Laminate - The right choice
The right choice
One kind of laminate flooring is not like the other. Before the actual purchase, you should check and consider which type of laminate flooring is the best fit for your individual taste and requirements. Some important aspects here besides the brilliance of the décor, the swelling properties of the substrate (i.e. the moisture protection) and the quality of the Click-connection are the different performance classes and the insulation properties for transmission and ambience sounds.
Quality features
The quality of a laminate floor is not mainly determined by its so-called abrasion-value, which is derived solely from the grammage of the overlay that is being used. It is rather the sum of a multitude of material characteristics that results in the overall quality of a laminate floor (and determines its ability to cope with the strains in its required application areas). Two essential areas here are the substrate and the Click-connection. Because one click is not like the other! As a substrate Parador is using only fibreboards with a very high density (HDF-boards), which makes a significant contribution to the stability of each and every flooring board. A laminate flooring element with extremely low abrasive wear values (i.e. high Taber index) and a "soft" substrate (like particleboard or MDF) is not likely to please its owners as they soon may notice indentations in the surface of their floor. So we conclude that the density of the substrate is what determines the required resistance against unwanted indentations in the floors' surface.
Quality-Standard EN 13329
The laminate flooring standard EN 13329 divides laminate flooring products into the so-called "Recommended utility classes" by looking at certain quality features. This system is independent from the flooring manufacturers and offers consumers some guidance as to what a particular laminate flooring product should be able to do for them.
One kind of laminate flooring is not like the other. Before the actual purchase, you should check and consider which type of laminate flooring is the best fit for your individual taste and requirements. Some important aspects here besides the brilliance of the décor, the swelling properties of the substrate (i.e. the moisture protection) and the quality of the Click-connection are the different performance classes and the insulation properties for transmission and ambience sounds.
Quality features
The quality of a laminate floor is not mainly determined by its so-called abrasion-value, which is derived solely from the grammage of the overlay that is being used. It is rather the sum of a multitude of material characteristics that results in the overall quality of a laminate floor (and determines its ability to cope with the strains in its required application areas). Two essential areas here are the substrate and the Click-connection. Because one click is not like the other! As a substrate Parador is using only fibreboards with a very high density (HDF-boards), which makes a significant contribution to the stability of each and every flooring board. A laminate flooring element with extremely low abrasive wear values (i.e. high Taber index) and a "soft" substrate (like particleboard or MDF) is not likely to please its owners as they soon may notice indentations in the surface of their floor. So we conclude that the density of the substrate is what determines the required resistance against unwanted indentations in the floors' surface.
Quality-Standard EN 13329
The laminate flooring standard EN 13329 divides laminate flooring products into the so-called "Recommended utility classes" by looking at certain quality features. This system is independent from the flooring manufacturers and offers consumers some guidance as to what a particular laminate flooring product should be able to do for them.