How To Tell If You Have Hardwood Floors Under Laminate

For most areas of laminate flooring in your home a dry or dust mop may be all that is needed for regular cleaning.

How to tell if you have hardwood floors under laminate.

If the homeowner is not spending the money to maintain a hardwood floor signs of age are even more obvious. Some species are easy to identify such as oak pine cherry and fir. The average wear and tear. Unfortunately only laminate was hidden below.

Unlike padding under a carpet this type of underlayment padding is too thin for you to feel when you walk across a laminate floor. Hardwood floors do not require underlayment padding but they may squeak and creak if you place the surface boards directly against the underlayment. If you re unsure whether you have solid hardwood or engineered wood floors you can figure it out by taking a look where any vents or registers in the floor are located and removing the grille. Most laminates have a protective layer so the flooring won t wear that much.

Determine whether the flooring boards are made from a hardwood or softwood by pushing your fingernail into the surface of one. A little water goes a long way on a laminate floor. Look for water marks stains and faded areas on the floorboards. The problem with laminate floors is that too much water seeps into the cracks between the planks and can cause swelling and damage that is irreversible.

Here s the easiest way to know if you have wood floors. These methods apply most of the time but there are always exceptions. The wood database online can show specific grain types color variations and hardness to help in the hardwood floor identification. 1 look for discolouration.

Any little dings in the wood are a dead giveaway the floor is natural wood. Laminate doesn t stain the way natural wood does so if you see water rings random splotches or discolorations on the floor it is. To correctly identify the type of hardwood you need to perform a few tests. On older homes with hardwood floors if the cabinets are removed they may need to be refinished anyway since the floors usually are never sanded and stained under the cabinets but it beats a tie in and refinish.

This is an area where the carpet isn t tacked down so it s easily accessible. This should allow you to see the cross section of the wood and see the center of the board next to the register. If the room has a floor vent remove it they re rarely screwed in carefully push your fingers under the pad to lift reveal. Here s how to tell the difference between hardwood and laminate flooring note.

The hardwood floor can t hide the scratches and stains as easily as a laminate floor. If it is an older house with existing hardwood floors there is a terrific chance of the floor going under the cabs if there is laminate flooring the chances are nil it goes under.