Laminate flooring is such a wise choice when you are trying to update your home.  It firmly believe its one of the cheapest and yet most effective ways to increase the value of any residence.

As I brought out earlier it can completely change the look of a house. One of the nice things about laminate, out of many, is that there are so many choices to choose from!

You can make your house look any style you want.  It can look stone, ceramic, or wood. And there are variations of all kinds of colors and styles within all of those.  The options for you to choose from can number in the hundreds.

This may be a little off topic but most theme parks utilize laminate pieces when they are designing themes and cues for certain rides or areas within their park..  Like the whole “Sword and the Stone” knight theme. Those stones are most likely not real.  They are laminate, although, you never would know it.

It is becoming more popular all of the time because this particular flooring is easy to install, affordable, and its durable also.

I am also a firm believer that its especially nice for families that have kids, pets, and just a lot of traffic in general. The reason for this is that also doesn’t fade in the sun unlike real wood floors and it resists water!  If or when you have kids you will really be able to appreciate that point.  Kids spill drinks all the time and you need a material that you can easily wipe up and not stain.

Good quality laminate has thicker cores and is treated with water repellent chemicals. That makes it able to sustain excessive amounts of water without swelling.  Many people only put it in the living and bedrooms but I think this point makes it  great for bathrooms or kitchens. The top layer is also very dense so it makes it very hard to scratch or even burn!

By the way a lot of companies that make laminate floors give warranties with their products, which make it a little more comforting for your purchase.  Most of them have a five year warranty of them against defects but the top quality ones will usually come with a ten year warranty.

I repeat, these types of floors are made to be easy to install for your typical homeowner with little prior knowledge.  There are so many different laminate flooring companies, with so many different styles, and they are continually coming out with more innovations to make it easier all the time for installing it.

Generally it has a tongue and groove interlocking system to install it, making it go together fast and easy. If you have any sort of carpentry experience at all you can honestly make putting a new floor in just a weekend project. Also all that you need underneath is basically any hard flat surface that is even. The sub floor can be plywood, concrete, sheet vinyl flooring, hardwood floor, etc.

So go on ahead and get started! Quit dreaming and start shopping for the right style laminate floor for you!

I often get e-mailed the question pertaining to the costs of laminate flooring. By now most people already know that laminates are less expensive than oak hardwood floors but what is the actual savings?

There is an excellent article called Laminate Floor Basics that talks about this subject in depth but what I found out is that your typical laminate will go from $3.50 a square ft all the way to $5.00 a square foot.  The typical cost for oak hardwood is $10 per sq ft on the low end to $12 a square foot on the high end.

Now according to the National Association of Home Builders the standard home in the United States is 2,000 square feet with two full bathrooms, three living rooms, a dining room, two general purpose rooms, basement, garage, and fireplace.

Now obviously you are not going to have to upgrade the floors in all parts of the house like the basement so when doing the numbers I would say that a typical house will require 1000-1400 feet of laminate flooring.

This means that for the majority of the homeowners it will take $3500 to $4,900 if you install average quality laminate in your home by yourself or $5,000 to $7,000 if you install high end laminate in your home, again, by yourself.

You save a lot if you do all the work yourself and can expect to pay a couple thousand more than the prices I just calculated if you get a contractor or someone else to do it.

It is really is not that hard to DIY but you it does help if you have some sort of construction aptitude if decide you want to install this flooring in your home yourself.

I am going to tell you that Pergo makes the easiest to install.  They make their pieces to be installed like you would a puzzle and you just wet the dry glue on them and lock them into place.

Back to the costs.  I have found that if you really look around whether locally or on the internet you can get some decent laminate for even under $3.50 a square foot.

You have to remember that we are in a recession and there are way more houses on the market than people wanting to buy them.  Remember 2003-2007 when houses were springing up all over the place.

Large chains like Home Depot and Lowes could not keep this item on their shelves just a year and a half ago.  Now they are trying to unload it as fast as they can.

I have seen some laminate going for $.99 a sq ft on some sites.  That is bone cheap and I would avoid those sites.  That seems just way bellow market value and I doubt the quality at those prices.

Nevertheless if you look around the web you can find some decent stuff for $1.59 per piece without shipping.  Some will offer free shipping so I would check.

Hope this answered those e-mails I got.  Thanks.  Remember to read the article I just wrote about the pros and cons of going with this type of material as there are indeed negative aspects of laminate that follow the many positive things.