Great Looking Flooring on a Tight Budget

If you want the luxury look, without the price tag, there are ways to do it. You just need to take a different approach, and know what products to buy.

One of the biggesift expenses people face when updating their properties is flooring. Replacing a floor is rarely cheap. The cost of materials is high, and often you have to employ a specialist to lay it.

Availability of new materials leads to better finishes

However, there is a way to get a great looking floor that does not cost a fortune. Over the past few years, laminate flooring has come into its own.

Today, it is easy to find high quality flooring that looks fantastic, and is built to last. In fact, it is so durable, that some manufacturers now offer a 25-year guarantee for residential use. Of course, not all laminate flooring is made to that high standard. Some is only designed to last for five years.

If you are on a tight budget laying this flooring to finish off a room and replacing it with a proper floor a few years down the line is a good option. Buying cheap laminate flooring does not mean that you cannot get the look you want. It is just that it will not last as long.

Laminate flooring is made by sticking a high-resolution photograph onto some sort of engineered wood board that is then cut into planks. The quality of the image is the same, but the quality of the wood it is stuck to and the glue used varies. So does the protective finish.

The more expensive and longer lasting laminate flooring products use better materials and the finishes used are harder, thicker and more durable. This is why some products have very long warranties.

A huge choice of finishes

When people think of laminate flooring they automatically think of wooden floors. This is understandable given the fact that for many years that was the only finish you could buy, but that is no longer the case.

Today, you can buy flooring in a wide range of other finishes including stone effect, tiles and finishes like parquet, as well as plank effect flooring. The emergence of better digital photography and image manipulation software has made it possible for manufacturers to reproduce practically any look.

There are even specialist suppliers that will make you bespoke laminate flooring. All you have to do is to provide them with a high-resolution image of the finish you want. Currently, this is an expensive option, but we expect to see the cost of this type of flooring fall as demand rises, and the production techniques are honed.

Easy to lay yourself

Manufacturers have developed new techniques, and are using the latest materials to produce high quality floors, which are so easy to lay that a complete novice can do the job. If you doubt how easy it is to lay laminate flooring, just view this video.

It really could not be easier. The fact that you can lay it yourself is one of the reasons this type of flooring is so cheap.