Comparing hardwood to laminate flooring....?

**PrairieRose** · 06-18-2005, 09:25 AM

Anyone have experience with both? I'd like to hear your reviews of either or both actually.

We're looking at both. We have some hardwood under our carpet. So if we go with that we'll have to 1. try to match it
2. sand 3. stain 4. seal it, about 5 times. IF we should go with laminate, it has a 25 yr. warranty on the finish, is very durable and waterproof (we have a pool and in the future if we have grandkids the dripping water wouldn't hurt it if we missed some). And I think we could pretty easily install it ourselves, saving a bunch of money.

If anyone has strong views of either I'd love to hear em.
:help:

**Sara Noel** · 06-18-2005, 09:36 AM

I have both. The playroom is done completely in laminate and it's so easy to clean and looks so neat and much like hardwood. I like it a lot. The rest of my house except the livingroom/dining and bathrooms are hardwoods. My upstairs are maple finished and the downstairs are oak finished. (previous owners refinished only the downstairs..go figure) Anyway I prefer hardwoods, but really love the laminate. My next door neighbor put in laminate in almost her entire home and it looks great. Very crisp and clean looking.

There are so many really nice laminates now.

If I had to start from scratch I'd love Brazilian cherry hardwoods. I can dream. lol

**Missy** · 06-18-2005, 12:39 PM

I married a Hardwood Flooring Installer, guess I am a bit biased. I would much prefer hardwood over the laminate. Stronger finished, water based finishes and thicker coats (get a professional to do) would protect your floor from little wee ones comming in from the pool

**PrairieRose** · 06-18-2005, 07:54 PM

I have the other problem of trying to match the hardwood as well. I didn't mention that. IF we went with the hardwood, 1/2 of our living room (that used to be 2 rooms) has original hardwood to the house. It's never been sealed or stained. How hard would it be to match? I'd be just SICK if we went to all the trouble of putting it in, sanding like crazy, staining and it took the stain differently than the other.