Your Kitchen Will Never Be Let Down By Laminate

Your Kitchen Will Never Be Let Down By Laminate

Choosing a flooring material for your new kitchen installation isn’t by any stretch of the imagination an easy task.

One of the busiest rooms in the house, the kitchen receives a lot of ‘traffic’ and will be exposed to water, steam, mucky boots and no doubt a host of hot and cold spilled foodstuffs so it’s important to get flooring which is tough, durable and isn’t going to crack when a saucepan lands on it.

Enter laminate!

This sturdy and rather attractive material has been growing in popularity over the past decade or so and has been known to occasionally line every room in the house.

At My Beautiful Kitchen we use Pergo laminate (one of the top three manufacturers of the material). Pergo Flooring is off a very high quality, tough, durable and produced in hundreds of different styles from tiles resembling wood to vinyl look-a-likes and even simulated ceramic. The beauty of laminate is that although it may mimic these other materials (and very well too) its usually more cost effective, easier to work with and can be lifted and relayed if needed. For all these reasons, laminate flooring for many families is simply a no-brainer.

Pros

• Long-life – expected to last at least 10/15 years
• Keeps its condition – won’t dent or scratch easily and doesn’t fade like vinyl, it wont crack either like ceramic tiles
• Little maintenance – a wipe every now and again suffices
• Looks good – comes in a huge choice of designs, from wood to tiled looks.
• Easy to fit – which means you’re not hanging around for days waiting on things setting.
• Long warranty – from between 10 and 25 years
• Comfortable – you can easily walk on it with bare feet and its not cold like a tiled floor

Cons

• Not the ‘real’ thing – closer inspection often reveals it isn’t wood
• Water saturation – big spills must be cleaned immediately otherwise they’ll seep through the tile and damage bottom layers
• No yield – this is a hard flooring and uncomfortable to sit on or stand for long periods
• No renovation – once it’s ruined laminate must be replaced (wood can be sanded)
• Slippery – some versions can be a bit of a hazard underfoot although not near as slippery as ceramic flooring.

 

What is laminate flooring?

Laminate material is actually created from processed woods such as MDF which have been compressed together. A photographic image of wood is then placed on top and protected with a clear (melamine) sheet.

The most popular version of laminate flooring is wood and there is a huge selection to choose from such as oak, pine, walnut etc, in varying shades. Plank lengths don’t need to be regulated and it can be fitted to create a v-groove effect (like real wood). Another favourite for kitchen flooring is the square tile effect. Whatever the look though the laminate material itself tends to vary in thickness from 7mm to 10.5mm.

At My Beautiful Kitchen,  we’ve lost count of how many years we’ve been fitting laminate flooring. We always ensure the laminate extends to under the plinths and free-standing appliances. We’ll also redo all your skirting boards running the flooring under for a professional finish. We don’t ever use beading, as we think the skirting looks far better, it’s more professional and far easier to keep clean.

So, if you’re lusting after laminate let us know and we’ll show you the most updated designs together with one or two floors we’ve designed which we are particularly proud of.

Hope This Helps
Tommy