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Although carpet and hardwood are great options in many areas of the home, they are sometimes inadequate.  Certain areas of the home like the kitchen, or garage, typically demand a greater level of durability and resilience.  Carpet absorbs stains and moisture too easily, leading to a dingy looking surface that may also attract odors.  Hardwood offers a tougher surface than carpet, but it also suffers from problems with moisture.  A moist hardwood eventually warps and cracks.  After many seasons of expansion and contraction, moisture damage can become very apparent with a hardwood floor.

Places in which water damage and accidents occur can result in scratching or gouging in the flooring as well.  Laminate flooring is a wonderful solution for water damage and durability issues.  With a laminate floor, designers can have the aesthetic allure of hardwood, while dodging many of the normal pitfalls.  Laminate flooring is very resilient when it comes to moisture issues and will not absorb water.  Stains are not an issue, and with prompt clean up, will cause no lasting damage at all.
Best of all, laminate flooring is very well priced, and can be found in a great selection of shades, colors, and styles. 

Laying down laminate flooring is also relatively simple.  As soon as a set of tiles can be unwrapped, check each to make sure there are no broken tiles.  Once certain that all the tiles are in good condition, give the tiles a few days to acclimate to their new climate.  There may be some contraction or expansion involved when the laminate flooring tiles arrive in a new setting. 

Make certain to follow all manufacturer guidelines that are included with the tile product.  Specific instructions on how to glue the tiles are critical, and can affect the overall performance of the tile.  It is also important to ensure that the tiles are placed with a quarter of an inch space between the wall and the flooring.  Although a great deal of tools isn’t required for in home installation, you may need something to cut the tile around corners, fireplaces, stairs, etc.  A wet tile saw would definitely be adequate to cut laminate flooring.

Having a level surface for laying down tiles is also crucial.  Be certain to fill any holes in the subflooring, or sand away any protruding areas that might stick up afterward.

Visit floor options to read an updated version about discount laminate flooring and more information about Pergo laminate flooring.

These days, with so many great choices in flooring to choose from, it’s especially important to know what your choices are. When you find yourself ready to upgrade your home’s interior with new flooring, start the journey by becoming an informed consumer.

The following design tips by Bruce should help ensure that your decision-making process is a snap:

* Floors that are light-colored are likely to make any room seem brighter, whereas large, darker-colored floors create a more dramatic interior.

* Contrary to popular belief, your floor does not have to match the species and graining of your furniture or cabinets. Feel free to go against the grain. The interplay of different woods can provide greater visual interest and personality to your room.

* Narrow strips of flooring in a room helps improve an otherwise boxy looking room by making it seem longer. Likewise, installing your room’s flooring with the boards running across the room, or at a diagonal, can help create a visual look that makes the room seem more spacious and inviting.

* For larger, more spacious rooms, many believe that wide-width planks improve the appearance by making the room seem more scale-appropriate.

* To help a room appear less formal, without diminishing its overall beauty or sophistication, consider beveled-edge details, light colors, bold graining, random width planks, surface irregularities and low-gloss finish.

* Use the same hardwood flooring in each room of your home to make it appear bigger and to create a pleasing visual continuity throughout.

* Area rugs are another way you can enhance the look and feel of your hardwood floors and help to define space. Be sure, however, to use a rug with a soft, non-abrasive back or one having a breathable under-pad. This will help to protect the floor.

* The website, Armstrong.com, can help you see how your hardwood floors might look in your own rooms through use of their ‘Design My Rooms’ CD. You can even shoot a digital photo of your room, then by outline the floor with your mouse, try other, various hardwood flooring to see how this would look in your living space.

Bamboo flooring provides an fantastic alternative to traditional hardwood flooring.

Rising in popularity as an alternative, bamboo flooring has quite a few attractive features that make it a practical alternative for modern homeowners.

Though harvested primarily in China, bamboo flooring can now be found easily in both European and North American markets.

Many early adopters of bamboo flooring note its environmental friendliness.

The bamboo plant regrows very quickly when compared with the amount of time it takes a forest to regrow.

In fact, the bamboo plant is considered a grass, as it grows much faster than any tree.

When done responsibly, bamboo plant harvesting can be done without causing any lasting damage.

How does bamboo flooring compare with traditional hardwoods? High quality bamboo flooring is harder and more durable than even the most expensive hardwood flooring.

Moisture is also less of a problem for bamboo flooring. Where traditional hardwood may buckle and crack because of water exposure, bamboo flooring will keep out water without a problem.

Bamboo flooring is processed as a laminate and treated under very high pressure with a high caliber adhesive.

This makes bamboo flooring very resistant to abrasions and scratches, where less hardened hardwood floors may show scratches after a while.

Bamboo flooring has become a great deal more affordable in recent times as well.

Best of all, bamboo flooring is simple enough to lay down without any professional help.

Like many of the newer hardwoods, bamboo flooring is produced with a tongue and groove construction, making them considerably easier to install.

Prior to laying down a bamboo floor, allow the planks settle into their new environment for no less than 72 hours.

Although bamboo flooring does not suffer from water damage like hardwood, they do need some time to adjust to the new environment before installation.

What should be done to maintain a bamboo floor? Maintenance requirements are fairly simple for bamboo flooring.

Make certain to sweep and mop the floor after it is laid down.

Regular dusting and sweeping should be done after installation. This will prevent a build up of dust that can dull the finish.

A rug used at the entrance way will keep out a great deal of dust and dirt.

Dirt and small rocks will end up damaging the finish, and a rug can do a great deal to prevent this problem.

Laminate flooring was introduced in America in 1994 and since then its popularity has always been on the rise. As with any popular product, there has been a flood of versions of laminate flooring. There has been this whole host of manufacturers who have jumped on to the bandwagon and are now producing laminate flooring of various types an numerous designs. As the saying goes, the more the choice, the harder it becomes to choose, and it is also very true for laminate flooring. What we are here trying to do is to help you decide on the right laminate floor that you will need.

There are various factors which you will need to consider before deciding on one particular flooring.

Price

This has always been a crucial factor no matter what you are buying. And as much as you would like to save the maximum amount, going for the best deal doesn’t always work out. First of all get your budget done. While researching on the net you might come across unbelievable deals like less than a dollar for every square feet. The best thing would be not to believe them. The normal price range for laminate flooring is generally between $1.5 and $3 for every square feet, with some going as high as $6 per sq. ft. Anything lower than that might mean either they are discontinued products whose replacements wont be available when you need them or you might need to buy a huge quantity to get the special discounted price.

Design Choices

There are numerous designs available today, enough to make you go crazy. If you are looking for wood designs, you will get the designs for all the species. You will also have to choose between:

• Single strip
• Two strip and
• Three strip

Then you will need to decide on laminate boards with

• square edges,
• beveled edges and
• micro-beveled edges

Finally you will have to take a call on the different surface finishes and textures. That is quite a choice. But decide only after seeing the boards, preferably installed on a floor. You can also look photographs of rooms with particular type of floorings. However, never should you decide on a particular kind just by looking at a photograph. Also remember that your floor forms the foundation of the room décor and it should gel well with the furniture and the color of the walls.

Warranty

Before finally deciding on a particular product, look at the warranty on offer. The general trend is to provide a 15-year residential warranty for protection against premature wear, staining and fading. Protection against accidental moisture damage would be a bonus.

If you are trying to decide on flooring, no doubt you will become confused and probably even frustrated. However, there are two types of flooring in particular that you will want to consider, which are: prefinished hardwood flooring and laminate flooring.

In order to be able to best decide which type of flooring is going to be best for you, you are going to need to become more educated on each first, and understand the different pros and cons of the two.

Prefinished Hardwood Flooring

Prefinished hardwood flooring is one of the most common types of flooring chosen, and for good reason. One of the greatest benefits of this type of flooring is that they come with an extended factory finish warranty unlike the unfinished flooring types.

The prefinished floors have a definite advantage, as clean up and labor is not required. There is also the fact that sanding and coating is unnecessary on this type of flooring, unlike unfinished floors.

Basically if you get a prefinished floor there is no extra time and work that has to go into the installation process, and so it is the perfect choice if you want to get things done as quickly as possible.

Laminate Flooring

The laminate type of flooring is also worth considering. It is a very versatile, durable, attractive flooring with the appearance of a hardwood floor, and although laminate flooring looks like wood flooring, there is actually no solid wood used in its construction. These floors are made up of several different materials which are then bonded together under high pressure.

These are very durable floors and so they are ideal for high traffic areas in the home, such as the hallway.

One of the most obvious advantages of the laminate flooring is its price, as it is much cheaper than other flooring types. Just make sure if you are installing the laminate floor yourself that the subfloor is flat, dry and smooth before starting.

Overall, prefinished hardwood flooring comes out on top, but it really all depends on where you are having the flooring installed in your home, how much money you have to work with, and so on. If you do decide to get the prefinished hardwood flooring in your home, just make sure that you get a professional to install it so that you know the job is getting done right and that your money is going to be spent as wisely as possible.