When Designing Your Floors the Meter is Definitely Running
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Posted On :
Sep-30-2011
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Article Word Count :
509
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Interior design goals are within reach with the preferred choice of flooring; prices may look modest when quoted by the square foot but you don't need a slide rule to realize that you may have to cover 1000 square feet with limited dollars, which can run into the tens of thousands depending on your selection of materials. This article discusses the various prices of flooring materials.
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The selections of flooring offered today may have a wide range of prices, but quality and beauty can be found at every level when practicality has to be maintained. Not only does the original price of the material need to be taken into consideration, but also the cost of installation how long the flooring will last. There may be a lot of traffic, spills, and wear in certain rooms so a real hardwood floor may not be the best choice - an engineered laminate flooring material would normally be used as it is cheaper to buy, install, maintain or replace.
If your home was 1,000 square feet, that $2.75 per square foot price tag for laminate flooring becomes $2,750 before installation costs. This can increase again if there's any subfloor work or special preparation needed before the installation. You have to order extra because a percentage becomes waste during the cutting and installation.
Solid hardwood floor material is much more expensive and sensitive to stains, humidity, and odor retention due to its porous nature. It's between $7 and $8 per square foot on the average and so should be considered only for rooms that are fairly stable and free from a lot of moisture.
For environments where there is a lot of traffic, wear, or unstable weather other materials are more practical and affordable: laminate flooring, parquet, or engineered hardwood flooring. These provide greater durability and stain resistance. These surfaces can be laid in damp basements and kitchens where their rugged nature will allow them to outlast solid wood.
Lamination is a procedure not an actual type of material; it is a process of applying hard plastic or fiberglass to a core material (usually fiberboard) under heat and pressure. Two main methods are used to accomplish this: high pressure lamination and direct pressure lamination. There is a base layer to keep out moisture, the core itself, an image layer with the decorative grain and color, and a very thin transparent top layer to resist scratches and staining.
Engineered wood flooring is built based on three 12 multiple ply layers that are criss-crossed, glued, and pressed together. The better EW floors have either a hardwood or soft plywood type of center core material with a tongue and groove system. Then a top layer of thicker hardwood veneer is glued and pressed to the top surface of the core. Interestingly, there are two ways a veneer of hardwood is produced. Slicing the log like solid wood flooring is more visually appealing, since the true grain of the natural wood will be visible. The other method is rotary cutting where the thin veneer is peeled off the log in a circle using lathes. This results in a thinner surface than the sawing method.
Depending on your expectations about what the floor will have to encounter in traffic and the elements, you should consider the thickness of the wear layer and the value of going to a better surface when you plan out the rooms.
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Article Source :
http://www.articleseen.com/Article_When Designing Your Floors the Meter is Definitely Running_87651.aspx
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Author Resource :
SEO Pat Boardman writes in reference to Toronto engineered flooring supplier Future Flooring who provide laminate flooring and hardwood flooring Toronto with showroom in Richmond Hill Ontario.
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Keywords :
laminate flooring, hardwood flooring, engineered wood flooring, wood flooring toronto, flooring contractor toronto, solid woo,
Category :
Home and Family
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Interior Design
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