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Shopping Tips
What to Consider When Selecting Laminate Floors
Laminate floors are generally much less expensive than hardwood floors, easier to install, and more scratch resistant. Laminate floors are not valued as much as hardwood floors and do not give the same look and feel as hardwood. However, they are becoming more popular options. Here are some tips if you're considering shopping for laminate floors:
Read Details
Decisions based solely on one of the ads you see on TV or in magasines are not good enough. The information from those ads can be confusing and biased. Go for a website that is specialized in selling laminate floors and look for the static content that explains what laminate floors is about, pros and cons. Some online merchants try very hard to help you make sense of it all.
Large Laminate Manufacturers
If you do not have a specific brand in mind and don't know much about laminate floors, I highly suggest that you stay with one of the larger laminate manufacturing companies. Since laminate is a relative new product in the industry, larger manufactures will stand behind the product if you should have any problem in the future. Large brands I heard of are PERGO, WILSONART, MANNINGTON, COLUMBIA, BRUCE, KRONOTEX, and many others to give you some ideas to begin with.
Melamin Backing
I read about an article from FastFloors.com that most manufacturers apply some type of backing to the boards, and I recommend melamine backing, and Fast Floors experts prefer melamine over paper backing as well. As they put it,
"The reason we were swayed toward the melamine was the fact that, as it is explained by the manufacturers, the melamine acts as added stability. If any moisture should get into the floor, and any of the boards were to warp or "banana", the melamine backing acts as a memory stabilizer and helps bring the board or boards back to their original position. Obviously paper does not have this characteristic."
Two-in-One Underlayment
A foam layer under the laminate core acts as a sound absorption and helps even out the sub-floor. Some companies now make a two-in-one underlayment with the foam and plastic together in one unit. If you have an existing vinyl or ceramic tile floor and you don't want to rip it up, the two-in-one underlayment is ideal to go with for your do-it-yourself project.
published on 2006-07-25 by Charles Gwa
last revised on 2007-06-13 by Kyle Ko
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