Wood floor or laminate: does this comparison make sense?
Very often it is customary to compare a wooden floor to a laminate floor: are we really sure that this comparison really makes sense?
We passionately love wood and it is quite natural to think about the essence and not to pure appearance.
We work with wood every day and every day it reveals us small surprises, some new challenge to find a tailor-made solution. Wood is never the same, every new batch requires a “game” of its own.
On one hand wood needs to be known very carefully while you work it, while, at the same time, it rewards you, revealing an unexpected grain, a shade that you have never seen before, little things, and its unique scent that you can smell in the factory.
A wooden floor starts from this and from here it is easy to imagine what it can bring in a room: the delicacy with which it absorbs the sound of footsteps, the gentle temperature that you can feel when you walk barefoot, that twist of grains and knots that makes you stretch your hand to, you can’t help but to pass the fingertips at least once.
If, by reading these lines, you have dreamed at least for a moment the feeling of wood under your fingers, then yours sensitivity is attracted by wood floor. Solid or pre-finished, but wood.
If you have come to yawn (and it is legitimate, because not everyone likes the same things) maybe you have a more hasty and less romantic spirit, so for you a quick glance and practicality are more important.
No matter how you get it, the important thing is that you get it. Here, in this case then laminate floors can also be of interest to you. Maybe for you concentrate not on the material itself, but more on the final result, "the fantasy" printed on the surface. Nowadays technologies can create laminates that look almost like wood: but remember, we are talking about a print. In the case of a laminate floor, under your bare feet you will have a transparent overlay, which protects an extraordinarily accurate color print that transforms an HDF panel (High DensityFiber) into a realistic reproduction of wood. The same happens with wood-effect stoneware or with some ceramics. But the comparison with these other materials is less in vogue. So, in our opinion, it does not make sense to compare a floor solution made of solid wood or pre-finished wood with a laminate floor.
We are talking about different materials: perhaps it makes more sense to compare laminate with other floor solutions that imitate the aesthetic of wood.The reasons that move the choice between wooden parquet and laminate are certainly subjective and of various kinds: time spent in a home, budget, fears more or less based on the freedom to freely use surfaces and many others. What we have seen in our experience, however, is that often those who choose wood do it because they love this material: they love wood’s knots, irregular grains, the fact that after a period it may change its color and get some scratches here and there. Above all, people love wood for its unique story, the warmth that he transmits and the pure feel of its matter. Those who love this they hardly consider to install a laminate floor as a substitute of a wooden floor.
This is why we asked ourselves the question which is the opening of this article: does the comparison between wood floor and laminate floor really make sense? The only answer we have been able to give is this: if it is based on the pure effect of how it looks, it can sometimes make sense. In the same measure in which it makes sense to compare a painting by Leonardo to a printed copy of it.
