Laminate vs. real wood flooring

[h8go4s]

What are the pros & cons? My impression is that laminate would be a lower-maintenance material. Wife wants real wood because the home improvement shows on TV scorn laminate. (So far, in 38 years of marriage, I've yet to win an argument because logic doesn't work with her.)

[leechlake]

full disclosure I'm in the millwork business so I'm biased towards real wood.

Pros- installation is easier, you could do it yourself with less skills than a solid prefinished floor, most people would have no chance at unfinished if you need to sand and finish also. Cost is probably less in almost all cases. Stability is better than real wood because you have engineered layers of veneer in sub-strate with a finished veneer on top.

Cons- can't refinish if scratched up or if you can it's a risky proposition. The veneer is so thin you would sand through it. In my opinion it feels funny to walk on vs solid wood and sounds funny, I think it's because its thin and the "pad" underneath it make it feel spongy. Some look pretty good and some look cheap.

Maintenance once installed is pretty equal. With a solid wood you should watch your relative humidity in house more closely than engineered but you should want the right humidity in your house anyway for windows, cabinets, other wood products and your health.

[DonBo]

Here's what I learned when we redid our floors. "Yes dear, anything you want" It was a hard lesson, but one well worth learning.

You will never be sorry for using real wood.

[mojogunter]

Laminate doesn't scratch or dent as easily as wood does, but when it does it can't be sanded and repaired like real wood. If you save some material you can disassemble the floor and replace the bad piece. If the resale of your home comes into play real wood is an asset, laminate is not. They make real wood floating floor that is similar to a laminate with a snap together system that is fairly easy to install. You can sand it and refinish it in theory, but I have never tried to sand one. If I had a customer call asking me to sand a floating wood floor, I would pass for fear of sanding through the thin layer of wood. Of all the different floating floors I have installed the only one I was truly impressed with was made by Kahrs. Good quality Prefinished hardwood floors have a very durable finish, the drawback is that they have a beveled edge that some people don't like the look of. The beveled edge also gives dirt a place to fall into. If it were up to me I would go with a traditional hardwood floor, and I would use a wood that is fairly hard. Nothing soft like birch, pine, or american cherry.

[thatoneguy]

We took out all the carpet in our house a couple of years ago and put in some good laminate flooring, and we absolutely love it. Very attractive, very low-maintenance. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

It doesn't have the cachet of real wood, true, but it's much less expensive and easy to install, and it's beautiful.

[mattpaumen]

We just completed an install on our entire main floor with laminate. Initially we wanted to do real wood, but several people I know have real wood and wished they had laminate. These people were all dog owners that I train with complaining that their wood floors were scratched up from the dogs nails. Having heard that, we opted for laminate. We purchased a few extra boxes in case we have an issue. Amazing what a difference it makes!

[CigarGuy]

Where you installing it? On, above or below grade?

[h8go4s]

Where you installing it? On, above or below grade?

Above grade, first floor with finished basement underneath.

[BoxMN]

Have laminate, middle-high to high grade stuff, and like it for the most part. I also have dogs, and the tap-tap-tap-tap of their nails is louder on laminate than on wood, noticably louder

I have some cheap laminate in a shed (old cabin) and the edges/seams will swell with even a little bit of moisture (i.e. spilled dog water bowl), but the good stuff is not as "swellable" but I do see a couple slight swell spots in out kitchen and by the patio door, after 5 years. Other people probably would not notice it, but I do. So if you go laminate, make sure to wipe up spills, moisture right away.

Doing it again, I would probably still go laminate, but if cost is no issue I would likely go full wood floor, it just feels better under your feet I think.

[cavalierowner]

We had real wood floors that were in pretty bad shape after about 12 years of lots of dogs and puppies (we show and breed Cavaliers). We would have liked to simply refinish the original floor, but with all the prep and cure time for polyurethane, it wasn't an option; what would we do with the dogs and furniture for a week? So I decided to try laminate. Because I didn't have any first hand experience with laminate, I wanted to go with the cheapest Tarkette I could get so I wasn't out so much money if it didn't work. Even the cheap stuff is FAR more resistant to scratches than the oak floor we had. After being in about 2 years, we still don't have a single mark anywhere; and that's with the wife sliding furniture around on it! The one real downside is that this stuff is REALLY slippery in stocking feet or if it gets wet. If I ever have to replace it, I will spend more money and get something that is more slip resistant.

[harvey lee]

I love our wood floor's. Yes, one day we will have to have them refinished but they are nice.

We keep the dog's nails pretty short so one does not hear her walk across the floor or scratch the wood.

[Walleyehooker]

Seeing you don't have any say in the matter anyway...did you ever consider tile?

[leechlake]

couple points since we're discussing dogs and scratches. Pre-finished solid flooring is finished in a heat controlled environment, that can't be reproduced if your floors are finished at your house, using aluminum oxide or other materials that are extremely durable. Actually the same finish is used for the laminate. There is no explanation why a laminate would be harder than a solid wood if it's the same specie of wood.

When we built our house ten years ago we had the main areas in kitchen, hallways, mudroom, foyer area tiled. We have three rooms with hickory floors (zero scratches) and our living room with added American Cherry a few years ago. We put in a rustic grade because it looks good but also I knew it would get some scratches and the rustic appearance makes the scratches look okay.

At our cabin we have hickory floors in a porch and we put in an exotic wood is the main part of the cabin that is really hard called Acacia. Every specie of wood is rated by density by the Janka rating which is a gigantic factor in wood scratching, the next thing is the wood finish.

When you pick a wood specie the number 1 thing is appearance. You can find a specie of wood that has a high Janka rating that is finished to look like a different wood. For example, you like the Cherry look. Hard Maple has a near identical grain pattern, so find a Hard Maple that is stained the right color and you' ve got the look you want with the benefit of being less scratch resistant.

We've had floors refinished many times. Pick a time when you go on a short vacation, flooring guy shows up on Thursday, gets floor sanded that day. Friday puts a coat down in the am and goes to another job and comes back and puts coat on Friday afternoon. Comes back Saturday am and puts third coat on. You come home Sunday to some stink and dust but you clean it up air out the house and put the furniture back in a day or so later. Floor finishers have this down pat.

[CigarGuy]

Being above grade, you can install just about whatever product you want. On or below grade would limit your choices. I'm in the process of installing a laminate floor in our basement. Don't really care for the sound of it when you walk on it, but thats what the wife wanted. Don't you pro's feel that a solid product is too sensitive to humidity? Trying to maintain a set range that the manufacturers require in our climate is difficult at best! I think an engineered product is more dimensionally stable and you have more installation options.

[delcecchi]

Isn't there a difference between Laminate, which has a surface that is like formica, and the various prefinished engineered wood materials?

[CigarGuy]

The quick answer is laminate is manufactured using synthetic products and engineered uses real wood products. Wear surfaces I believe on both products can have aluminum oxide. Laminate has it on top of the picture and engineered on top of the stain.

[CigarGuy]

Here's my current laminate install in our basement. Hard to get anything done, my dog thought I was playing with her when I got down to install a plank!

I get laid off for a couple months most winters and my wife likes to keep me busy. Need to hurry up and finish so I can go back up to the lake!

[cavalierowner]

This is just a warning if you install the laminate flooring yourself. The wear surface of the laminate flooring is incredibly hard, which is what makes it so scratch resistant; it also ruins any blade you use to cut it. When I did my install at home for my living room, I used my 12" power miter saw with about a $90 blade and that blade wouldn't cut a pine board by the time I was done. Very expensive lesson! Since then, I have helped Habitat for Humanity install several laminate floors and all Habitat uses for cutting is a saber saw. It's not the nicest looking cut, but it doesn't matter because the cut is always hidden by trim and the blades are dirt cheap.

[delcecchi]

Would one of those abrasive chop saw blades work? Just curious...

Still looking for flooring for the cabin, that will withstand being left all winter unheated. So far carpet and vinyl are the only candidates.

[CigarGuy]

I'm just using a cheap metal blade in a jig saw and it works fine. Just replace when it gets dull. I think It took about 16 boxes before I replaced a blade. Should had changed a few boxes earlier, I had to put too much pressure on it and the cut would drift off a bit.

[Michael L]

If you want value and longevity, go with laminate. It can with stand a nuclear fall out. So many flavors to choose from also . VCT type flooring (tiles or stripping)has come along way with its products also. If you have an active life style at home, stay away from engineered. Its far from durable as they say. No matter what the finishing process is, which is some variant of AO for prefinishes. Remember its wood with solid it will dent and scratch. If you drop a mayo jar on Brazilian Walnut it will dent, not as big as Northern/Southern red oak. If you drag something across the floor, it will scratch. But with solid site finished/prefinished or engineered, you will always have the genuine look.

I am a solid,site finished guy. I have access to everything I need though too.

[Michael L]

If you want to talk about something hard, durable, crazy and near impossible to cut, cleat and finish off all a wall. Buy some prefinished strand bamboo and give her a whirl.

[cavalierowner]

Would one of those abrasive chop saw blades work? Just curious...

Still looking for flooring for the cabin, that will withstand being left all winter unheated. So far carpet and vinyl are the only candidates.

Good question, I don't know if an abrasive blade would work. If I do another laminate floor for myself, I'll probably still use my 12" saw, but I'll buy a cheap blade for it and consider it part of the cost of installing the floor.

[Duffman]

I installed Pergo laminate many years ago (15?) in our house upstairs (kitchen, dining and family room).

This is when you had to glue every joint.

The stuff is bullet proof, dogs have been skating around on it since day one without a claw mark.

It still looks great, my old man even commented on it this past weekend.

The wife uses her steamer cleaner on it without any moisture problems, maybe because all the joints are sealed with glue?

All I know is that we love the no maintenance aspect of it so much that it was a no-brainer to go with no maintenance decking when we replaced our deck this past fall.

[Michael L]

One last thing to throw in for a choice. My fishing buddy is a GM at a wood flooring distributer in the cities and his choice for his house he went with a luxury vinyl plank.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Luxury-Vinyl-P...&id=3927893