So, be honest: how often do you walk in to someone's home that just got a laminate floor installed, stop, and say "Oh my god what is that!?". Okay, so no one does that, but I bet you're wondering now! Not many people think about flooring and laminate floors aren't exactly new, so most really don't give a lot of thought as to what they're made of. However, there are always those of us that are curious so, if you are one of them, keep reading.

Pergo Is A Brand Of Laminate Floor

Let's get this out of the way: Pergo and laminate flooring is the same thing. You have to respect a brand that is a household name in an industry so competitive as laminate flooring, but Pergo really is nothing more than a laminate floor brand. People tend to start calling things by their brand name, since that's what's mostly advertised, but calling laminate floors Pergo is akin to calling all sodas Coke or Pepsi. So, when someone says they have Pergo, you know that what they are really saying is laminate flooring, but I wouldn't point that out since some people will just argue the matter.

Laminate Floors Are Not Real Hard Wood

But, at the same time, they kind of are. Although laminate floors aren't hard wood, and there are ways to tell as much, there are some higher quality floors that you really must get down there with a magnifying glass to really be able to tell. There is, to be sure, real wood mixed in there as laminate flooring is based on a wood chip composite material, but that doesn't really tell you the whole story. If you can't tell if the floor is real wood or laminate, use your knuckles to knock on it. Laminate floors give off a plastic sounding tick, and wooden ones are more of a thunk or thud.

Laminate Floors Are Designed To Mimic Wood

Although this sort of diminishes the genius behind the laminate floor, it's actually a picture of real wood, albeit laminated into an assembly that is far more durable than most hard wood floors. While those who own hardwood floors panic when someone pushes a chair around, anyone who has a laminate floor can be much more comfortable since scrapes, scratches, and scuffs aren't nearly as common and, when they do happen, they're easy to fix. In homes with a ton of kid, pet, or high heel traffic, it's become more cumbersome to own hard wood floors than it's really worth.

Laminate Floors And Your Desk Laminator

Yes, they are both derivatives of the same process, called lamination. Most people think that lamination is basically the act of putting some paper in some plastic, but that's a very watered down definition. If you were to put plastic around your cell phone and either glue the plastic or seal it with heat, you would have laminated your cell phone, which would be either ridiculous or hilarious, depending on the circumstances. In the case of laminate floors, the plastic surrounds and protects a photograph of wood which then sits, amusingly enough, on a base of wood chips. The result is almost all of the benefits of hard wood floors with few of the drawbacks.

To get more information about laminate floors, check out the laminate floor site.