Laminate Flooring has made the most significant change to the flooring industry within the last 25 years and continues to make tremendous adjustments and improvements over is certainly hard surface counter parts.
In Europe they have been taking pleasure in its features and benefits for a number of decades however, not as laminate flooring as we know today. Decorative laminate was really the origins and the start of what now is known as laminate flooring. The decorative laminate was trusted in kitchen countertops and home furniture. As the technology advanced in the counter top laminate industry it clearly became obvious that with the countless number of decors that may be created, could also be created and used on the floor.
The idea of laminate flooring was created. There were many technical problems the first of which was how will you take a simple counter top laminate and create a flooring item, the flooring item will take far more abuse by being walked on and a wear layer was created.
There has really been simply no stopping the technical tidal wave of improvements and tips that followed. Led generally by the European countries laminate flooring gained more market share every year, no marketplace experienced such rapid growth as THE UNITED STATES. Massive marketing promotions led by such brands as Pergo who are now synonymous with laminate flooring presented laminate flooring to the American Community in the early 1990s.
The actual history of laminate flooring is fairly short in North America, 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; however the market talk about within the flooring industry in North America continued to grow at a double digit pace. Many of the additional US traditional floor covering manufacturers of carpet and vinyl added laminate flooring with their portfolio of products.
Then so was created the private label laminate. Laminate flooring was simple to private label you simply changed the place or the packaging and then that created another brand or type of flooring. This was especially useful for the hardwood and carpeting manufacturer's to get on table with this new product. The original manufacturers of floor covering and hardwood have huge distribution systems and with their very own branded line of flooring were able to place a large number of new flooring shows in a matter of months and fresh brands started appearing just about everywhere. This continued to operate a vehicle the growth in the USA.
As traditional US producers of carpet and vinyl presented themselves as laminate flooring manufacturers, advertised the products, positioned laminate flooring displays and drove sales.
Time Line in the US Market Another stages of growth were equally fast and I will break them straight down chronologically:
2000 was particularly painful for the Carpeting Manufactures in Dalton, Georgia they were completely blindsided by the aggressive marketing of laminate flooring against their floor covering and that is where the laminate took most of their market share from touting the Laminate Flooring item seeing that hypo allergenic and showing close ups of carpeting mites and bugs did nothing to help the domestic carpet producers.
All hard surface flooring companies benefited. It had been an exciting season for laminate flooring salesmen, even with terrible set up demonstrations and glue jointly flooring.
2001 Each year that preceded 2000 involved new, exciting and innovative changes to the laminate flooring market. The first change really were only available in 2001 glue free laminate. This is first introduced with steel clips on the back and during product sales presentations as you attempted to place it together you almost needed a sledge hammer, it was more difficult compared to the glue together method. 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 floor covering industry. Unilin Sectors of Belgium released Quick-Step in to the US market. Quick-Stage utilizes the patented Uniclic joint system. Several other producers bought licenses to utilize the Uniclic joint technology therefore acknowledging Uniclic as the sector standard for Glue-less technology.
Still 95% of the united states market was using glue jointly laminate, it took yet more aggressive marketing which time mainly led by the home centers with names like 'Easy-Lock', 'Quick-Lock', 'Speedy-Lock', etc, to drive the buyer towards the exceptionally friendly D.We.Y. glue-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 market, 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 use it surfaced and would continue on for many years. Apart from the lawsuits the technology right now happy with the glue-less free install and now an especially D.I.Y. friendly product centered on creating the product to be as practical as hardwood as possible.
2004 This saw some dramatic changes in the grade of the laminate product itself. The typical glue-free laminate flooring product was 7" wide by 54" long and it had a light 'ticking' impact, the panels went as well as glue-less free locking system. Mostly all the products were imports and primarily from Europe.
Towards the end of 2004 laminate flooring factories (though not fully integrated and small in comparison to the European counterparts) started showing up across the USA. The bigger US manufacturers of carpets committed to laminate flooring facilities though these were not completely integrated (we can explore the need for vertical integration later on). But this showed the US store and distributor that the merchandise was here to and it was time to begin 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 and not too realistic in place a modest upgrade, initially all manufacturers tried to market this improvement for $0.20SF to distribution but the truth was their was no manufacturer cost boost to produce this texture - it was just a different pressure plate.
2005 The lawsuits over the locking system continued, incidentally the locking system lawsuit isn't about the easy angle long joint of the laminate flooring, all the law suits concentrate on the end locking joint.
The chase to create an exact wood replicate of hardwood flooring continued and this led to a technology called 'Register and Emboss' or 'Embossed and Registered'. The thought of this was for the pattern of the oak for example to be flawlessly indented into the wood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?search=Georgia panel, therefore the grain of the Oak or Cherry was realistic to the touch.
All the manufacturers shortly chased this technology, it required a relatively simple process, make the right paper (décor pattern) and then have got a press plate and the end of the production process to match that paper décor and then you possess the grain embossed.
Legal arguments over who came up with that technology most ensued.
2006 The entire year of branding, distributors with 'own brand' tried to put themselves as manufacturers - one of the biggest being a vinyl manufacturer tried to put themselves as market leaders. Acquisitions also followed, http://ricardocdxa583.simplesite.com/447092961 Mohawk Industries bought Unilin 'Quick-Stage' in 2006. This also became the year of the home middle business, where having your labeled product 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 producer you had private labeled their laminate collection into Lowes DIY STORES. Being truly a vinyl manufacturer rather than a laminate producer create a problem and a crucial weakness as Lowes Home Improvement shifted their purchasing policy 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 right time could actually replace the vinyl manufacturer as supplier to Lowes DO-IT-YOURSELF.
2007 This really saw the legal concern on the locking program end as two legal systems emerged, one under Valinge Innovation and Uniclic Licensees each with approximately 100 partners paying royalties of roughly $0.04SF to $0.07SF. Licensees were granted across the world and this led way to the re-emergence of Chinese laminate flooring.
In the mid 1990 China was among the quickest growing laminate flooring market segments in the globe and the majority of this was given by shipping and delivery in container from European countries, there were huge distributors in China 100 containers per month in size - or 2,400 pallets per month. It did not take miss Chinese ingenuity to duplicate the process and buy 2001, China got a slew of factories (with large Government subsidies), some of this product returned as imports into the USA, but the legalities with locking systems and potential freezes of share, cease and desist letter flying about scared off most distributors.
2008 China was back, this time 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 market tactics were equally superb, instead off seeking the reduced end dog fighting market of the 7mm and 8mm, they created a fresh look. A narrow plank and beveled the edges, this fresh narrow plank was around 5" wide compared to the standard 8" from Europe, the 5" wide was a one plank appear and combined with bevel, register and embossing they had created the ultimate flooring.
This is it, everything during the last 25 years culminated to this point a flooring that had a narrow board appear 5 inches wide, beveled or micro beveled on all four side, a lifetime guarantee and realistic textured surface.
The European's adjusted, but they were for once on the trunk foot, China rather than going after the reduced end market aimed high with a superior quality, the best quality laminate you could buy and they will make it and make it affordable to the united states market.
2009 It is not clear where we are able to go from here, but the same was probably stated in 2005, laminate flooring is currently so good in appearance that you cannot inform it aside from real hardwood, the only clue may be the cost laminate flooring is much less expensive than real wood with more color choices. 2009 is a difficult economic 12 months and so will 2010. Consumers will concentrate on quality and price. Brand will become less essential as the buyer becomes even more educated. The huge price fluctuations four sided beveled and narrow plank from one distributor priced at $5SF and from another $0.89SF and yet absolutely no technical difference in the product. Consumer will analysis and the gap will close.
Laminate flooring in the US market is a exceptional tale of growth and ingenuity. I really do not think that several tough economic years will have much effect on its future survival. It is an excellent product and with some effort and research by the consumer you will get incredible value.