Luxury Vinyl Plank in Pearland, TX

Pearland started as a railroad siding in 1882. In 1894 Witold von Zychlinski filed the plat for Pear-Land, and promoters sold the place as an agricultural Eden. Then the Galveston hurricanes of 1900 and 1915 destroyed most of the fruit trees and held the town back for a long time. Its historic center is still at State Highway 35, Main Street, and Broadway.

The second chapter came fast. Between 2000 and 2010 Pearland grew 142%, among the fastest rates of any American city its size at the time. The 2020 census counted 125,828 people, making it the third-largest city in Greater Houston after Houston and Pasadena. Most of that growth went into master-planned communities: Shadow Creek Ranch, Southern Trails, Southdown, Sunrise Lakes and the Lakes of Highland Glen, plus unincorporated neighbors like Silverlake and Country Place. Pearland Town Center, a lifestyle center, opened in July 2008.

That history gives Pearland two kinds of flooring projects, and we approach them differently.

The young house. A home in Shadow Creek Ranch or Southern Trails is usually on a newer, reasonably flat slab, with builder carpet in the living areas and bedrooms and a basic tile in the kitchen and baths. These are some of the most satisfying jobs we do, because the house is sound and the owner finally gets to choose. Replacing carpet with luxury vinyl plank across the main floor is the most common request, often with new carpet or vinyl on the stairs and new carpet in the bedrooms. Engineered hardwood is the wood option that belongs on a slab. We still test the slab for moisture first; new concrete is not always dry concrete.

The older house near the creek. During Harvey in 2017, the early estimate was about 1,000 Pearland homes inundated, with flooding along Clear Creek at Highway 288, and Clear Creek Estates was the first Pearland neighborhood to get debris hauled away. In a house with that kind of history, we look harder at the slab: moisture readings, old adhesive, patched areas and cracks that need attention before a new floor goes down. Floor removal and slab prep are part of what we do, so the old layers come out and the slab gets flattened as one job rather than a hand-off between crews.

For homes that have flooded, the material choice is usually simple. Waterproof luxury vinyl plank or porcelain tile on the ground floor, with good baseboard and quarter round so the edges are finished well. Laminate and wood products are better kept upstairs or in homes that sit higher.

Two things apply on both sides of town. First, the soil. Houston-area clay soaks up water and swells, then shrinks as it dries, and slabs move with it. That is why we put a crack isolation membrane under tile and leave expansion space around floating floors. Second, the humidity. Wood and laminate need to acclimate in the house before installation, or they will gap and cup as the seasons change.

Pearland is on the far side of our service area from Richmond, so we book estimates here by appointment and bring everything with us: samples of hardwood, vinyl plank, laminate, tile and carpet, laid out in your own rooms and your own light. There is no showroom to drive to and no salesperson hovering. If your project is over 1,000 square feet, ask about our current $500 offer when we visit.