Advantages and Disadvantages of Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring is more and more popular in the home decoration. It is more durable and longer life span than other kinds of flooring. Besides, laminate wood flooring has some other advantages and disadvantages we need to pay attention when choosing and using. 

What is laminate flooring?

Laminate flooring consists of wear-resistant layer, decorative layer, base layer and balance layer. It is durable, beautiful and stable, etc.

First layer is wear-resistant layer. It is mainly composed of Al2O3 (aluminum oxide). It has strong wear resistance and hardness. Some of the formica laminate flooring that consists of melamine cannot meet the standard requirement.

Second layer is decorative layer, which is a layer of paper impregnated with melamine resin. The paper is printed with imitation precious wood grain or other patterns.

Third layer is base layer, which is medium density or high density laminate. It is moisture-proof and flame-retardant after high temperature and pressure treatment. The basic material is wood fiber.

Forth layer is balance layer. It is a layer of Kraft paper, which has certain strength and thickness. It is moisture proof and anti-deformation after being impregnated with resin.

Advantages of Laminate Flooring

1.    Anti-scratch and anti-stress

The surface of gloss laminate flooring is a wear-resistant layer covered with Al2O3. The wear-resistance is above10~30 times than ordinary flooring. This is one of the most obvious advantages of laminate tile flooring.

2.    Colorful and fashionable

The pattern of laminate hardwood flooring is determined by the decorative paper. It can be designed as not only texture of wood flooring, but also a variety of patterns, colors. It can match to various home decoration styles.

3.    Good stability

The laminate flooring completely disperses the original wood structure, destroys the anisotropic and shrinks properties, and is extremely stable in dimensions. It is especially suitable for heating system, as well as anti-static, anti-pollution, anti-light and anti-burning, etc.

4.    Easy installation and maintenance

As with engineered wood flooring, the most commonly installation of laminate flooring is suspension installation, which is simple and effective. It is also no need special oil and waxing maintenance, just daily cleaning.

5.    Cheap and cost-effective

Laminate flooring is the cheapest in all wood floorings. Due to its wear-resistance, adaptability to geothermal, etc, it has high cost-effective.

Disadvantages of Laminate Flooring

1.    Not enough comfortable

The thickness of laminate flooring is usually less than 1mm, and the materials are artificial, so it’s not comfortable compared with others. However, its price is only 1/4 or even cheaper than solid wood flooring. What’s more, the solid wood flooring doesn’t have the advantages that laminate flooring has.

2.    Poor in decoration

The wear-resistant layer and decorative layer of the laminate flooring are papers printed via bionic technology. Compared with natural wood, the laying and visual effects are distorted.

3.    Not enough environmentally friendly

During the production process, the glue is necessary, so the formaldehyde content has become an important standard to measure the quality of laminate plank flooring. It doesn’t mean laminate flooring is made of not environmentally friendly materials. The state has a clear stipulation on the formaldehyde content of laminate flooring. Non-compliance products are forbidden to be listed. Moreover, most of the well-known brands are produced according to European standards E1, E0 and is absolutely guaranteed.