Laminate flooring, Wood laminate floor

How to recognize laminate flooring?

Some people plan to shop hardwood flooring or engineered flooring. But at last they find what they have shopped is not what they want: it is laminate flooring. The sales of the store  “name” laminate hardwood or engineered type. So it is better that you can recognize laminate flooring before the shopping. Unlike engineered or hardwood type, the thickness of laminate flooring is usually 8mm or 12mm. The thick of other 2 types are usually 15mm or 18mm. The surface of laminate is strong wearing tolerant. It is hard to scratch it with a coin, while it is usually to scratch the surface of engineered or hardwood type. The core of laminate is usually density fiber board, while the core of the other type is not made of this type of material. The back of laminate is balance back layer. Though engineered flooring has a balance back layer on the back, but it is made of cheap wood. It is quite different from that of laminate. It is easy to recognize laminate flooring if you know these points.

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The look of laminate flooring

The look of laminate flooring is one of the most important features of it. It can offer various wood colors such as teak, oak, beech, cherry, walnut, birch, maple, which make it looks like hardwood flooring. To make it more like hardwood type, the bevel can be on its 4 edges and thick core can offer similar foot feel. Its size can be around 810*130*12.3mm which is similar with that of hardwood type. What’s more, some type of laminate flooring with different lengths can be installed in one room to make it look more like hardwood type. There is another type laminate flooring which planks can connected together to show a big beautiful design such as a big star. Its colors also can be bamboo, ceramic tile, carpet, marble and granite. It can be produced in square shape or square designs to make it look like the shape of ceramic tile, marble and granite. Laminate flooring is strong fading resistant and abrasion tolerant, so the look will last for a long time and will not change.

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What colored laminate flooring is most beautiful?

What colored laminate flooring is most beautiful? Please make a suggestion.

There is no publicly accepted view that what colored laminate flooring is most beautiful. It is like that there is no publicly accepted view that what flower is most beautiful. It is up to your own idea. Now oak, cherry and walnut colors are most popular. But it is also possible that you don’t like any colors from oak, cherry and walnut. Oak color is very fine. With its natural pattern and V groove on the edge, it really looks like hardwood flooring very much. Also it is not easy to find the little dirty on oak laminate flooring as there is already lost of little dark points on it. The line style of cherry color is very soft and elegant. In a word, every color has its own features. And everyone has its own favorite colors. For example, Johnson likes blue color, while Tom prefers red colors. Also culture affect people’s idea about colors. So no one can tell that what colored laminate flooring is most beautiful.

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About wide plank laminate flooring

Wide plank laminate flooring means the width is over 190mm. there are 2 types of wide plank laminates: 195mm and 297mm normally. Its price is a bit lower because less material and labor is spent on it. Wide plank laminate flooring can make your room look a bit smaller. It is suitable to for wide plank laminates for the panels of the stair nose as there will the type of planks will make the work easier. It is suitable to use this type of laminate to show designs completely to offer a better look. Most of 3-strip designs are adopted on wide plank laminate. Also there will be connection problem with wide plank laminate flooring.

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Laminate flooring will replace all hardwood flooring in the future?

The market share of laminate is becoming bigger and bigger in the field of interior flooring. Some newspaper even claims that laminate flooring will replace all hardwood flooring in the future. We don’t think this is a right idea. There are some characteristics of hardwood floor covering which laminate doesn’t have. Laminate can’t increase the value of the house. Laminate can’t offer the same nice foot feel as that as hardwood type. Laminate is not as durable as hardwood type. Also there is lot of honest users of hardwood type. It is very difficult for them to accept laminate to be used for their house. And many users still fear formaldehyde from the laminate though the formaldehyde release is not a problem. In a word, it is impossible for laminate flooring to replace all hardwood flooring in the future.

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Some tips for you to read before you shop laminate flooring

Some users just read the ads of laminate flooring and then go to shop this type of flooring. In fact, there are some important tips for you to read before you shop this type of flooring.

The first tip: what is your purpose of the shopping? If you want to increase the value of your house, you need to shop hardwood type instead of laminates. If you want to choose some cheap floor covering material which is strong abrasion resistant, easy to care and various colors for you to choose, laminates are a good choice.

The second tip: which place will you have the laminate flooring installed? If it is for the first floor, bathroom, kitchen room, laminates are not suitable as it is not water resistant and can’t be used in the place where there is too much water. Also it is not good to shop laminate flooring for the apartment which floor is too thin. There is a little sound when people walk on the laminate. People living in the down floor will hear the noise from the up floor which is installed with laminates if the floor is too thin.

The third tip: Do you know the necessary accessories for laminate flooring? The accessories are very important. They are used to cover the gap and separate laminate planks for expansion purpose. And it is much better for the colors of accessories to be the same as that of laminate. You may ask some professional installers for help if you don’t.

Hope the threes tips can help you before you shop laminate flooring!

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About laminate flooring and rain

How to deal with the rain?

Too much rain falling on the laminate flooring will destroy this type of flooring as it is not water resistant! So be sure that you close the window for the room installed with laminate before you leave your house. Regarding little amount of rain fallen on the laminate, sweep it immediately. Keep the water enter locking system of laminate as possible as you can. Most types of good quality laminate flooring will not warp if a little cup of rain fell on 2 square meters of floor covering area. Laminates broken with rain will expand in all directions. But the expansion sizes are often too much. The colors of the expanded floor area will be deeper than that of the neighboring. But you still work on it. If you think it is ok, you still can use it. The planks will expand and warps if lot of rain fell on them. You have to replace it with new laminate flooring.

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Are solid wood accessories suitable for laminate flooring?

I have laminate flooring installed in my private office. The installer suggest me some solid wood accessories. Is it a good idea?

We don’t think solid wood accessories are suitable for laminate flooring. Their colors can not be the same. The colors of laminate are similar with that of solid wood. But most of the colors are not the same, especially for the colors of 2-strip, 3-strip or multi-strip. What’s more the solid wood accessories are not strong abrasion resistant. So the T-molding made of solid wood can not be used for heavy traffic place, while laminate flooring is often used at heavy traffic place. Solid wood accessories are much more expensive than accessories made of density fiber board. And they can increase the value of your house. So we don’t think it is suitable to use solid wood flooring for laminate flooring.

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How to install laminate flooring on stairs?

I have installed laminate flooring in my sitting room. Now I plan to install laminate on the stairs in the room. Can you offer some suggestion about the work?

First, make each stair dry and even. Second, measure the length, height and width of one unit stair. Third, Avoid using two pieces of laminate flooring for one stair as possible as you can. For example, get laminate planks with the width of 297mm rather than 192mm if the width of the stair is 270mm wide. 2 pieces of laminate planks for one stair will leave a line on the connection space of 2 planks, which will affect the look. Fourth, keep necessary expansion space at the edge of laminate planks. Fifty, install stair nose at the each corner of stairs. Sixth, the color of laminate flooring should be the same as that on the floor to offer a better look. Finally, hire a professional laminate flooring installer to do the work if you are not sure you can do it yourself.

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How to get the laminate flooring done in the enlarged room?

I had laminate flooring installed in my sitting room one year before. Now I have “dismantled” a room neighboring to the sitting room to enlarge the sitting room. How to get the laminate flooring done in the enlarged room?

Basically there are two ways to solve the problem. The first way is to dismantle the existing laminate flooring and then install the whole new room with new laminate flooring. The advantage of this way is that all the newly installed laminate will be with the exactly same color. Though you can get new laminate which color matches the installed one, you can’t get their colors exactly the same as it is the old color with the installed one. There will be definite or minimum color difference. The second way is to install the color matched laminate flooring in the enlarged room and use T-molding to cover transition space between the old one and newly installed one. The pro of the way is that you can save some energy and labor. If the color difference is not much or you don’t care it, you can get laminate flooring done in the enlarged room in this way.

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