Category — Flooring

Are you planning on replacing the flooring in your kitchen? Changing the flooring in your kitchen can change your whole outlook and opinion of your kitchen decor. This article will discuss what the best kitchen flooring options are for you.

Laminate Flooring

If you are on a budget, the best kitchen flooring you can purchase has got to be laminate flooring. Laminate flooring is one of the cheapest and most durable flooring that you can buy for your money. This type of flooring holds up well against the elements of the kitchen as well. If you spill a little milk on the floor, no problem. Just get yourself a mild cleaning product and wipe it right up.

The great thing about laminate flooring is that when it is old and needs to be replaced, you can just lay more right on top of the existing flooring. Of course, this is not recommended but if you were in a rush and needed to sell your house for example, you could easily replace the laminate flooring with this method and have your kitchen floor looking brand new.

Hint:

Please notice it is recommended that you find a mind cleaning product to clean your laminate flooring. Some stronger, more abrasive cleaning products could lead to unnecessary wear and tear on laminate floors. Some cleaners may leave discolorations in the flooring and some may even be strong enough to leave holes when you apply scrubbing pressure. Be care not to damage your flooring in this manner.

Ceramic Flooring

Today, many home owners are turning to ceramic flooring as their best kitchen flooring choice. And why not, the right ceramic flooring can turn your ordinary kitchen into the kitchen of your dreams. Ceramic flooring comes in many different colors and patterns so it can pretty much match well with any kitchen decor.

The down side to ceramic flooring is that it can be a bit pricey. Make sure that if you do choose to lay ceramic flooring in the kitchen that you have enough money in your budget to cover the cost. Another down side to this type of flooring is that if a heavy object falls onto the floor, it is possible that the flooring may chip or crack. This may lead to an already expensive floor needing to be replaced in certain areas.

If you plan on remodeling your kitchen this year you have many flooring options to choose from. But what is the best kitchen flooring? Well, that all depends on your situation. If you are looking for style and price is no object, than you can’t loose with ceramic flooring. If you are on a budget, than laminate flooring might be the choice for you. What ever you end up with, make sure that you do your research and comparison shop and you will not be disappointed with the end result.

It’s no wonder why many moms choose laminate flooring for the busiest rooms in their homes. Laminates are durable, stain-proof, fairly easy to install, pretty and comfortable to walk on. Laminate flooring is awesome for high traffic areas like hallways, dens, offices and playrooms. They make the job of being a mom a whole lot easier.

How durable is durable?

Laminate floors are made up of a combination of laminated layers glued and hard-pressed together that form a solid, long-lasting flooring material. They’re a lot like the laminate counter-tops you would find in a kitchen.

If you did actually manage to scratch your laminate flooring, you would find that the coloring of the floor goes throughout the laminate material. So, it helps to hide any accidents, plus laminate floors also have repair kits available to match the colors if you want to fill in a deep scratch.

The impact resistance levels of a laminate floor will vary by brand and with quality, but typically a laminate floor resists pressure of at least 4,250 pound per square inch. That’s tough!

They say laminate floors are stain-proof, and that’s a fairly accurate statement.

Laminate floors resist most stain causing chemicals and in addition, their UV resistance is also very high. That means that you can install your laminate flooring in a room that gets direct sunlight and not have to worry too much about the sun fading the floor’s coloring. Do remember that sunlight does take a toll on all materials over time, but with laminates it’s going to be a very long, long time. In fact, the wear layer warranty for many laminate floors is up to 20 years.

How easy is laminate to install?

Laminate flooring installs easily over most common flooring substrates, including wood, vinyl, tile and wood strip floors.

As a floating flooring system , laminate is not fastened to the substrate. The flooring planks or tiles are installed over a thin layer of foam placed on the floor. On some laminate floors, the planks are glued at the tongue-and-groove joints. While on others, it’s just a matter of snap and go.

The installation is completed when you install base boards to cover the gaps between the laminate floor and the wall.

While it definitely is a home project, keep in mind that installing a laminate floor is easier and faster than traditional wood floorings.

The good news about installing laminate floors, is that it’s easier, and the flooring adapts to some irregularity in the subfloor. That’s a big plus by comparison to other floorings.

Will mom like how her laminate floor looks?

Laminate flooring planks and tiles are available in a huge variety of styles and colors to match every mom’s personal tastes. Laminate planks are engineered to mimic the color and grains of various types of woods. You can find laminates that look a whole lot like oak, birch, walnut, mahogany, driftwood, etc. Laminate floors even resemble ceramic and stone tiles with grouted joints.

Laminate flooring may be the perfect flooring material for you. Installing a laminate floor is a great project for the do-it-yourself home owner.

Mom’s everywhere find laminate floors very comfortable to live on, while at the same time being stylish to look at.

Want to make mom happy? Give her a laminate floor.

Armstrong vinyl flooring is one of the most resilient and best known of all the vinyl flooring made today. They can offer you as the customer a wide range of products in their vinyl flooring range. In this article we will discuss some of these products to help you decide whether they are the right choice for your home.

As well as it being durable, vinyl flooring also comes in a wide variety of patterns such as marble, natural stone or tile as well as wood, all of which look very similar to their natural counterparts. They also come in a range of geometrical and historical patterns as well as diamond and floral styles.

Each vinyl flooring that Armstrong manufactures is made using a ToughGuard construction which contains a core that is durable and is resistant to tearing, gouging or any other kind of damage that can be caused to the structure of it.

As well as providing you with a variety of patterns, styles and colors they also come in either a high or low gloss finish. Also, many of their vinyl floor coverings come with a layer which is resistant to scratching and abrasive wear because it contains aluminum oxide. This particular coating is known as CleanSweep Plus.

The most popular range in the Armstrong vinyl flooring collection is called Destinations. This comes in a variety of natural patterns and is a mid range priced kind of floor covering. There are other ranges as well including MasterWorks which comes with an embossed look to the flooring and includes the CleanSweep Plus layer as does the Destinations range. Each of these particular kinds of flooring cover come with a 15 year warranty.

However, if you are on a limited budget then you may want to consider Armstrong’s discount vinyl flooring range known as Initiator. This comes in the more traditional kinds of vinyl flooring patterns that we instantly recognize and still comes with the ToughGuard inner core but only comes with a 5 year warranty. Certainly when it comes to vinyl flooring the more you spend on it the better quality it will be.

But if you are looking for an Armstrong vinyl flooring which will add a new dimension to any room in your home then why not consider their Natural Fusion collection. This is one of the thickest vinyl floorings you are ever likely to come across being manufactured either by Armstrong or any of the other vinyl flooring manufacturers around today.

In fact the techniques used to produce this particular flooring make it very difficult for someone to distinguish it from the real thing and again has the CleanSweep Plus finish along with aluminum oxide and polycarbonate. The warranty on this particular range of Armstrong vinyl flooring is 20 years and is certainly one of the longest warranties provided by any vinyl flooring manufacturer today.

You should think about laying down Pergo flooring in your home if you want great flooring. It has a great tongue and groove system that will make sure your floor looks great and is installed easily and accurately. You can do it on your own or hire a pro to install your pergo floor. Installing flooring is something you can do on your own if you really want to or get your retailer to recommend a trusted professional.

You will need to determine just how much flooring you need before you buy anything. You can use a room sizing calculator to help you figure out how much you need to buy. If you want to lay the floor down on your own than you will need to just buy your Pergo floor and go with it. It is a complete system so everything you need will be including in your installation package. You will receive the following:

• Pergo Glue (Make sure to use this so the warranty will be honored)

• Installation Kit – This will ensure tight joints and has spaces and a tapping block

• Pull bar – This will make sure that you have a tight fit in hard to get to spots

• Under-layments – This will get rid of any issues with your sub-floor and give you great insulation

• Floor clamps – These can make the installation mush smoother and will make your floor even sturdier

• Pergo Sealant – This will make sure that the gaps are secured between the fllor and the wall to make sure that moisture stays out

• Pergo Putty – This will help to repair any damaged areas that might occur when you are laying the flooring

• Installation straps – These will help make the whole task simpler for you

You should realize before you lay down your Pergo floor that it is for use inside only. You must lay it down as a floating floor and there must be enough room around the sides. You can not attach it to the sub-floor.

You also need to keep in mind you local temperature and humidity, as well a the movement in your home and around other objects. The expansion distance is about ¼” normally and you need to realize this for proper installation especially in a doorway or corner.

Make sure that your Pergo products are allowed to acclimate in their sealed boxes before installation. 48 hours is usually enough, but 96 hours can be required when the temperature is very dry. The humidity should be around 30-90% where the carpets will be installed.

Pergo can be laid on or below grade. You should also make sure the Pergo plans are installed over the Pergo Underlayment Foam or Whisperwalk. If you install on top of concrete then the Pergo 6-mil polyethylene vapor barrier is necessary. Check out sub-floor info before you install.

If you want one of the best new alternatives in home flooring then you should go with laminate wood flooring. To install laminate floor is not very difficult and many can resemble wood floors in an amazing way. The quality has gone up so much in recent ears and almost all big companies make laminate wood flooring. You can buy this type of flooring from Armstrong, Mannington, Shaw, or Bruce. Any of these brand name companies can give you the product that you want.

There are many choices for your laminate flooring needs both in terms of color and style. You can get styles that look very similar to hardwood or ceramic flooring. You can also get styles that will match your home from a light to a darker wood coloring. You might want to remember that the darker the color the smaller your room may appear. If you choose a lighter color than your room could look even larger.

You can find laminate flooring in all types of home improvement stores. You can also look online to find the best in discount flooring. When you have picked out what kind of flooring you want and the right style and color than you can try to find the best deal. You may want to look into left over stock if you just need a small amount of tiles for a foyer. You can also find these for a bargain if you just need to tile a small room.

Laminate tiling is known as floating floors, because these tiles are not actually mounted on the floor they are laid over. The tiles have different grooves in them to keep them together and are bonded with special materials made for this type of tile alone.

This is great because you can just throw down laminate tiling directly on top of your old wood, tile, or vinyl flooring. You do need to take up any carpeting that you had on the ground before you lay down the laminate flooring, but once it is removed then you can lay them over the concrete below.

You can do the work yourself of installing your laminate wood flooring or you can hire someone to lay them down for you. If your room in question is not too large than you can probably do it on your own in a weekend’s time. If it is a large area of your home then you might want to hire a pro to do it for you. If you don’t have the time then hire a pro anyway, you want to make sure the job is not sloppy so let a pro do the work for you.

Follow the instructions that come with your flooring before you try to clean it. You need to sweep or vacuum first and then you clean it with a mop. You want to be careful what sort of cleaners you put on your flooring. It should stay relatively clean and you never need to wax this kind of flooring. You don’t want to damage the floor with an excess of water so don’t use this kind of flooring in a bathroom. You need to watch the moisture levels.

Anyone who has put flooring in their home knows that the material, style, and color that you choose for your floors will ultimately define the room in which it is placed. Flooring can pull together a particular style, give a room a neutral palette on which to expand, and transform an entire space. Subsequently, choosing flooring can be a difficult decision with a variety of elements contributing to the choice. But for those who are interested in create a unique and dynamic space – at an affordable price – bamboo flooring may be just the material you should consider.

The benefits of bamboo flooring are various and extend beyond its textural appeal and unique aesthetics. Bamboo itself is a durable, inexpensive material that will hold up in any type of situation. The origins of bamboo stem from Southeast Asia where it grows as a variation of grass. After being planted, the bamboo plant must grow for approximately five years until it reaches a full and mature state – after which it is harvested. The popularity of bamboo flooring has expanded the business of bamboo and crops are harvested on a daily basis in order to keep pace with the demand. The environmental benefits of bamboo include its ability to regenerate itself after harvesting.

Once harvested, the bamboo that is made into bamboo flooring is treated for any insects and exposed to a variety of strengthening treatments to increase its durability after which it is manufactured into the bamboo flooring that has continued to grow in popularity in homes everywhere.

Bamboo flooring has the warmth of wood flooring without the expense associated with laying down wood floors. Because bamboo is relatively accessible and imported freely, the material itself is inexpensive and the largest price point of bamboo flooring is often the installation. But within the confines of bamboo flooring there are different ranges of color and quality. If you choose from the higher priced end of the flooring you are likely to enjoy a floor that will last you many, many years to come.

Like any other flooring, extensive research and commitment to shopping around will find you the highest quality material for the best price. Work with retailers whom you trust and take advantage of the Internet to conduct preliminary price comparisons. Once armed with prices you can determine what quality and color works best within your room and the overall décor of your home.