Wood Flooring OR Laminate Flooring?

The choice between wood flooring and laminate flooring is one faced by most people looking to invest in new flooring. This choice can be confusing and for this reason we’ve put together a guide to help you choose which may work best for you.

Laminate flooring is made from a multi-layer synthetic flooring product, fused together by a lamination process. Wood flooring or hardwood flooring, is made from 100% real wood (called solid wood flooring) or from a combination of real wood, plywood and hardwood veneer (called engineered wood flooring).

Although to the naked eye some types of laminate floors might look like real wooden flooring and vice versa, the two are quite different when it comes to their characteristics. 

Below you’ll find a guide to their features.

Wood Flooring OR Laminate Flooring Comparison:

Quality laminate flooring is designed to look and feel like real wood and comes with a similar price tag, but not all its benefits. Both floors are suitable for DIY installation, but only hardwood flooring can be repaired.

While laminate floors are better suited to cope with scratches, the overall life expectancy of a hardwood floor is almost 4 times greater. On-going cleaning and general maintenance is fairly easy for both types of floor, however certain types of hardwood floors can be refinished, thereby extending their life expectancy even further.

Most importantly for most of us, while some types of higher end laminate floors might look like real wood, real hardwood floor is and will always look like the real thing, making it a great choice.