Tips for Choosing Between Laminate and Wood Flooring

Although they have never really gone out of style, wood floors are more popular than ever these days. The warm, natural look of wood flooring makes it an appealing choice. Along with the obvious benefit of looking great, wood flooring also can help to keep allergens under control when compared to carpeting and is relatively easy to clean and care for.

Many people are choosing to forgo real wood floors in favor of laminate flooring because laminate is less expensive and easier to care for than real wood. At the same time, real wood flooring offers some benefits that laminate flooring doesn't. Because both laminate and wood flooring have a lot of good points it can make the decision making process difficult when it comes to choosing flooring for your home. Here are some tips for choosing between laminate and wood flooring to ensure that you pick the right flooring for your home.

When it comes to beauty not much beats real wood. Although today's laminates look very similar to real wood, they still lack some of the natural beauty that wood can offer. One of the major benefits of going with wood flooring over laminate is that wood can be sanded down and stained a different color while laminate cannot. That means that as your tastes or trends change you can change a wood floor to match whereas with laminate you are stuck with the color that you pick when you install it.

Wood flooring is much softer and quieter than laminate flooring as well which makes it a softer addition to your home. While the softness of natural wood makes the floors quieter, it also can make them more prone to damage. Hard items such as high heeled shoes or even dirt of grime can damage wood flooring. Because of this wood flooring is higher maintenance than laminate.

Laminate flooring can stand up much better to day to day traffic without getting damaged than wood flooring can. This makes it a better choice than wood for high traffic homes with pets and children - or if you just don't want to have to worry too much about caring for your floors.

The downsides to laminate flooring are that it can't be refinished to a different color and that it just doesn't have the same aesthetic appeal as real wood.

When it comes to choosing between laminate or wood flooring, the major points that you should consider are how much care you want to give your floors, how important the look of the floors is to you, your budget (wood flooring can be a lot more expensive than laminate) and whether you plan to change the color of the flooring at some point in the future. How you answer those three questions will greatly determine which type of flooring is best suited to your needs.