By Matthew Spieler
Hicksville, N.Y.—With technological advances happening at lightening speed, laminate manufacturers have been taking advantage of them as much as possible in order to produce products that both look and feel like the real thing while still having performance benefits of a laminate floor.

This can easily be seen in many of the spring introductions heading to retailers in the coming weeks. These products do more than mimic their natural counterparts, they coordinate with all facets of today’s home decorating trends.

At Wilsonart Flooring, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, its latest products, such as Portland Butternut in the Red Label Collection, “take another step toward better emulating what happens in wood,” said Curt Thompson, director of sales and marketing.

As part of the largest introduction in company history, 16 feature what Wilsonart calls a narrow format. These new products now come in a 5-in. width compared the traditional 7-3/4-in. widths it had been offering. Some come in both sizes, and the two sizes are designed to be mixed and matched to create a truly unique design.

“We’ve taken it a step further,” he explained, “as each board is independently designed to create a more natural variation instead of looking like a monolithic sheet. It’s more realistic.”

Along the same lines is Wilsonart’s new distressed finish, which takes the popular handscraped look “a step further,” Thompson said. “It has more characteristics, more of an aged effect. It’s a different visual in the chisel effect in that there is a lot of lateral movement and not just lineal.

Both these innovations can be found in Wilsonart’s Classic and Red Label lines and feature a variety of wood looks, from the traditionals such as oak to faraway exotics like Acacia.

Like Wilsonart, one of Pergo’s main spring introductions also incorporates exotic species as this segment of the wood industry continues to skyrocket. Its new World Traveler collection starts off with eight products, including Koa, Palissander and Ironwood.

David Small, Pergo’s director of strategic marketing, said in addition to a few little-known exotics, “the line features many of the best-selling exotic wood looks,” such as bamboo, Merbau and Jatoba (Brazilian cherry). “Each product in the line has an ultra-realistic looking texture that closely emulates the look of a high-gloss lacquer finish.”

As with a number of the World Traveler products, the new Select Traditional Strip features a 3-1/2-in. strip, along with the more traditional 5-in. size. Five styles each available in the two widths, make up the line.

Retailing for about a dollar more per square foot than World Traveler—$4.59 compared to $3.69—Traditional Strip “combines the new formats and texturing to create a true realistic look with all the performance benefits of a Pergo Select floor.”

For the new Armstrong branded laminate products, Milton Goodwin, general manager of laminate and ceramic product management, said an improved Masterworks Technology as well as a number of other innovations “is making them more realistic, easier to install and tougher for active households.”

He pointed to the new Santos Mahogany and Yorkshire Walnut products in the Nature’s Gallery Exotics Collection as examples. Available in either a new filled face high-gloss finish or filled face hand-crafted finish, respectively, these highlight the “predominant drivers for laminate. Beyond a market demand for “realness” are warmth of color, a sense of customization, emerging worldwide contemporary styling and technical innovations in manufacturing.

“Growing popularity in tropical species and dark-warm toning are part of a decade long movement,” Goodwin added, “with influence from the re-emergence of Western Modernism as well as Eastern Minimalism in fashion and home furnishings. Coupled with the progression of the more specific vintage and hand-finishing treatments for flooring, the market has now expanded to a depth of appreciation and possibility not considered five years ago.”

David Wilkerson, divisional vice president of hard surface marketing for Shaw Industries, noted the company also used the latest technology to help enhance the overall finish of its latest products while still making sure aspects such as an exotic assortment are available.

Instead of focusing just on the hand-crafted look, Shaw focused on a new type of surface treatment: A full filled furniture finish. “There is so much in the hand-sculpted area that we wanted to focus on another segment in home design that is growing—high-end furniture,” he explained.

The new finish, Wilkerson added, “closely replicates the look and feel of premium hardwood” and can be seen in Shaw’s Cost Rica product. Positioned at the top of the line, this 5-Star collection was inspired by a variety of exotic species, including Rosewood and Eucalyptus and is offered in a 4-in. wide plank.

Because the handscraped look remains popular, the new Charlestowne line has been introduced. Part of Shaw’s 5-Star Touchable Texture series, it comes in four hickory colorations “that will complement both rustic and contemporary settings,” he said.

This spring, not all the introductions are in the form of new flooring lines. At Quick-Step, Ken Peden, vice president of sales, agrees with Armstrong’s Goodwin, noting while the category could not have considered today’s products as little as five years ago who knows what will be offered in the next five years. “It’s still a relatively young category and most still don’t know what we can do with it.”

The company is offering a glimpse of what is possible with two of its spring introductions—a multifunctional profile and a flushmount stair nose.

Featuring INCIZO technology, the multifunctional profile allows four different applications—expansion, adapter, transition and edge/ walls—and replaces Quick-Step’s existing three profiles. “The unique characteristic of this profile is,” Peden explained, “it can be adapted to connect any two floors by simply cutting off one or both of the removable sides with the small knife included.”

Shaw’s Salvador

The stair profile incorporates the mill’s patented Uniclic locking system to produce a seamlessly flat transition to the floor on each step, with no raised profile. The upper profile snaps right into the base, thus eliminating the need for nails. It is available in all Quick-Step series and can be combined with any of the company’s floors.