Overheard a homeowner say laminate is 'just as good' as hardwood today

I was doing a measure at a house in Oak Park and the lady told me she didn't see the point in paying for real wood because her friend's laminate floor has held up fine for 2 years. I just stood there for a second trying not to laugh. How many of you have customers who think a floating floor is the same as a nailed down solid hardwood job?

4 comments

4 Comments

michael8031d ago

And honestly, 2 years isn't really a good test for a floor that's supposed to last decades. You can't refinish laminate when it gets scratched up or damaged, with hardwood you can sand it down and bring it back to life a few times over. So it's more like comparing a throwaway rug to a piece of furniture you might pass down to your kids.

dakota_miller931d ago

Yeah the "piece of furniture you pass down" thing always makes me laugh a little. My parents have this massive oak dining table they got in the 80s. Thing weighs like 400 pounds and has survived three moves, two kids doing homework on it, and a Thanksgiving turkey carving incident. But here's the thing - nobody in my generation wants a dining table that seats 12 and takes four people to lift. We're all eating dinner on our couches watching Netflix. So that furniture gets passed down to the dumpster eventually anyway. Hardwood floors are great if you plan on staying in one house for 40 years and never change your mind about carpet. But most people I know are ripping out perfectly good hardwood after 15 years because they want that gray washed look or wide planks or whatever. Then it just becomes expensive demolition.

oliviabutler1d ago

Is it just me or does this whole "invest in quality" mindset kind of fall apart when nobody actually wants to inherit all this stuff anymore? I see the same thing happening with china cabinets and formal living rooms, people paying a fortune for something that their kids will literally pay someone to haul away. At some point you gotta admit that maybe durability doesn't matter as much if it comes with a look nobody wants to live with.

henry1501d ago

My sister just had to rip out the hardwood in her living room after 12 years. The original stuff was fine, no major damage or anything, but she just got sick of the color and the scratches from her dog. She ended up putting in that luxury vinyl plank stuff and honestly she's way happier with it. It just feels like the whole "pass it down" argument only works if you actually want to keep looking at the same floors for decades. I mean, not everyone is into that antique look.