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Do you want the beautiful appearance of a real hardwood floor but with exceptional performance that will holdup from the wear and tear from kids, pets, and spills? This question is in the minds of many American homeowners when shopping for a new floor. The answer many flooring shoppers have found is choosing one of the many laminate floors. These floors are similar in construction to the Formica kitchen counter tops but with some added performance features.
Laminate floors originally came from Europe where they have been used in homes for over 20 years. Although most of the laminate floors are imported, a few of the laminate brands are made here in the U.S.A.. The performance differences between the brands appears to be minor even though the construction methods that are used may be slightly different. All the laminate floors have good performance characteristics and are often confused with real hardwood floors. Even though these floors resemble real wood floors they are not wood. Our cross-section diagram of a laminate floor should help you better understand the differences between wood and laminates.
 The individual planks are secured together to create the floor in a similar way to how wood floors are installed. The tongue and groove of each plank is interlocked to the adjacent planks. Laminate floors are secured together using either a specially formulated, water-resistant glue that is applied to the tongue and groove, or some sort of specially designed, glueless locking system. The two main glueless locking systems either involve a tongue and groove that is reinforced from underneath by an aluminum locking system, or a tongue and groove system that is specially designed to snap and lock the planks together.
Laminate floors are meant to be floated over a variety of subfloors and never glued directly to any substrate. In other words, the floor just lays on top of the subfloor, which can be wood, concrete, or an existing floor. This allows the laminate floor to expand and contract freely as the room environment changes. Laminate floors come in planks and squares of various sizes and shapes. All four sides of each plank have a tongue and grooved edge for connecting them together. For most laminate floors glue is applied along the tongues and/or grooves to lock the planks together.
 A "floating floor" installation means the floor is a not anchored to the subfloor underneath. Instead a bead of specially formulated, water-resistant, glue is placed between the tongue and grooves of every plank to lock the planks together and to seal all the edges of the planks from moisture. A special polyurethane underlayment is laid down prior to the new laminate flooring being installed to prevent the glue from sticking to the substrate. Some underlayments give additional benefits such as reducing sound transmissions or acting as a moisture barrier. Some of the newer laminate floors have a mechanical locking system that allows the floor to be installed without using any glue at all. The tongue and grooved edges of these floors are sealed to prevent moisture from attacking the inner core structure.
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