Wood Laminate Floors

Out of all the different types of flooring that you can have in a room, wood laminate floors are undoubtedly the best.

There are three types of wooden flooring; there’s the solid hardwood floor, which consists of real planks of specially selected hardwood that have been dried and treated to perfection and protected with a layer of wear resistant lacquer. There is the veneered wood floor, which has a treated woof fibre core with a surface layer of veneer making the surface stable and easy to maintain. Last but not least there are wood laminate floors. These both look and feel like real wood but in fact may contain no solid wood at all. The core ofwood laminate floors is usually made of high density fibreboard – a mixture of sawdust, wood shavings and wood chips that have been ground to a pulp before being mixed with a melamine based resin and pressed into boards. The upper layer is a photograph of hardwood superimposed with a hardwearing transparent resin finish. The assembled floor looks and feels exactly like real wood, and it is difficult to tell the difference.

Wood Laminate floors can be installed over just about any other flat hard surface - concrete, hardwood, vinyl tile, linoleum, tile are likely candidates, but don’t try to install them on top of a carpet – that’s a no no. It is not recommended that they be installed in rooms that are likely to have water spilled in them, such as bathrooms, washrooms or an exposed porch or veranda. This is because the fibreboard core of the laminate can absorb water and swell up. If water is spilled onto wood laminate flooring it should be mopped up as soon as possible. If you’d like to have any more information about using laminates for flooring, please give us a call at 011 830 1265.