Painting laminate flooring offers a completely different look, but you can also just stain your laminate flooring to give it a richer colour. Smoky shades can look great and add a vintage feel to rooms.
There are five steps that you need to follow: clean, sand, repair, prime, and paint. With a fair amount of patience and the right tools, you can achieve a total DIY makeover of your own laminate floor into whatever you want it to be!
Some ways to do this are correct cleaning processes like sweeping and vacuuming your floors, preparing a laminate-formulated floor cleaner and spraying it on the floor, mopping the floor, air-drying the room, and buffing any additional dull spots.
Resurfacing a laminate floor isn't difficult — but it does require specific products. Here's how to get the job done right in just a few steps.
To remove the old laminate, first, you need to uninstall the baseboard that sits over the flooring. If your room is fairly simple and the new laminate planks are the same thickness, you might not need to remove the baseboard. For my living room, the new laminate planks were slightly thicker than the old planks.
Laminate flooring is often considered to have a lower resale value than solid wood or engineered wood. Resilient flooring tends to rate even lower than laminate flooring, though categories start to overlap with better types of resilient flooring like thick rigid core luxury vinyl plank.
Painting laminate flooring offers a completely different look, but you can also just stain your laminate flooring to give it a richer colour. Smoky shades can look great and add a vintage feel to rooms. Staining laminate flooring follows most of the steps above – so cleaning and sanding first.
Don't start demolishing it just yet: if it's decently levelled, chances are you can simply lay your new vinyl, laminate or hardwood floor on top of it. By installing a new floor on top of your old one, you get the best of both worlds: the time-tested stability of the old floor, and a sparkling dash of newness.
Not moisture-proof
Being made of wood, laminate flooring is not impervious to the effects of moisture. Therefore, it's not suitable as a hard flooring for bathrooms and should be used with caution in kitchens or laundries. Light surface water for cleaning shouldn't cause issues, but saturation must be avoided.
A light-colored flooring such as light oak or a light-colored carpet will make the room appear brighter and more open. The same applies to the ceiling—use a light color or white to "open up" the space above.
Laminate floors are durable, but they can scratch or scuff, so avoid things like steel wool as well. Although laminate is a hard floor, you want to avoid steam cleaning to tackle tough stains as it can loosen that top protective layer and damage the surface.
Happily, laminate has made a triumphant comeback. Thanks to new technologies, options, and styles, there's even more to love about laminate floors and how they can totally change the look of any room in your home.
You can sand, prime and paint laminate as if it were a solid wood piece of furniture! It's easy to skip the sanding step, because sanding is a drag… but it's especially important with laminate. Because it's often somewhat glossy-looking, and important to sand it down until the finish is very dull before priming.
However, in recent times, laminate flooring has been experiencing a significant resurgence in popularity. With advancements in technology and a renewed focus on sustainable options, laminate flooring is making a comeback in 2023.
Ideally, you should remove the laminate and put the vinyl plank flooring on top of the original subfloor surface.
Installing one laminate flooring over another can cause more costly problems to fix over time. For this reason, we always recommend removing the existing laminate before installing a new one.
Carpeting per square foot can range from $2 to $10, but the average price is around $5. Laminate flooring costs anywhere from $3 to $12 per square foot, but the average price is around $7.
Sand away the gloss layer of your boards with care. Repair any cracks or holes. Use a trustworthy primer to help the paint adhere to the laminate surface. Paint and re-seal the floor to prevent water damage.
Laminate flooring tends to cost $2.70 to $11 per square foot depending on the quality of the flooring. Also be sure to budget $4 to $8 for labor and installation per square foot installed, depending on labor costs in your area. Labor costs should also include underlayment for the flooring.
Replacing Planks
This usually costs more than $300, but it depends on how many planks need replacing and if you can easily remove the laminate. On average, removing and replacing damaged planks will cost about $3 to $11 per square foot.
Laminate flooring lasts between 15 to 25 years on average. The exact lifespan will vary depending on the product quality of your floor, how well you maintain and care for it and the overall wear-and-tear it receives. In some cases, laminate floors can last over 25 years.
1. It keeps the house looking consistent. If you have a color scheme or style that you love, having the same flooring flow from room to room will allow you to extend that feel throughout your entire home. Using the same flooring material ensures your home will have an elevated and cohesive design.