Discover why laminate flooring could be the best option for your home.

With cost becoming more of a factor in home improvement projects, let's take a look at laminate flooring. The positive points about laminate flooring get lost amidst the buzz about wood flooring, leaving consumers asking, Is hardwood really worth it? We're here to help shed light on the benefits of laminate flooring versus the much more expensive wood flooring, and how much you'll save by choosing laminate.

Laminate flooring is handy for many reasons, and although most of the time a keen eye can tell the difference between laminate and hardwood, the benefits of having a laminate floor largely outweigh the shortcomings. Firstly, the scratch resistance, stain resistance, and fade resistance of laminate flooring take the lead, hands down, over hardwood. Not only do scratches appear almost instantaneously on hardwood when your 100-pound Labrador comes tearing through the living room in a tirade after the cat, but the purple Kool-Aid that went tumbling to the ground in the process is now a permanent reminder of that day's debacle.

With cost becoming more of a factor in home improvement projects, let's take a look at laminate flooring. The positive points about laminate flooring get lost amidst the buzz about wood flooring, leaving consumers asking, Is hardwood really worth it? We're here to help shed light on the benefits of laminate flooring versus the much more expensive wood flooring, and how much you'll save by choosing laminate.

Laminate flooring is handy for many reasons, and although most of the time a keen eye can tell the difference between laminate and hardwood, the benefits of having a laminate floor largely outweigh the shortcomings. Firstly, the scratch resistance, stain resistance, and fade resistance of laminate flooring take the lead, hands down, over hardwood. Not only do scratches appear almost instantaneously on hardwood when your 100-pound Labrador comes tearing through the living room in a tirade after the cat, but the purple Kool-Aid that went tumbling to the ground in the process is now a permanent reminder of that day's debacle.

With laminate flooring, dogs and kids can go crazy with the juice--as long as the spills aren't left to saturate. Laminate is much more moisture resistant than hardwood flooring, and scratches don't come easily to a laminate surface. Not to mention, if you drop something heavy on a wood floor, the damage is more evident in hardwood than its resistant counterpart.

So, sure you can drop, spill, and attempt to scratch a laminate floor to no avail, but how hard is it to maintain? The answer is, Easy. To clean a laminate floor, the makers of laminate flooring recommend a damp mop cleanup with a gentle, laminate-specific cleaner, or even a home-made solution of 1 1/2 Cups White Vinegar and 2 Cups Warm Water. Using a mop dampened by the vinegar solution, wipe the laminate flooring until the level of cleanliness desired is reached. To be sure the floor is dry enough, wipe the surface with a dry rag.

Now for the tricky part…How difficult is it to repair a laminate floor once permanent damage has been inflicted? Well, that depends on your willingness to undo your work to replace the affected boards. Unfortunately, sanding and refinishing are not options with laminate flooring, but simply replacing the damaged boards will have your floor looking good as new.

Even though repairs to laminate flooring are not as easy as for wood floors, there is still no beating the cost. Not having to worry about damages to an investment like wood floors really sweetens the deal.

Not only are the laminate floors harder to damage, because they are a cheaper option there is a lot less reason to worry about the floors. If you are a busy parent with pets and kids you can really achieve peace of mind knowing that you're not going to come home to ruined floors, and that any mess is just a quick clean away from being good as new.