Laminate Flooring Overview

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Laminate flooring is a tongue and groove interlocking flooring system that rests on top of the existing substrate. Plywood, concrete slab, sheet vinyl, hardwood, or virtually any other flat, hard floor surface is suitable for a "floating" laminate installation. The word "floating" or "float-in" is a flooring term that means the new floor is not attached to the floor underneath. In a typical floating installation, only the joints are glued or interlocked. The body of the floor rests unattached to an appropriate underlayment.

There are a variety of ways the different laminate flooring brands may have the panels attached. Alloc brand utilizes a tongue and groove joint interlocking system with either aluminum or fiberboard joints. There are also the brand new pre-glued or glue-activated products where the tongue is wiped with water and the panels are clicked together like a glueless product. The wetting of the tongue activates the glue, which results in a glued joint. With glued brands of laminate flooring the joints are glued with specially formulated, water-resistant glue placed between the tongue and grooves of every panel. There are variances in how much glue is used. Some brands require a lot of glue, enough to completely fill the entire groove and the excess squeezes out when the tongue and groove are interlocked. Others only require only a small bead of glue on a specific location of the groove.

Laminate flooring consists of components that are bonded together. A wear-resistant decorative surface made of resin-based melamine is bonded to a moisture-resistant wood-based core. A balancing backing is bonded to the underside of the core. By using the existing technology found in counter tops and adding considerably more resins to the wear layer, these materials become an ideal floor covering. As a matter of fact, some laminate floor manufacturers boast that their laminate floors are 10 to 20 times harder than laminate counter tops. Since this resin-filled wear layer is so dense, it becomes extremely difficult to stain, scratch, or burn, even with a cigarette. These floors are not scratch proof though. Because laminate floors are so dense, they are easy to keep clean and most, if not all, polishes will not stick to their surface area.

Aesthetically, the most common designs have a wood grain visual appearance or stone and marble appearance. Laminate floors are typically made in long rectangular-shaped planks typically about 47"x8” however; there are some styles available square-shaped tiles (usually about 15"x15" or 24"x24").The photography and number of photographs per color (termed "screens") is an important factor of the aesthetic quality and visual realism of a laminate floor. Hardwood flooring is easily and very authentically reproduced, therefore, many hardwood floor species are reproduced including exotic, distressed and tropical hardwoods along with oak, maple, birch and cherry. The term "blocked" is used to describe a laminate floor’s plank design that consists of smaller plank fillets-widths such as 2.25" strip hardwood. The term "planked" is used to describe a laminate flooring plank's design that represents one board of lumber.

Maintenance is easy with laminate. All that is really required is vacuuming, dust mopping and maybe a damp towel at times. Most brands carry a 10, 15, 25-year or lifetime residential warranty against staining, wearing, and fading. Also, a warranty for topical moisture resistance is included with most brands.