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“I’ll just put down something cheap for a year or two until we can afford the real renovation.”
If you’ve ever said this—or even thought it—you’re in good company. Thousands of homeowners every year install “temporary” flooring with every intention of replacing it soon. They’re just buying time. Bridging a gap. Making do until they can do it right.
Then seven years pass.
Homeowners often talk of temporary flooring solutions have become decidedly permanent. “I put a roll of vinyl down in my bathroom as a temporary solution,” one homeowner admits. “Also that was seven years ago.” Another installed budget peel-and-stick tiles “probably 15 years ago” and they’re still there, corners peeling and all. Someone else discovered their home came with peel-and-stick flooring installed by the previous owner 21 years earlier—still functional, still in place.
There’s a saying that perfectly captures this phenomenon: “There’s nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.”
If you’re considering temporary flooring—whether you’re mid-renovation in Cambridge, dealing with budget constraints in Kitchener, managing a rental property in Waterloo, or anywhere across the Guelph region—you need to understand why “temporary” rarely means what you think it means, and how to choose flooring you won’t regret living with for the next decade.
Because chances are excellent that you will be living with it for the next decade.
Working on a new home project? Call now for a free estimate: (647) 394-6030
Let’s talk about why that flooring you planned to replace in 18 months is still there eight years later. It’s not laziness, and it’s not poor planning. It’s life.
You install temporary flooring with the best intentions and a reasonable timeline. You’ll save up, do the renovation right, have beautiful floors within two years.
Then your roof starts leaking. That’s $8,000 you weren’t planning to spend. The flooring budget evaporates.
Six months after the roof is fixed, your water heater dies in the middle of winter. Another $2,500 gone.
A year later, you discover mold in the attic from that roof leak you thought was fixed. More money, more stress, more delays.
As one homeowner perfectly articulated: “Until your roof leaks in a year and you have to fix that. Then your water heater goes out and you have to fix that. Then you find mold in your attic and you have to fix that. Then 2-5 years turns into 5-10.”
This is the cascading priority problem that derails every “temporary” flooring plan. Your floor works even when it’s ugly. Your furnace in January does not. Your car when you need to get to work does not. Your kid’s braces can’t wait.
Flooring is functional infrastructure. When it’s not actively failing—when it’s just unattractive or not your first choice—it keeps getting bumped down the priority list by things that are actually broken.
The money you earmarked for new flooring gets reallocated to emergencies, necessities, and higher-priority projects. And your temporary floor? It keeps doing its job just fine.
Maybe you’re smarter than the roof-leak scenario. You’ve got an emergency fund. The flooring budget is safe.
Then you start actually planning the renovation.
That kitchen remodel you budgeted at $15,000? Once you talk to contractors, it’s actually $28,000. And while you’re at it, you should really update the electrical—that’s another $6,000. The plumbing is original to the house, probably should address that too. Oh, and those cabinets you wanted? Twelve-week lead time, and that was before supply chain issues.
Suddenly your straightforward flooring replacement has become a comprehensive renovation that costs three times what you planned and takes twice as long.
The temporary floor bought you time to save more money. To do the project right instead of rushing it. To wait out supply chain problems or find the perfect materials.
That $1,500 you spent on temporary flooring starts to feel like the smartest decision you made, because it allowed you to approach the real renovation properly instead of half-assing it with insufficient budget.
Here’s the psychological reality that nobody warns you about:
Month 1: “This floor is terrible. It’s so obviously cheap. I can’t wait to replace it.”
Month 6: “Well, it’s not that bad. It does the job.”
Year 2: “Honestly, it’s fine. There are worse things.”
Year 5: “Why would we spend $8,000 replacing perfectly functional flooring?”
Humans are remarkably adaptable. We get used to things. The floor that seemed unbearably ugly when you first installed it becomes just… the floor. You stop seeing it. You stop caring.
This is especially true if you chose wisely and went with something decent rather than bottom-tier garbage. If your temporary floor is actually reasonably attractive and functional, the psychological pressure to replace it diminishes month by month until it disappears entirely.
Sometimes temporary flooring becomes permanent because you make a conscious choice that your money has better uses.
Maybe you realize that investing $10,000 in flooring won’t increase your home’s value by $10,000, but investing it in the stock market might actually grow. Maybe you’re prioritizing paying off your mortgage early. Maybe you’re saving for a down payment on an investment property.
Maybe you’d rather take your family on a dream vacation than have slightly nicer floors.
These aren’t wrong choices. They’re adult decisions about resource allocation. Your floor is functional. Your money could be doing more important work elsewhere.
One homeowner reported buying $1 per square foot flagstone-look vinyl as a temporary solution, then keeping it for 10 years before selling the house—with the “temporary” floor still in place. Did they make a mistake? Or did they make a smart financial decision that allowed them to invest their money elsewhere while still having perfectly adequate flooring?
Modern budget flooring has improved dramatically over the past two decades. That cheap vinyl or peel-and-stick you bought assuming it would barely survive two years? It might last fifteen.
Manufacturers have gotten better at making inexpensive products that perform well above their price point. Wear layers are thicker. Adhesives are stronger. Installation methods are more forgiving.
That “temporary” solution you expected to fail within a couple years just keeps on working. And if it’s not failing, if it’s not causing problems, why would you prioritize replacing it?
A homeowner who installed peel-and-stick tiles 15 years ago noted: “After a long time the corners of the tiles start peeling up a bit…tiles by my sink have shifted leaving gaps where you can see the old flooring.”
Fifteen years later, his main complaints are cosmetic. The floor is still functional. Still doing its job. Still not urgent enough to replace.
When temporary flooring refuses to fail, it becomes permanent almost by default.
If you’re going to choose temporary flooring that might become permanent, you need to understand your options and their realistic lifespans. Here’s the truth about what works and what you’ll regret.
Throw Rugs and Area Carpets
This is the only truly temporary option that tends to stay temporary, and only because it actually looks bad enough to motivate replacement.
Cost: $50-$300 total for decent coverage of a room
Realistic lifespan: 1-3 years before looking ratty
Best for: Covering small problem areas, protecting concrete during renovation, accent pieces
Becoming permanent risk: LOW
Area rugs work for genuine short-term coverage—under one year. They’re not a real flooring solution. They shift, they bunch, they collect dirt at the edges, and they start looking shabby relatively quickly. This creates motivation to replace them.
If your timeline is truly 6-12 months and you have firm plans and budget in place, area rugs can bridge the gap. But they’re not a solution for covering 900 square feet of basement or serving as actual kitchen flooring.
Used Carpet or Loss-Leader Carpet Sales
Here’s a tip that’s actually brilliant: wait for big-box stores to run their $0.99 per square foot carpet sales. These are loss leaders—the stores make their money on the padding and installation. So just buy the carpet. Don’t buy padding. Don’t pay for installation. Just buy the cheap carpet and lay it loose.
Cost: $0.50-$1.00/sq ft for basic builder-grade carpet
Installation: Just roll it out, cut to fit, leave it loose
Realistic lifespan: 2-5 years
Best for: Large areas, basements, rental properties between tenants
Becoming permanent risk: MEDIUM
This is cheap enough that replacing it doesn’t feel financially devastating, but functional enough that you might keep ignoring it year after year. It’s carpet, so it feels finished enough to live with, even if it’s obviously low quality.
The beauty of loose-laid carpet is that removal is trivial when you’re finally ready. Just pull it up and toss it. No adhesive to scrape, no damage to repair.
Sheet Vinyl Rolls (Loose Lay or Minimal Adhesive)
This is where temporary starts becoming dangerously close to permanent. Modern sheet vinyl in the $1-$2 per square foot range can look surprisingly decent—good enough that you stop thinking about replacing it.
Cost: $1-$2/sq ft
Installation: Roll out, trim to fit, maybe glue the perimeter
Realistic lifespan: 5-10+ years
Best for: Kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, basements
Becoming permanent risk: HIGH
The evidence is overwhelming. One homeowner bought $1 per square foot flagstone-look vinyl, intending it as a temporary solution. He kept it for 10 years and sold his house with it still in place. Another put sheet vinyl in a bathroom as a quick fix—that was seven years ago.
Why does this keep happening? Because sheet vinyl at this price point actually works. It’s waterproof. It’s easy to clean. It doesn’t look terrible. It’s good enough.
And “good enough” is the enemy of “perfect.” When something is good enough, you stop being motivated to replace it.
For a genuine temporary solution that you’ll actually remove, this is risky. For a budget solution you can live with for a decade, it’s perfect.
Peel-and-Stick Vinyl Tiles
The poster child for temporary solutions that become permanent. The internet is littered with people who installed peel-and-stick “for a year or two” and are still living with it a decade later.
Cost: $1-$2.50/sq ft depending on quality
Installation: Clean the surface obsessively, peel, stick, pray
Realistic lifespan: 3-7 years for cheap versions, 10-20+ years for quality
Best for: Kitchens, bathrooms, small to medium spaces
Becoming permanent risk: VERY HIGH
One homeowner discovered their house came with peel-and-stick installed by the previous owner 21 years earlier. It’s still there. Still functional. Another installed it themselves 15 years ago and it’s still performing, albeit with some cosmetic issues.
The appeal of peel-and-stick is obvious: it looks like real tile, it’s DIY-friendly, and it’s cheap. The problem is that it works well enough to never feel urgent to replace.
The catches everybody learns too late:
You need an extremely flat surface. Any imperfection in the subfloor will telegraph through. Bumps show. Dips cause tiles to flex and lose adhesion.
You can see the texture of whatever’s underneath. Installing over old linoleum? The pattern will show through your new tiles like a ghost.
Corners peel over time. After a few years, the edges start lifting. You can re-glue them, or just live with it. Most people live with it.
Tiles can shift or move, especially in high-traffic areas or anywhere you drag appliances. Gaps appear. You see the old flooring underneath. It’s annoying but not urgent.
One clever solution: put down poster board or foam board first, then stick your tiles to that instead of directly to the floor. This creates a more even surface and makes eventual removal easier. It’s genius for renters or people who actually plan to remove the flooring someday.
Click-Lock LVP (Budget Lines)
Let’s be honest: if you’re installing click-lock luxury vinyl plank, you’re not installing temporary flooring. You’re installing budget permanent flooring.
Cost: $2-$3.50/sq ft
Installation: Floating floor, DIY-friendly, no adhesive required
Realistic lifespan: 10-20 years easily
Best for: Any room, any scenario where you want “good enough permanently”
Becoming permanent risk: EXTREMELY HIGH
This is actual flooring. It’s not a temporary solution. It’s a budget solution that will outlast most people’s homeownership.
Click-lock LVP at this price point looks good. It’s durable. It’s waterproof. It’s comfortable underfoot. It’s basically indistinguishable from products costing $6-$8 per square foot except for warranty length and wear layer thickness.
If you install this planning to replace it in two years, you’re lying to yourself or your spouse about what you’re actually doing. You’re installing the flooring that will be there for the next 15 years.
And that’s fine! Just be honest about it. Budget click-lock LVP is an excellent long-term choice for people who want good floors without premium pricing. But calling it “temporary” is delusion.
Interlocking Foam Tiles
These puzzle-piece foam tiles are popular for basements, playrooms, and home gyms. They’re more expensive than people expect for truly temporary coverage.
Cost: $2-$4/sq ft for decent quality
Installation: Click together, no adhesive
Realistic lifespan: 5-10 years
Best for: Basements, play rooms, workshops, home gyms
Becoming permanent risk: MEDIUM
Foam tiles do show wear more obviously than hard-surface flooring, which actually works in your favor if you want to stay motivated to replace them. They dent, they show traffic patterns, they can look tired after a few years of heavy use.
But they’re comfortable underfoot, they provide thermal insulation (great for basements), and they’re genuinely easy to install. For finished basements where you want something softer than hard flooring but more durable than carpet, they often become the long-term solution.
Carpet Tiles with Double-Sided Tape
Modular carpet tiles offer an interesting middle ground. You can replace damaged tiles individually, which means your “temporary” floor can be perpetually maintained and refreshed.
Cost: $2-$4/sq ft (you can find remnants and discontinued patterns cheaper)
Installation: Tape down the perimeter and stress areas
Realistic lifespan: 5-10 years
Best for: Bedrooms, offices, basement living spaces
Becoming permanent risk: HIGH
The modular nature is both an advantage and a trap. Damaged tile? Just swap it out. Stain that won’t come out? Replace that one square. This makes carpet tiles easy to live with indefinitely, which is exactly why they become permanent.
Commercial-grade carpet tiles can easily last 15+ years with spot replacement. Your “temporary” bedroom floor becomes a permanent installation you maintain piece by piece forever.
Understanding the options is only half the battle. Let’s talk about where people go wrong in their decision-making.
The thinking makes sense: “I’m replacing this in 18 months anyway, so I should buy the absolute cheapest thing available. Why spend more on something temporary?”
The reality: You’re not replacing it in 18 months. You’re living with it for 5-10 years, minimum.
Saving $300 by buying bottom-tier garbage instead of acceptable budget flooring means you’ll hate looking at your floor every single day for the next eight years. That’s not a good trade-off.
The better approach: Choose the cheapest option you could permanently live with, not the cheapest option period.
Can you live with $1.50/sq ft sheet vinyl that looks vaguely like stone? Great, buy it. Would you be miserable with the $0.75/sq ft version that looks like a pixelated photograph of linoleum? Don’t do that to yourself.
The marginal cost difference between “terrible” and “acceptable” is usually small. The quality-of-life difference is enormous.
There’s a dangerous misconception that temporary flooring doesn’t require proper surface preparation. People think they can just slap cheap flooring over whatever disaster is currently on the floor and it’ll be fine for a year.
It won’t be fine.
Peel-and-stick over buckling linoleum? The buckling telegraphs through. Your new floor looks like your old floor, just with a different pattern.
Sheet vinyl over dirty, greasy concrete? It won’t adhere properly and will shift or develop bubbles.
Any flooring over an uneven surface? Every imperfection shows, every bump creates a weak point, every depression becomes a trap for dirt and debris.
The irony is painful: temporary solutions often need MORE prep work than permanent installations because you’re typically working over damaged or substandard surfaces. The existing floor is in bad shape—that’s why you’re covering it—which means you need to address those issues before installing anything over it.
Even “temporary” solutions need surfaces that are clean, reasonably flat, and appropriately prepared. Skipping prep doesn’t save time or money. It just guarantees your temporary floor will look terrible for its entire extended stay in your home.
“It’s temporary, why would I buy extra?”
Fast forward three years. One tile is damaged—maybe you dropped a knife, maybe the dog had an accident, maybe something just wore out in a high-traffic spot.
You go to replace that one damaged tile and discover the product has been discontinued. The manufacturer doesn’t make that pattern anymore. You can’t match it.
Now you have three choices: live with one mismatched tile, replace the entire floor years before you planned, or accept one obviously damaged tile.
Having 10-15% extra material in storage costs maybe $100-$200 more upfront. But it means you can patch, replace, and maintain your “temporary” floor indefinitely.
This is exactly how temporary becomes actually permanent. You can keep the floor looking acceptable by spot-replacing damaged areas, so you never develop urgency to replace the whole thing.
Buy extra. Store it somewhere climate-controlled. Thank yourself in three years.
Peel-and-stick tiles look incredibly easy on YouTube. A homeowner with no experience creates a perfect floor in a three-minute time-lapse video set to upbeat music.
Real life is different.
Peel-and-stick on an uneven floor is brutal. Getting tiles to line up perfectly when the subfloor isn’t perfectly square is infuriating. Dealing with that one tile that refuses to stick is maddening.
Sheet vinyl needs careful measuring, cutting, and fitting around obstacles. That toilet flange isn’t going to template itself.
Even “easy” click-lock flooring has challenges. That weird corner where three different angles meet? Not shown in the installation video.
If the installation process is frustrating and difficult, you’ll hate the floor before you even finish installing it. That resentment will color your perception of the floor for years.
Match the complexity of installation to your actual skill level and patience. If you’ve never installed flooring before, choose the most forgiving option, not the cheapest or trendiest.
Trends in flooring move fast. That gray barn-wood look that was everywhere in 2018? Already dated by 2023. If you’re stuck with it until 2028, it’s going to scream “mid-2010s trend” every time you look at it.
For temporary flooring that might become permanent, resist the urge to follow current trends. Choose neutral, classic patterns that won’t feel dated in five years.
Beige stone look? Fine in 2020, fine in 2030.
Weathered gray wood planks? Trendy in 2019, dated by 2025.
White subway tile pattern? Classic, timeless, inoffensive.
Geometric honeycomb in millennial pink? Please don’t.
Your temporary floor should fade into the background, not announce what year you installed it.
Despite everything we’ve said about temporary becoming permanent, there are legitimate scenarios where temporary flooring is the right choice.
Active renovation with scheduled replacement: You’re mid-renovation, the new flooring is already ordered and has a delivery date, you just need something to walk on for six months.
Home staging before sale: You’re selling the house in 3-4 months and just need the floor to look acceptable for showings and photos.
Rental turnover between tenants: The apartment is empty for 4-6 weeks between leases, you need basic coverage fast.
Waiting for backorder: Your first-choice flooring is on backorder for 8 months (hello, pandemic supply chains), you need something functional meanwhile.
In these cases, go cheap. Expect replacement. You’re genuinely covering a short, defined period with a firm end date.
Saving up for quality permanent flooring: You want real hardwood or high-end tile, but you need another two years to save the money. Temporary flooring makes living in the space bearable while you save.
Waiting to decide on whole-home strategy: You’re planning to redo all the flooring in your home eventually and want to see how the first rooms work before committing to a direction. Temporary in one room lets you test and plan.
Testing a room layout: You’re not sure if the current layout is optimal. Temporary flooring lets you live with it before making permanent choices.
Climate testing: Particularly in basements, you might want to see how the space handles moisture through a full year before investing in permanent flooring.
In these cases, choose the “good enough to live with” tier. You’re buying time to make better decisions, and that time might be longer than you initially expect.
Ugly but functional subfloor: Maybe you have stained concrete or beat-up hardwood that works fine but looks terrible. You can’t decide what you want long-term.
Can’t decide between options: You’re paralyzed between hardwood, LVP, and tile. Temporary flooring takes the pressure off while you figure it out.
Waiting on partner/family consensus: Your spouse wants hardwood, you want tile, nobody’s budging. Temporary flooring is the Switzerland that keeps the peace.
In these cases, go with the easiest removal options—area rugs, loose-lay sheet vinyl, or products that don’t require adhesive. When you’re finally ready to decide, removal should be simple.
Might need subfloor access: You have radiant floor heating that occasionally needs maintenance, old plumbing that might require access, or foundation work that’s pending.
ADA situations: Someone in the home uses mobility equipment and you might need to modify the floor or access systems underneath.
Rental where landlord might renovate: You’re renting and the landlord keeps saying they’ll upgrade the flooring, but you need something better than the current disaster meanwhile.
In these cases, choose genuinely removable options. Easy removal isn’t just nice-to-have, it’s essential.
Let’s walk through the actual questions you need to answer to choose appropriate temporary flooring.
Not your optimistic timeline. Not your hoped-for timeline. Your realistic timeline.
“6 months to a year” = Actually 3-5 years minimum
“2-3 years” = Actually 5-10 years
“5 years” = This is permanent, stop pretending
“When we get around to it” = Permanent, full stop
Be brutally honest with yourself. If you’re mid-renovation and the flooring is already ordered with a delivery date, okay, you might actually replace it on schedule. If you’re “saving up for the real renovation,” add five years to whatever timeline you’re imagining.
Choose your flooring tier based on the realistic timeline, not the optimistic one.
Smooth concrete in good condition: Almost anything will work. You have maximum options.
Rough, cracked, or uneven concrete: You need thicker products that won’t show every imperfection, or you need to do leveling work first.
Damaged existing flooring (buckling, cracking, staining): You probably need to remove it or do serious prep work. Installing over damaged flooring just transfers the damage to the new surface.
Wood subfloor in good shape: Maximum options available. Most products work fine over wood.
Your answer determines what’s actually feasible, not just what’s attractive in product photos.
Be honest about this. How much do aesthetics matter to you in this space?
High tolerance (workshop, utility basement, garage): Go cheap. Function over form. You don’t care if it looks industrial.
Medium tolerance (rental property, back bedrooms, laundry room): Mid-tier options. Needs to look finished and clean, but doesn’t need to be beautiful.
Low tolerance (kitchen, main living areas, anywhere visible): Good-enough-permanently tier. You’re looking at this space every single day. Don’t torture yourself with ugly floors.
People dramatically underestimate how much daily exposure to ugly flooring will bother them. The kitchen floor you see 10+ times every day for the next eight years? That’s worth spending an extra $500 to make it acceptable.
You, with no experience: Choose the most forgiving option. Loose-lay sheet vinyl or carpet tiles with tape. Something where minor mistakes don’t ruin the result.
You, with some DIY skills: More options become available. You can probably handle peel-and-stick if you’re patient, or basic click-lock.
Professional handyman: Anything except specialized techniques. They can handle most DIY-level products competently.
Professional flooring installer: At this point, why are you doing temporary? If you’re hiring a pro, just do it right the first time.
Don’t overestimate your skills. The gap between watching a three-minute YouTube video and actually executing a technique on an imperfect floor in a non-square room is significant.
Think about the specific risks in your space and your household.
Pets with claws: Avoid thin peel-and-stick. Choose thicker, more durable options.
Kids with spills: Waterproof is non-negotiable. Carpet and non-waterproof options are asking for permanent stains.
Heavy appliances you move regularly: Skip loose lay options that can shift. Use adhesive or click-lock that stays in place.
High foot traffic: Even “temporary” needs to be reasonably durable. The cheapest option will show wear paths within months.
Light use, low traffic: More options work fine. Guest bedroom, storage room, finished attic used occasionally.
Match durability to actual use patterns, not wishful thinking about how carefully you’ll treat the floor.
Include installation, prep work, and materials. Be realistic.
Under $500 total: Area rugs, used carpet, or accept living with bare concrete. Your options are limited.
$500-$1,500: Sheet vinyl, basic peel-and-stick, loss-leader carpet. Functional but basic.
$1,500-$3,000: Quality peel-and-stick, budget click-lock LVP, carpet tiles. Good enough to live with long-term.
$3,000+: Stop calling it temporary. This is enough budget to install real flooring. Just do it right.
If you’re spending $2,500+ on “temporary” flooring, you’re rationalizing. That’s a permanent flooring budget. Commit to it.
Let’s look at real experiences from real people whose temporary flooring became permanent.
“I put a roll of vinyl down in my bathroom to cover the peel and stick that let water through as a temporary solution. I caulked the edges but didn’t glue it down. It’s adequate. Also that was seven years ago.”
The lesson: “Adequate” is good enough to become permanent. This homeowner planned a quick fix and ended up with nearly a decade of service. The flooring works. It’s not beautiful, but it’s adequate. And adequate is the enemy of renovation motivation.
“I did the $1/sq ft rolls of vinyl flooring that looked like flagstone in my last house…then ended up keeping it for 10 years and actually sold the house with it.”
The lesson: Budget vinyl can outlast your homeownership. This person installed cheap temporary flooring and it performed well enough that they never bothered replacing it. They lived with it happily for a decade, then passed it on to the next owner.
Budget doesn’t mean disposable. Modern cheap flooring can be genuinely functional for many years.
“I’ve had 12×12 peel & stick tiles in my kitchen, dining room and bathroom for 21 yrs. Previous owner/flipper installed them.”
The lesson: Even flipper-grade cheap solutions can last decades. This floor was installed by someone trying to spend as little as possible to make a house sellable. Twenty-one years later, it’s still there, still functional.
The homeowner notes the importance of proper prep: “Make sure your base layer is CLEAN and dry. Anywhere with dirt/dust/chemical residue, and/or high traffic areas will come unsticky first.”
Even cheap flooring lasts when installed properly.
“I put peel and stick down over some ugly 70s vinyl in my kitchen probably 15 years ago. If you take your time and buy quality tile it actually ends up looking pretty good. Problems: After a long time the corners of the tiles start peeling up a bit…tiles by my sink which I’m stepping on all the time while coming to a stop have shifted leaving gaps where you can see the old flooring.”
The lesson: Even with problems, people live with it for 15+ years. This homeowner installed peel-and-stick planning to replace it “when we save up.” Fifteen years later, it’s still there despite cosmetic issues.
The floor has problems. The corners peel. Tiles have shifted. But none of these problems are urgent enough to motivate replacement. It still works.
“Our kitchen floor is in pretty rough shape and will need to be redone at some point soon (and we plan to entirely renovate our kitchen sometime in the next 5-10 years). Until then, would peel and stick flooring tiles be a good option?”
The lesson: “5-10 years” means this IS your kitchen floor, plan accordingly. When someone says they’ll renovate “in the next 5-10 years,” they’re really saying they have no firm plans. That peel-and-stick they’re considering? That’s their kitchen floor for the foreseeable future.
A commenter perfectly captured this: “I would highly recommend doing the cheapest fix that you feel you could permanently live with.” Because it’s going to be permanent whether you plan for it or not.
As flooring retailers who see both sides of this constantly—customers planning temporary solutions and customers living with decade-old temporary solutions—here’s our honest advice.
Go ahead and go cheap. Buy loss-leader carpet on sale. Use area rugs. Put down basic sheet vinyl. If you genuinely have the renovation scheduled, the materials ordered, and the budget allocated, you’ll actually replace temporary flooring on schedule.
But be honest about whether you really have “firm plans.” Hoping to save enough money in two years is not a firm plan. Having the money already saved and the contractor booked is a firm plan.
Don’t go bottom-tier. This is the danger zone where temporary becomes permanent most often. Choose the $1.50-$2.50 per square foot range—decent sheet vinyl or quality peel-and-stick.
These options will look acceptable for the duration and you won’t hate them if (when) they stay longer. You’re buying something that can serve as actual flooring for 5-10 years, not a stopgap that barely functions.
The extra $300-$500 you spend getting acceptable quality instead of garbage-tier will improve your quality of life for years.
Stop calling it temporary. You’re buying flooring that will be there for a decade. Spend the $2-$4 per square foot on budget click-lock LVP or quality peel-and-stick. Get something you can actually live with.
At this point, you’re not buying time until renovation. You’re buying budget flooring that serves as your actual floor for the medium term. Treat it as a permanent decision with a budget constraint, not a temporary decision.
The psychological reframing matters. You’ll make better choices if you accept you’re choosing real flooring rather than pretending it’s temporary.
Sheet vinyl loose-laid is your friend. It’s easy to remove when you’re ready, it protects the concrete from damage and staining, and it looks decent enough to live with comfortably.
Just don’t expect to walk on bare concrete for “only a year.” That year will become three. Put down actual flooring you can live with, not just a tarp.
First, assess whether you can actually install over it or whether you need to address the underlying problems.
If buckling/uneven: You need to fix that first, or nothing you put over it will look good. The damage will telegraph through any surface treatment.
If just ugly/stained but structurally sound: Quality peel-and-stick or floating LVP can go right over it. Make sure the surface is clean and reasonably flat.
If water-damaged: Fix the water issue first or you’re wasting money. Installing new flooring over ongoing moisture problems just means you’ll have two damaged floors.
Choose the cheapest option you could permanently live with, not the cheapest option period.
The $500 you save going ultra-cheap instead of acceptable will haunt you for the next eight years every time you look at your floor. That’s not a good trade-off.
Budget temporary flooring should still meet a minimum standard of “I could live with this for a decade without hating my life.” If it doesn’t meet that standard, you’ve gone too cheap.
Whether you’re dealing with basement moisture issues in Cambridge, rental property turnover in Waterloo, renovation delays in Kitchener, budget constraints in Guelph, or any flooring challenge in Elmira, St. Jacobs, Wellesley, Paris, Puslinch, or anywhere across Brant County, we’ve seen it all.
Come talk to us about what actually works for your real situation—not your optimistic timeline, but your realistic one. We can help you choose flooring that matches where you actually are, not where you hope to be in two years.
We won’t judge you for needing budget flooring. We won’t pressure you toward options you can’t afford. We will help you choose something you won’t regret living with for the next decade, because that’s probably how long it’ll be there.
Here’s what nobody tells you when you’re shopping for “temporary” flooring: you’re probably not shopping for temporary flooring at all.
You’re shopping for budget flooring that you’ll live with for 5-15 years.
And that’s okay.
Life happens. Priorities shift. Money goes to more important things than having Instagram-perfect floors. Your roof matters more than your floor. Your kid’s education matters more than your floor. Your emergency fund matters more than your floor.
The mistake isn’t choosing temporary flooring. The mistake is choosing temporary flooring SO cheap that you’ll be miserable with it for the next decade.
Be realistic about your timeline. Add five years to whatever you’re thinking. Be honest about your budget and what might claim that money instead. Choose something you won’t hate in year seven when it’s still there.
Sometimes the smartest financial decision is putting down good-enough flooring and investing your money elsewhere. A $2,000 budget floor that lasts 12 years while you build wealth, pay down debt, or invest in your business is smarter than an $8,000 dream floor you go into debt for.
Your floor doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to be functional, reasonably attractive, and appropriately priced for how long it’ll actually be there.
The people who are happiest with their “temporary” flooring are the ones who chose wisely—who picked options they could live with long-term, not just tolerate short-term.
Choose wisely, because that “temporary” solution is probably permanent.
The next time someone walks into our showroom and says they’re “just looking for something temporary,” we’re going to smile knowingly and help them choose something they can live with for the long haul.
Because we know the truth: temporary flooring solutions become permanent not because people are lazy, indecisive, or bad at planning. They become permanent because life is complicated, priorities shift constantly, and “good enough” is often actually good enough.
Your roof will leak. Your water heater will die. Your kid will need braces. Your car will need replacing. Your renovation timeline will extend. Your budget will get reallocated. Your “temporary” floor will still be there, doing its job quietly and competently, while your money and attention go to more urgent matters.
This isn’t failure. This is adult life.
The failure is choosing flooring so cheap that you spend a decade resenting it. The success is choosing something good enough that you stop thinking about it—that fades into the background and just works.
Whether you’re in Cambridge planning a kitchen renovation that keeps getting delayed, managing rental properties in Kitchener where “temporary” is genuinely temporary, dealing with a basement project in Waterloo that’s taking longer than expected, or anywhere across Guelph, Elmira, St. Jacobs, Wellesley, Paris, or the surrounding region trying to make smart budget decisions, we can help you choose flooring that matches your real timeline, not your optimistic one.
Come see us. Let’s talk about what you actually need, not what the marketing says you should want. Let’s talk about your real budget, your real timeline, and what you can realistically live with for the next 5-10 years.
Because that’s how long your “temporary” floor is going to be there.
And we want to make sure you choose something you won’t regret.
Your “temporary” floor is waiting. Let’s make sure it’s one you can live with.
