For many, the idea of installing laminate flooring reminds them of their parent’s vinyl floors when they were growing up, cheap looking and ugly to boot. But today’s laminate flooring is so different that you may walk on it and not know it.

The reason is simple: laminate flooring is a surface layer of two thin sheets of paper impregnated with melamine. This surface layer is a photograph of wood grain, not real wood, and is usually covered by a hard transparent layer impervious to anything you can name, including your kids.

Because what you see is actually a photograph, installing laminate flooring combines natural looking designs with a tough, durable finish and can be used in almost any area of the home. Laminate floors also offer realistic designs of more than just hardwood as well as replicate the characteristics of the popular handscraped hardwood floors. High quality photographs faithfully reproduce the grain and color of natural hardwood, and the surfaces on quality laminate flooring closely resemble real wood. Although many people insist on hardwood flooring, laminates are a long-lasting, durable, affordable option that is quickly becoming one of the most popular types of flooring.

And best of all, installing laminate flooring is so easy, with the right tools anyone can do it. Most people find they can install several hundred feet over a weekend. Generally you just snap the floor panels together or at most tap them in place using a small mallet. In addition, it can be installed in just about any room in your house (well, maybe not the sauna), and that includes above or below ground and on just about any surface including wood or concrete. It doesn’t hurt that the cost of installing laminate flooring is about half of the cost of installing a hardwood floor.

Here is a video on 5 Minute Videopedia that shows you how to install laminate flooring from the video show Michael Holigan’s Your New House:

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Install-Laminate-Flooring-107125582