Q: What are the differences between bellawood and pergo? Which would you recommend over a concrete subfloor?
Chris
A: From the start here we are trying to compare apples to oranges, but let’s delve into why.
Pergo is a manufacturer of laminate flooring. Pergo was the first to introduce laminate to the US market and has since become synonymous with laminate to the average floor buyer in the US. Laminate flooring is a photo-realistic picture of wood, laminated to a backer board and medium or high-density fiberboard core. Although a wood product by nature, as the core and photo come from wood they are not traditional wood floors sawn from trees and then milled. Unlike traditional wood floors, laminate flooring is exceptionally tough and can be installed virtually anywhere. Pergo itself is the biggest name in the laminate industry and makes many various lines from their Everyday collection, which is built as a economy line, to Pergo Select, which is one of the best laminates in the industry, Pergo’s selection has a floor to fit just about any situation or budget.
Bellawood is a private flooring manufacturer owned by Lumber Liquidators. They make solid hardwood flooring in various species much like the myriad of wood flooring manufacturers out there like Bruce, Kahrs, Westhollow and many more. The major downside to solid wood flooring is that it is not as durable as laminate and it is limited to where it can be installed. In your case, the only solid hardwood which can be installed over a concrete subfloor is 5/16″ solid and it must be glued down.
In your case I would suggest looking into a laminate floor, such as the ones made by Pergo, but if you want a real wood floor, look into engineered wood floors like those made by Bellefloor (not to be confused with Bellawood), Sun Paratech, Saso, Westhollow or Kahrs.
