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Carpet will serve its purpose for covering your floors and comes in a variety of colors to match your decor, but is it the best way to cover your floors?

It looks good and is nice on your feet but, after a lot of traffic, it starts to show wear and tear. It is also a great place for dust mites to live and breed which will play havoc with your allergies. Not to mention it shows stains easily.

Plus, when you vacuum it you will stir up dust that will eventually settle on all your furniture and you will have to clean that up as well. So, my question is, is carpet really the best way to go?

Discount Wood Laminate Flooring:

Discount wood laminate flooring is becoming the home owner’s choice for flooring. It is being hailed as the best way to cover your floors.
Not only is it extremely durable but, it is also very affordable. In todays times affordability carries a lot of weight when building or remodeling your home. It provides you with the opportunity to save money that would other wise be eaten up with another type of floor covering.

It has a real big plus in that it is hypoallergenic, which makes for a much healthier and cleaner atmosphere in which to breathe inside your home. Being that it has no fibers for dust mites to cling to makes it a GREAT choice for your floor.

Maintenance is a breeze too, just go over it with a soft broom and/or a damp mop to remove any debris and you’re done. How easy is that?

The best thing is that a laminate floor will last you a lifetime!

Discover 9 Reasons People Are Choosing Laminate Flooring

1. Laminate flooring is durable:

Laminate flooring is a highly durable flooring surface made for high traffic areas and is an excellent choice for homes with children or pets. All laminate floors have an incredibly hard and durable wear layer finish,that provides better scratch and dent resistance compared to solid hardwood floors and vinyl floors.

2.Laminate floors are stain resistant:

Laminate floors have a highly improved stain resistance quality over solid hardwood flooring and carpet. The flooring planks come pre-finished with a stain-resistant wear coat on the surface.

3.Fade resistant:

Compared to hardwood floors, laminate flooring will not fade over time do to repeated sun exposure.

4.Moisture resistant:

Laminate floors can be installed in environments with higher than normal humidity and moisture levels. Conversely, it is not recommended that solid hardwood floors be installed in these areas due to concerns of cupping, warping, and gaping from the wood expansion and contraction.

5.Variety of colors and styles:

The range of colors, styles, species, and designs offered by laminate flooring is massive. There is a color and design available to suit every interior style and environment.

6.Economical:

Laminate flooring offers you the best proposition when compared to other flooring solutions over the longer term. Compare the different options over 25 years: carpet will have to be replaced 2 to 4 times, solid hardwoods will have to be refinished 3 to 5 times, and vinyl will need to be replaced at least 3 times.

7.Easy to install glueless laminate flooring:

Glueless laminate flooring is not designed to be fastened to the sub-floor, but to float to adjust to the temperature and humidity of the inside of your home. You can install glueless laminate flooring by placing it over an existing floor, sub-floor, or even concrete. The most popular brands now feature how to install glueless laminate flooring with a click system that easily snaps together.

8.Easy maintenance:

Just vacuuming and wiping with a damp mop or rag is all that is needed to keep your floors clean. Although this is a scratch-resistant product, sharp pebbles and objects may scratch though the wear layer, and leave a visible scratch. Laminate floors are not designed to be sanded. Minor scratches can be repaired with special color matching pencils, seam gaps can be repaired with fillers, and larger chips may call for the use of color burn-ing sticks. All of these fixes are fairly simple, and if large damage occurs, you can take out that section and replace the damaged board.

9.Health benefits:

When you compare carpet and rugs to laminate flooring it is considered to be healthier for your environment. Laminate surfaces do not allow for the accumulation of dust, dust mites and debris as does carpets and rugs therefore giving you a cleaner environment. Allergists have reported that by removing the carpet in your home can be benefical to people who suffer from dust allergies.

Do-It-Yourself Installation:

Do-It-Yourself rating, (DIY) [On a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being the hardest.
Rating: 2 (This takes more patience than skill)

Easy installation is one of laminate flooring’s prime attributes. It’s an “interlocking floating” floor, which means the floor tiles or planks attach to each other rather than to the subfloor. They attach via a tongue-and-groove, glueless system that makes it possible to install a laminate floor over virtually any existing floor (except high-pile carpet.) While a floating floor eliminates the need to prep a subfloor, it does require the use of an underlayment. Underlayments provide protection against warping from moisture beneath, particularly if you’re installing the floor over concrete. Underlayments also reduce or eliminate “hollow” sounds generated from traffic on the floor.

You can save money on the “underlayment” if you are just wanting to create a vapor barrier between your sub-floor and the laminate floor. The less expensive way is to just us roofing felt paper, either 15lb or 30lb. This will provide you with an adequate barrier and will save you from the cost of the “underlayment”.
You can also save yourself some time with a speciality tool that you can pick up at your flooring store or order from here with your flooring that will help you to join the planks together without damaging the tongue and grooves on the edge of the planks.

Something To Keep In Mind:

* Some laminate floors come with underlayment attached to the floor. However a “rolled out” underlayment provides greater sound absorption and moisture protection than laminate floors with attached underlayments.
* For extra moisture protection in bathrooms and near kitchen sinks, you’ll need to seal around the perimeter of the floor with caulk or sealant. Bathroom installations should also use a glued seam (not floating) installation method to prevent water from seeping between the seams.
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6 MM Norway Oak

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8 MM Mountain Pine

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6 MM Swedish Maple

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7 MM Shenandoah Oak



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8 MM Royal Mahogany



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12 MM Westminister Rosewood High Gloss



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7 MM Old Boston Plank



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Discover 9 Reasons Why Everyone Is Choosing Laminate Flooring.

1. Laminate flooring is durable

Laminate flooring is a highly durable flooring surface made for high traffic areas and is an excellent choice for homes with children or pets. All laminate floors have an incredibly hard and durable wear layer finish,that provides better scratch and dent resistance compared to solid hardwood floors and vinyl floors. Laminate flooring is a very good proposition for you as a flooring solution, most good manufacturers provide a 25 year warranty against wear and damage.

2.Laminate floors are stain resistant

Laminate floors have a highly improved stain resistance quality over solid hardwood flooring and carpet. The flooring planks come pre-finished with a stain-resistant wear coat on the surface.

3.Fade resistant

Compared to hardwood floors, laminate flooring will not fade over time do to repeated sun exposure.

4.Moisture resistant

Laminate floors can be installed in environments with higher than normal humidity and moisture levels.

5.Variety of colors and styles

The range of colors, styles, species, and designs offered by laminate flooring is massive. There is a color and design available to suit every interior style and environment.

6.Economical

Laminate flooring offers you the best proposition when compared to other flooring solutions over the longer term. Compare the different options over 25 years: carpet will have to be replaced 2 to 4 times, solid hardwoods will have to be refinished 3 to 5 times, and vinyl will need to be replaced at least 3 times.

7.Easy to install

Laminate floors are not designed to be fastened to the sub-floor, but to to float to adjust to the temperature and humidity of the inside of your home. You can place them over an existing floor, sub-floor, or even concrete. The most popular brands now feature a glueless click system that easily snaps together.

8.Easy maintenance

Just vacuuming and wiping with a damp mop or rag is all that is needed to keep your floors clean. Although this is a scratch-resistant product, sharp pebbles and objects may scratch though the wear layer, and leave a visible scratch. Laminate floors are not made to be sanded. Minor scratches can be repaired with special color matching pencils, seam gaps can be repaired with fillers, and larger chips may call for the use of color burning sticks. All of these fixes are fairly simple, and if large damage occurs, you can take out that section and replace the damaged board.

9.Health benefits

When you compare carpet and rugs to laminate flooring it is considered to be healthier for your environment. Laminate surfaces do not allow for the accumulation of dust, dust mites and debris as does carpets and rugs therefore giving you a cleaner environment. Allergists have reported that by removing the carpet in your home can be beneficial to people who suffer from dust allergies.


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It is hard to imagine Bamboo becoming very popular for house hold and commercial flooring. Learn how this fast-growing, versatile plant with style and durability has come to compete with traditional hardwood as a quality flooring material.

Another quality of bamboo is that is one of the fastest growing plants in the world which makes it a versatile environmental choice for a flooring surface. Many environmental conscious minded consumers are choosing bamboo as an excellent flooring material.

5/8″ X 3-3/4″ Beijing Palace Bamboo Flooring

What happens after harvesting?

After the bamboo has been harvested, they remove the green outer skin and the stalk is cut lengthwise into strips. The strips – which are still in a curved shape having come from a round stalk – they are milled along their outer edges to produce a flat strip. To remove the moisture from the bamboo strips they are kiln dried, then to remove the natural starch and sugar they are boiled. Two purposes are served by the bamboo being boiled. Taking out the starch and the sugar makes the bamboo not attracted to termites or any other pests that could infest and destroy wood products. Being termite resistant makes bamboo suitable for certain geographical areas. Another quality of bamboo flooring is that it is less likely to expand or contract due to climate changes, unlike many of the traditional hardwoods. The second reason for boiling the bamboo is to bring out it’s natural beauty.

5/8″ x 3-3/4″ Horizontal Natural Bamboo Flooring

Carbonized Bamboo

This is a process by which the bamboo is boiled for a longer period of time thus causing it to become a darker color than its original natural blonde color.

By being able to create different colors of the bamboo flooring, you have different choices which will blend with any of your design schemes.

5/8″ x 3-3/4″ Horiz. Carbonized Bamboo Flooring

Horizontal and Vertical Styles of Bamboo Flooring

After the bamboo strips have been boiled, they will be kiln dried again, and glued together into one of two styles.
When gluing several of the strips together with their narrow edges facing up, the pattern is a beautiful bamboo edge grain with thin lines created between the laminated strips.
This will create the style of bamboo flooring called “vertical style.”
The other style of bamboo flooring is created by gluing together several strips along the narrow edges so that the wider surfaces face up. Using this style, the strips are glued in three layers so that the thickness of the floor will be the same as in the “vertical” style.
This three-layered style which has the wider surface facing up is called the “horizontal” style flooring. This style of flooring creates a random pattern of the growth rings to be visible in the flooring surface which makes for a beautiful pattern.
Both these styles are available in the blonde or carbonized coloring, and are both enjoyed for their unique, natural features.

5/8″ x 3-3/4″ Vertical Carbonized Bamboo Flooring

Strand-Woven Bamboo Flooring

Along with horizontal- and vertical-style bamboo flooring, there is also another style of bamboo flooring which is manufactured.
It is known as “strand-woven” bamboo flooring, and it is made from the excess strands trimmed from the stalks at the beginning stages of milling process.
Nothing is wasted in the producing of this durable line of flooring. Instead of getting rid of the excess bamboo stalk, it was discovered that these long, thin strands of bamboo would make a beautiful pattern if intertwined together to form another flooring product. Thus was created “strand woven bamboo”. It is created during a process which compresses the strands together with an environmentally safe resin to form a new “timber” which is:

** Scratch resistant
** UV resistant
** Moisture resistant

This newly created bamboo timber, with its own unique pattern, is strong and durable and is cut into its own attractive planks, which is then turned into its own style of bamboo flooring.Being that strand woven bamboo flooring goes through extremely high pressure compressing at the beginning of the timber making stage it will not have to go through the final pressing that the vertical and horizontal flooring will have to go through.

5/8″ x 3-3/4″ Sambuca Bamboo Flooring

Final Stages in Making Bamboo Flooring

In the last stages of manufacturing, all three types of bamboo flooring – horizontal-style, vertical style, and strand-woven – are milled and finished completing the refining process in created flooring products.
With precision milling, the tongue-and-groove connection cut into each board ensures the snug fit and smooth surface that you expect from a quality product.
To enhance the natural beauty of your bamboo flooring a clear coat is applied which will provide extra protection to your floor for years to come. At lease six coats of aluminum oxide will be applied to the finish of your floor making an extremely hard bamboo floor more resistant against surface wear and damage.

Now, there you are. You have seen a common grass taken and turned into a beautiful and durable flooring material. This bamboo flooring is a beautiful, strong and amazing alternative to your common hardwood floors.


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What is Laminate?

Laminate flooring is made up into layered construction:

1.) The Wear Layer: This is an easy-to-clean surface that contains aluminum oxide that protects the floor from stains, fading and wear.

Look to make sure that the flooring has an abrasion classification (A/C) rating of at least 3 for the best residential use protection.

2.) Image Design Layer: This is a photographic image of wood, stone, or virtually anything you can imagine.

3.) Inner Core Layer: This layer provides the floor’s structural strength and stability. It is made from high-density fiberboard. This core is often impregnated with a plastic resin called melamine to increase the floor’s strength, stability and resistance to moisture. Most products that have high levels of melamine do not need acclimation before installation.

4.) The Backing Layer: This layer is found beneath the inner core, and is made with resin saturated paper. This paper creates a moisture barrier that protects the floor and keeps it from warping.

All laminate floors are compressed together using one of two processes. DPL, or direct pressure laminate, which is the most common way for residential use. HPL, or high-pressure laminate, Which is an extra-hard construction. The difference between the two is cost, performance and the design realism. DPL is the less expensive, and has the same puncture resistance as HPL with objects that are dropped at or below counter height, plus it is easier to emboss for a more realistic texture. HPL is more expensive and is less likely to puncture if items are dropped on it from above counter-top height, but it is harder to emboss, which makes it not look as real as you would want it to.

Laminate Design

Laminate is the ultimate means by which you can get the look of real wood without paying the real wood price. Its uncanny ability to replicate the look of real wood, stone, brick and ceramic is due to highly detailed photography of the actual material. So, when you look at laminate, you’re looking at an image identical to the real thing. The image is coupled with advanced embossing that adds realistic texture to the floor surface. Sometimes it is hard to tell the laminate from the material it is imitating. Laminate also has an easy to clean surface that protects the floor from stains, fading or wear. Laminates ability to impersonate allows you to get the look and feel of rare, exotic wood or expensive stone at a fraction of the cost, with no natural material drawbacks.

Where Can I Use Laminate?

This flooring can be used in any room of the house, whether it’s below, on or above grade level. However, laminate floors do have some sensitivity to high moisture areas, so if you plan on using laminate in your bathroom, you should take special precautions.

Durability & Life Expectancy

Quality laminate products are one of the best flooring options when it comes to durability. Quality products should last for at least 15 to 30 years. The good performance is due to a good inner core stability and the tough wear layer. The aluminum oxide in laminates top coat makes it unsurpassed for wear and stain resistance. Although laminate stands up well to wear and tear, bear in mind that if it will scratch, and it can’t be resurfaced like a hardwood can. However, scratches can be covered using special pencils made by the manufacturer. Chips, gouges and deep scratches can be concealed by using filler sticks. If an area of the floor does become damaged, replacing it can be a tricky job that’s best left to an installation professional.

Keep in Mind:

* You can not expose laminate flooring to puddles of standing water, which will permanently damage the floor.
* Think about the pros and cons of DPL and HPL constructions for durability and image authenticity when deciding on your laminate floor. There will be a trade off when one of these types are more important than the other.

Care & Maintenance

Laminate flooring needs minimal care and never needs waxing. When necessary, you can mop your laminate floor using a cleaner recommended by the manufacturer. Exposure to water will damage your laminate flooring, so if you have to clean with water, make sure to use a damp mop.

Keep in Mind:
* The main culprits to damage the finish on your laminate floor is sand and grit. Regularly clean your floors of dirt with a vacuum that has a wand attachment, or dust mopping. Never use brooms— because they will drag the grit across the floor, thus creating scratches.
* Chair and table leg protectors will help extend the life of your floor.

Installing your laminate floor: