Laminate Flooring has made the most significant switch to the flooring industry within the last 25 years and continues to make tremendous changes and improvements over is definitely hard surface area counter parts.
In Europe they have been taking pleasure in its features and benefits for a number of decades but not as laminate flooring as we know today. Decorative laminate was really the origins and the beginning of what now is known as laminate flooring. The decorative laminate was trusted in kitchen countertops and home furniture. As the technology developed in the counter best laminate industry it clearly became apparent that with the endless quantity of decors that could be created, could also be created and used on the floor.
The thought of laminate flooring was born. There were many technical issues the first of which was how will you have a simple counter top laminate and create a flooring product, the flooring item will take far more abuse when you are walked on and a use layer was created.
There has really been simply no stopping the complex tidal wave of improvements and concepts that followed. Led mainly by the Europe laminate flooring gained more market share year after year, no market experienced such rapid growth as THE UNITED STATES. Massive marketing campaigns led by such brands as Pergo who are now synonymous with laminate flooring launched laminate flooring to the American Community in the early 1990s.
The actual history of laminate flooring is fairly short in THE UNITED STATES, because Pergo had achieved household recognition with the brand new flooring products Laminate flooring in North America was widely referred to as "Pergo" floors again the synonymous status and the 'holy grail' of all brands.
In 2000 laminate flooring was a glue product; even so the market talk about within the flooring market in THE UNITED STATES continued to grow at a dual digit pace. Most of the various other US traditional flooring manufacturers of carpeting and vinyl added laminate flooring with their portfolio of products.
Then so was born the private label laminate. Laminate flooring was easy to private label you simply changed the put in or the product packaging and then that produced another brand or line of flooring. This was specifically useful for the hardwood and carpet manufacturer's to get on board with this new product. The original manufacturers of carpeting and hardwood have huge distribution systems and with their own branded type of flooring were able to place thousands of new flooring displays in a matter of a few months and new brands started appearing everywhere. This continued to drive the growth in the USA.
As traditional US manufacturers of carpet and vinyl presented themselves as laminate flooring positioned laminate flooring displays, drove sales, manufacturers and advertised the products.
Time Line in america Market Another stages of growth were equally fast and I'll break them straight down chronologically:
2000 was particularly painful for the Carpeting Manufactures http://andersongvuc780.trexgame.net/7-things-you-should-not-do-with-laminate-flooring-augusta-ga in Dalton, Georgia these were completely blindsided by the aggressive advertising of laminate flooring against their floor covering and that is where the laminate took most of their market talk about from touting the Laminate Flooring product as hypo allergenic and showing close ups of floor covering mites and bugs did nothing at all to help the domestic carpet producers.
All hard surface area flooring companies benefited. It was an exciting season for laminate flooring salesmen, despite having terrible set up demonstrations and glue collectively flooring.
2001 Each year that preceded 2000 involved new, exciting and innovative changes to the laminate flooring marketplace. The first change really were only available in 2001 glue free laminate. This was first introduced with metallic clips on the back and during product sales presentations as you attempted to place it together you nearly needed a sledge hammer, it had been more difficult compared to the glue together technique. Not very popular but the concept was made all we required was the look and solution.
2002 A year later on the technology of glue-less laminate flooring arrived, introductions of glue-less laminates started again revolutionizing the ground covering industry. Unilin Sectors of Belgium introduced Quick-Step into the US marketplace. Quick-Step utilizes the patented Uniclic joint system. Several other producers bought licenses to utilize the Uniclic joint technology thereby acknowledging Uniclic as the market standard for Glue-less technology.
Still 95% of the united states market was using glue together laminate, it took yet more aggressive marketing and this time mainly led simply by the house centers with names like 'Easy-Lock', 'Quick-Lock', 'Speedy-Lock', etc, to operate a vehicle the consumer towards the remarkably friendly D.We.Y. glue-much less laminate flooring ranges.
It was predicted in 2002 that buy 2004 100% of the laminate flooring industry will be glue-less.
2003 This again proved to be a dynamic year within the laminate flooring industry, sales of the merchandise per square foot continued to climb, but lawsuits with regards to patents over the locking system and who created and who could utilize it surfaced and would keep on for many years. Apart from the lawsuits the technology now pleased with the glue-less free of charge install and now a particularly D.We.Y. friendly product centered on creating the merchandise to be as reasonable as hardwood as feasible.
2004 This noticed some dramatic changes in the grade of the laminate item itself. The typical glue-free laminate flooring product was 7" wide by 54" very long and it had a light 'ticking' impact, the panels went together with glue-less free locking system. Mostly all of the products were imports and generally from Europe.
Towards the end of 2004 laminate flooring factories (though not fully integrated and small compared to the European counterparts) started showing up across the USA. The bigger US manufacturers of carpets and rugs invested in laminate flooring facilities though these were not completely integrated (we are able to explore the importance of vertical integration later on). But this demonstrated the US retailer and distributor that the product was right here to and it had been time to start backing a horse.
This resulted in more innovation from overseas, the first was a wood grain texture - the laminate itself had heavier wood texture but it was random rather than too realistic in place a modest upgrade, at first all manufacturers tried to market this improvement for $0.20SF to distribution however the reality was their was zero manufacturer cost boost to produce this texture - it was only a different pressure plate.
2005 The lawsuits over the locking system continued, incidentally the locking system lawsuit is not about the simple angle long joint of the laminate flooring, all the law suits concentrate on the finish locking joint.
The chase to create an specific wood replicate of hardwood flooring continued and this resulted in a technology called 'Register and Emboss' or 'Embossed and Registered'. The thought of this is for the pattern of the oak for instance to be properly indented into the wood panel, therefore the grain of the Oak or Cherry was realistic to the touch.
All the http://edition.cnn.com/search/?text=Georgia manufacturers quickly chased this technology, it required a comparatively simple process, make the correct paper (décor design) and then possess a press plate and the finish of the manufacturing process to match that paper décor and you have the grain embossed.
Legal arguments over who developed that technology most ensued.
2006 The year of branding, distributors with 'own brand' tried to put themselves as manufacturers - one of the primary being a vinyl manufacturer tried to put themselves as market leaders. Acquisitions also adopted, Mohawk Industries bought Unilin 'Quick-Step' in 2006. This also became the year of the home middle business, where having your labeled item in another of the three primary US house centers was the best goal.
One of the major carpet producers and distributors with there factory in Dalton gained the business with House Depot. Pergo was well positioned with a vinyl manufacturer you had private labeled their laminate range into Lowes DIY STORES. Being a vinyl manufacturer rather than a laminate producer create a major problem and an essential weakness as Lowes Home Improvement shifted their purchasing plan to 'only' buy factory direct.
A significant Swiss group and manufacturer of laminate flooring also with the world's largest factory in Heiligengrabe, Germany had been quietly building a factory in Barnwell, SC and at the proper time were able to replace the vinyl manufacturer as supplier to Lowes Home Improvement.
2007 This really saw the legal issue on the locking program end as two legal systems emerged, one under Valinge Innovation and Uniclic Licensees each with approximately 100 companions paying royalties of roughly $0.04SF to $0.07SF. Licensees were granted around the globe and this led method to the re-emergence of Chinese laminate flooring.
In the mid 1990 China was one of the fastest growing laminate flooring markets in the world and the majority of this was supplied by shipping in container from European countries, there were huge distributors in China 100 containers a month in proportions - or 2,400 pallets per month. It did not take long for Chinese ingenuity to copy the process and purchase 2001, China experienced a slew of factories (with large Government subsidies), some of this product returned as imports into the USA, but the legal issues with locking systems and potential freezes of share, cease and desist letter flying about scared off most distributors.
2008 China was back, this time around the large factories had license agreements and were legal, the machines that made the laminate flooring were from Europe and the product quality was excellent.
There marketplace tactics were equally exceptional, instead off seeking the reduced end dog fighting market of the 7mm and 8mm, they created a new look. A narrow plank and beveled the edges, this new narrow plank was approximately 5" wide compared to the standard 8" from European countries, the 5" wide was a one plank look and combined with bevel, register and embossing that they had created the best flooring.
This is it, everything during the last 25 years culminated up to now a flooring that had a narrow board look 5 inches wide, beveled or micro beveled on all four a lifetime warranty, realistic textured surface and side.
The European's adjusted, but they were for once on the back foot, China instead of going after the reduced end marketplace aimed high with a high quality, the highest quality laminate you could buy plus they could make it and make it affordable to the united states market.
2009 It is not clear where we are able to go from here, however the same was probably said in 2005, laminate flooring is now so good to look at that you cannot inform it aside from real hardwood, the only clue is the price laminate flooring is far less expensive than real wood with an increase of color choices. 2009 is a difficult economic 12 months and so will 2010. Customers will concentrate on quality and cost. Brand can be less important as the consumer becomes even more educated. The huge price fluctuations four sided beveled and narrow plank from one distributor coming in at $5SF and from another $0.89SF yet absolutely no technical difference in the product. Consumer will analysis and the gap will close.
Laminate flooring in america market is a amazing tale of growth and ingenuity. I do not think that several tough economic years will have much impact on its potential survival. It is a great item and with some effort and analysis by the consumer you can find incredible value.