Finding the right residential flooring installation means choosing between different materials and looks. We often find people balancing the choice between hardwood flooring and laminate. What are the benefits of each? Is there a reason to choose one over the other?
Hardwood Flooring Installation
Hardwood is the gold standard of durability. Regardless of whether you choose solid hardwood or engineered hardwood, it’s built to last decades at minimum. It’s difficult to damage or wear hardwood. If you manage it, you can just sand it down and refinish the floor to renew its appearance.
Hardwood looks like hardwood: from a distance, up close, how the light glints off it. The imperfections that give hardwood flooring its unique tone and mood can be emulated, but not perfectly. Just as importantly, hardwood feels like hardwood. You won’t mistake anything else underfoot for hardwood.
It also adds value to a home. This is because hardwood floor with an undamaged subfloor will not have to be replaced for decades. It’s going to take a long time to wear on the floor, and when it is you don’t have to replace it – you just refinish. Learn more about hardwood flooring installation.
Laminate Flooring Installation
Laminate is affordable, and a good looking choice for flooring on a budget. It’s more moisture-resistant than wood, and it’ll last for years. This often makes it a good choice for bathrooms, laundry rooms, mud rooms, and so on. Read up on other reasons to invest in laminate flooring.
Laminate flooring can be cleaned quickly with sweeping and mopping. Less grit will get into its imperfections. At the same time, it can emulate other materials well, from wood to stone. The illusion is good, but it’s not perfect. It won’t trick anyone walking on it into thinking it’s wood or stone. The visual is more for comfort and style than for feel. Laminate also has some give to it.
Beyond this, it’s not nearly as durable as hardwood is overall. When replacing laminate, you have to tear it up and replace it fully. More benefits of laminate flooring installation solutions.
Our Conclusions
Residential flooring installation often comes down to what your long-term plans for the floor are. This should inform your floor choice. We often find a mix of hardwood flooring and laminate suits a house well – it allows you to use each floor type in the spaces that take most advantage of their strengths. For the main living spaces, though, wood flooring is the best choice.