Since I have been installing a good deal of laminate flooring lately I decided to take a look back at a post I made last year this month Titled, "Why You Should Not Install This Flooring".
And yes, I will belabor this issue because as the title of this blog says, "Confessions of a Tile Setter" I must confess I have seen some very bad flooring that I installed at the request of the homeowner.
In the real world of practicality considering a kitchen environment, would you want a durable, attractive, easy to maintain and design appealing material on a well used kitchen floor with the possibility of overflowing hot liquids, dropped dinner plates and glasses and splashed cooking sauces? or, a soft, delicate, easy to stain, chip, poke, punch, smash, material you cannot hit with a mop once a week to keep clean?
Now I am sure there are some reasons for cork laminate flooring like, "what is a mop anyway?" or I want a soft floor and I have a Swifter. For what ever reasons some folks run against common wisdom and resort to emotion rather than the practical. My reasons for many views is this, "we tear out a lot of this material and this is why".
A number of reasons can effect the removal and replacement of flooring, tile, natural stone, carpet and linoleum. Traffic, water damage, wear and tear, utility, updating, remodeling to name a few are good reasons for new material but, to select a poor material for the job isn't a good one.
I like to wander through home improvement stores from time to time just to see what is new, on close out, sales, and new displays. As I walked by the Cork Laminate display a designer was busy talking up the warmth and natural color of this cork flooring to a customer and it was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. A lot of people in sales are interested in commissions and not necessarily your better end result. Further, as installers we see first hand how this material performs on installation.
For instance, you have to be extremely, and I mean extremely considerate of the top corners and edges of any laminate because it chips very easily. This can damage the whole piece depending upon the location of the install. There are repair kits out there but the hope is to get the material installed before that is needed. Just by installation we find out how robust or weak, square or crooked, flat or warped, and even defected a material can be.
Once again, my opinion of cork laminate flooring is it is a material to avoid.
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