Raise your hand if you know what laminate is. No hands are going up? Don’t sweat it!

Laminate is the newest category in flooring, so it’s logically the least understood. Let’s get it cleared up.

Laminate flooring is made from several layers of synthetic materials, usually bonded together with melamine resin. The resulting material can be designed to simulate the look of hardwood, tile, natural stone and many other types of flooring.

The process was developed in Sweden in the early 80s. At that time, Americans were using laminate as a countertop material. The technology was adapted, adding considerably more resin to the wear layer. Some manufacturers boast that their laminate floors are now 10-20 times harder than laminate countertops.

Laminate flooring crossed the Atlantic to North America in the early nineties with the brand name Pergo, which has taken our country by storm.

DESIGN: What does it look like?
In the beginning virtually all the floors replicated were wood species, mostly because of demand. As laminate grew in popularity, marble and stone were introduced. The designs are limited only by the imagination of the producers.

In the past, laminate floors have been easy to spot, but today’s technology allows manufacturers to create realistic visuals and textures for an elegant and quality floor. You might be shocked at how authentic laminate flooring looks.

DURABILITY: What Are the Benefits of Laminate?

• Price. Average prices starting at $.99 cents to $12.00 square foot for the materials.
• Resistance. It’s much harder to dent a laminate floor. Heavy objects or shoes have less effect on laminates than on wood or vinyl flooring.
• Easy cleaning. Because laminate flooring is stain resistant, it doesn’t need to be varnished or waxed. Just vacuum or damp mop. Hooray!
• Color wear. Unlike aging hardwoods, laminate floors are also less likely to fade in direct sunlight.
• Changablity. Laminates are easy to replace later on, if desired.
• Installation. It’s simple to lay laminate over many different types of subfloors. We’ll get to that in the next section…

DO-IT-YOURSELF Installation! (If you want to)
Laminate floors are floated over subfloors, allowing them to be installed over a wide variety of bases including wood, existing floors and concrete slabs. Because of laminate’s plank size, packaging and ease of tongue and groove installation, a large do-it yourself market was created in Sweden that exists today. In fact, over ninety percent of laminate flooring in Sweden still is self-installed.

If you decide to go it yourself, remember these two things:

• Always do a moisture test on your subfloor to determine what level of underlayment you need. This is especially important in basements.
• Remember your trim pieces when you consider your budge for laminate.  You must have trim pieces to install correctly.

A final word
I would be remiss to leave you in the dark about the downside of laminate. While it may look good, it simply does not add value to your home like hardwood and tile.