A floating floor’s chief advantage centers around its ease of installation. However, there are plenty of other advantages too!
Floating Floors Are Often Cheaper to Install
Floating floors are often cheaper to install than non-floating floors because they’re less time- and labor-intensive to put in.
Virtually anyone that’s physically able to do so (and who understands the basic premise of Legos) can install a floating floor.
Plus, if you do hire labor, there’s a good chance that your contractors will finish the job quicker—and quicker usually means cheaper!
Nails and glue can get pretty pricey, too. Home Depot sells flooring nails for anywhere from $5 to $8 per pound. Oh, and “floor glue” goes for about $30/gallon (though in fairness, prices vary widely).
Considering that traditional floors need those nails or staples, hardwood floor alternatives like floating laminate are much more economical.
Similarly, if you compare the cost to replace carpet with solid hardwood to the cost to replace carpet with floating engineered wood, you’re much more likely to save with the latter.
Installing Floating Floors Is Super Easy
What is a floating floor’s greatest strength? We’ve touched on this aspect a lot, but again—ease of installation is probably the biggest draw.
The hardest part about installing floating floors is making sure that each sheet or plank is properly connected to its counterpart. That’s basically it.
For comparison, one of the biggest disadvantages of hickory flooring—or almost any super-hard wood for that matter—is that it can be tough to install in solid planks. Floating hickory floors, however, just need to be laid down and clicked together.
At worst, some people like to glue select planks or sheets for extra security. But that’s nothing compared to gluing or nailing down hundreds or even thousands of square feet of non-floating flooring.
Floating Floor Maintenance Is Usually Minimal
Okay, it’s very important to understand that when we say “floating floor maintenance,” we’re referring to maintenance you would specifically perform on floating floors.
In other words, you’ll still have to do whatever maintenance the material of your floor requires (i.e. vinyl needs a good scrubbing). Your floating floors won’t magically make your vinyl or laminate floors dirtproof.
What we mean is that there’s no special maintenance required for floating floors. Whatever you would do for traditionally-installed floors is what you would do for the floating version.
Floating Floors Are More Convenient to Replace
Since floating floors are pretty easy to remove, they’re equally easy to replace!
Simply (and properly!) dispose of your old floors and then throw down your new floors. Forget the glue stripper, nail removers, or power tools—you can just use your hands and a multitool.
Heck, you could even replace your old floating floors with new floating floors!
Almost Any Material Can Be Installed as a Floating Floor
Whether you want regal wood floor patterns, a single-color design, or a unique vinyl plank design, there’s a good chance it can be installed as a floating floor.
If you want jet black ebony floors, there’s a decent chance that someone out there makes a floating version (though it’s more likely to be ebony-stained wood as real ebony is exceedingly rare). Or, instead of dark ebony, go with light ash flooring.
Want to experience the pros and cons of bamboo flooring for yourself? Why not try it as a floating floor? The amount of options is head spinning!
Floating Floors Can Be More Eco-Friendly (No VOCs)
Remember how we said you don’t need to use glue to secure your floating floors? Well, many flooring adhesives are known to contain harmful chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
VOCs are harmful to people, pets, and the environment. By going the floating floor route, you’re making a more eco-friendly flooring choice.
Now, some wood products still use harmful chemicals in their construction, so it can be hard to avoid dangerous chemicals altogether. And laminate and vinyl planks can also be of questionable friendliness towards the environment.
But, there are plenty of low-VOC flooring choices available—even low-VOC vinyl flooring. And if green living is important to you, you can always go with sustainable wood flooring that a) avoids adhesives and b) uses an eco-friendly finish.
Floating Floors Make Swapping Your Flooring Easy
Let’s say you’ve looked into teak flooring pros and cons and have decided it’s the floor for you.
But you also know that, in a couple of years, you might be getting a dog or having a child. And you know that teak won’t stand up to dings and dents like vinyl, laminate, or another hardwood floor alternative will. What do you do?
Install your teak as a floating floor! You can enjoy it for the time being and, when you’re ready to swap it out, it’s just a matter of paying for the labor (or doing it yourself). No ripping up nails, no destroying your beautiful teak trying to strip adhesives. Store it for the future or re-use it elsewhere!
