Four Reasons to Consider Laminate Wood Flooring
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Laminate Wood Flooring — Four Big Advantages
In searching for the perfect flooring material for your home, you have most likely considered laminate wood flooring If you’re anything like me, when you first heard the term “laminate” in reference to wood floors, there was a certain ‘yuck’ factor associated with memories of really bad furniture with “plastic wood” peeling from the fiberboard base.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s look at some of the main advantages of this choice in flooring materials.
Laminate Floors are Economical
Naturally the statement that laminate flooring is always less expensive than solid wood flooring is not true. As with all products, there are ranges of prices across any single type of manufactured goods. The very top of the line laminate floor will usually still be pricier than the bottom priced solid hardwood floor. But, if you compare the highest price of one floor to the highest price of the other floor, a laminate wood floor will usually be the better value.
Laminated Flooring is Versatile
It used to be that laminate wood flooring didn’t offer as great a choice of styles, colors and finishes as could be obtained with solid wood floors but that is certainly no longer the case. Laminate floors can be found in all colors and all styles matching nearly every available style of hardwood floor on the market. These floors are also available in stone patterns, brick, bamboo and more. In terms of versatility, laminate floors are hard to beat.
A Laminate Wood Floor is Durable
Because these floors are coated with a substance called melamine, they present a very tough finish. This synthetic material is used in many applications including the institutional dishes you’d find in hospitals and cafeterias. Melamine is tough, and scratch, heat and moisture resistant. Routine wear and tear is much less than you would find with solid wood flooring (whatever type of wood) and quite dent resistant as well. Because of the tough coating, laminate flooring is also highly moisture resistant as well making it a great choice for kitchens and bathrooms. In fact, any room that gets a lot of traffic is a good choice for laminate floors.
Laminate Wood Flooring is Easy to Clean
Because it is so water resistant, this flooring is not as ‘fussy’ as solid hardwood flooring when it comes to cleaning. Most ordinary floor cleaning products will work just fine on these floors. Soap and water will not dull them. Moisture will not warp or stain them. They don’t need regular waxing, staining or oiling like solid wood floors do.
Laminate floors can’t be ‘refinished’ in the same manner as traditional hardwood floors. However, as with any floor, you can expect that over time your laminate flooring may become dulled or occasionally have some damage done to it by way of scratches or stains. In most cases, it is a very simple matter to give your laminate floor a new lease on life. Home improvement centers will all carry products designed for just this purpose and you’ll easily be able to bring your laminate wood flooring back to ‘new’.
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