I was talking to a woman the other day about laminate floors, and the topic of thickness came up. She asked, “Aren’t the thicker boards higher quality?” Her question centered around how the thickness of a board of laminate affects the quality of the product. It is a great question which deserves more than a cosmetic “yes” or “no” answer. In fact, at first glance, one may say that the thicker one is better, there is more board there, but does that really matter?
It pays to look first at how laminate is made. While laminate may look the same on the surface, it is made primarily in one of two ways. Direct Pressure is the most prevalent method in the industry and is used to mass produce millions of feet of laminate every year. High pressure laminate is a much more refined process taking longer to create and costing more money to achieve. While the two processes are entirely different, the construction and layers are parallel.
All laminate has a backing that is the same thickness as the finish layer, and likewise, every laminate has a core board that gives the laminate board its structural stability as well as the ability to having a locking system by which to connect the boards together. The core board consists of wood pulp mixed with resin and compressed. Both the finish layer and the backing layers adhere to the core board in their respective positions
What is in the finish layer? The finish layer consists of a photograph of an actual piece of wood, or stone, with various layers of melamine, aluminum oxide, or any other proprietary blends which give laminate its legendary scratch proof reputation. The process through which the three parts bond together brings us back to the two processes discussed earlier: direct pressure versus high pressure.
Most manufacturers use direct pressure for a reason: It is highly cost effective to create thousands of feet of product in a cycle very quickly. The energy used to create direct pressure laminate is substantially less as it is done at lower temperatures than the high pressure processes, and the materials used to make the direct pressure laminate are also less in that the high pressure layers are two to three times thicker than its direct pressure counter part.
In the direct pressure process, the layers of laminate come together in a continuous process through a set of rolling presses that apply the backing and photo finish layers simultaneously. In the high pressure process, workers stack each layer of backing and photo finish layers by hand much like a quilt or blanket. You can see these layers in the photograph above. Once the workers finish the blankets, they stack them together, sandwiched between metal plates, in a hydraulic press. They roll the presses into an oven, and the laminate bakes at high temperatures under constant pressure until completion. Once completed, the layers of laminate are adhered to the core boards and cut into individual planks. The result of the high pressure process is a highly durable product. In fact, although you would not know it, countertops are the most widely used recipient of high pressure laminate, and currently, Wilsonart is the only manufacturer to product high pressure laminate for floors.
High pressure laminate is rare in the flooring industry, and it becomes more rare everyday. In fact, Wilsonart announced recently that they intend to exit the flooring business entirely by December 2010 due to market conditions. As you can imagine, high pressure laminate costs substantially more to produce: more materials, more energy, and more labor. While Wilsonart pioneered the use of laminate in commercial applications, they could not effectively parlay the success into the residential sector primarily because of the cost, and even though a home owner stands a higher chance of having a floor that will last a lifetime with a high pressure design, it is a difficult concept to grasp when cheaper home center laminate is available. Direct pressure laminate rolls out of facilities at a rate of thousands of feet at a time, and as the supply increases the price naturally comes down.
All of this leads us back to the original question: Does the thickness of a core board determine the value or durability of the laminate? What do you think? The answer still is not that simple, and sometimes the answers are definitely mutually exclusive. The cheapest laminates certainly come thinner than normal. I have never seen a 6mm laminate of high quality. Alternatively though, I see many direct pressure laminates with 12mm core boards, and when compared to an 8mm High Pressure laminate, the 12mm laminate is certainly not high quality. Why make something so thick if it does not affect the quality? Because customers sometimes like to see thicker….Sometimes thicker just looks better I suppose. I am also sure that it may make a difference in sound under foot; however, I have never noticed a difference. As always, buyers must beware of every marketing technique by reading the information, looking at the warranties, and asking plenty of questions.
As always, for more information, check out our website for more information about anything involving floors.
