Why should anyone want Hardwood Floors when Laminated Floors can look just like Wood last longer and require less care?
If you have ever compared prices on flooring, you know that hardwood is considerably more expensive than nearly any other type of flooring. You may also know that laminate is easy to maintain and can look very similar to hardwood. So you might be wondering why anyone would pay so much more for hardwood when they could save money and effort by installing laminate. Here are a couple reasons why hardwood might be worth the investment.
First, hardwood beats every other flooring type in terms of longevity. You may have heard that laminate lasts as long as hardwood, but that is not entirely true. Laminate will generally last ten to fifteen years. Hardwood will also be starting to look worn and faded after ten years.
Hardwood, however, can be refinished, making it look like new again and again. Laminate must be replaced. So while hardwood has a much higher initial cost, the cost of refinishing is much less than the replacement cost of laminate. If you plan on living in your home for the foreseeable future, hardwood is a much better long-term investment.
Hardwood is also a better investment if you plan on selling your home in the near future. While homebuyers might prefer a laminate floor over
carpet, laminate does not generally add value to your home. Hardwood flooring, on the other hand, will almost always make your home much more desirable and, therefore, more valuable.
If you want an easy to maintain floor, laminate is a great choice. Hardwood is actually not any more difficult to maintain than laminate, however. Unlike the hardwood floors that were common a couple centuries ago, modern hardwood does not need to be waxed or polished. It can be swept, vacuumed, or dust mopped just like laminate.
Perhaps the most important difference between laminate and hardwood, however, is the way it looks. While modern laminate has come a long way in terms of appearance (some laminate is even textured to mimic the feel of hardwood), it cannot truly replicate hardwood. Because hardwood is made from natural wood, it has subtle differences in every plank. No factory can replicate what nature does so well!
Some laminate manufacturers might tell you that “no one will even notice the difference”, but that is simply not true. Not only are laminate planks generally wider (four to six inches wide instead of one and a half to two inches wide), but the texture, the natural wood grains, and even the way hardwood feels under your feet are not something that can be reproduced by a machine. You might fool someone with laminate at first glance, but anyone who looks closely at your floor will know the difference.
So is hardwood really worth the extra cost? That depends on what is important to you. If you are looking for an affordable and durable floor, there is nothing wrong with laminate. If longevity, beauty, and prestige are important to you, however, there is no better flooring than hardwood!
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