing of something over a study period, and it requires every option to be compared over the same period, with replacements counted for anything that wears out sooner (NIST Handbook 135, 2025 edition). The study period is that shared number of years. We keep NIST's structure and leave out three things it includes: discounting future costs, crediting the value left at the end, and the cost of removal and disposal. That simplification is ours, and the page says so wherever the number appears. This manual's convention
What goes in
| Input | What it means | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Installed cost | Everything on the quote to put the surface in place: material, labor, preparation, edges, cutouts, delivery | A written quote for your room |
| Yearly care | Cleaners, pads, mats, and any professional cleaning, as a cost per year | The care sheet's routine, priced; CRI, for example, tells carpet owners to have a professional deep clean every 12 to 18 months (CRI, Cleaning and Maintenance) |
| Periodic work | A job that comes every few years: a recoat, a reseal, a regrout | The maker's or trade body's interval, and a quote. NWFA's care sheet gives a maintenance coat on wood floors every 3 to 5 years or as needed (NWFA care sheet) |
| Life | How many years before you expect to replace it | Your own figure, with its source written beside it (life figures) |
| Study period | One number of years, the same for every candidate | Your choice; the calculator starts at 20 |
Some intervals have no agreed figure. The Natural Stone Institute's care page gives no interval for sealing stone and says many stones do not require sealing (NSI, Care and Cleaning of Natural Stone); a stone-care professional quoted on its consumer site says a good sealer can last up to 10 years (Use Natural Stone, caring for granite). Enter the interval and price your fabricator quotes for your stone, and write "fabricator" as the source. Countertops covers sealing.
The rules the calculator follows
- One study period for every candidate. Comparing a 20-year total with a 40-year total compares nothing.
- Count purchases. The study period divided by the life, rounded up. A surface with a 12-year life in a 20-year period is bought twice: once now and once in year 12. The last purchase counts in full, even though it would still have years left at the end.
- Add yearly care for every year of the period.
- Add periodic work every so many years. The count restarts with each new installation, and no job is counted in a year the surface is replaced or in the final year.
- Divide the total by the study period. That is the cost per year.
Counting the last purchase in full is the biggest simplification. It makes a shorter-lived surface look more expensive than NIST's method would, because NIST credits the value left in it at the end. Discounting works the other way: money spent in year 15 costs less today than money spent now, and leaving discounting out gives later costs more weight. Go deeper shows both. For a comparison between two or three candidates in one room, the simple version answers the question it is built for: which costs more over the same years, under your own assumptions.
ASTM's standard practice for life-cycle costs says this kind of analysis earns its keep when one option costs more to install and may cost less later; when one option costs less on both counts, no analysis is needed (ASTM E917-17 summary). That is a useful first glance at your sheet. If one candidate is cheaper to install, needs less care and lasts longer on your figures, the calculator will only confirm it.
The cost per year calculator takes three candidates side by side with one shared study period, and shows purchases, the total and the cost per year for each.
Life figures: where the numbers come from
A life figure is the number of years you expect a surface to last before you replace it. No source measures how long your floor will last in your home. The figures in circulation come from a survey of makers, an inspectors' chart that repeats it, and a planning table for rental buildings. Each is useful once you know which it is.
- NAHB, 2007. The National Association of Home Builders surveyed manufacturers, trade associations and researchers by telephone in 2006 and published the table in February 2007. The report says to use it as a general guideline only, and that readers should not make buying decisions on it alone. Its interviewees stressed that the quality of maintenance drives how long things last (NAHB, Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components). We found no newer edition.
- InterNACHI. The home inspectors' association publishes a chart that matches NAHB's on most rows and adds a few. It calls its figures guidelines, not guarantees or warranties, and names no study behind them (InterNACHI, life expectancy chart).
- Fannie Mae, 2019. Estimated useful life tables for assessing the condition of multifamily rental buildings, with separate columns for general multifamily, seniors and student housing. Fannie Mae calls them standardized averages, not a replacement for the assessor's judgment. A Port of Seattle appendix from February 2025 reprints them beside NAHB's and InterNACHI's, which also shows that no newer homeowner study has replaced NAHB's (Port of Seattle, Appendix C).
| Surface | NAHB 2007 | InterNACHI (undated) | Fannie Mae 2019 (rentals) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solid wood floor | Lifetime | 100+ | Wood, strip or parquet: 15, 20, 20 |
| Engineered wood floor | 50+ | 50+ | No separate row |
| Laminate floor | 15 to 25 | 15 to 25 | No separate row |
| Vinyl floor | 50 | 25 | Resilient flooring: 10, 15, 7 |
| Rigid-core vinyl plank (SPC, WPC) | No published figure | ||
| Linoleum | 25 | 25 | Not named |
| Cork floor | No published figure | ||
| Carpet | 8 to 10 | 8 to 10 | 7, 10, 3+ |
| Tile floor | 75 to 100 | 75 to 100 | Ceramic, tile or terrazzo: 20, 25, 20 |
| Granite or marble floor | 100+ | 100+ | Not named |
| Natural stone counter | Lifetime | 100+ | Not in the rows reprinted |
| Plastic laminate counter | No row | 20 to 30 | Not in the rows reprinted |
| Engineered quartz counter | No published figure | ||
| Solid surface counter | No published figure | ||
| Wood counter | Lifetime | 100+ | Not in the rows reprinted |
| Kitchen cabinets | 50 | 50 | Wood: 20, 25, 15. Particle board: 15, 20+, 13 |
Three things stand out. "Lifetime" is a word, not a number of years, and NAHB does not convert it. The vinyl row runs from 50 years (NAHB) to 25 (InterNACHI) to 7 to 15 (Fannie Mae's rental columns), and neither NAHB nor InterNACHI separates sheet vinyl from plank or rigid core. And the newer materials a reader is most likely to be choosing between, quartz and rigid-core plank, appear in none of the three.
You enter the figure, and name its source
The calculator has no default life. You enter a number and write where it came from: a row of this table with its date, an installer's or fabricator's estimate, your own experience with the same product in a past home. We do not fill one in for you, because the only homeowner table is a 2006 survey its own authors call a guideline, and a prefilled number would turn a guess into the manual's number. For quartz, rigid core, cork and solid surface, there is no published figure to choose from; your own assumption is the honest entry, labelled as yours. This manual's convention
A warranty term is not a life figure. A warranty is a contract about defects, with its own exclusions. Shaw's SmartCore vinyl warranty, for example, is called "Lifetime Limited", is pro-rated after the first year and excludes scratches and pet damage (Shaw SmartCore warranty, 2021 printout). Write the warranty in its own column. Samples, ratings, labels and warranties reads two "lifetime" warranties side by side.
What moves a life figure
The sources tie life to use and upkeep as much as to material. NAHB's carpet figure assumes appropriate maintenance and normal traffic, and its stone floors can last less without maintenance. Fannie Mae's carpet figure runs from 10 years in seniors housing to 3 or more in student housing. Shaw's SmartCore warranty excludes damage from not following the installation and maintenance instructions, and Cambria's requires care by its own instructions, which is the makers' way of saying the same thing. Taste moves it too: NAHB's interviewees said people often replace things long before, or after, they wear out.
One check makes a guessed figure safer to use. Run the calculator twice, once with the lowest figure you can defend and once with the highest. If the order of your candidates stays the same, the life figure is not deciding your comparison. If it flips, the life figure is the question to settle, and you know whom to ask. Test it
The comparison sheet organizes your own judgment. It does not score or rank materials, and no total on it says one is best. Life figures are survey estimates and planning averages, not promises, and use, care and installation move them. The cost per year is a comparison under your assumptions, not a forecast of what you will spend. It leaves out financing, resale value, removal and disposal, and we give no financial advice: for a loan or a sale, ask a lender or a real estate professional. Ask the authority
How much to buy
Ordering the right amount is part of comparing, because the amount sets the installed cost. It has four parts: the area, the overage, whole boxes and one lot.
Measure the area
Measure the length and width of the room at floor level and multiply. For an L-shaped room, split it into two rectangles and add them. Subtract what the floor will not cover: a kitchen island, a hearth, a built-in. Write each measurement down, with the units, on the sheet. The quantity calculator takes up to four rectangles and one area to subtract, in feet and inches or in meters.
Measure the room. Do not lift, cut or pull up old flooring to see what is under it. Old floor tiles, the backing on old sheet vinyl and the adhesives under them may contain asbestos, and EPA says you generally cannot tell by looking and that the material should be left alone if in doubt (EPA, Protect Your Family from Exposures to Asbestos). Stains, damage and older homes covers what to do before any old floor is disturbed.
Add overage
Overage is the extra material bought beyond the measured area, to cover cuts, waste and pieces set aside. The figure comes from the maker's installation instructions. Bruce's instructions for its 3/4 in. solid hardwood, for example, say to add 5 percent for cutting and grading, 10 percent for diagonal installations and 10 to 15 percent for glue-down installation, and note that grading standards allow up to 5 percent of boards to fall short of the grade (AHF Products, Bruce solid hardwood installation instructions). Product-specific Those figures are for that product. Other materials follow their own maker's instructions. Where a maker gives none, the calculator starts at 10 percent; that default is ours, and your installer's figure overrides it. This manual's convention
Round up to whole boxes
The carton states its coverage: so many square feet, or square meters, per box. Divide the area with overage by the coverage and round up. A result of 7.05 boxes means 8. Do not round down to save a box; a short order can mean a second order from a different lot.
Buy from one lot, and keep spares
A lot (also called a batch, a dye lot or a shade lot) is a run of material made together. Color can differ from one lot to the next. CRI's carpet primer explains that carpet is dyed in batches and tells buyers to check the style, color, pattern and dye lot when the shipment arrives (CRI, The Carpet Primer). We found no tile or resilient flooring body's page on lots; checking that every box carries the same lot number, and writing it on the installed register, is our convention for every material. This manual's convention
Keep at least one unopened box, stored flat and dry, and write where it is on the register. A spare box from the same lot is what makes a one-plank or one-tile repair possible years later, which is the repair question in practice. The calculator adds one spare box by default; that default is ours. This manual's convention
Carpet is different
Carpet comes on wide rolls: CRI's primer describes 12-foot-wide goods, and 6-foot carpet where a 12-foot roll is hard to move. The installer cuts it to the room and plans where the seams go. CRI's installation tips say to ask for seams in less visible areas and not to expect them to be invisible (CRI, Installation Tips). The quantity calculator gives carpet's area only; the installer's seam plan decides how much to buy.
On a project someone else is managing, the order date matters as much as the amount. Learn General Contracting's Make selections and coordinate procurement works decide-by dates backward from the install date and covers checking deliveries at the door.
Life-cycle cost in full, the three tables row by row, and patterned layouts Go deeper
Life-cycle cost the way NIST counts it
NIST Handbook 135 adds up every cost in each year of the study period and discounts each one to its value today. Its general formula sums each year's costs divided by one plus the discount rate, raised to the number of years from now. For buildings it splits the total into investment, replacements, minus the residual value net of disposal, energy, water, operation, maintenance and repair, and other costs, all in present value. The handbook can also state the result as an even amount per year with the time value of money built in, which is the rigorous version of our cost per year.
Two parts change the answer most. Discounting reduces later costs: at a 3 percent real rate, a $150 reseal in year 10 is worth about $112 today. Residual value credits what is left at the end: a counter with 20 years of a 40-year life left at the end of a 20-year period is credited for those years, instead of being counted as spent. For federal projects, the handbook caps the service period at 40 years and sets the real discount rate between a floor of 3 percent and a ceiling of 10 percent. It does not supply costs or lives; the user brings both. We leave out the discount rate because it is a financial assumption, and we do not ask a reader to set one.
NIST's BEES software compares about 230 building products on life-cycle cost and environmental impact using the ASTM method, but its page shows it was last updated in 2018, so its prices are history, not quotes (NIST, BEES). The ASTM E917-17 page is marked historical; we could not read the number of the edition that replaced it.
NAHB, InterNACHI and Fannie Mae, row by row
Most of InterNACHI's flooring and counter rows match NAHB's word for word, so it is likely derived from NAHB's survey; that is our inference, and InterNACHI's page does not say. The two disagree on vinyl floors (NAHB 50 years, InterNACHI 25) and on garage cabinets (NAHB 100+, InterNACHI 70+). InterNACHI adds plastic laminate counters (20 to 30 years) and a "resin" counter row (10+) without saying what resin covers; NAHB has no laminate, quartz or solid surface counter row. NAHB's countertop rows are natural stone, tile and wood as Lifetime, and cultured marble at 20. NAHB's flooring narrative puts natural wood at 100 years or more, and InterNACHI's chart writes wood as 100+.
Fannie Mae's rows do not line up with either. They name wood floors (strip or parquet), resilient flooring, ceramic or tile or terrazzo, carpet and concrete, without separating laminate, engineered wood or the kinds of resilient floor. Its tile row, 20 to 25 years, is about a quarter of NAHB's 75 to 100.
Why the rental figures are shorter
Fannie Mae's tables, as reprinted, do not give a reason. What they are explains part of it: standardized averages for planning replacements in rental buildings, where an assessor budgets for the next replacement, not for the longest a material can last. The pattern across the columns, with student housing shortest for carpet and resilient flooring, fits more people, more traffic and more turnover; that reading is ours, not Fannie Mae's. NAHB's own caveat points the same way from the other side: its interviewees said replacement often follows taste rather than wear.
Overage for patterns
We found no maker's instructions giving an overage for herringbone, chevron or other patterned layouts. Bruce's figure for a diagonal layout, 10 percent for its solid hardwood, is the closest published figure. For a pattern, ask the installer for their figure in writing, enter it in the calculator in place of the default, and write "installer" as its source.
2. See it See it
Tom and Alicia Brennan are fictional, and every fact about them is invented for this manual. Tom (he/him, 44) and Alicia (she/her, 42) own a 1962 ranch house with their children, Nora (8) and Eli (5), and Juniper, a 70 lb shepherd mix. They are choosing a kitchen counter, a kitchen floor and a bathroom floor tile. They cook daily and set hot pans down without thinking.
The room's questions, kitchen counter: heat, stains, water, in that order. Candidates: a granite, an engineered quartz and a plastic laminate.
Known (their quotes, fictional): installed cost for the whole counter of $3,600 for the granite, $4,200 for the quartz and $1,500 for the laminate. Yearly care of $20, $15 and $15.
Assumed (their own picks, written beside each figure): a 20-year study period. A reseal for the granite at $150 every 5 years, the fabricator's price, entered before they know whether this stone needs sealing. Granite 40 years, chosen between NAHB's "Lifetime" and InterNACHI's 100+ for natural stone. Quartz 25 years, their own assumption, since no source publishes a figure. Laminate 20 years, the low end of InterNACHI's 20 to 30 for laminate counters.
| Candidate | Installed | Purchases in 20 years | Care, 20 years | Periodic work | Total | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granite | $3,600 | 1 | $400 | $450 (reseals in years 5, 10 and 15) | $4,450 | about $223 |
| Quartz | $4,200 | 1 | $300 | none | $4,500 | $225 |
| Plastic laminate | $1,500 | 1 | $300 | none | $1,800 | $90 |
Result: under these assumptions, the laminate costs least per year, and the granite and quartz nearly tie. The life figures decide it. Every life they picked is at least 20 years, so nothing is bought twice. Had they picked a laminate life under 10 years, it would be bought three times in the period ($4,800, or $240 a year), and it would cost the most of the three. And $2.50 a year separates granite from quartz: a change of more than $50 in either quote reverses them.
What the numbers do not say: the heat column. A household that sets pans down without thinking reads each maker's heat line on the comparison sheet beside the cost. The sheet leaves that weighing to them.
Open, and who settles it: the final quotes (the fabricator and the laminate supplier, in writing); whether the granite needs sealing (their sample tests in Samples, ratings, labels and warranties, then the fabricator); how the fabricator controls silica dust (the fabricator, asked in writing, in Countertops); their life picks (Tom and Alicia, who reran the calculator with granite at 100 years and quartz at 20 and saw the order hold).
The Brennans' kitchen floor (fictional). The kitchen is 12 ft by 14 ft, with a 3 ft by 6 ft island the floor will not run under. Their first floor candidate is a rigid-core vinyl plank whose carton says 23.4 sq ft a box.
Known: 12 × 14 is 168 sq ft; the island is 18 sq ft; the net area is 150 sq ft. Assumed: the plank's installation sheet gives no overage, so they use the calculator's 10 percent default, which makes 165 sq ft. 165 ÷ 23.4 is 7.05, so 8 boxes, which cover 187.2 sq ft. With 1 spare, they order 9 boxes and plan to write the lot number on the installed register when the boxes arrive.
Open: the installer's own overage figure (the installer settles it, and it replaces the default); whether the new floor goes over the old 9 in. tiles under the sheet vinyl. Nobody lifts anything to find out: that question goes to an accredited inspector first, in Stains, damage and older homes.
Maya Ortiz (fictional, she/her, 29) rents a one-bedroom apartment and is choosing nothing. Her living room questions are stains, scratches and care time: she drinks coffee on the sofa, and her cat, Biscuit, scratches its arm. Her comparison sheet has two rows and no cost per year: the gray plank floor the landlord installed in 2023 (material and maker unknown to her) and her used cream woven sofa (tag under the cushion: "S"). Open: what the floor is and who made it (the landlord settles it by email, in Vinyl, laminate, linoleum and cork); what "S" allows (Upholstery fabric). For her the choosing steps wait.
- NAHB, Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components (2007): the original table, with its method and its caveat.
- InterNACHI, Standard Estimated Life Expectancy Chart for Homes: the inspectors' chart, including laminate counters.
- NIST Handbook 135 (2025): the federal life-cycle cost method our simple version follows.
- Bruce solid hardwood installation instructions: one maker's overage figures, as they appear in real instructions.
3. Practice Practice
Minimum: one room, one surface: its questions in order, two candidates (or one row for what is already there) filled from the makers' sheets, and a cost per year for each candidate. Time: about an hour, plus the time to find the makers' sheets and quotes. Materials: a tape measure, the makers' care sheets, installation instructions, warranties and spec sheets (or the pages that hold them), any written quotes, the rooms sheet, the comparison sheet and the cost per year calculator.
- Write the room's questions. On the rooms sheet, list what the room asks of the surface and number the questions by importance.
- Name the candidates. Two or three specific products, with maker and line, or one row for what is installed.
- Fill each row from the makers' sheets. Leave blanks as blanks and copy each blank to the questions sheet as a question, with whom to ask.
- Run the cost per year. One study period for every candidate; installed cost, yearly care, periodic work and its interval, and a life figure with its source.
- Run it again with the low and high life figures. Write on the sheet whether the order of the candidates changed.
Work out the quantity. Measure the room, run the quantity calculator with the maker's overage (or the default), and write the boxes to order and the spare on the comparison sheet's notes. See what discounting does. For one candidate with periodic work, divide each job's cost by 1.03 raised to its year (for year 10, by about 1.34), add them up, and compare with the undiscounted total. The difference shows how much weight the simple version gives later costs.
4. Your home Your home
5. Check your work Check your work
Criteria
- Are the room's questions written down, in order, before any candidate was named?
- Is each candidate a specific product, with a maker and line, rather than a category?
- Did every filled cell come from the maker's own document, a written quote or your own test, with blanks left blank?
- Do all the candidates share one study period?
- Does every life figure have its source written beside it, and is a warranty term kept in its own column?
- Did you rerun the cost per year with a low and a high life figure?
Worked example
The Brennans' counter rows pass. Their questions were written first (heat, stains, water). Each candidate names a product. All three share a 20-year period. Each life figure says where it came from, and the quartz figure is labelled as their own because no source gives one. They reran with the lowest and highest figures they could defend and the order held. The sheet does not say which counter to choose: the cost per year puts laminate lowest under their assumptions, and the heat column, filled from each maker's sheet, sits beside it.
Common mistakes
- Comparing installed price only. A cheaper surface replaced sooner, or one that needs periodic work, can cost more over the same years.
- Entering a warranty term as the life. "Lifetime Limited" is a contract with exclusions, not a number of years.
- Using a different study period for each candidate. The totals are then not comparable.
- Treating a blank as zero. An unknown sealing cost is a question, not a free stone.
- Filling cells from a salesperson's words. Ask for the document, and leave the cell blank until you have it.
- Forgetting the island, or rounding boxes down. Either way, the second order may come from another lot.
What is still unresolved
What each rating on the sheet means, and what the warranty actually excludes, is read in Samples, ratings, labels and warranties. How each material behaves, from its makers' own sheets, is in the material chapters: Wood floors, Vinyl, laminate, linoleum and cork, Tile and grout, Countertops and the rest. Your own life figures stay your assumptions; an installer or fabricator can tell you what they see in homes like yours. Financing, resale and tax questions are for a lender, a real estate professional or a tax adviser.