What Is Laminate Flooring
Unlike hardwood, laminate floors will not
stain, fade, dent and are far more scratch and water
resistant. Find out about more of their qualities
in this article.......
Laminate flooring mimics the look of
traditional woods while offering easy installation and
lasting durability.
At first glance, it can be difficult to
spot the difference between hardwoods and laminate flooring.
What appears to be a natural wood grain pattern is really a
thin layer of decor paper (a photographic image) under a
tough-as-nails protective film that is glued and pressed to
a high-density backing board.
Laminate Flooring comes in an array of
wood effects as well as stone and ceramic effects. Laminate
floorings main advantages are that it is easy to install, is
very hardwearing and relatively inexpensive compared to real
hardwood flooring.
Laminate flooring is a floating floor,
which means it does not fasten directly to the sub-floor.
Instead the planks are clicked together. This enables the
floor to be fitted fast and with no real mess. Laminate
flooring has been around in Europe for around 15 years and
has seen massive growth in the past few years. In 2004 over
750 million square meters of laminate flooring was sold
worldwide this was an increase of 13% on the previous year.
The biggest growth market is in the US with an impressive
growth rate of 25%.
What Is Laminate Flooring Made From?
Laminate flooring is made up of four layers. The bottom
layer is the stabilizing layer; this is what gives the
laminate floor its stability. It is made up of moisture
resistant resins. Above this there is the core layer; this
is made up of high density fibreboard (H.D.F.). This is
saturated in resins to make it extremely hard. Most
manufactures also add a moisture resistant resin to the
core. This is important as it helps keep the flooring
protected against moisture penetrating the boards. On top of
the core layer is added a high strength paper along with the
decorative paper. It is this decorative paper which gives
the laminate flooring its individual appearance, ranging
from highly authentic wood reproduction, ceramic or stone
designs. The top wear layer is provided by the melamine
resin, a highly wear resistant material that makes laminate
flooring so hard wearing. This top layer is very similar to
the top layer on counter or kitchen work tops but is usually
around 40% stronger. This makes the laminate flooring highly
resistant to scratches, burns, dent's, stains, etc.
There are a lot of laminate flooring
manufactures who have products in the market place, each
saying theirs is the best. Our advice is to stay with the
leading ones these are QUICK-STEP, ALLOC, PERGO, BRUCE, and
KRONOTEX. These manufacturers have been around a long time
and offer quality products that you can trust.
How Does Laminate Flooring Fit Together.
Most laminate floors today fit together with a click system
with the most common being the UNICLIC system as used by
Quick-Step. This is extremely easy and fast to fit. The
ingenious UNICLIC-system has a special shape of tongue and
groove. You simply place the tongue of one plank into the
grove of another at an angle and press down. Their
sophisticated and very accurate milled shape makes it
possible to create a very tight connection during the
installation. The floor can be walked on straight away.
If you are laying laminate flooring over
a concrete sub-floor then you will fist need to lay down a
damp proof membrane (DPM). This is basically a sheet of
plastic usually around 5mm which helps protect the Laminate
from moisture. On top of this goes the foam underlay this
acts as sound absorption and also helps even out minor
irregularities in the sub-floor. Most manufacturers now
offer a combined DPM and underlay along with several
underlay's that have better sound absorbing qualities.
Article Author - Jason Ashby
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