When you properly care and refinish your flooring, hardwood floors can last 100 years.

Hardwood flooring or laminate flooring. Both hardwoods can be difficult to install and both hardwood types do not contain a wear layer like laminate flooring. As the production and raw material cost for laminate are less than hardwood, it is cheaper than hardwood flooring. Laminate floors are a synthetic product designed to look like wood.

Engineered flooring—also called engineered hardwood flooring —is a solid core of premium, dimensionally stable plywood with a thin veneer of hardwood on top. The cost of hardwood floors and laminate products varies based on quality. Engineered wood flooring typically starts at the lowest end at $4 per square foot, but the average is more like $8 per square foot.

Installation would run between $2,400 and $4,000. The cost of hardwood flooring is almost double the cost of. You can choose from softwoods or hardwoods and even various designs and thicknesses.

Hardwood flooring is generally considered timeless and can last for hundreds of years if maintained properly. The cost of your flooring per square foot will. Laminate is a blend of wood fibers mixed with glue and binding agents.

If you’re debating between carpet. Laminates cost between $1 and $5 a square foot, depending on the quality of the laminate and its finish. Hardwood floors can last up to a century or more with good care.

Most wood floors cost between $12 to $20 a square foot installed. The best engineered hardwood flooring can range all the way up to $13/sq. Unlike natural flooring options like wood, stone or cork, laminate flooring is a synthetic material.