The 7 Things You Should Know Before Choosing Laminate Flooring

It was the 1970s when we saw laminate flooring for the first time in our world. It has layers of synthetic materials that are made to look like stone or wood. Its low price and long life have made it to be popular and an affordable alternative to the original thing, wood. There have been constant improvements in its quality and appearance. Due to increased popularity, many of you go for laminate flooring in Greater Noida or your local city. Before you move forward to have it in your home, you should know something about it. Here are those 7 things:

1. Less expensive

In comparison with wood flooring, laminate flooring costs you lower. Its cost is around half of the wood flooring cost. You have more options. Some of the available options will look more real while some of them are less substantial in terms of layers and thickness. The ones with less substantial have a lower fife and start having wears & tears sooner. It can cost you anything between 1 and 5 American Dollars (Rs 75-400) per square foot.

2. An alternate option for each style

Each laminate flooring consists of a basic layer, which has a top cover of an image layer. On the image or topped layer, experts embed the digitally captured image of a natural material. The image relates to the duplicate copy of a natural stone, hardwood, or concrete. Such flooring is available in an extensive array of lengths, colours, and widths.

In the current world, technicians use advanced technologies to emboss texture for producing a more realistic feel to laminate flooring. Even having a very close and real look, such floorings are far away from the real beauty of natural stone or wood.

3. No refinishing

A lot of technological advancements have not been successful in making the laminate flooring have a real look. It gets its current appearance from the image layer it has. And no experts can sand or refinish it whenever it starts having wear & tear.

On the other hand, wood flooring has its own look. Experts can easily revive the look of wood flooring through sanding or refinishing. They can revive its look many times during its lifetime. In addition, it provides a good value to your home if you resale it, even if it has a more upfront price.

4. Varied resilience and durability

After knowing about its refinishing or revival, most of you would be eager to know how long a laminate flooring lasts. Being of the highest quality, it can easily withstand sun fading, dents, foot traffic, stains, and scratches. You can replace a damaged piece with a new one. However, you might have issues when you try to repair dents or scratches on your laminate flooring.

Manufacturers and suppliers offer laminate flooring in several different categories of distinguished quality. And due to this, each one of its type or variety differs from others in terms of life and resilience. In your selection process, you should go with the one having more extended life.

5. Easier installation

It is easy to install laminate flooring on your home/office floors. It has easy installation due to the presence of underlayment and tongue-and-groove or snap-and-lock joinery. This joinery enables a piece to get connected with another piece. You can easily do flooring with it in a room on a weekend. There is no need to hire an expert. However, you need to be very careful during its installation and avoid having any damage to its edges.

6. Easy care

Laminate flooring has no specific care requirements. There could be stains on it due to excess water. You can vacuum or sweep to remove the excess water. Here is more on its care:

• Apply a flat mop and wring it to take out the water before you move ahead to the next step in its cleaning
• Use a commercial cleaning solution to get rid of tough stains or spots
• Applying an acetone-based solution such as a nail polish remover can help you in removing the tough spots

7. Value its warranty and terms & conditions

Laminate flooring is available with a user’s guide and warranty card. The user manual and warranty differ from one manufacturer to another. You should go through what you get with its purchase before you start installing it on your home/office floors. Some high-end products may require experts’ support.

Final words

Laminate flooring is a cost-effective alternative to wood flooring. Despite a few cons such as no refinishing and a real look, it is highly popular due to its easy installation, low maintenance, and lower prices.