Why go for oak flooring instead of laminates?
These days there is a huge range of wood flooring you can have. Not only that, you can choose from different types of flooring, such as real solid wood, or laminates or engineered flooring. So where do you start? Well, unless you are on a very tight budget, don’t think of laminated flooring, as it does no last long if it gets a lot of traffic over it, especially teenagers in boots and sports shoes. Brushed and oiled oak flooring is a good choice. Laminated flooring is not recommended because if it gets scratched or dented, you will either have to live with, or replace the damaged panels.
Laminated flooring is cheap, so it would also be unwise to install it to make your house look better to sell. You need quality to give a good impression in that situation, and laminated flooring will not send the right signals to people who view the house.
So if you want a quality flooring what are the choices? You can buy either solid wood flooring or engineered wood flooring. Solid wood flooring is the real thing, and looks very good. It is also strong and wears well. One of the most popular solid woods is oak parquet flooring, which in its modern guise is very warm looking, but is also nice and light, which is good in winter.
In fact, these so-called engineered floors, which have nothing to do with engineering, are actually quite expensive, and are definitely not a cheap option. They are an alternative no sold wood floors, though. They are available in the same woods as solid wood floors, but oak is still one of the most popular finishes. Another is American walnut. Even when you have eliminated some floorings you have a wide choice, and need to imagine the wood in your home, and see some installed before you decide.