24 January 2017

Ultimate Guide to Wood Effect Flooring

A wood floor can add warmth and elegance to any room in the home, to compliment a kitchen, enhance a hallway or add character to a living room. Here at beyond flooring we often find that when people ask for a wood floor they really mean a wood effect floor and not necessarily something that’s been cut off a tree! and with so many choices on the market its easy to get confused so here’s a rundown of the 4 main types of wood effect flooring.

Vinyl Flooring

Sometimes referred top as ‘Lino’ or ‘cushion floor’ a vinyl floor is the perfect option for style / practicality and value. Its ideal for bathrooms due to its water resistant wear layer and soft underfoot feel and most vinyl products come in rolls that are 2 metres wide meaning there’s not a lot of waste material which keeps the cost down !

LVT

Luxury vinyl tiles have been around for a good few years now but still many people haven’t heard of them, I guarantee however you will have walked on them at some point as they are installed in many commercial applications, for instance if you’ve ever eaten at TGI Fridays ? Or grabbed a coffee from Starbucks? Or purchased a new mobile phone from Vodaphone? These all have LVT products on the floor and whilst they made look like solid wood they are actually vinyl. LVTs are not the cheapest products but since they come with guarantees ranging from 12 years to a lifetime they should be seen as an investment and therefore must be installed by a qualified fitter

Laminate flooring

Laminate flooring has developed a bad reputation over the last 5-10 years due to lots of poor quality products flooding the market, but there are still many quality laminates out there with stunning designs and loads of benefits, Laminate flooring is easier to install than LVT and in some cases can be done by DIY enthusiast, here at beyond we do stress to our customers that there is usually a difference between a DIY install and a professional one, our master installers can offer a 2 year installation warranty with all our laminate floors

Wood Flooring

At Beyond we absolutely love real wood flooring ! There’s nothing quite like the look / texture / smell and sound of the real wood floor. Like the LVT flooring real wood is an investment floor and can be expensive but it should last you decades and can be sanded and refinished many times.