If you’re looking for hardwood laminate flooring, I advise you to read our short Q&A’s before you waste several hours of your life looking for this. Read on, and you’ll see why.
Q: I want hardwood laminate flooring. Where can I buy this?
This is a question that pops up every now and then. I can tell you that you’ll be searching for a very long time. Why? Because there is no such thing as hardwood laminate flooring.
It is a contradiction in terms. You can have either hardwood or laminate flooring, but not both.
Q: Why isn’t it possible to have hardwood laminate floors?
No such thing exists. Laminate flooring is an entirely man-made type of flooring material. The word “laminate” is the dead giveaway. This means that, unlike solid hardwood floor, a number of different materials such as resin, wood fiber and paper (yes, paper) are bonded together to form plank-like materials. Not even the top is wood. It is a textured photograph of real wood.
Q: But I swear that I’ve heard people use that term before.
More than likely, they are referring to either of these 2 possibilities:
- They mean the species of wood that is simulated by the laminate flooring. Some laminate flooring attempts to replicate bamboo (most assuredly not a hardwood!). Some laminate flooring attempts to replicate stone such as marble and granite. Therefore, hardwood laminate flooring attempts to recreate the look of hickory, cherry, oak, beech, and so on.
- Engineered wood flooring is a bit of laminate, a bit of hardwood. It does have core layers of plywood that aren't hardwood. But on top is a true, authentic veneer layer of hardwood.
Q: Does this mean that I should go for real hardwood instead?
Not at all. If you are interested in laminate, you should know that manufacturers such as Pergo and Armstrong have been improving fabrication methods over the years, so that this so-called hardwood laminate looks so good that it might actually be mistaken for the real thing.
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