Michael’s Flooring carries 8, 10 and 12 mm laminates for the Niagara region, from manufacturers including Beaulieu, Richmond, Goodfellow, Mohawk, Shaw and Fuzion. We’re also Niagara’s exclusive Divine Flooring dealer, and water-resistant laminate is part of the selection for rooms that see spills.
Laminate pairs a realistic wood look with a hard-wearing surface, and it suits almost any room in the house. Some designs reproduce the texture of hand-scraped hardwood floors closely enough that it’s worth running a hand across one before you decide.
Each board is a layered product, a printed image of wood sealed beneath a clear protective surface and bonded to a dense fibreboard core. From top to bottom, a typical board has four layers.
It comes down to how the layers are joined. Direct Pressure Laminate (DPL) bonds everything in a single pressing under heat and pressure, while High-Pressure Laminate (HPL) is made in more than one step, usually by fusing the wear and image layers first and then bonding them to the core. The extra step generally gives HPL a harder, more impact-resistant surface, though DPL, the more common construction for homes, holds up well to ordinary household traffic.
Thickness mostly shapes how a laminate floor feels underfoot and how it fits against the rest of the house, while wear resistance comes from the wear layer on top. A thicker board tends to feel more solid and sound a little quieter, and it’s more forgiving over a subfloor with small dips. A thinner board keeps the finished floor lower, which helps where the laminate meets tile or hardwood at a doorway.
Some of it is, and Michael’s Flooring carries water-resistant laminate for kitchens, entryways and other rooms where spills come with the territory. Water-resistant boards are built to handle surface water that gets wiped up, which is a different claim from waterproof, where flooring is made to tolerate water sitting on it for longer. If a room might see standing water, that’s the kind of question our consultation service is there to work through.
Yes. We handle installing laminate flooring in Niagara Falls and Welland, and the estimate is free with no obligation. If getting to a showroom is hard, we can bring the showroom to you, with samples brought to your home at no charge.
Michael’s Carpet & Flooring has two showrooms, in Niagara Falls and in Ridgeway, with the Ridgeway location serving Welland, Fort Erie and Port Colborne. Call us or visit our Niagara Falls showroom, and bring a photo of the room with rough measurements. That’s enough to start narrowing things down to boards that suit the space, with a free estimate when you’re ready.