Laminate vs. Hardwood Flooring

[dave_the_nerd]

We're looking to replace the carpeting in the townhouse with wood for cleanliness (asthma) reasons as well as the age and cosmetic condition of the carpeting.

It looks like hardwood is about double the price of laminate flooring, depending, but we're wondering if it's worth it? We have laminate in the kitchen that has held up alright (house is 8 years old) but we will probably be here a while. The laminate looks like it wouldn't be easy to repair or refinish, since it's veneer over particle board. Is it durable enough not to matter?

Cost is doable either way, but don't want to spend money foolishly.

Thanks!

 

[schmuckley]

It's "laminate"
and glued down hardwood is better.

 

[MustISO]

We have Bruce engineered hardwood and it's held up very well after 15 years. Granted we don't wear shoes in the house and don't have pets.

 

[Greenman]

Pre-finished or laminate is what you use when you can't afford finish in place hardwood.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It's "laminate"

Fixed. Posting from phone.

Thanks for the opinions so far, folks. Some of our relatives also pointed out that hardwood is considered better for resale value too.

Pre-finished or laminate is what you use when you can't afford finish in place hardwood.

Why would pre-finished hardwood be not-as-good as finish-in-place hardwood? Is it just a matter of getting the finish in the cracks? (I mean, the wood's the same, right?)

We were leaning towards pre-finished for ease-of-installation, assuming we'd have to refinish every few years anyway - we have pets and I'm a klutz.

 

[NutBucket]

I don't get it either but hardwood does look better. Maybe it's because of the finish since laminate is made to replaed, not refinished.

 

[Greenman]

It's the edges that give away prefinished flooring. No mater how good the material is, the edges and seams are never perfectly flat. Run your hand over them and you can feel every joint. Finished in place flooring doesn't have that because it's all assembled then sanded. The edges are perfect, and it shows. No bumps, no little groves, no "eased" edges, just a perfectly flat floor.

 

[NutBucket]

But don't forget there's also prefinished hardwood. I've never seen in though.

 

[highland145]

Our house was built in 1937. Has the original oak floors so they should last longer than you will live there. Had a dirt drive until last year and they still held up with all of the grit tracked in.

It's the edges that give away prefinished flooring. No mater how good the material is, the edges and seams are never perfectly flat. Run your hand over them and you can feel every joint. Finished in place flooring doesn't have that because it's all assembled then sanded. The edges are perfect, and it shows. No bumps, no little groves, no "eased" edges, just a perfectly flat floor.

Put pre finished 3/4" oak down at the bro in laws. The edges had a small 45 degree bevel. Initially I wasn't too keen on the look (imagine wainscoting on the floor) but it's fine. That was several years ago and it still looks good. They live on a farm, 3 kids, dogs, etc.

 

[Greenman]

Our house was built in 1937. Has the original oak floors so they should last longer than you will live there. Had a dirt drive until last year and they still held up with all of the grit tracked in.
Put pre finished 3/4" oak down at the bro in laws. The edges had a small 45 degree bevel. Initially I wasn't too keen on the look (imagine wainscoting on the floor) but it's fine. That was several years ago and it still looks good. They live on a farm, 3 kids, dogs, etc.

I'm sure it holds up, it's the look I was talking about. prefinished doesn't look the same as finished in place. I prefer the smooth sanded look of FIP flooring, though I have seen and installed some very nice pre finished.

 

[shabby]

Cost is doable either way, but don't want to spend money foolishly.

Laminate should be cheaper than that, its at least 50-75% cheaper than hardwood, installation is also half price.
Anyway laminate is free floating so if your floor has dips and bumps in certain places you'll feel the laminate moving.

 

[Scarpozzi]

In my experience you get what you pay for. Laminate goes down easy, but is typically a floating floor. If the floor isn't totally level, it can actually raise off the subfloor slightly. We had it in our kitchen when we moved in (probably was installed 2 years earlier). I ripped it up and replaced it with hardwood and tile.

My recommendation is hard wood. If you can't find a good price in your area, call around the flooring meccas and see if you can find something you're able to match in your local area. EXAMPLE. Go to the home improvement stores and see what you have in your area...I found Bruce hardwood flooring in my area that I liked at Lowes that was $99/box (20sq ft @ $5/sq ft cost). I called Dalton, GA and found a place that was selling the same stuff at half price. $2.49/sq ft. I had 1400 sq feet of flooring drop shipped to me for $200 with no tax 5 years ago. I bought a flooring nailer on eBay and ordered nails from Amazon (cheaper than Lowes/Home Depot). I was able to floor my house for $4300 ish doing the labor myself.

It just took time and some advil.

 

[slag]

We have mohawk vinyl laminate throughout the house. People who see it can't tell its not hardwood until they look closely. With pets and kids, the maintenance is nothing more than mopping every once in awhile. No finishing, waxing, or gouges to worry about. If by chance something should happen to it, its relatively easy to pop in a new panel as well.

 

[richardycc]

if money is not a concern, get hardwood, it can easily last 30yrs, they'll still look OK with some scratches or dents. laminate will most likely need to be replaced in 10yrs or so. you will get your hardwood money back when you sell your house anyway.

 

[z1ggy]

I have laminate in my house. It's been in for probably 10+ years, and it's starting to show. It's getting dings, scratches and little sections are peeling up a little bit, and some of the joints have come loose, from what I assume is the house settling a bit and contracting/expanding.

If you're in a home in which you see yourself being in for a decade or more... Just invest in real hardwood.

 

[Scarpozzi]

if money is not a concern, get hardwood, it can easily last 30yrs, they'll still look OK with some scratches or dents. laminate will most likely need to be replaced in 10yrs or so. you will get your hardwood money back when you sell your house anyway.

Hardwood will last 100+ years. What you mean is that it will last 30 years before you need to refinish it (which can be done multiple times if you need it)

Yeah...it'll scratch and gouges happen by moving furniture, etc....

My cousin bought a brand new house with laminate (because it was built on slab). They lived there a week when a dining room chair had a nail on the bottom of the leg scratch the laminate. Rather than exposing unfinished wood in a scratch that could be filled with wood filler....it exposed the cardboard or particle board it's made of. It stood out pretty bad. It would be something you could fix, but it would take knowing what brand you had and putting up a box for repairs.

A good friend of mine just took up all the carpet in his house and put down tile that looks like hardwood. It looks pretty cool because he did thin, dark grout lines, but tile can have problems too. It just depends on the style you want.

 

[NutBucket]

I've got that type of tile in the kitchen. It looks really nice!

 

[SearchMaster]

We *just* put in laminate (finished two days ago). Hardwood would have been nice but we were doing three rooms plus a long hallway and the cost would have been prohibitive. My wife found a really large order that had been returned to Home Depot so we paid less than half the original price. A friend of ours is a professional flooring installer and he put it in for free (one room plus the hallway). We will do the other two rooms later when he and we have more time to do so. It seems to be much higher quality than what I installed in the kitchen 10 years or so ago and has patterns in the laminate that make it look more realistic (the patterns in my kitchen laminate aren't nearly as convincing). We are very pleased with the look and the cost.

 

[DrPizza]

Pre-finished or laminate is what you use when you can't afford finish in place hardwood.

Oddly, I'm most likely going with pre-finished in the near future (Allen Roth? or Bruce) - not because of cost - the pre-finished is more expensive than the finish in place. And, I don't really mind most of the work. I just hate certain aspects of it - sanding the last 6 inches to the wall, etc. I can get the flooring from the local Amish for pretty cheap. (Kiln dried, and milled at one of the Amish workshops.)

Like you, I prefer the look of the FIP; but I'm not thrilled about how many extra days it'll take to do the job (myself, with maybe my wife helping). Not to mention the month it takes for the stuff to cure properly before you risk moving furniture onto the floor.

 

[slag]

There are a few different types of laminate really. There's the pergo style laminate that has compressed wood under the top hard surface. There is also vinyl plank which is considered a laminate as it mirrors installation of a true laminate flooring, but without the issues of water damage or serious scratches.

 

[NutBucket]

Like you, I prefer the look of the FIP; but I'm not thrilled about how many extra days it'll take to do the job (myself, with maybe my wife helping). Not to mention the month it takes for the stuff to cure properly before you risk moving furniture onto the floor.

Huh? What month? My flooring guy said wait a few days and it's good and that's with an oil based finish. Water based is good to go the next day.

 

[highland145]

Huh? What month? My flooring guy said wait a few days and it's good and that's with an oil based finish. Water based is good to go the next day.

That was my experience. Could walk on it in 4hrs with socks.

 

[UnklSnappy]

Your normally good to go after a day or so after the last coat to put your furniture back and resume your life.
The only thing you should hold off on for 3 or 4 weeks is putting any area rugs back. If you put them back right away and then decide to move them later on you may have a 2 tone effect.

 

[DrPizza]

That was my experience. Could walk on it in 4hrs with socks.

Oh, absolutely. However, it takes roughly a month before it fully cures. During that month, it's much, much easier to scratch the floor. After the month, very difficult to scratch the floor. If you have dogs, after it's cured, the dogs can't scratch the floor if they run and slide. Before it's cured, they can scratch the heck out of it. (Been there, done that.)


Anyway, bumped this thread because:
I just installed some Bruce engineered flooring (laminate) in the garage. Looks great. 25 year warranty. $2.59 per square foot. As mentioned above, we were planning on refinishing the entire house in a 3/4" hardwood. But... given how natural this stuff looks... we were thinking that we could save several thousand dollars using it, instead of going with solid. It was a pain in the neck to install it; the many of the pieces were bowed from one end to the other (not side to side), and very difficult to get to lock together. Not that it's much more difficult than installing hardwood though.

Considerations: 2 adults, no children, and will probably have dogs in the house for at least the next 10 years. Zero plans to sell the house; thus resale value is not an issue at all.

Talk me into it or out of it. If you talk me into it; I'll end up purchasing the necessary amount this weekend.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Double the price, but it's worth it. Especially with the quality of laminate flooring I've been seeing.

Think of Hardwood as LIFETIME (assuming you get nice thick plans of SOLID wood. Note that some hardwood is thin and can't be resurfaced (DO NOT GET THAT).

Laminate cannot be resurfaced. I have original Pergo laminate throughout my house and it's been over 10+ years, still looks like new. Its also been used/abused hell and back. It seems like it's not being damaged by ANYTHING (water/no warping etc).

Then there is current day laminate, my mom had it done....it's COMPLETE crap. Started warping etc within weeks of installation. Supposedly it was "industrial grade".

I'm not sure if Pergo quality tanked either....

In general, Hardwood floors = lifetime (if you select proper one of course).