If you want a beautiful floor without paying the earth then you may very well be looking into buying cheap laminate flooring as one of your options. It has become more and more popular in recent years as the price of solid wood and the cost of installing a real wood floor has increased. And of course laminate can often be used in areas where it may be inadvisable to use solid wood.
Now there are expensive laminates and cheap laminates and what you really want is a good quality laminate at a discount because some cheap laminate floors may be sub-standard. These are the reasons to think twice and avoid buying cheap wood laminate flooring if you are not prepared to or can’t do thorough research on the actual product before purchasing
1. It may not have a realistic wood look
Cheap flooring tends to have a pattern which looks less like a solid wood floor and more like a picture on plastic. The colors may be slightly off or the grain but it won’t look good.
2. It may be more difficult to install
Quality laminate often has a proprietary fitting system such as Clik-lock which “floats” above the level flooring below and you’ll be able to get all the tools and accessories designed to make the flooring easy to install so that you can do it yourself. With cheap laminate you may very well be on your own as far as tools are concerned and may even have to stick your laminate to the floor, something that you will need a professional to do.
3. It may bend, buckle and peel over time
Poor quality cheap laminate is not made up in the same way as expensive laminate. It does not have a dense inner core and layers of hard melamine resin. It is not heat and dent resistant and will not stand the test of time. Quality laminate is durable and often comes with a 10 year guarantee giving you peace of mind.
Remember that unless you are installing laminate flooring yourself, the cost of installation may be as much as the cost of cheap laminate. You don’t want to have to redo your floor in a couple of years because you made a poor choice.
Pergo Rustic Oak Laminate (Click Image for Details)
So how do you get discount laminate flooring, the quality kind with a reasonable price attached?
You can generally find good deals on quality laminate flooring in the following places
1. End of Season Sales
Solid wood flooring merchants often stock laminate flooring as well as real wood. If you go to the larger merchants you will often see laminates in the end of season sales alongside the lower quality cheap laminate wood flooring.
2. Ends of Lines
If you want quite a small amount of laminate flooring you may strike it lucky at the same merchants even when there is no sale going on by buying the ends of lines. Just make sure that you buy enough to cover your floor as there may be none left if you need another pack of flooring. One thing to watch out for is that if you need to overbuy because you’re not sure how much you actually need, the store may not take back the excess so in some cases you may be better off buying a more expensive laminate with a return guarantee.
3. Buy Online
You can get some great deals if you shop around online and you can often get the same quality brands in laminate at a cheaper price from online retailers. This is possible because they have lower overheads than a physical store and there is also a healthy competition among online retailers (healthy for the consumer that is). Check the price including shipping to make sure you are keeping to your budget.
If you are buying cheap laminated flooring because it’s the only thing you can afford and even the quality laminate at a discount is out of your price range, check the laminate reviews online to see if you are buying something which is value for money. Places like Amazon always have a number if reviews from real buyers (click here to see a selection of laminate flooring at a discount) and this can help you make up your mind.
