Laminated Flooring

Laminated Flooring was first manufactured in 1977 by a company in Sweden under the name Pergo. They only started marketing their newly invented Laminate Floors during the early 1980's in Europe and then the rest of the Flooring manufacturers and especially wood board manufacturers quickly caught up with this new and very promising type of flooring.

At first laminated flooring planks was manufactured with a tongue and groove fitting system which required the floor boards to be glued together and then strapped for a period of time to ensure neat joints on the floor. This type of flooring installation was time consuming and thus more costly.

Laminate Floors were first introduced into South Africa in the mid 1990’s from Europe with an above average cost compared to other types of flooring, like carpets, vinyl flooring and ceramic floor tiles which were the most popular and cost effective flooring types at the time. Due to the price of laminate floors at this time which was more in the region of some solid wood floors it was a slow mover and sales were below average with only a handful of flooring contractors and retailers specialising in laminate floors.

Laminate Flooring Click System – During the late 1990’s the laminate flooring industry was revolutionised by what is generally known as the click system where 2 floor planks can be joined together without the need for glue or curing time. This meant faster floor installation time, easier installation and DIY flooring which contributed to the mass production of laminate flooring and in turn to a far less expensive laminate floor than what was experienced during the late 80’s and 1990’s.

With the click revolution and increased demand for laminate flooring more manufacturers mostly in Europe and a few in America came on board which meant more variety in colours and textures and better quality finishes for the consumer.

Up to the late 1990’s nearly all laminate floors where manufactured in Europe and a few in America but the laminate flooring industry was in for another revolution after manufacturing of laminate floor boards began in China in 1997. It was only around the year 2000 that Chinese laminate producers started exporting and by the early to mid 2000’s there were about 3000 manufacturers of laminate flooring in China.

With China’s ability to source lower cost raw materials and labour the price of laminate flooring more than halved in some cases but there was a lack of quality in the early stages from most Chinese laminate flooring producers which in turn did not do any favours for the laminate flooring market, specially in South Africa.

Today some of the Chinese manufactured laminate flooring can be compared with some of the European manufacturers. Although there are still some very cheap products on the market that is a lesser quality, laminate flooring has come a long way and taken a big share of the flooring market all over the world.