Anthony Thompson shows off his product Lamanator Plus at his store.

ALBERTA, CANADA— A northern Alberta flooring retailer has developed an innovative cleaning and maintenance product that is turning heads in the industry.

Anthony Thompson, Owner of Morinville Flooring, says the introduction of laminate flooring, a faux woodgrain photo-finish floor overlaid with a clear coating, has proved popular with consumers but created a vexing problem.

"When we started dealing with laminate flooring, we started getting complaints from people," says Thompson, who has been in the flooring business for 24 years, the last seven as store owner.

"They complained about streaking and tracking, no matter how much they cleaned the floor. It sparked my interest."

Thompson said he could not find anything else on the market that effectively cleans laminate floors.

Despite its attractive look, laminate flooring had a tendency to appear dirty. Thompson said the aluminum oxide finish repels anything that would stick to it, but with a side effect of not being able to maintain a clean appearance.

Traditional cleaners do not work well, and contribute the added problem of water penetration in floor seams, since people tend to clean them so much, Thompson said.

So, a couple of years ago, he went to work with an Edmonton chemist. Together, they developed a three-step process to clean, restore and maintain laminate floor finishes that work.

The formulas are now sold in retail floor stores for about $59.

Word got around after a single home show, and orders picked up, Thompson said.

After patenting his formulas and contracting out manufacturing, he is now talking with distributors in B.C., Ontario and the U.S.

In just a couple of weeks, Thompson has sold over 2,800 product sets locally, and he says, "orders are streaming in. it's really solving a huge problem."

So far, Thompson, his wife and a single employee make up the entire work-force at the new company, Lamanator Coating Ltd. But that could change, depending on market uptake.

Thompson has sunk $30,000 of his own and $105,000 from three angel investors into getting Lamanator Coating going.

It has already created a spinoff, with one of the investors developing The Lamanator Doctor, to apply the coating and maintenance material as a third party for consumers who want somebody else to do the work.

For more information on LamanatorPlus, call 866-939-7212 or visit www.lamanator.com