Is Laminate Flooring Right For Your Home?

Laminate flooring can be a great option for any home and many different rooms in a home, but that doesn't mean that it's always the best choice for your home. Laminate floors offer several great advantages, but depending on your home, architecture, budget, and tastes, they may or may not be the perfect choice for flooring material.

To help you make this decision more efficiently, the Bucks County remodeling contractors at Daniel's Custom Building And Renovations have put together a list of the pros and cons of laminate flooring, as well as a quick look at how it stacks up against some other popular flooring choices. And if you're ready to install new flooring at your home, we'll be prepared and eager to start that project with you.

Here are a few things to consider when you're deciding whether or not laminate flooring is the right choice for your home:

The Pros and Cons of Laminate Flooring

The main benefits of laminate flooring—and the reasons it's such a popular choice—are its affordability, low maintenance, and ease of installation.

The laminate is so inexpensive because it's largely synthetic, which makes it easy to mass-produce using low-cost materials. It can be quickly installed because it doesn't require nails or glue, and it can go over most existing sub-floors (this also keeps the labor costs for laminate flooring low). And finally, it's easy to care for because of the thick and clear wear-layer that covers the surface of the flooring.

So why isn't laminate an excellent choice for every room in your home? Sometimes it can be. In certain situations, however, it's worth considering the advantages of other forms of flooring. Laminate is great as a mid-priced flooring option, but there are times when a more expensive or less expensive flooring option could be a better choice for your home.

Laminate vs. Hardwood Flooring

There are some exceptional laminate flooring products available, but when it comes down to it, laminate will never look the same as natural hardwood. Hardwood flooring will probably be worth the extra cost in a dining room or a bedroom where style and comfort are your main concerns. On the other hand, if the main concern for the flooring in a room in your Bucks County home is practicality, laminate can get the job done.

Vinyl vs. Laminate

One great thing about laminate flooring is that it can so accurately resemble other custom flooring materials like solid wood or natural stone, and it also has a pretty long lifespan. So why would you choose to put vinyl flooring in over laminate?

Laminate floors are not completely waterproof. They contain a core layer of dense fiberboard and, despite the plastic top and other protection, laminate flooring will react to standing water and strong humidity the same way wood flooring, so with laminate flooring in a kitchen, you will need to make sure that you clean spills and dry the floors quickly. Vinyl flooring can be a much better option for any room in your home where the floors will be subject to a significant amount of moisture.

We hope that if you were wondering about whether or not laminate flooring was for you, this article gave you a better idea! If not, feel free to call the remodeling contractors at Daniel's Custom Building And Renovations for more information and guidance on choosing the right flooring for your home.