Thinking about Laminate flooring? Your budget can very determine the grade of laminate flooring to be installed. Modern laminate floors are attractive, versatile, and durable, but they are not scratch proof or gouge proof. All laminate flooring has a wear rating denoted by an AC, “Abrasion Class,” followed by a number. There are five AC ratings for laminate floors, ranging from AC1 for low-traffic areas to AC5, meant for commercial use but can be installed in your home. Laminate flooring is usually installed in a click floating system.
If you are considering a product with more real and natural features, engineered hardwood would be a choice. The most common available engineered hardwood top layer is attached to a plywood base. Do keep in mind not all plywood is made the same. Other engineered hardwood come attached to SPF (soft wood) or HDF (high density fiberboard) core construction. Engineered hardwood top layer can range in thickness from 1mm to 6mm. The thickness is the ultimate factor in impacting the price per square foot.
The advantage of engineered hardwood is having the ability to sand and refinish the floors. Unlike hardwood, engineered hardwood can only be sanded and stained once maybe twice.
Hardwood flooring is the most common flooring installed in main levels for new builds. Whether it is parquet floors, maple, red oak, white oak, birch, and other exotic floors installation is standardized as nail down. Hardwood comes in different grades like laminate, such as Character, Rustic, Select, and Select & Better. Designs such as wire brushed, finger jointed, wide planks or the standard 3 ¼ width all play a factor in beautifying your home.
Recently Vinyl planks have been dominating the flooring industry for its durability and resistance to water. Vinyl planks have evolved from a commercial use only to residential. Many vinyl planks imitate the look of hardwood floors or tiles in the kitchen. They are simple to install such as laminate in a floating click system or can be directly glued to your subfloor.
While considering any of the above flooring options, other crucial details must be attended. Before we do an installation, we check your subfloors to our best of ability with possible limited access to them. Hearing squeaks may be a call to reinforce the subfloor back into the joists, in more severe cases a new subfloor would be required to be installed in replacement of the existing or above.
When choosing your flooring type, we always attend to the need of other accessories such transitions including T-mouldings, reducers, overlap nosing, baseboard, shoe mold or quarter round. These types of accessories must match the type of flooring you are using.
Other flooring that can be installed in your home or office could be carpet in their limitless types and colors.