Today’s Options in Wood Flooring: Hardwood or Laminate

Wood flooring is a beautiful way to add style and grace to any home, but it can be hard to choose among all of the various wood floor materials on the market today. Both wood laminate and site-finished hardwood offer attractive appearance for any room in your house. They’re also both durable, stain resistant, and low maintenance. Unlike carpets, all types of wood flooring are hypoallergenic; with no fibers to trap allergens, it’s easy to keep this type of floor clean. Yet, hardwood and laminate both have distinct benefits and drawbacks. So whether you’re just looking to upgrade your old flooring or want to increase the value of your house, keep reading to learn which type of wood floor is right for you.

Hardwood Flooring: the Pros and Cons

Hardwood flooring has several definite advantages over laminate. First, although laminate is attractive, hardwood provides the beauty of a natural floor. From grain variation to satiny texture, real wood is arguably more appealing than laminate. Hardwood also offers options for customization: homeowners can select wood species, stains, and finishes to tailor the floor to their exact specifications. Moreover hardwood floors can be refinished when they become marred or worn, making them a long term investment. While refinishing hardwood floors makes them as good as new, laminate must be replaced when it is damaged.

Yet, hardwood floors do have some disadvantages. The fundamental problem with hardwood is price; this is not an inexpensive flooring material. Installation can also be a drawn-out process, as the floor must be laid, sanded, stained, and sealed over the course of several days. And, keep in mind that hardwood floors cannot be laid over your old flooring. While laminate can be installed over your old flooring, hardwood requires a bare subfloor, so you’ll have to remove your existing floor before hardwood installation can even begin.

Laminate Wood Flooring: the Pros and Cons

Laminate can be an attractive alternative to hardwood flooring. One of its primary advantages is cost; laminate is affordable, coming in at around half the cost of hardwood. Moreover, laminate floors can be installed quickly and easily. And, since virtually all laminate floors are floating floors, no special subflooring is required. They can be installed right on top of your old floor, excluding carpet. One additional benefit is that some floating laminate floors can be installed and later removed without harming the underlying floor!

Nonetheless, laminate floors do have shortcomings. The most significant is that, unlike hardwood, laminate cannot be refinished. When a laminate floor is scratched, worn, or warped, the only option is to replacement. Another downside to laminate flooring is design options are more limited. While there are a number of colors and styles available, hue and sheen are set by the manufacturer, not the consumer, so you cannot customize with the same flexibility as with hardwood. Also, the custom patterns and borders available with hardwood simply aren’t an option with laminate. Lastly, laminate floors add less value to your home than hardwood floors do. Because most home buyers prefer hardwood, the simple truth is that while laminate floors do increase the worth of your house, they don’t bump it up as much as hardwood flooring.

With these factors in mind, you can easily select the best wood-look flooring for your home. For more information contact your local wood flooring installer.