PRODUCT COMPARISON: LAMINATE VS. HARDWOOD FLOORS

Hardwood floors or laminate floors? You're probably wondering what the real difference is between a solid wood floor and an engineered or laminate. They look pretty much the same installed. They can be comparable in price (with a lot of room for variability in both types). For the purpose of this article, laminate refers to any engineered product using real wood as a face material. Some laminates resemble wood, but are faced with plastic. While such products wear extremely well, that's just not the focus here.

LAMINATES

Laminate flooring offers less variety, but includes mainstays such as Brazilian cherry, oak, pecan, maple, cherry and hickory.

Solid wood is more likely to include "cabin grade," or inferior pieces. With laminate, there is still some possibility of this, but it is minimized.

There are various available installation options for engineered wood floors, including: glue down, staple down, and free-floating. Solid wood floors do not offer a floating option.

Engineered floors are more dimensionally stable. All flooring contracts and expands with changes in conditions. Engineered floors remain flat under more extremes of moisture and temperature.

Engineered floors are relatively thinner, up to 5/8". This means its possible to install over an existing floor. This in turn means that transitions in height from one area to another are minimized, as well as issues with door clearance.

SOLID HARDWOODS

This probably makes it sound as though this article favors laminates, but thats not the case. Theres a lot about a traditional wood floor that cannot be replaced with any substitute.

Hardwood floors have a solidity underfoot that is their own, that sound of a shoe on a solid floor.

Solid wood floors offer a broader selection of species, although some of these can be exotic and are quite expensive.

Solid wood has a positive impact on resale value. If youre planning on selling your home in the near future, the words solid hardwood, like the words real stone have an appeal that laminates cant match.

High-quality hardwoodwhen properly protectedlasts and lasts and lasts.

CONCLUSION

We offer no ironclad recommendation here. Instead, ask yourself some questions before you choose, and these will guide your answers.

• What will my budget allow? Its easy to get carried away and upsell yourself into a second mortgage.
• Do I plan to sell this house?
• Does the price range of this house justify hardwood?
• How much wear will the floor take?

Wood Flooring In Long Beach, The Sexy Flooring Store

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2. Focus on Flooring!

Good, well maintained flooring can set a positive tone for the entire intirior of your home.

“Like paint, flooring can help creat an impression of spaciousness and airiness,” Nickell says. Weather it’s floating laminate flor, tile, or a natural “green” alternative, lighter tone flooring can make formerly drab areas appear modern and streamlined,”

Love Wood Floors

Pick the right wood floor and it can be with you for the rest of your life. That being said make sure you love the floor you buy. Wood floors can come pre stained and treated or raw and without finish. It really does not matter so much what option you chose. If you go pre finished, you get a good floor with an aluminum oxide finish. And, it will install in at a rate of about 400 square feet a day. If you get a product that requires a sanding, a stain, and a finish, you're looking at about a week or so installation time. Obviously those numbers are all correlated to size of the job, so keep in mind the amount of flooring will determine the length of the project. Most people choose pre finished floors strictly because the ease of installation, and because a pre finished floor wont need to be sanded. However, if you do chose to have your floors finished in place after installation, you will have a beautiful solid piece of flooring with a finish that goes wall to wall with no bevels to catch dust. Either way you go you win with hard wood floors.

YOUR EYES HERE!!!

This weekend at Wholesale Woodfloor Warehouse there will be an Independence Day SALE.  These guys have an airplane hangar full of inventory that is priced to move.  I mean you just can’t find deals like this. They have engineered flooring starting at .99c. They have laminate flooring starting at .79c, and solid bamboo flooring at $1.89!!! This place has unheard of deals, and ultra low prices. Plus they have most of their inventory IN STOCK, and if it isn’t stocked it usually comes in the next day. So, if you’re in or around the Long Beach, or Sacramento areas do yourself a favor, and go find at deal at Wholesale Woodfloor Warehouse.

Are you going to put flooring down in your new home? Are you in the middle of a remodel? Did you take advantage of government tax breaks and purchase a house to flip? Let us help you to add value to that home. A solid food floor raises the resale value of your home more so than any other type of floor covering.  Not only that, wood floors can last forever! Exotic wood floors can be up to 185% harder than an Oak floor, did you know that? Are you looking for something environmentally friendly? Well, a bamboo floor can be harvested in 4 to 8 years! That means no forest need to cut down, yes that’s renewable flooring, and it’s very inexpensive. Not to mention the fact that it makes for beautiful flooring.  Do you have a concrete slab, and need to utilize a glue down application? Well you can get engineered flooring made with real wood veneer top. This product is amazing; it uses less wood for the flooring, while still providing the natural beauty, and desirability of a true hardwood floor. Is laminate flooring a good choice? Well, more and more people are turning to laminate flooring as lumber prices continue to grow, and focus on the environment becomes more and more relevant. Laminate floors don’t require special logging, and don’t use real wood. Laminate floors can’t be resurfaced, but a good flooring installer can come in and replace the damaged isolated boards. Furthermore, laminate floors can be up to 3 dollars a square foot cheaper than a true solid hardwood floor, or even certain engineered wood floors. This means you can get more bang for your buck. Why else? To be totally honest, laminate floors are great do it yourself projects. Snap together seams and pre attached padding, makes this a super easy application. And finally, the look of laminate floors has improved dramatically over the last 20 years, you can now have a computer generated image of wood, beautifully designed on each board, tricking even the trained eye into believing its looking at a real hardwood floor. Laminate floors = today’s economic 

Wood Floors

Wood floors are a valuable addition to any home or office. They have proven to be healthier than carpet, and have a much longer expected life than any other floor covering option. Additionally laminate floors have also come onto the market strong as a positive alternative to true hard wood floors.  Today many laminated floors are so good that they are almost indecipherable from a real ¾ solid plank. Not to mention the fact that a good laminated floor is far more inexpensive that real wood.

Despite pricing, and improvements in laminate technology, hard wood floors still remain the most desirable floor covering. The natural beauty and color, as well as the god given individuality of every piece, assures that it will remain the best option for flooring in any setting. 

Laminate Floors From Start to End

Unlike hardwood, laminate floors will not stain, fade, dent and are far more scratch and water resistant. Entry level laminate wood flooring is designed for light traffic areas and come with warranties ranging from 10 to 15 years. Most people set their expectations too high and expect that entry level floors will perform under heavy traffic conditions and still look good for the duration of the warranty. This is however not the case, as an entry level floor subject to high traffic will start to show wear and tear within three to five years.

Laminate floors come with cores ranging from 6mm up to 12mm. A thicker core is more stable, less vulnerable to buckling and will sound more like real hardwood when walked on. Good quality cores are treated with water repellent chemicals, and resist swelling due to excessive moisture. This is very important especially when considering placing laminate wood flooring in bathrooms and kitchen. For these applications also consider a floor that has Paraffin wax impregnated joints. The Paraffin wax acts as a water repellent and will prevent topical water spills from penetrating down to the core. Also remember to scrutinize the warranty, as certain products are not covered for use in bathrooms and kitchens.

Buying the floors that suits your needs will save you money in the long run. This is not to say that every home requires a high end floor with an extensive warranty. Consider the amount of traffic as well as the amount of time you intend staying in your current home. There is no point in purchasing an expensive floor with an extended warranty if you plan on moving in the near future. Remember, the floor is usually the first thing replaced by people when moving to a new home.

Laminate wood flooring offers the best combination of quality and value in a wide range of colors, styles and designs and are also engineered for exceptional strength and durability and will last for years and years. For a rich and long-lasting experience, at a home friendly price, choose laminate; it's a natural look for your home and for the way you want to live.

Laminate wood floors history

Since their introduction into the US in 1982, the sector has experienced growth of up to 20% per annum at the expense of other floor types, making laminate the fastest growing floor type in the country. The appeal lies not only in its aesthetic value of its representation of real hardwood, but also due to its incredible durability and ease of maintenance.

The traditional look of hardwood is timeless; its beauty has brought a sense of comfort and elegance to homes around the world for many generations. Hardwood floors are however pricey, not very durable and require a fair amount of routine maintenance and care. Even the most recent technological advancements in surface treatment have not been able to solve such problems as scratching, fading, denting and staining. This has lead to the invention of laminate wood floors. With its machine made construction and hardwood photographic laminated surface, this floor is the perfect solution for the look and appeal of real hardwood that is more durable and requires less maintenance.