Home Flooring Guide

Laminate flooring is very versatile. Its natural look can go well with any home theme or design. It can be used for most parts of the house like the living room, den, kitchen, and playroom.

Laminate flooring is ideally used in the living room and den. These are the places where people gather together to talk or eat, so it is important to get a type of flooring that can take high traffic and food spills. Laminate flooring in the living room makes cleaning up after parties much easier. Food and drink spills can easily be cleaned by using a damp cloth. The laminate flooring in the living room or den can be maintained by regular dusting, sweeping, and vacuuming.

Also, the living room and den are usually the largest rooms in the house, so it is practical and economical to use laminate flooring in these rooms. As with all surfacing materials, laminate flooring is sold by the square foot. High quality laminate flooring usually costs $3.50 per square foot. This price is more affordable compared to the $7 price per square foot of wood flooring or the $12 price per square foot of stone flooring.

Laminate is a great flooring material for the kitchen. It is easy and simple to clean up the messes incurred during preparation with laminate flooring. Food spills and chopped up ingredients also easily come off on Laminate flooring.

The greatest advantage of using laminate flooring in the kitchen is its sterile quality. Laminate flooring is airtight and nonporous, so it does not harbor the growth of mold and mildew that need a porous and moist surface to survive.

The playroom often doubles as the kids' dining area. When food spills are left on the floor or when leftover food is allowed to rot, bacteria can easily develop and be detrimental to the kids' health. Having laminate flooring in the playroom does not allow bacteria to build up because it is nonporous. Water and food cannot seep through the surface to become the breeding ground of mold, mildew, and bacteria.

Laminate flooring is not nearly as hard as wood or stone flooring. If children slip or fall on the floor, they would be less likely to hurt themselves. However, it is recommended to place padded rubber matting in the playroom for more protection against slips and falls.

Laminate flooring is very sensitive to heat, so using them in work rooms and tool rooms is not advisable. The sparks and heat from tool friction can get to the laminated floor and scar the hard plastic shell. These scars would peel away over time, and this can damage the laminate flooring completely.  Laminate flooring is also not advisable to be used in decks or patios because the heat and ultraviolet radiation can distort it.