Real Hardwood Floors or Laminate Hardwood Floors. This is the eternal debate! We recently installed Laminate Wood Flooring in our home (you can read more HERE), and I wanted to take a moment to explain why we went with laminate floors and the pros and cons of each!
First of all, they can BOTH create beautiful floors and they are both nicer then linoleum and even sometimes carpet! A big chunk of our downstairs was linoleum flooring. It was nice, it was an upgrade from the standard builder grade flooring, it was the perfect color, being light yet not showing ANYTHING! And honestly linoleum is really durable and very kid friendly! It also has easy upkeep and we have really enjoyed it.
But. We desperately wanted wood floors! We love real hardwood floors however, they are not always the best choice. We chose to install floating, click and lock laminate wood flooring based on many factors. Here are a few pros and cons to each!
Floating Click-Lock Laminate Wood Flooring
- cost effective (as low as $1.25 sq ft)
- easy to install and can often be installed over existing flooring
- snaps and locks into place and floats over your existing subfloor
- little or no prep work for your subfloors
- a good mid-grade home improvement project. Not ideal for a very high-end or custom neighborhood depending on location. Always research what other homes in your neighborhood have as you don't want to over or under upgrade your home.
- not easily damaged, good for people with dogs and small children
- easy to clean, no yearly maintenance
Real Hardwood Flooring (either solid wood or engineered hardwood)
- more expensive (starting usually around $3 sq ft)
- more difficult to install and requires your floor to be bare concrete or subfloor prior to installing
- install with glue and / or nails directly to your subfloor unless it is engineered
- you must often self-level your concrete floors or reinforce your wood subfloors prior to installing
- a more expensive and higher-end home improvement project. Ideal for custom or high-end homes. If you install in a started home, you may price your home out of the market in your area. So always research what is "normal" for your neighborhood prior to making any decisions.
- can be easily damaged and can be difficult to maintain a perfect looking quality with dogs or young children in the home
- easy to clean, but requires re-sealing every year or two to maintain it's appearance and to keep it in good condition
Our home is in a nice neighborhood, they are not starter homes, but they are not crazy high-end homes either. There are a few people in our neighborhood who have real wood, but most people have either linoleum or laminate wood flooring. So for resale, real hardwood floors would be on the high-end for our neighborhood.
But also, real hardwood floors cost a lot more money. We were able to get a great deal on really nice looking, distressed, 6" wide plank laminate flooring but hardwood floors were out of our budget for as much square footage as we have!
In addition to cost and resale value, we also considered the prep work. If we installed real hardwood floors we would need to rip up our existing linoleum, self level our concrete floors and then glue the flooring down. With laminate flooring we had zero prep work with regards to the floor.
So in the end, for budget, resale and amount of work involved, we knew that Floating Laminate Wood Floors were the right choice for our home!
suzy supnet
Great post. It is always hard to decide when to go higher end because you don't want to spend less money now only to have to replace it sooner. I do have to say though that we have laminate in the kitchen and I HATE it. It was so difficult to install. If you are not patient I would pay.Sometimes they have deals like $99.00 install which would be worth it. We have gaps and chips. LOL At least
Ashley Phipps
I know, it can be a hard decision to make. <br /><br />They actually make engineered hardwood floors that install the same way as laminate so you can (in theory) run into the same issue with hardwood if you are doing the engineered hardwood that clicks and locks together! But with solid hardwood your subfloors have to be perfectly level...so they can ALL be a pain to install! So you are totally
suzy supnet
Thanks for the response Ashley. It's funny that you say the floors have to be perfectly level. We live in an old house and definitely do not have level floors. However, the upside is that when my toddler throws a ball it will roll certain ways and can keep her entertained for a while. LOL
Ashley Phipps
hahaha Suzy! That is too funny! Ok...well..they "should" be level 🙂 But sub-flooring also totally settles over time so they don't always stay level. And at least your toddler is entertained 🙂 They must really not be level! What a hoot! 🙂 I am glad you have such a positive outlook on your floors!
Kathleen
I, too, installed laminate flooring in my kitchen, living and family rooms and down the hallway. Because it is a "floating" floor, it "moves". I have gaps between the end to end pieces. More and more are popping up daily. It was cost effective at the time since I needed to replace all the white carpet that was down when we bought our home! Now, it is horrible looking and
suzy supnet
We were in the same spot with wanting to go cheaper Kathleen. Now we know to spend more now so we can spend less later.
Ashley Phipps
Oh yikes Kathleen!! I am so sorry!!! What a horrible flooring experience you have too! Now I am totally wondering where you and Suzy live...maybe it's a climate thing??? How long ago where they installed? We've had laminate flooring before (about 8 years ago and we lived with it for 2 years after that) and we never had a problem! So a part of me is really really curious what has
Kathleen
I live in the desert in Southern California. I am now wondering if the dryness had something to do with my floor moving even tho we acclimated the flooring before installing . Humidity levels stay around 25% or less most of the time. It would be logical that humidity might cause enough expansion to keep the flooring from creating the gaps. Only guessing on that tho. Wish we had used the
Alain
Ashley,<br /><br />You are right it all depends on your home, budget and how long you plan to own it. Obviously if you plan to live their for a while, laminate is fine. Hardwood does get beat up easy. <br />
Athena Emmanouilidis
My house had hardwood flooring when the house was built.I had to change 2 rooms or flooring bc of Hurricane Sandy.I watched the guy.There was no leveling or anything.He banged onthem with a rubber mallet so they clicked together.Fairly simple.No gluing either, I don't know what they're talking about
Elizabeth Owen
I like how you tied the decision about laminate or hard wood to the neighborhood & resale values. Very helpful consideration I've not heard elsewhere.
Ashley Phipps
Thank you!