Laminate Flooring- Add a New Dimension in your Home Décor

by Carpet Express Carpet Express, Inc.

Since the time of its invention by the Swedish in 1977, laminate flooring has continuously strived to gain popularity under the name “Pergo”. So, let’s see how this unique type of flooring has managed to acquire and sustain its popularity across the years.

What is laminate flooring?

As the name indicates, laminate flooring is a type of flooring that uses multi layered laminated materials that are fused together. The resulting laminate flooring styles can imitate almost any surface such as stone, wood, or the scanned copy of photographs, in different materials. The inner layer of such laminates is made up of melamine resin and fiberboard. These kinds of floors possess a number of benefits over stone, tile and hardwood floors in terms of durability, ease of installation processes, maintenance, and nature of hygiene.

Glue-less Lamination

Laminate flooring styles attained yet another milestone in the year 1996 when glue less laminates were invented. Glueless lamination refers to smart flooring solutions where the planks of lamination are locked up without pasting the grooves and tongue.

Things you should know before you select a laminate floor

Laminated floors are famous for emulating any form of surfaces. This feature transforms them into a highly demanded product with pretty low costs. In fact, laminate tiles and laminate wood flooring serve as a good alternative to costly tiles and wood flooring solutions. Their many benefits pertaining to cheaper installation cost, easy maintenance, and high resistance to wear and stains, are some additional points to consider while selecting discount laminate flooring for your home. Since these types of floors are available with many options in the market, thus the main concern of consumers would be to identify their own styles.

Are you aware of your own style?

While you take care of your style preference with regards to selecting the perfect laminate flooring for your home, you should be aware that there is actually no limit to the colors, finishing and textures of laminate tile and laminate floors or laminate wood floorings. Due to the possibility of a wide range of photographic resolution and formats, you can easily achieve the feel and look of exotic woods or stones in your rooms!

Even as you choose the perfect laminate flooring, it is recommended that you keep in mind that some variants are quite sensitive to high moisture. So, such floors are best avoided in bathrooms or on terraces that tend to get wet frequently. Laminate is itself a category of flooring and contains its own unique characteristics, performance advantages, and styles. On the basis of your style choice, you can either go for laminate flooring with a hand-scraped look, or with an oil finish. As per their size and looks, these floorings are available in different dimensions of length and width with mind-blowing designs of wood, tiles, tones, bricks and even the photographs clicked by you.

Have a cup of tea with AC ratings

The Abrasion Ration System was developed by the European Producers of Laminate Flooring (EPLF) in which the laminate floorings are rated on the basis of a number of tests inclusive of Tabor Abrasion Test, resistance to stain, impact, swelling and burn. On the basis of this testing form, every product is assigned with an AC number (AC1 to AC5). As a smart consumer, you should know the meaning of each number.

AC1 indicates moderate residential and it is suitable for moderate use in residences.
AC2 indicates general residential suitable for normal application in homes such as living rooms and dining halls.
AC3 is fit for usage heavy in residential and moderate commercial areas, inclusive of offices and hotels.
AC4 indicates general commercial use, which is suitable for all residential use along with general commercial applications including cafes, offices and boutiques.
Lastly, AC5 refers to heavy commercial use, and flooring types of this kind are suitable for all types of residential spaces along with heavy commercial applications like public constructions, departmental stores, etc.

Noticeably, most premium laminate flooring solutions go by these ratings, though you may not find them universally.

Go perfect with your laminate floor installation

If you are reading this, then bingo! You have made an excellent choice for giving beautiful flooring experiences to your home. But before you hire a professional for laminate floor installation, it would be better to seize some hands-on experience regarding the process. Well, there are mainly four types of primary methods of laminate floor installation.

The first method is glueless that provides you with hassle-free installation processes. Here, a plastic underlayment is required for floating the laminate above the subfloor for allowing the moisture to seal out from below.
Secondly, there is an attached underlay that comes with different forms of grooved and tongue locked systems for decreasing the overall levels of noise.
The third method is that of gluing, which is actually considered as the “original” method and requires a special type of glue that is to be applied to the groove and tongue of each board. When the glue dries, it becomes almost impossible to take the laminate layers apart.
The last method is that of “pre-glue” which is an absolutely ‘mess-less’ method of installation because the grooves and tongues are already glued. The last method is considered the best and as the easiest way of installing.

Keep it clean

However, a must do task after installing the laminate flooring in your environment is keeping it clean. You cannot afford to have dirt on such floors because they would lead to scratches in areas that experience high feet traffic. In addition to this, you should also be cautious about keeping the floors totally dry, this is because water can cause swelling, although there are certain brands that come with top coatings that resist water. It is essential to be aware of the release of volatile organic compounds from the floors, as more often than not, these floors are made up of formaldehyde that causes quality deterioration in terms of air concern.

Remember! Before you proceed to install, you need to invest time in getting your home prepared for relocating furniture and other objects for offering vacant spaces for the work to begin. Also, verify whether the area of installation is weather checked or not. The climate should be finely controlled in places that maintain indoor humidity between 45 to 65 percent.

P.S. It is recommendable that you operate closely with both the retailer as well as the installer for becoming familiar with pieces of moldings and transition.