The Floor Store | Laminate Flooring Stoke-on-Trent

Laminate flooring is the fundamental hard floor covering that everyone has heard of, however is most misunderstood. In the past, laminate was brought to the UK by B&Q and Ikea to be the cheapest of the cheap. This was never a fair representation of laminate but continues to be how the product is measured.

Laminate is made up of 4 layers.

1. Balancing Board (used in production to stop warping when heat applied to surface)
2. HDF Core (varying grades, denser the better - not thicker!)
3. Paper (universally where the design is)
4. Hallide Crystal Resin clear surface (the part you walk on, how quality is graded)

Thickness (8mm, 9mm, 10mm, 12mm) is irrelevant to quality. The quality of the board is measured by the AC (Abrasion Class) system.

• AC3 - Moderate Domestic (Bedroom)
• AC4 - Heavy Domestic/Moderate Commercial (Living areas, small offices)
• AC5 - Heavy Commercial Use (Busy offices, restaurants, department stores)
• AC6 - Super Heavy Commercial (rare to see)

In production, laminate is pressed with a steel plate, which sets the resin and provides the durable cover. These used to be flat, however as with all things, technology has moved on. Now we have what is referred to as Embossed in Register (EIR) which is basically a wood grained steel plate pressing the resin to so that it feels and looks like it has noughts and grain just like real wood.

Laminate is THE most durable, hardest wearing, longest lasting hard floor covering for any room in the house outside the bathroom. It is more scratch resistant than LVT/SPC and real wood at a fraction of the price. If you want a low cost, hard wearing, put down and forget about floor - laminate is the best option on the market.