Laminate Flooring has produced the most significant change to the flooring industry within the last 25 years and continues to create tremendous changes and improvements over is definitely hard surface counter parts.
In Europe they have been experiencing its features and benefits for several decades but not as laminate flooring as we know today. Decorative laminate really was the origins and the start of what now is known as laminate flooring. The ornamental laminate was widely used in kitchen countertops and home furniture. As the technology progressed in the counter best laminate industry it obviously became obvious that with the countless quantity of decors that could be created, may be created and used on the floor.
The idea of laminate flooring was born. There have been many technical difficulties the first of which was how will you take a simple counter top laminate and create a flooring item, the flooring product will take far more abuse when you are walked on and a put on layer was created.
There has really been no stopping the complex tidal wave of improvements and concepts that followed. Led mainly by the European countries laminate flooring gained more market share year after year, no market experienced such rapid growth as THE UNITED STATES. Massive marketing campaigns led by such brands as Pergo who are actually synonymous with laminate flooring presented laminate flooring to the American General public in the early 1990s.
The actual history of laminate flooring is pretty short in North America, because Pergo had achieved household recognition with the new flooring products Laminate flooring in THE UNITED STATES was widely known 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 share within the flooring sector in THE UNITED STATES continued to develop at a double digit pace. Most of the other US traditional floor covering manufacturers of carpeting and vinyl added laminate flooring with their portfolio of products.
Then so was born the private label laminate. Laminate flooring was easy to private label you simply changed the put in or the packaging and then that developed another brand or line of flooring. This was especially useful for the hardwood and floor covering manufacturer's to get on board with this new product. The original manufacturers of carpeting and hardwood have large distribution networks and with their very own branded type of flooring were able to place thousands of new flooring shows in a matter of weeks and brand-new brands started appearing all over the place. This continued to drive the growth in america.
As traditional US manufacturers of floor covering and vinyl presented themselves as laminate flooring manufacturers, drove sales, advertised the products and placed laminate flooring displays.
Time Line in america Market Another stages of growth were equally fast and I'll 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 the majority 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 help the domestic carpet manufacturers.
All hard surface area flooring companies benefited. It had been an exciting year for laminate flooring salesmen, despite having terrible installation demonstrations and glue jointly flooring.
2001 Every year that preceded 2000 involved new, exciting and innovative changes to the laminate flooring marketplace. The first change actually were only available in 2001 glue free of charge laminate. This was first introduced with steel clips on the trunk and during sales presentations as you attempted to put it together you nearly required a sledge hammer, it was 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 started again revolutionizing the floor covering industry. Unilin Industries of Belgium launched Quick-Step in to the US marketplace. Quick-Stage utilizes the patented Uniclic joint system. Several other manufacturers bought licenses to use the Uniclic joint technology therefore acknowledging Uniclic as the industry standard for Glue-much less technology.
Still 95% of the USA market was using glue collectively laminate, it took however more aggressive marketing which time mainly led simply 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-much less laminate flooring ranges.
It had been predicted in 2002 that purchase 2004 100% of the laminate flooring industry can be glue-less.
2003 This again became 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 keep on for many years. Apart from the lawsuits the technology today pleased with the glue-less free of charge install and now a particularly D.I.Y. friendly product focused on creating the product to be as practical as hardwood as possible.
2004 This noticed some dramatic changes in the quality of the laminate product itself. The typical glue-free laminate flooring item was 7" wide by 54" very long and it experienced a light 'ticking' impact, the panels went together with glue-less free locking program. Mostly all 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 showing up across the USA. The larger US manufacturers of carpets committed to laminate flooring services though these were not fully integrated (we can explore the need for vertical integration later). But this showed the US store and distributor that the merchandise was right 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 rather than too realistic in place a modest upgrade, at first all manufacturers tried to sell this improvement for $0.20SF to distribution but the truth was their was no manufacturer cost increase to create 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 the law suits focus on the end locking joint.
The chase to create an specific wood replicate of hardwood flooring continued and this led to a technology called 'Register and Emboss' or 'Embossed and Registered'. The idea of this is for the pattern of the oak for instance to be flawlessly indented into the wood panel, therefore the grain of the Oak or Cherry was practical to the touch.
All the manufacturers quickly chased this technology, it needed a relatively simple process, create the correct paper (décor pattern) and then have a press plate and the end of the production process to complement that paper décor and then you have the grain embossed.
Legal arguments more than 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 primary being a vinyl producer tried to put themselves as market http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection®ion=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=Homepage#/Georgia 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 http://martinshgg002.theburnward.com/the-12-worst-types-flooring-companies-near-me-accounts-you-follow-on-twitter your labeled product in another of the three primary US home centers was the ultimate goal.
One of the major carpet producers and distributors with there factory in Dalton gained the business enterprise with Home Depot. Pergo was well positioned with a vinyl producer you had personal labeled their laminate series into Lowes DIY STORES. Being a vinyl manufacturer rather than a laminate producer create a major problem and a crucial weakness as Lowes Home Improvement 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 had been quietly creating a factory in Barnwell, SC and at the right time were able to replace the vinyl producer as supplier to Lowes Home Improvement.
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 around the globe and this led method to the re-emergence of Chinese laminate flooring.
In the mid 1990 China was among the quickest growing laminate flooring markets in the world and most of this was given by shipping and delivery in container from European countries, there have been huge distributors in China 100 containers per month in proportions - or 2,400 pallets a month. It did not take miss Chinese ingenuity to duplicate the process and purchase 2001, China had a slew of factories (with large Government subsidies), a few of this product came back as imports into the USA, but the legal issues 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 huge factories had license agreements and were legal, the machines that produced the laminate flooring were from Europe and the product quality was excellent.
There market tactics were equally exceptional, instead off going after the low end dog fighting market of the 7mm and 8mm, they created a new look. A narrow plank and beveled the edges, this brand-new narrow plank was around 5" wide compared to the 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 is it, everything over the last 25 years culminated up to now 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 back foot, China rather than going after the reduced end marketplace aimed high with a high quality, the best quality laminate you could buy plus they could make it and make it affordable to the united states 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 look at that you cannot tell it apart from real hardwood, the only clue is the cost laminate flooring is much less costly than real wood with an increase of color choices. 2009 will be a difficult economic season therefore will 2010. Customers will focus on quality and price. Brand will become less essential as the buyer becomes more educated. The huge price 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 analysis and the gap will close.
Laminate flooring in america market is a impressive tale of growth and ingenuity. I do not really think that several tough economic years could have much impact on its potential survival. It is an excellent product and with some work and analysis by the consumer you can obtain incredible value.