While the classic beauty of hardwood floors can hardly be disputed, many consumers today are choosing laminate floors due to their growing reputation as the durable and practical flooring alternative. Regardless of your budget, design tastes, or lifestyle, there is a style of laminate flooring that will undoubtedly meet your needs. If a great price tag isn’t enough to help you make up your mind about a flooring solution, check out our top 5 reasons to make laminate flooring the choice for your home and family.

1. Range of Style: So, you thought that hardwood floors were the only way to ensure a high-end look in your home, right? Wrong! Laminates today come in a huge variety of colors and styles that will give your home that rich and beautiful look of wood, but at a much more reasonable price for homeowners who want to save a little green. In fact, there is probably no product which offers a greater range of flexibility in styles, colors, and designs when considering interior décor for the environment. You won’t have to sacrifice your taste for elegance by choosing h for your home or office.

2. Your Health: While carpeting in your home may seem warm and cozy, it can also offer a warm and cozy environment for many allergens which can plague a family with an array of health issues and costly visits to the doctor. One of the most notable benefits to choosing laminate flooring is your ability ensure a clean and healthy flooring surface for your family. The surface of a laminate floor is hard and smooth, offering very little room for dust particles, molds, and fungus to get trapped. If clean and healthy living is a concern in your family, then laminate flooring is an excellent choice for you.

3. Easy Installation: Whether you are a home improvement novice, or seasoned weekend warrior, installing laminate flooring should be a perfectly manageable DIY project, particularly if you are using the latest glueless, click & lock systems which easily snap into place. Also, laminate flooring can be installed over many existing floor types, which will help you accomplish the goal of beautiful new floors in your home in no time.

4. Durability: We’ve all walked across hardwood floors that are peppered with scratches, stains, and other imperfections, another reason why many people today are opting for the strength of laminates. People with pets or children will be especially interested in this topic, as laminate flooring features a very hard and durable finish on its top layer, making it dent, stain, and even moisture resistant. What’s more, many laminate flooring manufacturers today offer a 25-year warranty on their products, making laminate flooring a long-lasting investment.

5. Cost Effective: Let’s face it, this is probably the strongest reason for choosing laminate flooring in your home, as it usually offers the best value when considered over the long-term, especially when compared to other flooring materials. Hardwood flooring will require finishing treatments in the future, while the ease of installation and care required for laminate flooring is truly unmatched.

While the choice in a flooring solution for your home and family is ultimately a matter of personal preference and finance, laminate flooring certainly offers a great alternative for homeowners who hope not only to have beautiful floors, but also to add value to their home. Whether you decide on laminate flooring, hardwood, or even tile or vinyl, you can find an extensive selection of styles from the most respected manufacturers at FloorMall.com.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Hardwood flooring installation can be a challenging DIY project for those with little experience. The first step for anyone attempting to install their own hardwood floors is to choose the most appropriate method of installation for the specific job.

Nail down hardwood flooring installation is most commonly used when installing ¾ inch solid wood floors. However, adapters are available for thinner floors as well. Two inch nailing cleats are used with a wood flooring nailer and mallet to attach the hardwood flooring to the sub floor. Solid strip floors, or plank floors can only be installed on wooden sub-floors on grade or above grade.

A staple down hardwood flooring installation uses staples instead of nailing cleats to fasten the hardwood flooring to the wood sub floor. A pneumatic staple gun is used to drive the staples into the tongue of the wood planks and into the wood sub floor underneath. The staple down installation procedure is less complicated than the nail down for DIY installations. Be aware, not every hardwood flooring company recommends the same size staple or appropriate staple gun. Read the manufacturers installation manual to be sure you are using the right type of staple gun and right size staples for your hardwood flooring installation.

With the glue down installation method, the hardwood flooring installer glues the wood planks directly to the subfloor. The recommended adhesive is spread onto the sub floor using an appropriate notched trowel. The flooring planks are then set into the adhesive. Glue down hardwood floor installation of engineered wood floors can be accomplished on sub-floors and dry, fully cured concrete slabs.

It is important that the installer use the manufacturer’s recommended adhesive with the appropriate notched trowel when gluing down a hardwood floor. You do not want to void any warranties you might have with your hardwood flooring product by not using the manufacturer’s recommended adhesive and trowel size.

The glueless hardwood flooring installation method is popular thanks to flooring manufacturers including Kahrs, Award and Mohawk, who have introduced engineered wood floors with a special glueless locking system, much like the clic laminate floors. These floors can be installed over a range of sub floors such as wood, concrete slabs and even some types of existing floors. These are relatively simple to install and may offer the best option for a DIY installer.

Finally, with the floating installation method the floor is not mechanically fastened to any part of the sub floor. There is a thin pad that is placed between the wood flooring and the subfloor. A recommended wood glue is applied in the tongue and groove of each plank to hold the planks together. The padding protects against moisture, reduces noise transmission and makes the floor softer under foot. Some engineered floors and all longstrip floors can be floated. This is a very fast, easy and clean method of installation. Please consult the manufacturer installation instructions to see if your flooring can be floated. Most glueless hardwood flooring installations can be floated.

Popularity: 85% [?]