New floors can update or completely change the mood and ambience of any room.
The popular decorating magazines are stocked with glossy pages of rooms with
beautiful floors of wood, stone, tile and ceramic. But, you're thinking, those
beautiful natural materials are so expensive!
Welcome to the world of
laminate floors.
Laminates are an affordable alternative to hardwood,
stone or tiled floors. Laminate floors are made by embedding a high quality
photograph of wood, stone or another pattern between a subsurface and a
transparent layer of melamine or cellulose. The subsurface is generally several
layers thick, and gives the flooring strength, body and stability. The top
surface is usually buffed to a high, hard gloss that resists scratching and
marring, and stands up to years of wear and tear in a way that wood or stone
can't. It's the middle layer - the actual image - that makes these floors wear
like iron. Unlike most other floors that only have the image on the surface, the
image layer of a good quality laminate floor is several millimeters thick - and
the image goes clear through it. You can find laminate floors in a wide variety
of styles and patterns that mimic nearly any other surface you can
imagine.
A well-made laminate floor can be practically indistinguishable
from marble, teak, oak or other far more expensive surfaces - but they offer
advantages that non-laminated floors can't give you.
Versatility
Want
a wood floor in your bathroom, or your high traffic family room, but the experts
have told you it's a no-no? A wood laminate floor can give you the look that you
want without the worry. Because wood laminates have a moisture resistant finish,
they won't be damaged by those steamy showers that you love. They also won't
expand and contract the way that wood does, so you don't have to worry about
giving your floors 'ease' room. As for that family room? A laminate floor will
stand up to the punishment that your kids can give it - even those skateboard
races that you don't allow.
Easy Care
Have you read the care
instructions for real hardwood floors? Buffing, oiling, waxing, polishing and
finishing - you could spend half your life keeping your wood floor looking good.
Stone floors are almost as bad - ask any janitor in a public building about the
daily polishing that marble floors require. Not your laminate floor. Just sweep
them regularly to keep dirty grit off of them, damp mop them to pick up any
spills and their beautiful shine will last for years.
Allergen and Odor
Resistant
One of the most often quoted reasons for replacing your wall to
wall carpets with wood or stone floors is to get rid of allergens and odors that
cling to the fibers. Laminate floors are odor resistant, and don't give dust
mites a place to breed. And unlike wood and stone, they don't require hours and
hours of buffing and polishing to keep them looking good.
Easy
Repair
Accidents do happen. If something damages your wood or stone floor,
replacing one section can be a major undertaking. Repairing a laminate floor is
usually as easy as removing and replacing the damaged plank or tile.
Easy
to Install
Installing a new stone or hardwood floor is not a do-it-yourself
project. It requires expertise and know-how that most homeowners don't have.
Laminate floors, on the other hand, are nearly as easy to install as place and
press tiles - and they look a whole lot better.
Durable
Wood laminate
veneers stand up to the kind of wear that would leave wood floors covered with
nicks and scratches. The high impact finish will tolerate the worst that your
family can dish out without showing the wear. Your new laminate floor will still
have a beautiful gloss years after wood floors need refinishing.
Design
Tips and Tricks
If you specifically want a floor with the look and feel of
natural wood, you also have a third option that falls between hardwood floors
and one of laminated wood - engineered wood floors. Strictly speaking,
engineered wood floors are a sub-type of laminate floors. Engineered wood is
made of several wafer thin layers of wood set at cross grain and compressed
under high pressure. It may also be impregnated with acrylic to make it more
durable. Engineered wood floors are more expensive than other laminates, but
less expensive than solid wood flooring. They're an excellent choice if the look
that you want includes parquet borders and insets
