Are you looking at your floors and wondering if they need a bit of an upgrade? Are they tired-looking and in need of some ‘oomph’? There are a lot of options available to you if you are, but the best by far is definitely laminate flooring. It’s easy to install, affordable, and, to be fair, absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. The best of all worlds.
Not convinced? Take a look at our picks for why laminate flooring is the best option for all homeowners.
Simple installation
The best element of laminate flooring that makes it very attractive to homeowners is its easy installation. It’s so easy, in fact, that you can do it yourself. The click-in-place system allows you to get a floor down without any problems. All it takes is a hammer, some measurements, something to cut slabs with and a little know-how.
Easy to maintain
Laminate flooring can warp and breathe just like solid wood flooring, but not to such an extreme extent. A spilt drink might send you flying with the kitchen towels to avoid permanent damage when it comes to solid wood floors, but a simple wipe-up will solve laminate flooring problems without any lasting damage. You’d have to have a lot of water damage to laminate flooring for it to start warping and getting damaged. This means that running a microfiber cloth or a mop over it will be enough to keep it clean and maintained.
More affordable
If you’re looking for solid wood flooring, but you don’t have the budget, perhaps in your first bought home, laminate flooring is a great alternative. Because it’s not real wood, unlike solid wood flooring, it’s a lot more affordable so that you can have the floor of your dreams on a budget. And the cherry on top is that it’s so easy to install that you can do it yourself and forego the labour costs of getting someone in to do it.
Good resilience
Laminate flooring is very scratch resistant, which means even if it doesn’t last as long as solid wood flooring, it’ll look good while it lasts. Kids scrabbling along the floor or forgetting to clip the dog’s toes for a couple of weeks won’t bother laminate flooring. But it’s not impenetrable. You can help things out by adding felt stickers to the bottom of furniture to avoid any big scratches that might affect your floor, but for the most part, dropping a glass of wine or pulling out the dining room chair isn’t likely to affect laminate flooring.
A range of finishes
If there is a trend that’s come in that makes you swoon, you can bet it’ll come out in laminate flooring first. For example, there are a lot of grey-toned floors making the rounds lately. They offer a more modern finish to your home while still going with a cool-toned colour palette in your rooms. There is a range of colour and style options available in laminate flooring, and its simple click-in-place design allows you to experiment even more with layout, like parquet flooring or basketweave flooring.
Disguised as the real thing
You might have your heart set on solid wood flooring because it looks just so beautiful, and we’d agree with you there, but modern laminate flooring is almost indistinguishable. It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the real thing and laminate in disguise unless, of course, you get it wet or it’s in a humid room. Then you’ll see the solid wood flooring start to warp and crack. Laminate flooring will take a lot more to warp.