material characteristics (video and photo)

Today the floor covering is the most important part of finishing the room during the repair. After all, the correctness of his choice will depend not only on the decorative appearance of the room, but also on the warmth of the room and the level of comfort.

Parquet and laminate flooring - the most common materials for finishing the floor. They look similar, but have a lot of differences in other characteristics. The only feature that unites them is considerable thickness, which provides strength and good thermal insulation. To better navigate during the selection, it is advisable to consider the difference between the floorboard from the laminate.

Main characteristics of laminate

Laminate is called a multilayer board based on wood fiber, the front part of which is painted under wood and is well laminated with a special film. This resinous film and protects the pattern and fibers from external influences.

Decoration and performance

The pattern on the laminate can be anything. Most often, the appearance of natural wood is created, which makes buyers think that there is really a tree of a certain type in front of them. But often they also make laminate under decorative tiles. It looks quite original, especially in kitchens and large halls.

Special attention should be paid to the performance of the laminate. This is a very high-quality material that is practically not afraid of any mechanical effects. For this reason, it is often used for finishing floors in offices and large houses where it is not customary to change shoes. After all, scratching high-quality laminate is quite difficult, especially if the matte finish.

Laminate flooring is very resistant to fading, therefore, it is possible to lay such a floor even in sunny rooms. The surface will also not wear out if the laminate with the highest degree of lamination of the resinous material is selected.

But at the same time laminate flooring is not that warm. Therefore, in homes with insufficient warming, using it is not very practical. This largely explains the static effect of the laminate. After all, the use of a special protective resin to cover the material allows dust to adhere freely to the floor. And this is not very convenient, as you will often have to do wet cleaning of the room. But this is by and large solved problems, since in the first case, you can simply maintain a normal temperature in the house with heaters, and in the second - use antistatic technology during restoring.

Care features and price

But it is not recommended to use different household chemicals to maintain the cleanliness of the laminate floor, except for specially designed substances for this kind of material. After all, a laminated film with the wrong care can collapse, which immediately affects the decorativeness and practicality of the floor.

The maximum lifetime of the laminate depends on the correct maintenance. Of course, all types of laminate are divided into certain classes, each of which has its own level of wear. Usually these numbers range from 7 to 20 years. But if it’s not quite right, or, on the contrary, the laminate can serve as a good enough care, it will either be 3-5 years longer or less.

As for the price, the laminate is a relatively inexpensive coating, even if you give your preference to the highest quality material. The cleaner the material in environmental terms (more gentle substances are used for bonding layers and in smaller quantities), the more expensive it is, respectively.

Features of the floorboard

A parquet board is several layers of wood veneer that are firmly interconnected. At the same time, the front part is not painted under a natural material, but is really finished with natural wood, ideally processed and prepared. Therefore, you will never find two completely identical parquet boards. Which, strictly speaking, explains all the decorative coating.

The floor on the basis of parquet boards is warm enough, even when the whole house is cold enough. However, it is quite antistatic, which does not allow a large amount of dust to adhere to the coating. But the floorboard does not tolerate mechanical loads and various external influences. Therefore, it is not recommended to use it for offices where walking in outdoor shoes is supposed. After all, parquet boards are varnished, and varnish is a vulnerable substance for the floor.

There is nothing special about caring for the floorboard. It is only necessary to ensure that the floor of this type as little as possible in contact with water.Indeed, due to the fact that natural wood fibers are used, the risk of deformation of the floor increases several times.

Despite all this, the service life of the floorboard is very long, it can even reach 40 years. At the same time the decorative look can be lost, and the tree remains quite fit. And when used from time to time, special mastics and light varnishes, even such a board will always look at a high level.

The price of the floorboard is very high, but it justifies itself. To a greater extent this is due to environmental friendliness of the material After all, even with strong temperature drops the tree will not emit harmful substances. On the contrary, a good floorboard will emit a light pleasant forest smell.

Overview of the main differences

So, the main differences between laminate and floorboard are briefly discussed.

But how exactly does laminate differ from wood flooring? To do this, we combine the main differences between the two materials, highlighting more clearly the advantages and disadvantages of each of them:

1. Environmental friendliness. There are more advantages in this regard at the floorboard, as it is completely made of wood. The use of astringent glue is minimal. Laminate is made of artificial material, even though there is added wood chips. And with large temperature drops, it can emit harmful vapors into the air, especially lower-quality varieties.
2. Heat and noise insulation. Here also the first place is occupied by the floorboard. It does not make noise when walking on it, warm enough due to the effect of "living tree". Laminate floor is cold, and when walking on it there is a characteristic noise.
3. Static effect. The floorboard does not have its own static charge, so the dust almost does not stick to the floor. But this is not the case with laminate, where dust appears on the surface almost immediately after the end of cleaning. Remove the charge can be antistatic, but the effect will be short-lived.
4. Damage resistance. Laminate in this regard is more stable, its upper layer may not be damaged for very long. The floorboard can quickly lose its decorative appearance, but at the same time its main part, which is under the top layer, is very durable.
5. Picture selection. Here a large assortment of patterns can be found in the laminate. After all, due to the use of synthetics, any surface can be imitated. The floorboard does not differ by such a large selection, but at the same time it has a unique natural wood pattern.
6. Cost. Laminate at its price - quite economical material. Therefore, it is indispensable in conditions of limited finances. High quality floorboard is usually quite expensive. But at the same time the cost fully corresponds to its main characteristics.

So, now you understand how the floor differs from laminate. From all of the above, we can conclude that the most acceptable use of floorboard in a residential area, and laminate flooring - in offices. Then the coating will last a long time and will not bring trouble with the repair and restoration.