Wood laminate flooring provides lasting quality, flexibility, and tremendous value and is still deemed a green product. Laminate flooring has an appearance identical to regular wood, but they are actually made without anything solid. This helps keep cost down. The manufacturing of laminate wood flooring involves different coating levels. The first coating makes these floors extremely durable, scratch-resistant and helps protect the design layer underneath. With today's technological advances laminate flooring comes in numerous fashionable wood styles, and has maintained their affordable pricing.

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Benefits of Laminate Flooring:

Price - Laminate wood floors are typically a fraction of the price of traditional hardwood, unlike bamboo flooring, which is usually more costly and pricey but still makes for great floors.  Also consider decorative stamped concrete for patio fixtures.

Easier Installation - Most home owners prefer laminate wood flooring because it does not involve nails or extensive knowledge of labor. Additionally, its installation is far more varied.

Durability - Unlike most wood flooring, laminate wood floors are scratch and stain resistant, so they last longer and can withstand more day to day wear and tear than standard hardwood floors can.  

A floor of oak strip boards, or a less common hardwood such as maple, pecan or hickory, that can be found at speciality lumberyards - is durable and elegant in appearance, yet remarkably simple to install.  And with the aid of a power nailer, available at tool-rental agencies, the job goes fast.

Flooring boards that are of conventional hardwood are fairly thick.  The boards are milled with interlocking tongues and grooves on their sides and ends, and can be blind-nailed through their tongues, a technique that makes the joints between boards uniform and hides the nail-heads.  Broader hardwood planks, which may be as wide as 8 inches, must be screwed into the subfloor as well as blind-nailed to keep them from buckling.

Before they are nailed in place, floor-boards are extremely susceptible to warping and swelling caused by moisture.  Bring your home to its normal humidity before the wood is delivered:  In winter, heat the rood and in summer keep the AC running.  Insist that hardwood flooring be delivered on a dry day, at least three days before you plan to lay your floor.  Untie the bundles and stack the boards in loose piles to let them adjust to the humidity and temperature of the room.

When laying the floor, you will have to nail the first few boars by hand before you will have room to use the power nailer for the rest of the floor.   The nailer, which consists of a spring operated mechanism that drives barbed flooring cleats, is triggered by the blows from a rubber-headed mallet.  The cleats feed into the nailer like bullets from a clips in an automatic rifle.  To get the knack of working with the nailer before you use it, practice on a scrap of flooring set atop some spare plywood.

Hardwood flooring, no matter what the wood, is graded accordingly to the standards that are set by the National Oak Flooring Manufactures Association.  The boards are rated in order of decreasing quality as "clear", "select" and more, depending on color, grain and imperfections such as knots and streaks.

All strip flooring is sold in random lengths.  Individual boards range from 9 to 102 inches long, but the boards are always sold according to a flooring board foot formula, based on the pre-milled size of the boards.  To determine the amount of flooring you will need, calculate the area of your room in square feet.

Hardwood flooring can also be used in a bathroom if it is installed without gaps and is sealed thoroughly. Because solid-wood flooring is very susceptible to moisture damage even when carefully finished, a flooded tub or toilet overflow can ruin a wood floor. If you want the look of wood with less risk of water damage, a better choice is engineered wood. Some types of laminate flooring, when professionally installed, also offer the look of wood with moisture resistance. It is essential that the installers follow the manufacturer's instructions to prevent dampness from seeping between the plank or joints.