What is Laminate Flooring?

Laminate Flooring has swept the nation! It is by far the fastest-growing section of our industry. It has been popular in Europe for several years and now that popularity is catching on here in the United States.

Laminate floors are extremely durable and can be used in a wide array of applications from a simple bedroom in your home, to the showroom of an automobile dealership. They are by far are the simplest flooring type to maintain. In most cases a simple sweeping or a light mopping is all that's required.

Most of the laminate flooring manufacturers are running some pretty impressive advertising campaigns, so we suggest you read all the details before you make your decision based solely on one of the ads you see on TV or in a magazine. The information they're dishing out in these ads can be confusing. We will try to help you make sense of it all.

Manufacturers

We highly suggest that you stay with one of the larger laminate manufacturing companies, especially since this is such a new product in the industry. At least you can be sure, if you're purchasing from one of these large companies, that they will stand behind the product if you should have any problems in the future.

We represent some of the largest and most well respected manufacturers of laminate flooring in the industry today. These manufacturers include: PERGO, WILSONART, MANNINGTON, COLUMBIA, BRUCE, KRONOTEX, and many others.

Description

Laminate Flooring is a plank type floor, constructed of different layers. Usually, the top layer or "wear layer" is clear. It is a low or high density laminate, depending on the manufacturer and style -- similar to a counter top laminate.

Although it is similar to a counter top laminate, it is, in most cases, anywhere from 10% to 40% stronger than counter tops, and more resistant to scratches, burns, chipping, dents, etc.

The second layer is usually the design or decorative layer which gives it the unique look of wood, or in some cases, tile flooring. Some laminate floor manufacturers add a third or "base" layer for greater stability.

All of these layers are fused by heat and pressure to a high density core. Some cores are constructed of high density fiber, and some are constructed of wood particles.

Manufacturers argue amongst themselves that one core type is better than the other. We've found them to be fairly equal -- both have some minor good and bad points. For example, while the high density fiber core may be slightly more structurally sound, the high density wood particle core absorbs the glue slightly better, creating a tighter seal between the joints.

Our opinion is that as long as they're manufactured properly by one of the large major manufacturers, you can't go wrong with any of them.

Most of the better laminate products also fit together very tightly, so there are less joints than there would be with a wood floor.

Most of the manufacturers apply some type of backing to the boards. This backing acts as added stability as well as added protection against moisture. Some manufacturers use a paper type backing and some use a melamine backing.

Again, manufacturers argue that one is better than the other. In our opinion, taking in all of the technical data, we prefer the melamine backing over the paper back. The reason we were swayed toward the melamine was the fact that, as it is explained by the manufacturers, the melamine acts as added stability. If any moisture should get into the floor, and any of the boards were to warp or "banana", the melamine backing acts as a memory stabilizer and helps bring the board or boards back to their original position. Obviously paper does not have this characteristic.

We would also like to state that it is extremely difficult for any moisture to get to inner core of these floors and we don't feel it makes a substantial difference in the quality one way or the other.

Sizes

Most laminate floors come in approximately the same size -- roughly 8" wide by 48" long. There is a new product out by INSIGNIA which is approximately 9 1/2" wide. They chose to make this wider product to have fewer seams overall.

To our knowledge, there is no structural benefit to this wider board. However, on one particular line which is their "Royale" series, they do offer a 20 year warranty. All of the thickness of the boards are approximately the same. All the ones we know of are under 1/2" thick. As a note, the thickness usually has no bearing on the quality. The quality is determined more by how well the material is constructed and also what pressure the laminate was applied at.

Installation Method

One of the unique benefits of these laminate floors is the way they're installed. All the laminate floors we carry are installed by what's referred to as a "floating floor" or "free floating" method.

None of them get glued directly to the floor. They are glued together at the tongues and grooves. Before they are put down and glued together, a plastic is laid down, generally 6 mil thick, which acts as a moisture barrier and also helps the floor move more easily when it expands and contracts under different temperature conditions.

On top of the plastic, a foam layer acts as sound absorption and also helps even out minor irregularities in the sub-floor.

Some companies now make a two-in-one underlayment - the foam and plastic together in one unit. After the underlayment is laid, the floor basically gets laid on top and glued together.

This makes it an ideal product if you have an existing floor such as vinyl or ceramic tile, and you don't want to go to the trouble of ripping it up. It is also a very simple installation and makes it more attractive as a do-it-yourself project.