Why Laminate Flooring May Be the Best Choice for Your Home
Posted on: 24 April 2017
Laminate flooring is a good choice for any home, but especially those homes that see lots of foot traffic from kids and pets and for families where someone has allergies and sensitivities. A laminate floor is made from synthetic materials that are glued together in layers; the top layer is then pressed, painted, or otherwise treated to look like stone, wood, or virtually any other material. Installing laminate flooring allows you to have the look of these high-end materials while enjoying the benefits of laminate; note a few of those benefits here so you know if this is the right choice for your home.
Durability
The process used to manufacture laminated flooring makes the material very dense and strong, so it's not likely to suffer chips and gouges even under the heaviest of foot traffic. You won't need to sand and then repaint the laminate the way you do wood floors, and laminated flooring won't crack or chip like stone floors. For homes with pets and children, or for areas where the floors may suffer the most abuse such as a kitchen or mudroom, laminate can then be the best choice.
Installation
Laminate floors are specifically designed to be easy to install; the boards or panels are made to interlock with one another, so you don't need to trim and cut them as you would real wood slats or stone slabs. The laminate also doesn't typically need to be glued to the flooring beneath it; this allows you to install laminate flooring over your current floor tiles, over cement, or over subfloors that are uneven and warped. Many homeowners find that they can easily install laminate tiles on their own because this process is so easy, saving them on the cost of having a contractor handle the installation for them.
Hygienic
Because laminate floors are so dense, they hold very little dust and dirt and are a poor host for bacteria, mould, mildew, or other irritants and allergens. Termites won't eat at laminate floors the way they do wood floors, and there are no pits and grooves in laminate floors that hold dirt and germs as there are with stone floors, so you would rarely need to scrub or shampoo a laminate floor as you do stone tiles. For those with allergies or if you live in an area with lots of dust that may tend to settle into carpeting, stone, or wood floors, laminate flooring can be the most hygienic and cleanest choice.
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