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Laminate Flooring Types

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Even thought, the lamination process consists of fusing together two or more types of materials, the world of laminate flooring is full of choices. The most known uses for lamination are wood, stone and tile. Any type of grain or color of wood, stone or tile can be created in order to put together a perfect floor. Since all kinds of categories are available, customers have a hard time choosing their floor.

We provide a simple classification for you to be able to pick what suits you.

Installation Types

Glueless-Click. Over two-thirds of today’s laminates fall under this easy-to-install, glueless click-lock category.

Note: Pre-attached underpads are sold with some laminate floors; this makes the installation fast and effortless. If laminate floors come without pre-attached underpads, they require a laid down underpad before the installation of the laminate floor. The purpose is providing sound absorbtion. If the laminate floor is installed on or below grade, a separate thin plastic needs to be laid down before the installation of the laminate floor.

 

  • Glued Laminate. You’ll need to glue the joints together. Even though the cost and effort of the installation is high, this type makes for a very strong floor once installed.
  • Pre-Glued. In this case, the joints have glue applied to them, but they may need to be moistened in order to activate the glue before they are joined together.

Surface Types

As we already said, laminates keep on developing so you may now have to pick from many surfaces.

  • Smooth. Associated with hardwood because of a layer of varnish applied as a plain finish. You can choose out of three types: high, medium and low gloss finishes.
  • Embossed and/or Textured. Some laminates appear with a textured finish. The regular embossing isn’t an exact match up with the grooves of the printed grain but it fools the eye into seeing a surface grain.
  • Distressed/Hand scraped. Hand scraped laminate flooring is a process that until now was reserved only for solid hardwood floors. This process adds an antiqued look to yourlaminate floor.
  • Embossed in Registration. This type matches the grain of the wood for the most authentic look.
  • Keep an eye out for new laminate innovations; they’re happening all the time.

AC Rating

AC stands for Abrasion Class and an impartial 3rd party has set the standard for 5 different categories of use and durability.

The AC rating is an ideal guide for customers who look for durability. Use it to check your expected usage, or foot traffic, against what the floor was built to withstand.

AC1 Moderate Residential is built to withstand only light residential use and it is suitable for closets or bedrooms.

AC2 General Residential is built for moderate foot traffic and it is suitable in residential spaces that are not overused.

AC3 Heavy Residential/Moderate Commercial is built for all kinds of residential uses including high–traffic rooms and even commercial spaces that have light traffic like hotel rooms and offices without off-street traffic.

AC4 General Commercial is built to withstand every kind of residential use as well as heavily trafficked commercial spaces that have off-street traffic like cafes, boutiques and offices.

AC5 Heavy Commercial is built for the busiest commercial uses and high–traffic spaces like department stores and government buildings.

As a general rule of thumb, the higher the AC Rating, the higher the price.

 

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