But laminate floors have even moved into higher-end homes that once would have installed nothing but solid hardwood or engineered wood flooring. With innovations like deeper embossing and sharper image layers, laminate floors look better, perform better, and feel better underfoot than ever before. All of this popularity may beg the question: What are laminate floors in the first place?
Basics of Laminate Floors
Laminate floors are a hybrid floor covering consisting of a particleboard wood base topped by an image layer and a transparent wear layer. Laminate floors are a popular type of floor covering for homes’ living areas, kitchens, dining areas, bedrooms, hallways, and other areas that are not subject to excessive moisture. Laminate floors were invented in 1977 by the Swedish company Perstorp. The idea was to use waste wood projects by subjecting them to high pressure, heat, and binding chemicals. The result: usable floor coverings that were actually quite beautiful. Since that time, many other manufacturers such as Dupont, Mannington, Armstrong, and Shaw now make laminate floors.
Laminate Flooring Pros and Cons
Pros
Laminate floors have smooth surfaces that are free of seams, making them easy to clean. Laminate floors never need wet mopping. A dry mop or broom will take care of most of the dust and dirt. For deep cleaning, it’s best to use a hard surface mopping tool that dispenses cleaning fluid instead of water. Scratch-resistant due to their tough wear layer, most homes are well suited for homes with pets and children. Laminate floors are inexpensive relative to other types of floor coverings, though some premium laminate floors can cost as much as solid hardwood or engineered wood flooring.
Cons
Constructed largely of moisture-sensitive particleboard, laminate flooring can swell beyond repair if subjected to water for too long. In theory, laminate flooring is waterproof—only if all boards are perfectly joined with no seams and if the edges are all trimmed with waterproof baseboards. While laminate flooring’s wear layer is surprisingly tough, the boards are easily chipped. Laminate flooring is not suitable for any place where moisture is prevalent. That can be a problem since it often rules out full bathrooms, laundry rooms, and sometimes even key areas in kitchens, like in front of dishwashers or behind refrigerators.
Laminate Floor vs Other Floor Coverings
First, the laminate floor base consists of pressed chipped wood particles. Second, the top has the appearance of real wood due to the accurate image layer—essentially a well-rendered photograph of wood encased in a clear, durable wear layer. Aggregated wood particles are subjected to high pressure to form sheets. These sheets have a photorealistic image of wood or stone added to the top, and this image is covered with a wear layer. The wear layer, a durable, thin, clear plastic sheet, is the linchpin between the delicate lower layers and exterior elements such as moisture, UV rays, and scratching.
Laminate Wear Layer
Laminate flooring is a surface layer of two thin sheets of paper impregnated with melamine. This top-most surface layer is a hard transparent type of plastic sheet that is impervious to dogs, chairs, high heels, and other common damaging elements.
Laminate Image Layer
Even when viewed close-up laminate flooring can look realistic. This is due to the laminate’s photographic-quality image of real wood underneath the wear layer.
Laminate Base Layer (Core)
Under the wood-grain photograph is about a half-inch of wood-chip composite. Any type of wood chip product is inherently susceptible to water damage. Laminate flooring’s base is considered to be dimensionally stable, but only to a certain degree. Laminate flooring will stand up against some water, but only if this water is quickly removed.
Laminate Installation Method
Laminate floors install much like solid hardwood flooring since they have a modified tongue-and-groove style of joining boards. Yet unlike hardwood flooring, which typically requires professional installation, laminate floors are very easy for the do-it-yourselfer to install with only basic tools. Laminate is always installed as a floating floor. This means that it does not have the difficult nail-down installation issues of hardwood or engineered wood. With the floating floor method, you first roll out inexpensive foam underlayment, tape the underlayment together, and then lay out the laminate planks. Depending on the type you buy, laminate floor planks are either snapped together or glued together. The snap-together method most commonly used goes under various names such as fold-and-lay or fold-and-lock. Unlike the tongue and groove joinery used with solid hardwood, in which one board slides laterally into the adjoining board, fold-and-lay starts with the two boards attached by outer grooves and angled to each other. Next, one board is folded down until it is as flat as its companion board. This folding mechanism serves to bring the two boards imperceptibly closer, tightening the bond, and preventing water migration.
Subfloor and Underlayment
Like all floor coverings, laminate floors need a good, solid subfloor. Foam or felt underlayment resides between the subfloor and laminate, detaching the two surfaces and providing for a softer footfall. In some instances, when the subfloor is not adequate, an intervening underlayment of thin plywood may be installed above the subfloor and below the foam underlayment. If the subfloor isn’t level, the laminate could have unsightly gaps between boards, so you’ll want to make sure the subfloor is even before installation begins.
