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.

Worn carpeting in the living room? Shabby-looking linoleum in the kitchen? Tired, outdated floors throughout your house? It’s time to update your home with new flooring! Not only do hardwood, laminate, and tile revitalize your house with clean, modern looks, they also increase the value of your home. So whether you’re thinking of selling your house soon or just want to freshen its appearance, new flooring is a win-win solution!

Hardwood Flooring

Without a doubt, hardwood flooring is one of the fastest, easiest ways to increase the value of your home. Homeowners love it’s glossy, elegant appearance, and buyers are frequently willing to pay a premium for this long-lasting, gorgeous flooring material. In fact, according to the National Wood Flooring Association, “in a national survey of real estate agents, 90 percent said that houses with wood flooring sell faster and for higher prices than houses without wood floors.” So if you’re putting your house on the market and want it to sell fast, hardwood floors are probably your best bet: you’ll sell quickly and for a better price than without wood floors!

Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring is a beautiful, cost-effective solution for many areas of your home. You may especially want to consider laminate for areas unsuited to hardwood floor-such as finished basements or even bathrooms. Laminate offers the handsome appearance of hardwood, but stands up to moisture with greater durability; laminate performs spectacularly in high humidity rooms (basements and bathrooms) that cause swelling, warping, and other serious problems in hardwood. Especially if you’re finishing a basement or redoing an older style bath, laminate is the perfect choice for beautiful flooring and added value.

Tile Flooring

Tile flooring is durable, sturdy, and scratch resistant, meaning it will stand up to the wear and tear of years of use. For this very reason, many homeowners prefer tile for high-use areas such as entryways, mudrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. Tile floors have the added benefit of being water resistant, so it doesn’t matter if the kids leave their wet shoes by the door or splash in the tub! Because tile is so resilient, many consider it a “lifetime floor,” meaning it will last as long as the house: buyers often regard this as great value in a home.

If it’s time for new floors in your home, you can renew your home’s appearance and add value at the same time. Talk to your local flooring contractor about what types of flooring are best for your home and your needs. They’ll be able to recommend specific products to help you maximize your budget for the optimum increase in home value.

Most people focus on appearance when selecting a new floor for their home. However, material is perhaps even more important than looks-an attractive floor can easily be ruined if it’s not suitable for your house or climate. Particular types of floors are more susceptible to climate-based problems than others; we’ve highlighted a few types of flooring to help you understand what does and doesn’t work in the Boston area.

Carpet Flooring

Carpeting is probably the least susceptible to climate issues. Unless you live in an area with extremely high humidity (i.e. not the Boston area), carpet should perform beautifully in your home or office. Do keep in mind that if carpeting in Attleboro or the entire surrounding region is installed below grade, you need to protect it from moisture with an underlayment. For specifics about correct installation and more information about carpet in Mansfield and other area towns, check out your local flooring store.

Hardwood Flooring

Wood flooring can be especially susceptible to humidity. While the Boston area certainly doesn’t have the 90% humidity of the South, summer humidity is consistently in the 70-80% range. High humidity causes hardwood flooring to swell, expanding and sometimes even warping. While wood flooring is generally alright in homes throughout New England, if you live near the water (where humidity levels are the greatest), you may want to consider engineered hardwood floors. For example, we recommend this type of wood flooring in Providence because of the proximity of Rhode Island Sound. Engineered hardwood gives you the same beauty of wood flooring but reduces the vulnerability to humidity.

Tile Flooring

While most tile floors are perfect for indoor use throughout New England, many are not appropriate for outdoor use. Tile installed outside in places like Pawtucket, Wrentham, and the whole region will be exposed to a vicious cycle of freezing and thawing that can cause it to break, crack, and chip. To get the most out of your tile floor in Boston, it should be installed indoors, not as a patio, walkway, or porch. Indoor tile performance can also be enhanced by using a moisture barrier to protect subflooring as well as completely sealing the tile with a penetrating grout sealer.

Laminate and Linoleum Flooring

Laminate and linoleum flooring have a well-deserved reputation for durability, resiliency, and affordability. For the most part, they live up to that fame under all climate conditions. Linoleum can be faded by long-term exposure to bright sunlight, so even in northern regions like New England, you’ll need to use blinds as well as occasionally rearrange the furniture to prevent noticeable discoloration. And not all types of laminate can handle extreme temperatures, so for laminate in Stoughton and the rest of Massachusetts you may want to consider the additional durability of high pressure laminate. No matter what type of linoleum or laminate flooring you select, you should get great results with correct installation and care!

So whether you’re dreaming of luxurious carpet in Foxborough or elegant tile in Mansfield, be sure to consider the appropriateness of the floor you choose. Your local flooring store should be able to offer expert advice on durability and vulnerability to humidity and temperature to help you get a beautiful floor perfect for your area.

While expensive materials like granite tile stand up to years of abuse, sometimes you’re looking for a more affordable flooring solution for high traffic areas. Whether you’re a business owner looking to cover your waiting room floor or a homeowner concerned about the durability of the kitchen floor, there are a number of inexpensive, attractive materials that will stand up to the abuse! Read on to learn how laminate, linoleum, or commercial carpeting can serve your high-traffic flooring needs.

Laminate

Laminate flooring is a durable, beautiful, affordable material suitable for areas with heavy traffic. The increasing popularity of laminate in recent years has broadened the number of styles and patterns available. The most popular today include wood laminate and tile laminate, giving you the appearance of hardwood and ceramic/stone tile, respectively, but at a greatly reduced cost.

Many homeowners and property managers turn to the attractive, long-lasting appearance of wood laminate where hardwood isn’t appropriate due to constant wear and tear. Laminate installation is a fast, relatively hassle-free process, unlike some other flooring materials. In fact, most laminate floors can be installed as floating floors (where the laminate is installed over your existing floor) for a super-quick, super-easy installation.

Linoleum

Linoleum is one of the most cost-effective, durable flooring materials on the market today. It is long-lasting, low maintenance, inexpensive, and attractive, making it ideal for high traffic areas like kitchens, laundry rooms, hallways, and commercial spaces. And, even though some of us may remember our mothers waxing the high-maintenance linoleum of the past, today’s vinyl linoleum floors are extremely low maintenance. All it takes to keep your vinyl linoleum floor looking great is sweeping and the occasional mopping. Today’s linoleum even looks better: while older types look like plastic, modern linoleum is tasteful and attractive. Available as linoleum tile or sheet vinyl, this flooring material is fast and simple to install. When you’re looking for a lightning-quick renovation of your home or office, linoleum is the ideal flooring for your high traffic areas!

Commercial carpeting

You may not think of carpeting as an extremely durable flooring material, but commercial carpeting is extremely sturdy, resilient, and long lasting. Unlike cut pile plush, commercial carpeting is made up of short, tight loops. This makes the carpeting dense, tough, and able to combat years of wear and tear. Available in a wide variety of colors and patterns, commercial carpeting is ideal for waiting rooms, hallways, lobbies, and other business applications.

Laminate, linoleum, and commercial carpeting are all low-cost, high-performance flooring options for high traffic areas in your home or business. Contact your local flooring contractor to learn more about particular brands available in your area and to find out more about which of these durable flooring solutions is ideal for your needs.