Why Choose  Laminate Flooring Instead of Hardwoods

Consumers have been discovering that there are a lot of advantages to having laminate floors installed in their homes instead of the more traditional hardwood flooring. For starters, laminate flooring is made of anywhere from three to seven layers of materials making it very durable. One of the layers of the laminate flooring controls the look of the floor. It is made by using photographic images that cause the floors to look like authentic hardwoods with grain, color, and even knots.

Since laminate technology relies on photographic images, many more designs can be used than are available in solid hardwoods. Even when using a standard wood image, such as an oak grain, Laminaat laten leggen the two looks will be somewhat different. No two boards of solid hardwoods will ever be exactly the same due to the natural graining and flaws in the wood, but the patterns in laminates are repeated over and over. Rather than being a disadvantage in laminate floors, this is actually a plus in that if you need to replace a damaged plank in your laminate floor, it will be much easier to find a new one that will match your floor exactly.

One of the most appealing features of laminate floors is that they can be purchased about twenty five percent cheaper than comparable hardwoods. What this means for you as the consumer is that you can give your home the look you are trying to achieve without the high cost.

Laminate flooring is glueless and made using a tongue-and-groove design, so it is far easier to install than hardwood flooring and can save you the cost of a professional installer. Laminate floors are called floating floors just for this very reason. Without having to use nails or glue to install your flooring makes it an easy task to do on your own, and you'll be able to accomplish the job quickly. Without the mess of using glue, clean up is a breeze. After you install your floor you can start living on it immediately which certainly beats having to wait for the glue to dry on a hardwood floor.

Another reason that it's faster to install laminate flooring than it is hardwoods is because laminate planks are made somewhat wider than hardwood planks. This means that you'll have fewer boards to cut and install which will mean you can finish the process in a much shorter time.

You'll like the awesome durability of laminate flooring. It is designed to be about fifteen times as strong as the best natural hardwood flooring. Because of its strength, it's much more difficult to damage a laminate floor, and it will stand up to high traffic much better than the solid wood does. Many laminate flooring products come with a ten or fifteen year warranty which is considerably longer than the warranties offered for hardwoods. This shows that the manufacturers of laminates have more confidence in the durability of their products, and you can, too. This is good, because laminates cannot be sanded and refinished to renew their beauty like hardwoods can.

Another of the great qualities of laminate flooring is that it can block the ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun and prevent them from fading the color of the floor. Hardwood floors can't boast this quality which is another reason why they need a lot more maintenance than laminates do. You won't need to refinish a laminate floor due to fading, even if you could, but you will have to take that into consideration with a hardwood floor.

You'll enjoy the ease with which you can maintain your laminate floors. Designed so that they don't trap any dirt, day-to-day care will only involve running over the floors with a brush or dust mop. Spills can easily be wiped up with a sponge or paper towel and will cause no damage to the floor. A lot more care is required to keep hardwood floors looking their best.