skip to main content
Get Ideas
Photos
Magazine
Discussions
Houzz TV
Houzz Research
Shop Products
    Shop Curated Bathroom Vanities
Looking for the perfect gift? Send a Houzz Gift Card!
Outdoor Sale Sale
ON SALE - UP TO 75% OFF
Shop Promo Banner
0
Your shopping cart is empty.
Sign In
Join as a Pro
Houzz Pro: One simple solution for contractors and design pros
Join as a Pro
Houzz Logo Print
Jane Heacock
https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/158436183/thumbs/flooring copied to clipboard
https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/158436183/thumbs/flooring copied to clipboard

Flooring

Comment
SJ McCarthy

High-end water resistant laminate out of Switzerland - Swiss Kronos - is 14mm thick and MAGNIFICENT. It gives you EVERYTHING vinyl 'says' it does...without the vinyl issues. The cost of this high-end laminate will be close to $7/sf. The 'closest' thing you will find is CoreTec Plus = 8.5mm thick with a VERY thin underlayer allowed. It STILL has issues with DIRECT sunlight and too much heat. The laminate does not. Cost of CoreTec Plus = $8.99/sf Cost of Kronos Laminate = $7/sf (ish) I go with HIGH end laminate any day vs. medium end/thin vinyl. And I always like 6mm of cork underlayment = very good with laminate. The 6mm cork underlayment is NOT allowed with vinyl of ANY SORT!!! I am not kidding about this. The people in the 'know' will work with the high-end laminate. Everyone else will try to sell you vinyl...of whatever variety gets them a bigger pay cheque. I'm a cork flooring expert...so I have NO skin in the game. What I do have is a product that can take over from EVERY OTHER FINISH invented. That means I need to know how every other product's down falls...so I can sell against them when speaking with a customer. I've sold Lico products (www.lico.ch) out of Switzerland. They are OUTSTANDING. That's how I know what type of quality Switzerland and Germany produce. There are very few flooring stores that carry the HIGH END (high priced laminates = $5 - $7/sf)...because very few people PAY $7/sf for laminate. They will pay $0.79/sf for laminate. That's also the product that they value as "cheap" laminate. And it is. You cannot compare the cheap laminate to the high end stuff. It's like comparing the family's Shetland pony to a multimillion dollar Arabian Stallion.

Q

Reply to: High-end water resistant laminate out of Switzerland - Swiss Kronos - is 14mm thick and MAGNIFICENT. It gives you EVERYTHING vinyl 'says' it does...without the vinyl issues. The cost of this high-end laminate will be close to $7/sf. The 'closest' thing you will find is CoreTec Plus = 8.5mm thick with a VERY thin underlayer allowed. It STILL has issues with DIRECT sunlight and too much heat. The laminate does not. Cost of CoreTec Plus = $8.99/sf Cost of Kronos Laminate = $7/sf (ish) I go with HIGH end laminate any day vs. medium end/thin vinyl. And I always like 6mm of cork underlayment = very good with laminate. The 6mm cork underlayment is NOT allowed with vinyl of ANY SORT!!! I am not kidding about this. The people in the 'know' will work with the high-end laminate. Everyone else will try to sell you vinyl...of whatever variety gets them a bigger pay cheque. I'm a cork flooring expert...so I have NO skin in the game. What I do have is a product that can take over from EVERY OTHER FINISH invented. That means I need to know how every other product's down falls...so I can sell against them when speaking with a customer. I've sold Lico products (www.lico.ch) out of Switzerland. They are OUTSTANDING. That's how I know what type of quality Switzerland and Germany produce. There are very few flooring stores that carry the HIGH END (high priced laminates = $5 - $7/sf)...because very few people PAY $7/sf for laminate. They will pay $0.79/sf for laminate. That's also the product that they value as "cheap" laminate. And it is. You cannot compare the cheap laminate to the high end stuff. It's like comparing the family's Shetland pony to a multimillion dollar Arabian Stallion.

Q