Home Flooring Guide

There are lots of great reasons that laminate floors have become so popular as a way to lay down a great looking floor in the home or in a professional space.  Laminate flooring manufacturers have done a great job of making a wide variety of styles, colors and patterns so there is probably a laminate floor design to fit just about any interior decorating scheme possible.  Laminate is in general less expensive to use than competing flooring materials and for home improvement buffs, it is quite easy to install a laminate floor themselves.  In fact, a good DYI enthusiast can complete flooring a room in a day and many report that the project was actually a lot of fun to do.

Laminate floors are also phenomenally durable which means that the investment you make in a new floor can last for years and years which is an outstanding return on the investment of funds and time that it took to lay down your new floor.  Just as important especially for the family member who keeps the home clean is that laminate floors are very easy to maintain and clean .  

The reason that laminates have an easy to take care of quality to them lies in the "floating" construction that goes into creating a laminate flooring before you buy it.  It helps to know a little bit about how laminate floors are made to appreciate why they are so durable and why so many people swear by laminate flooring for just about any home or office remodeling project.

A laminate floor most often represents four different layers of materials that are pressed together and fused into one material.  That process of layering that makes up a good laminate product is what gives it that durability and flexibility that makes laminates so popular.  The layers of a laminate product are known as "the wear layer", "the pattern layer", "The core layer" which is usually made of processed wood and "the balancing layer".  Between these four layers there usually is a substance for moisture resistance.  Finally a scratch resistant layer gives the laminate much of its ability to stay great looking or, as they say, "take a beating and keep on going".

When all of the components are in place at the laminate factory, they are all pressed together into one substance in such a way that you cannot tell how multi-dimensional that laminate is.  But it is that wood layer at the core that gives laminate the ability to float free during the installation of the new floor.  That property of well made laminate flooring is why these floors are often called "floating laminate" floors.  That is good trivia to know at your next cocktail party.

This construction gives a laminate installation flexibility that was unheard of before this design became so popular.  That sturdy design feels very much like a solid wood floor which means you can lay down a laminate wood floor and you need never tell anyone that it isn’t genuine wood.  The laminate is that good an imitation.  Moreover, laminate can be installed over any old flooring that was there before.  That means you can skip the step of laboriously pulling up your old floor.  Just layer the laminate on top of it and forget about it.

Another way that a floating laminate floor makes life easy for DIY installers or even professionals who do floors all the time is that except in peculiar installations like stairs where adhesion is a must, you really don't have to glue down a floating laminate floor.  The laminate comes with grooved edges so you can match up and connect a laminate floor in place where it will serve like a big jigsaw puzzle.  Because the floor has that sturdy floating design, it will lay down without glue and serve perfectly well for years after you just lay it in place.  Small wonder laminate floors are such a popular design.  They are tough, easy to clean, economical and come in a big variety of styles for every redecorating plan.  You can't ask for much more from a flooring maturely than that.