Laminate Flooring has made the most significant transformation to the flooring industry within the last 25 years and continues to create tremendous adjustments and improvements over is hard surface area counter parts.
In European countries they have been experiencing its features and benefits for several 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 ornamental laminate was trusted in kitchen countertops and furniture. As the technology developed in the counter best laminate industry it obviously became apparent that with the countless 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 to begin which was how can you have a simple counter top laminate and create a flooring item, the flooring item will take far more abuse by being walked on and a put on layer was created.
There has really been simply no stopping the technical tidal wave of improvements and ideas that followed. Led primarily by the Europe laminate flooring gained more market share every year, no market experienced such rapid development as THE UNITED STATES. Massive marketing promotions led by such brands as Pergo who are actually synonymous with laminate flooring presented laminate flooring to the American General public in the first 1990s.
The actual history of laminate flooring is pretty short in North America, because Pergo had achieved household recognition with the brand 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 most brands.
In 2000 laminate flooring was a glue product; even so the market talk about within the flooring industry in THE UNITED STATES continued to develop at a dual digit pace. Most of the various other US traditional flooring manufacturers of floor covering and vinyl added laminate flooring to their portfolio of products.
Then so was born the private label laminate. Laminate flooring was simple to private label you just changed the insert or the product packaging and then that developed another brand or line of flooring. This was specifically useful for the hardwood and floor covering manufacturer's to can get on panel with this new product. The traditional manufacturers of floor covering and hardwood have huge distribution networks and with their very own branded type of flooring were able to place thousands of new flooring displays in a matter of weeks and fresh brands started appearing everywhere. This continued to operate a vehicle the growth in the USA.
As traditional US manufacturers of floor covering and vinyl presented themselves as laminate flooring drove sales, positioned laminate flooring displays, manufacturers and advertised the products.
Time Line in america Market The next stages of growth were equally fast and I will break them straight down chronologically:
2000 was particularly painful for the Floor covering Manufactures in Dalton, Georgia these were completely blindsided by the aggressive marketing of laminate flooring against their carpeting and that is where the laminate took most of their market talk about from touting the Laminate Flooring product while hypo allergenic and showing close ups of carpet mites and bugs did nothing to greatly help the domestic carpet producers.
All hard surface area flooring companies benefited. It had been an exciting season for laminate flooring salesmen, even with terrible installation 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 of charge laminate. This is first introduced with metal clips on the back and during sales presentations as you attempted to place it together you almost required a sledge hammer, it had been more difficult compared to the glue together method. Not very popular however 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 began again revolutionizing the ground covering industry. Unilin Industries of Belgium introduced Quick-Step in to the US market. Quick-Step utilizes the patented Uniclic joint program. 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 collectively laminate, it took yet more aggressive marketing which time mainly led simply by the home centers with names like 'Easy-Lock', 'Quick-Lock', 'Speedy-Lock', etc, to operate a vehicle the buyer towards the remarkably 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 industry, sales of the product per square foot continued to climb, but lawsuits in relation to patents over the locking https://en.search.wordpress.com/?src=organic&q=Augusta Georgia system and who created and who could use it surfaced and would keep on for many years. Aside from the lawsuits the technology right now happy with the glue-less free install and now a particularly D.We.Y. friendly product centered on creating the product to be as reasonable as hardwood as feasible.
2004 This saw some dramatic changes in the quality of the laminate product itself. The standard glue-free laminate flooring item was 7" wide by 54" longer and it had a light 'ticking' impact, the panels went together with glue-less free locking program. Mostly all of the products were imports and generally from Europe.
Towards the finish 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 and rugs committed to laminate flooring facilities though they were not completely integrated (we can explore the importance of vertical integration later). But this demonstrated the US retailer and distributor that the merchandise was 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 nonetheless it was random rather than too realistic in place a modest upgrade, initially all manufacturers tried to sell this improvement for $0.20SF to distribution however the reality was their was zero manufacturer cost increase to produce this texture - it had been just a different pressure plate.
2005 The lawsuits over the locking system continued, incidentally the locking system lawsuit isn't about the simple angle long joint of the laminate flooring, all of the law suits focus on the end locking joint.
The chase to create an precise wood replicate of hardwood flooring continued which led to a technology called 'Register and Emboss' or 'Embossed and Registered'. The thought of this was for the pattern of the oak for instance to be perfectly indented in to the wood panel, so the grain of the Oak or Cherry was realistic to the touch.
All the manufacturers shortly chased this technology, it needed a relatively simple process, make the correct paper (décor design) and then possess a press plate and the end of the manufacturing process to match that paper décor and you possess the grain embossed.
Legal arguments over who developed that technology every ensued.
2006 The year of branding, distributors with 'own brand' tried to put themselves as manufacturers - one of the biggest being a vinyl manufacturer tried to position themselves as market leaders. Acquisitions also followed, Mohawk Sectors bought Unilin 'Quick-Stage' in 2006. This also became the entire year of the home middle business, where having your labeled product in another of the three primary US home centers was the ultimate goal.
Among the major carpet manufacturers 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 range into Lowes Home Improvement Stores. Being a vinyl manufacturer and not a laminate producer create a major problem and a crucial weakness as Lowes DO-IT-YOURSELF shifted their purchasing plan to 'only' buy factory direct.
A major Swiss group and producer of laminate flooring also with the world's largest factory in Heiligengrabe, Germany have been quietly creating a factory in Barnwell, SC and at the proper time could actually replace the vinyl producer as supplier to Lowes DO-IT-YOURSELF.
2007 This really noticed the legal concern on the locking system 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 had been granted worldwide 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 market segments in the globe and the majority of this was supplied 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 didn't take miss Chinese ingenuity to duplicate the process and purchase 2001, China had a slew of factories (with large Government subsidies), some of this product returned as imports in to the USA, but the legalities 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 huge factories had license agreements and were legal, the machines that made the laminate flooring were from Europe and the merchandise quality was excellent.
There market tactics were equally excellent, instead off going after the reduced end dog fighting market of the 7mm and 8mm, they created a fresh appear. A narrow plank and beveled the edges, this new narrow plank was approximately 5" wide when compared to standard 8" from European countries, the 5" wide was a one plank appear and combined with bevel, register and embossing that they had created the best flooring.
This was 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 side, a lifetime warranty and realistic textured surface.
The European's adjusted, however 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 plus they could make it and make it affordable to the US 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 https://flooringpros.blogspot.com/ look at that you cannot tell it apart from real hardwood, the only clue is the cost laminate flooring is much less expensive than real wood with more color choices. 2009 is a difficult economic season and so will 2010. Consumers will concentrate on quality and price. Brand will become less essential as the consumer becomes more educated. The huge cost fluctuations four sided beveled and narrow plank from one distributor coming in at $5SF and from another $0.89SF and yet absolutely no complex difference in the product. Consumer will research and the gap will close.
Laminate flooring in the US market is a remarkable tale of growth and ingenuity. I really do not think that a couple of tough economic years will have much effect on its future survival. It is an excellent product and with some work and analysis by the consumer you will get incredible value.