Thanks for the post.
We have a wide variety of laminate floors to choose from. With
the new technology being used in the flooring industry you should not
have to be STUCK with laminate flooring. There is an alternative to
laminate
and one that I highly suggest. Engineered Hardwood flooring. These
products
are built very similar to laminates but are a cross breed of solid
flooring and laminate
flooring. We have many options on our site at
www.floormall.com/hardwood. With
engineered flooring you have the strength and structure of a laminate
but your
top layer of flooring is REAL wood. These product are very reasonably
priced
and you have thousands of options. We always encourage our customers to
haggle
with our Sales Associates. With www.floormall.com ALL pricing is
negotiable. Shouldnt
it always be? Enjoy shopping!!
Marc Henderson
President and CEO
Floormall.com
800-313-1107
central_scrutinizer wrote:
I would go for real hardwood, if you can afford it. I was looking into
this recently, and my friends who do construction and remodelling told
me Pergo is not that great. Basically, they said it is a picture of
wood on some substrate. When this "picture" layer gets scratched, you
don't have wood underneath, but the substrate. I was at a restaurant
that had Pergo floors, and I noticed that where it was scratched, it
showed black underneath. Maybe you can fill it with wood filler...

The better quality Pergo isn't that cheap. I think some of it has a 25
year warranty, but that seems to cost as much as hardwood. I would
recommend www.floormall.com for hardwood. I did a lot of shopping
around, and if you call these guys, you can negotiate with them. They
beat any price I could find, and were way cheaper than Lowes or The
Home Despot, even when shipping is factored in.

A few other posts seem to favor wood (either solid or engineered) over
Pergo. I used to think Pergo was pretty good, but now I realize the
issue. With wood, you can re-finish it, even sand it down. Scratches
can be filled with wood filler. Most of the wood flooring is already
coated with aluminum oxide or strong polyuerthane varnish.

As far as cleaning, there are a variety of products for cleaning
hardwood... From swiffer to the orange hardwood floor kit.

If you want to minimize your diggity dog's foot clipping, you may
consider putting some cork underlayment under the floor.