Laminate Flooring Reviews

Posted under Laminate Flooring

Laminate floors are durable. Unlike hardwood, laminate flooring will not stain, fade, dent and are far more scratch and water resistant. However, they can be damaged by large amounts of water, so they aren’t your best choice for kitchens or bathrooms. For kitchens and bathrooms you should consider an engineered flooring like Amtico. Now lets review some of the choices that you have.

The most popular brands are Pergo, Wilsonart, Dupont, Mohawk, Shaw, Armstrong, Mannington, and Quick-Step. One thing that you want to look for when choosing your planks is the “AC” rating which is a measure of how durable it is.

An AC rating of 1 is the lowest and should only be used in a low traffic area like a bedroom. 5 is the highest and is for commercial use. It is most likely not necessary in a home. A rating of 3 should be sufficient for high traffic areas in your house.

Pergo has the best name in the business but Wilsonart, Shaw, Mohawk and Dupont all have better quality.

Wilsonart uses HPL (high pressure laminate) that is manufactured at 1400 psi giving it superior wear resistance, static load capacity, impact resistance and design clarity (higher sheen levels). They have the exclusive “tap and lock” installation system with the option of using Wilsonart Flooring’s BlueFusion® Adhesive for extreme conditions such as low or high humidity and where water exposure is more likely. Installing Wilsonart Flooring with BlueFusion Adhesive results in up to four times stronger seams and up to 10 times the moisture resistance of other leading laminate flooring installation systems with virtually no time added to the installation process.

DuPont Real Touch premium laminate flooring is a popular choice. They have an exclusive Interplank Design that makes their laminate floors have “virtually seamless joints” and the MicroBevel technology will bring your floors to life with added depth. Another added plus is that they have the underlayment pre-installed.

Shaw makes laminate floors that are 4 layers with a melamine top and bottom layer with a decor layer and a EnviroCore™ layer in between. EnviroCore™ – Shaw’s environmentally friendly coreboard – is the dense inner layer made of recycled wood fiber meaning fewer trees used with less waste.

Mohawk laminate flooring takes naturally occurring patterns of nature and painstakingly replicates color tones and hues of the seasons. Multiple layers compose each laminate, deliberately varied to look and even feel like wood. They have more than 50% pre-consumer recycled content in all their laminate products and are backed with a lifetime structural warranty.

That’s a quick review of the more popular laminate flooring brands available. Go here if you need information on installing your new laminate flooring.

How To Install Or “Lay” Laminate Flooring

Posted under Laminate Flooring

Installing or “laying” laminate flooring is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to improve the beauty and value your home. If you already have your flooring you can skip this next part.

To determine how many boxes of planks and how much underlayment pad you will need to buy you’ll need to know the square footage of the area to be covered. To get this figure simply measure the area cross ways and length wise and multiply the two numbers. To be safe it’s best to buy a little more of each than you think you’re going to need.

It doesn’t matter wether you get your flooring from Shaw, Wilsonart, Mohawk, Amtico or any other manufacturer they will have directions for installation either on or inside the box: but here are a few tips that will help.

To start laying your new floor the first thing you need to do is remove all the furniture and vacuum the floor. Next remove the baseboards. If you are careful you’ll be able to reuse them.

If you are going to be installing through any doorways pull the hinge pins and remove the doors. Then use a coping saw to trim off the bottom of the jambs just enough for the planks and pad to fit under.

Now put down the underlayment and I would suggest that you go ahead and spring for the best. Connect the pieces together with wide tape.

Laminate flooring is a floating floor so you want to leave about a quarter of an inch free space around the edges of the room, use spacers along the wall that you are starting on. Remove these once the floor is down and before installing the baseboards.

Now lay out your new floor. Most laminate planks simply snap together with a tonge and grove action. You can use a rubber mallet to keep things tight.

If you are going through doorways you may need to trim the planks to get them in place. If you do this use a little wood glue to keep them secure.

When you are done all that’s left is to put up the baseboards. If you cut anything too short and there is space showing between the baseboard and floor you can use a strip of quarter round to cover this. Just use it around the entire room, it actually gives a nice look.

With proper care your new laminate floor should look great for many years to come and you will have the satisfaction of installing your new laminate floor and a job well done.