Month: March 2015

For many consumers it is tough to distinguish the differences between laminate and hardwood flooring. To the casual observer, natural hardwood and engineered laminate often look incredibly similar. However, there are a few important differences that you should be familiar with before you settle on one or the other.

When considering the specific type of hardwood that will be best for your home, you shouldn’t be shy about doing diligent research to obtain as much helpful information as you can. When all is said and done, you’ll have to be content with your final choice, knowing full well that your new floors will most likely be in place for some time to come.

At Smith Brothers Floors, we have a wide variety of both natural hardwood and laminate flooring options. To help you make the best decision for your home, based on your needs and preferences, you should be sure to consider these important differences between natural hardwoods and engineered laminates:

Hardiness and Maintenance Requirements

In general, hardwood floors can be more susceptible to scratches as well as damage that results from excess moisture building up on the floor’s surface. Over the course of time, hardwood typically shows more wear and tear than laminate flooring. In addition, hardwood can actually change color over time when it is stained.

In contrast, laminate flooring tends to be more scratch-resistant than hardwood. Laminates are also less susceptible to moisture damage and other general wear and tear. It’s important to recognize that laminate flooring can be stained or smudged much more easily than hardwood and it also requires special padding underneath to dampen excessive noise.

Price

Both hardwood and laminate flooring are considerably cheaper than common stone flooring options, such as granite or marble. While it will ultimately depend on the specific product that you select, on average, laminate flooring is cheaper than hardwood. Basic hardwood usually costs anywhere from $10-$13 per square foot while laminate flooring ranges from $7-$11 per square foot.

Repairs

When it comes to the ease of making repairs, hardwood is typically viewed as superior to laminates. Sanding and refinishing affected areas is typically an easy solution for repairing unsightly imperfections or blemishes in your hardwood floors.

Laminate flooring, on the other hand, can be much more difficult to repair. If you elect to install laminate flooring, it’s more imperative to do everything in your power to protect the integrity of your new floors. This is because even the slightest damage or imperfection often necessitates the replacement of an entire panel of flooring. While replacement panels can be efficiently snapped into place, this practice involves the risk of reinstalling a new piece that doesn’t quite match your existing floors.

Life Expectancy

Typically, hardwood floors last much longer than prefabricated laminate flooring. On average, the lifespan of most hardwood floors is around 75 years while laminate flooring will typically need to be replaced by the 20-year mark.

As you can see, there are some considerable differences between hardwood and laminate flooring. We hope that this comparison will assist you in making the final decision that is best for your home, your family, and your lifestyle.

At Smith Bros, we pride ourselves on offering a wide variety of options for our clients and our expert salespeople in our show room are glad to help you sort through these options to find the hardwood or laminate selection that will leave you feeling satisfied for years to come. If you are interested in learning more about our products and services, please don’t hesitate to give us a call directly at 1-403-917-0847 today!

For any company, it’s difficult to be successful without the help of key strategic partners and suppliers. When it comes to making our clients happy and satisfied with the work we do, it’s important to recognize that we couldn’t do it without the assistance of our amazing partners and suppliers.

At Smith Brothers Floors, we know that our ability to give our clients exactly what they’re looking for is largely dependent on the maintenance of healthy relationships with our suppliers. We know it takes a team to serve a community, and this is why we value our strategic partnerships very highly.

TORLYS Smart Floors

One of our amazing partners, TORLYS, is a Canadian hardwood flooring company located in Mississauga. TORLYS was founded in 1988 and we love to work with them because of their commitment to beautiful, green flooring solutions that are easy to maintain.

Originally, TORLYS began as a small-scale distributor of general building and flooring products that served the building supply and commercial hardwood flooring markets in Central Ontario. Over the course of the past 25 years, TORLYs has become one of the fastest-growing flooring companies in Canada.

In fact, TORLYS cork, hardwood, laminate, and leather flooring is available through an extensive network of specialized dealers worldwide and, at Smith Brothers Floors, we are happy to bring superior products from TORLYS to our customers throughout Canada.

In addition to providing superior products, we love to work with TORLYS because of their commitment to environmentally friendly distribution processes and willingness to give back to the communities that they serve.

The team at TORLYS recognizes Habitat for Humanity as their official charity of choice and they have been responsible for providing flooring for the living room and/or dining room of every home that the organization builds.

Products and Features

When it comes to hardwood flooring, TORLYS offers a great variety of products, including prefinished, “click-together” engineered floating floors, hardwood, laminate, cork and leather options, flooring suitable for installation over wood frame, concrete, or gypcrete subfloors, and more.

All TORLYS floors are also radiant heat warrantied and have been designed to meet specific condo acoustic and restriction rates. At Smith Brothers Floors, we highly value the level of commitment to clients and the environment that TORLYS exemplifies.

We believe, as does TORLYS, that our customers should have access to the highest quality of hardwood floors, but we don’t think that this privilege should be granted at the expense of the environment. Because of the obvious “nature” of the hardwood flooring industry, it’s imperative that we consider how our business practices affect the beautiful environment that we directly rely upon.

If you’re interested in learning more about TORLYS or their products, please don’t hesitate to visit them online today. Also, if you’d like to speak directly to a Smith Bros representative about your unique hardwood needs, please give us a call at 1-403-917-0847 today!