Laminate Flooring near you

The three can look alike in a showroom, but they're built very differently, and that decides where each one belongs.

Laminate floats: the planks click together into one continuous surface that rests on the subfloor without being fastened, and it moves as a unit as temperature and humidity change. That's why the installer keeps an expansion gap at walls, pipes, door frames and every fixed object, and why a heavy island, built-in cabinets or track-mounted doors must not be anchored through the floor. Large areas and long runs through doorways may need transition strips where the product's instructions call for them.

Underlay cushions the planks, evens out tiny imperfections, reduces noise and, over concrete, often includes or sits on a vapour barrier. Some planks come with underlay attached, and adding a second layer can make the joints flex and break. The subfloor still has to be as flat as the manufacturer requires: a floating floor bridges a dip rather than following it, and planks that bounce underfoot eventually open at the joints.

Laminate is sold as standard, water-resistant or waterproof, and each manufacturer defines what its own terms cover. Water-resistant products usually have sealed or treated edges and joints that give you time to wipe up a spill; waterproof claims typically cover water on the surface for a stated period, not flooding or a slow leak underneath. Read the warranty: it says which rooms are covered, how quickly spills must be cleaned and whether water from below, such as a damp slab or a plumbing leak, is excluded.

Whatever the label, follow the installation instructions to the letter. Water-related warranties can depend on details such as sealing the perimeter in wet rooms, using the approved underlay or leaving the specified gap, and a floor installed differently may not be covered.

A chipped, burnt or swollen plank can't be sanded or refinished, but it can be replaced. Near a wall, the installer unclicks the rows back to the damaged plank; in the middle of a room, the damaged plank can be cut out and a replacement glued in with part of its locking edge trimmed. Either way you need matching planks, so keep a box or two from the original installation, because patterns are often discontinued.

Spot repairs make less sense when water has swollen a large area, when joints are opening all over because the subfloor is uneven or the perimeter gap was skipped, or when matching planks can't be found. Then the cause is fixed first and the floor replaced.

A floating floor transmits footsteps, both as impact noise into the unit below and as a hollow sound in your own. The underlay does the most to control it, along with the subfloor and the building's structure. Condo bylaws often set requirements for floor coverings and sound insulation, such as an approved type of underlay, specific products or permission before carpet or another covering is replaced with a hard floor.

Before buying, read the declaration of co-ownership and the building's bylaws, and ask the syndicate or condo corporation what's required and whether it wants the underlay's technical data sheet. Then have the installer use exactly the approved underlay: tearing out a floor that breaks the rules is far more disruptive than checking first.