How Laminate Flooring Can Transform Your Space: Design Ideas and Inspirations

 Laminate Flooring  is a relatively inexpensive way to redo your home, and it comes in almost any style you can imagine. It’s easy to clean, durable and hygienic (it doesn’t allow dust and dirt to settle in crevices). It is also great for families with pets because the hard, smooth surface resists claw marks. However, laminate can be prone to scratches if you’re not careful with your furniture.

 Laminate floors

We tested more than 70 laminate floors from several manufacturers in order to narrow down the best brands. To be included in our list, a product had to be easy to find in home centers and large retailers and perform well on our lab’s impact and fade tests. We also looked at texture, how easy the floor is to install and whether or not it has a moisture resistance warranty.

Waterproof

The brand that emerged at the top of our list is Newton, whose motto is “Brilliant Floors, Intelligently Priced.” It is a great value for the money and offers one of the most robust wood-look designs in the industry. Plus, most of its products are waterproof, making it a perfect choice for bathrooms and kitchens.

 UV light

Like all flooring materials, the durability of a Best Laminate Flooring  depends on its thickness and how well it is protected by the finish layer. To test these properties, the lab uses a sanding machine to simulate daily wear and tear on the surface, as well as an impact tester that measures how well the material can withstand dropped objects and the resulting dents. The lab also analyzes the colorfastness of the finish by shining an intense UV light on it to simulate years of exposure to sunlight, and then compares that result to how quickly the flooring stains in normal household conditions.

In terms of thickness, it’s important to look for a product with an AC rating of at least 5. The higher the number, the better it is able to stand up to abrasion and impact.

 Standing water

The final test we ran was for moisture resistance, and we analyzed the ability of each floor to hold up to standing water and to withstand repeated cycles of wet/dry cleaning. We tested two products from each brand to get a more accurate picture of their performance.

Conclusion

The most important thing to remember about laminate is that it’s not actually wood at all, but pressed chipped wood. Those chips are then covered with a high-resolution image of wood, stone or tile that’s sealed in a clear, protective layer called the wear layer. The wear layer is the linchpin between the lower layers and environmental elements such as water, scratching and UV rays. It’s for this reason that the thickness of the wear layer is so important.