Guides · Flooring
Flooring guide
Wood, wood-look and pattern explained in plain terms — how parquet, engineered hardwood and laminate are built, how they wear, and which belongs in which room.
Nolte Küchen design
01Choosing a floor
A flooring guide built around construction
Two floors can look identical in a photograph and behave completely differently for twenty years. This flooring guide explains what sits beneath the surface — a real wood wear layer or a printed image under a hard coating — because that decides whether a floor can be refinished, how it sounds and how it copes with water.
Three in-depth articles compare the main choices: engineered hardwood vs laminate, laminate vs vinyl flooring and SPC flooring vs LVP. For patterns and products, see parquet flooring, herringbone, laminate and SPC vinyl plank.
02Four questions
What to decide before you choose a floor
Where will it go?
Kitchens, entries and rooms that open to a pool need a different answer from a bedroom or a study.
Who lives on it?
Dogs, children and office chairs wear a floor faster than any sunshine does. Pick the wear layer for the life, not the look.
Pattern or plank?
Herringbone, chevron and Versailles parquet bring architecture to a room; wide planks bring calm.
What is underneath?
A concrete slab, a wood subfloor or radiant heating changes which constructions and installation methods make sense.
03Construction first
How a floor is built decides how it ages
Two floors with the same oak look can age very differently: a real wood top layer can often be sanded and refinished, while a printed decor under a hard wear layer resists scratches better but cannot be renewed. We compare constructions in engineered hardwood vs laminate.
That matters for planning. A multi-layer floor is more stable than solid boards as humidity swings, which is why it suits the dry Santa Ana days and coastal mornings of Los Angeles alike.
Choosing a floor with the rest of the house
A floor is the largest single surface in a home, so we choose it with the kitchen, stone and closets rather than after them. Carrying one floor through open-plan living, kitchen and hallway makes rooms feel larger; changing pattern — herringbone in the living room, planks elsewhere — can mark a change of use without a threshold.
How to judge floor samples
Floor samples are small and floors are large, so judge them generously. Ask for the longest boards available, lay several side by side to see the natural color variation, and look at them in the room itself in morning and evening light. Put a cabinet front and a stone offcut on top: the floor should support the kitchen, not compete with it. Before ordering, check door thresholds and stair nosings, because a floor over an underlay raises the finished level. Planning a kitchen at the same time? Start with our kitchen design guide.
04Quick comparison
Floor constructions at a glance
- Engineered hardwood / multi-layer parquet
- Real wood wear layer over a stable core; can often be sanded and refinished, depending on wear-layer thickness.
- Solid hardwood
- Wood all the way through; refinishable many times, but more sensitive to humidity and slab installations.
- Laminate
- High-density fiberboard core with a photographic decor and a hard, clear wear layer; cannot be sanded, very scratch resistant.
- Patterns
- Herringbone and chevron exist in real wood and in laminate; plank width and pattern scale change the feel of a room more than species.
In this section
Flooring guide
Engineered hardwood vs laminateEngineered hardwood has a real wood surface that can often be sanded and refinished; laminate has a printed wood image under a…
Laminate vs vinyl flooringLaminate is a wood-based board with a printed decor under a hard wear layer; vinyl plank is made from PVC and does not swell when…- SPC flooring vs LVPSPC is a type of vinyl plank. The difference in SPC flooring vs LVP is the core: SPC has a rigid stone plastic composite core…
Can one floor run through the kitchen and living room?
Which floor is best in a kitchen?
How do I match a floor to my kitchen fronts?
Can I see flooring with kitchen fronts?
Keep exploring
Related
Closet design guideHow to plan a closet around what you own — hanging lengths, drawer depths, light and finishes — whether it is a walk-in…- Parquet & flooringLooking for a flooring store that can also show you cabinets and stone? At our Glendale showroom you can lay German…
German parquetParquet flooring is real wood laid in a pattern, and German parquet is known for precise milling and stable multi-layer…
Laminate flooringLaminate flooring is a tough, photographic wood or stone surface on a high-density fiberboard core. We show Republic…
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