Laminate Flooring has produced the most significant change to the flooring industry in the last 25 years and continues to create tremendous changes and improvements over is hard surface counter parts.
In European countries they have been experiencing its features and benefits for a number of decades but not as laminate flooring as we realize today. Decorative laminate was really the origins and the start of what now is called laminate flooring. The decorative laminate was widely used in kitchen countertops and home furniture. As the technology evolved in the counter best laminate industry it clearly became obvious that with the endless quantity of decors that may be created, could also be created and applied to the floor.
The thought of laminate flooring was created. There have been many technical issues the to begin which was how can you take a simple counter best laminate and create a flooring item, the flooring item will take far more abuse by being walked on and a use layer was created.
There's really been no stopping the technical tidal wave of improvements and tips that followed. Led mainly by the European countries laminate flooring gained even more market share year after year, no market experienced such rapid development as THE UNITED STATES. Massive marketing promotions led by such brands as Pergo who are now synonymous with laminate flooring launched laminate flooring to the American Open public in the early 1990s.
The actual history of laminate flooring is quite short in North America, because Pergo had achieved household recognition with the new flooring products Laminate flooring in THE UNITED STATES 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 share within the flooring market in THE UNITED STATES continued to develop at a dual digit pace. Many of the other US traditional flooring manufacturers of floor covering and vinyl added laminate flooring with their portfolio of products.
Then so was born the private label laminate. Laminate flooring was simple to private label you just changed the place or the packaging and then that produced another brand or line of flooring. This was specifically useful for the hardwood and carpeting manufacturer's to get on table with this new item. The traditional manufacturers of floor covering and hardwood have huge distribution systems and with their own branded type of flooring could actually place a large number of new flooring shows in a matter of a few months and fresh brands started appearing almost everywhere. This continued to drive the growth in america.
As traditional US manufacturers of carpet and vinyl presented themselves as laminate flooring drove sales, manufacturers, advertised the products and positioned laminate flooring displays.
Time Line in the US Market The next stages of growth were equally fast and I'll break them down chronologically:
2000 was particularly painful for the Carpet Manufactures in Dalton, Georgia these were completely blindsided by the aggressive advertising of laminate flooring against their carpet 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 floor covering mites and bugs did nothing at all to greatly help the domestic carpet manufacturers.
All hard surface area flooring companies benefited. It had been an exciting calendar year for laminate flooring salesmen, despite having terrible installation demonstrations and glue collectively flooring.
2001 Each year that preceded 2000 involved new, exciting and innovative changes to the laminate flooring market. The first change actually started in 2001 glue free laminate. This is first introduced with metallic clips on the back and during sales presentations as you tried to put it together you nearly required a sledge hammer, it was more difficult compared to the glue together technique. Not very popular but the concept was created all we required was the design and solution.
2002 A year later on the technology of glue-much less laminate flooring arrived, introductions of glue-less laminates started again revolutionizing the ground covering industry. Unilin Industries of Belgium presented Quick-Step into the US marketplace. Quick-Stage utilizes the patented Uniclic joint system. Several other manufacturers bought licenses to use the Uniclic joint technology thereby acknowledging Uniclic as the sector standard for Glue-less technology.
Still 95% of the united states market was using glue collectively laminate, it took however more aggressive marketing which 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-less laminate flooring ranges.
It had been predicted in 2002 that purchase 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 in relation 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 right now happy with the glue-less free install and now a particularly D.I.Y. friendly product centered on creating the merchandise to be as reasonable as hardwood as possible.
2004 This noticed some dramatic changes in the quality of the laminate product itself. The typical glue-free laminate flooring product was 7" wide by 54" long and it got a light 'ticking' impact, the panels went together with glue-less free locking program. Mostly all of the items were imports and generally from Europe.
Towards the finish of 2004 laminate flooring factories (though not fully integrated and small compared to the European counterparts) started appearing across the USA. The bigger US manufacturers of carpets invested in laminate flooring services though they were not completely integrated (we can explore the importance of vertical integration afterwards). But this showed the US retailer and distributor that the product was here to and it was time to begin backing a horse.
This resulted in more innovation from https://ello.co/flooringpros overseas, the first was a wood grain texture - the laminate itself had heavier wood texture but it was random rather than too realistic in effect a modest upgrade, at first all manufacturers tried to market this improvement for $0.20SF to distribution however the reality was their was no manufacturer cost increase 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 of the law suits concentrate on the end locking joint.
The chase to create an exact wood replicate of hardwood flooring continued which resulted in a technology called 'Register and Emboss' or 'Embossed and Registered'. The thought of this was for the pattern of the oak for instance http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=Augusta Georgia to be properly indented into the wood 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, create the correct paper (décor design) and then have a press plate and the finish of the manufacturing process to complement that paper décor and you have the grain embossed.
Legal arguments more than who came up with that technology all ensued.
2006 The entire year of branding, distributors with 'own brand' tried to position themselves as manufacturers - one of the primary being a vinyl producer tried to put themselves as market leaders. Acquisitions also implemented, Mohawk Sectors bought Unilin 'Quick-Step' in 2006. This also became the year of the home center business, where having your labeled product in one of the three primary US house centers was the ultimate goal.
Among the major carpet producers and distributors with there factory in Dalton gained the business with Home Depot. Pergo was well positioned with a vinyl manufacturer you had personal labeled their laminate line into Lowes DIY STORES. Being truly a vinyl manufacturer and not a laminate manufacturer create a major problem and an essential weakness as Lowes DO-IT-YOURSELF shifted their purchasing plan to 'only' purchase factory direct.
A major Swiss group and producer of laminate flooring also with the world's most significant factory in Heiligengrabe, Germany had been quietly creating 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 noticed the legal issue on the locking system 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 all over the world and this led method to the re-emergence of Chinese laminate flooring.
In the mid 1990 China was among the fastest growing laminate flooring markets 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 proportions - or 2,400 pallets per month. It did not take long for Chinese ingenuity to duplicate the process and buy 2001, China had a slew of factories (with large Government subsidies), some of this product returned as imports in to the USA, but the legal issues with locking systems and potential freezes of stock, 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 new appear. A narrow plank and beveled the edges, this new narrow plank was around 5" wide when compared to standard 8" from European countries, the 5" wide was a one plank look and combined with the bevel, register and embossing that they had created the best flooring.
This was it, everything over 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 a lifetime warranty, side and realistic textured surface.
The European's adjusted, however they were for once on the trunk foot, China instead of going after the reduced end marketplace aimed high with a superior quality, the highest quality laminate you could buy plus they will make it and make it affordable to the US market.
2009 It isn't clear where we are able to go from here, however the same was probably stated in 2005, laminate flooring is now so good to look at that you cannot inform it aside from real hardwood, the only clue may be the cost laminate flooring is far less costly than real wood with an increase of color choices. 2009 will be a difficult economic calendar year therefore will 2010. Customers will focus on quality and price. Brand will become less essential as the buyer becomes even more educated. The huge cost fluctuations four sided beveled and narrow plank in one distributor priced at $5SF and from another $0.89SF yet absolutely no complex difference in the product. Consumer will study and the gap will close.
Laminate flooring in the US market is a impressive tale of growth and ingenuity. I really do not really think that a couple of tough economic years will have much impact on its future survival. It is an excellent product and with some effort and study by the consumer you can find incredible value.