Carpet vs Laminate – Which Is the Better Choice For Your Home?

Choosing the right flooring option for a home is a challenging task. Many people are indecisive about selecting one because there are just too many good options. Laminate and carpeted floors are two of the most popular choices in modern homes. But many people don’t know enough about those to make a sound choice.

Every flooring type has its advantages, and they all look fabulous if you can showcase their strengths. Likewise, you’ll need to consider their drawbacks too, to know which is suitable for your floor and your specific expectations. In this article, we will help you compare carpet vs laminate. This should allow you to figure out which would be best for you.

Benefits Of Carpet & Laminate

When comparing anything, it is best to start with their good side. Carpeted floors have been quite popular for quite some time, and laminate is a slightly newer addition to the scene. Let’s take a quick look at why these are good flooring options:

Laminate:

• Very Affordable
• Highly durable, waterproof material.
• Wide selection of styles and patterns
• It comes in different textures
• Can work with underfloor heaters

Carpet

• Very Comfortable
• Detailed textures
• It can feature exquisite artwork
• Dampens noise
• You can get different features for different spaces

Laminate flooring

Laminate flooring is an artificial flooring product usually made of melamine resin. It is a very durable flooring option, which is easy to clean and repair. One of the many reasons why laminate flooring is so popular is because of its stupidly cheap price range. Nothing comes close in terms of cost-to-quality ratio.

However, you still have other options if you don’t want synthetic plastic laminate. Engineered wood flooring looks practically the same as laminate flooring, so much so that people often call those Engineered wood laminates. They are virtually the same as synthetic ones but have wooden sheets in the laminate layer. Neither of them comes with any health risks.

When people think of laminate, they usually imagine planks that look like wood and have very smooth textures. But laminate can do so much more than that. Exotic textured laminates can add more character to your indoor space.

Laminate floors are straightforward to clean too. You’ll need to avoid letting liquid spills stay on the floor too long. And lastly, it is one of the most accessible flooring materials to install. But that’s only true if you have some experience working with such things. Complete novices can still mess things up, so it’s better to get a professional to do your installation.

Some laminates are better than others and have better AC ratings. But even the best laminate will fail to show its potential if the installation is badly done.

As an experienced builders we advise to put laminate on floor that is perfectly flat and solid. Laminate cannot have gaps underneath as it will start squeaking as well as it will fail after short time. This is not truth that it will get better over time. Opposite it will get worse.

Carpet

People usually associate carpets with comfort and luxury because they are warm and cosy. The options for carpets are much more varied than single materials like laminate and engineered wood. Almost every region of the world has some type of carpet. So there are endless choices regarding materials, colours, patterns, and textures.

Carpets naturally retain heat, so you’ll need much better than stepping on an uncovered floor top. Laminate can not provide this service unless you have underfloor heating. Gilded or regal carpets have soft or fury surfaces, but contemporary designs also include silky, velvety textures.

You can also have different types of carpets for other rooms. Doing so will add practical elements to your rooms and a more stylistic contrast. Hallways or entry rooms can have smoother, easier-to-clean carpet floors, while bedrooms can have more fluffy and comfortable ones. Thick carpets have a layer of soundproof quality, so many prefer installing carpets upstairs.

As builders we advise … In UK homes that most of them has wood made floor carpet is a good choice. This is because floor is soft when you walk on it. If you put laminate there it will start making noise very quickly as well as it will fail.

Conclusion

Choosing between carpet vs laminate ultimately boils down to what you are willing to let go of. If you choose laminate, you lose the comfort of soft carpet and aesthetically pleasing textures. But you also gain easy maintenance options and durability. Though for a home with small children, it might be better to consider laminate because kids often spill things on the floor.

We’ve laid out all the good and the bad of both flooring options, so you can use your own judgment to decide which one fits your needs more. If you need help installing these, we at C&K are always ready to provide professional service.