Laminate Flooring Features

Laminate flooring is a high-quality substitute for natural wood flooring. Laminate features a beautiful wood appearance, combined with engineering design and manufacturing processes that eliminate many of wood's disadvantages in the home. Laminate flooring is uniform in color and expands little.

Laminate offers more variety of wood types, color, and fashion inserts than natural wood floors. Advanced technology locks the color deep inside for vivid patterns and hues.

Laminate is a high-density, layered product. It's constructed much like the familiar kitchen countertops (such as Formica), but is 20 times more durable than most countertops. The word "laminate" means to unite layers of material as they lie on top of one another. (Plywood, for example, is a laminated product.) To make installing easier, laminate has tongue-and-groove edges (like wood flooring).

Laminate Flooring vs. Ceramic

• Laminate is 3-5 times stronger and 10 times less brittle than ceramic tile.
• Laminate is 10 times more resistant to breaks or cracks due to falling objects.
• Ceramic tile does not burn. Laminate has a higher flame and smoke potential.
• Slip resistance with rubber contact material was about 'the same.

Laminate Flooring vs. Hardwood

Laminate looks much like a natural wood or stone flooring, yet costs less and requires less maintenance. So, it has become a popular value for consumers. People can buy a floor covering that many people cannot distinguish from natural wood, yet they pay a lower price and don't face the later problems that wood can cause.

• Laminate's surface is harder than that of acrylic or urethane coated engineered hardwood, but about the same as the wood finish of aluminum-oxide impregnated polyurethane
• Laminate has greater impact resistance.
• Scuff resistance with laminate is better than acrylic-finished wood floors.
• It takes 2-3 times more force to scratch laminate flooring.
• Laminate flooring resists cigarette burns. Its heat resistance is better than acrylic and urethane-coated woods.
• Laminate is 30% more abrasion resistant.
• Hot water resistance of laminate exceeds that of even impregnated woods.
• Slip resistance is about the same.
• Because it is a floating floor, laminate requires a cushion under it, which can create a "hollow" sound when walking across it.

Laminate Flooring vs. Resilient Flooring

• Dent resistance is 1.5 times better than vinyl.
• Impact resistance is better for laminate. The melamine finish gets its durability from aluminum oxide, which is second only to diamonds in hardness. Aluminum oxide provides unsurpassed wear and stain resistance. (Not all laminates use melamine.)
• Abrasion resistance is better
• Heat resistance in laminates exceeds all sheet vinyl.
• Chemical and stain resistance is the same as vinyl with urethane wear layers, and better than vinyl and vinyl composition tile without urethane wear layers.
• Laminates exceed the scratch resistance of vinyl by as much as two times the force required to scratch it.