Laminate Flooring: Advantages and Disadvantages

If you’re going to move soon, or if you want to remodel some areas in your home, going with laminate floors could be a great idea. Aesthetics, resilience, and maintenance are all important characteristics to consider when choosing a floor.

So, we’d like to explain the advantages and disadvantages of laminate flooring. With both in mind, you’ll be able to analyze and consider all of its aspects before installing them. It’s crucial that you know the needs of your home by using this material.

Laminate floors

Laminate floors are composed of several layers of different materials. The last layer is left visible and imitates another material, which generally tends to be wood. Laminate floors have advantages and disadvantages. In light of what they could offer, you should do your research before purchasing this product.

Advantages

These days, laminate flooring is a popular choice in comparison to other choices on the market. Let’s get started with its advantages.

Economical

Unlike other products, one of the main advantages of laminate flooring is it’s a much more economical option. Its lower price results from its composition and production. Unlike natural wood flooring, for example, you can opt for a visually similar material at a lower price.

Variety of styles, colors, and finishes

Another positive point for laminate floors is the variety of imitation options, colors, and styles that are offered. You can find imitation pine, oak, tiles, and many other materials as well. Meanwhile, finishes can be shiny, opaque or of special textures. You can even have the flooring custom-made for your home.

Easy to clean and maintain

Laminate floors are great if you don’t want to use a material that’ll require special cleaning and maintenance. With laminate floors, you don’t have to worry about waxing or buffing.

Just by using a damp rag and a gentle cleaner, you can clean your floors fast and keep them that way with no problem. Try to use a cleaner that’s especially for laminate floors. Using a different cleaner could harm them.

Easy to install

These floors are also very easy to install and don’t require too much time for the job either, unlike other options. Because of their simple installation, if you’re thinking about quickly remodeling your floors at home, laminate floors might be your best option.

Disadvantages

Just like any other material, these floors have their advantages and their disadvantages as well. Remember: they’re not just decorative. You’ll need to install a material that’s resilient, long-lasting while covering all over your home’s basic needs. Familiarize yourself with the disadvantages of laminate flooring in case it’s not right for you.

You can’t fix damage

One of the biggest problems with laminate floors is that once they’re damaged, you can’t fix them. In other words, you can’t fill in holes, sand down damage nor apply any kind of product for repairs.

Instead, you have to remove the damaged part and replace it with a new piece. If it’s been a while since you’ve installed your floors when you want to fix a problem there’s a chance that you won’t be able to find the exact same product.

Not recommended for bathrooms and kitchens

Another disadvantage of laminate floors is that they’re not suitable for bathrooms and kitchens because they don’t resist certain stains nor can they handle humidity very well.

As a consequence, if you’re someone who likes to have the same flooring throughout your home, laminate floors aren’t for you. You would have to use a different kind of flooring for your bathroom and kitchen, which could impact the overall decor of your home.

Visual imitations of other materials

Laminate floors, as we mentioned earlier, imitate other materials. That means that if you want your floors to look natural, these aren’t your best alternative. Imitations don’t have the same characteristics and properties of the materials that they imitate.

And that’s it for the advantages and disadvantages of laminate flooring. Now, you can carefully analyze all of its characteristics before purchasing and installing it in your home. Try to think about all of the needs that you want to cover as well as the problems that you’d like to resolve in your home. By doing so, you can compare laminate floors with other materials, and make the right choice.