By Matthew Spieler
Sales of laminate flooring may be growing less than its historical double-digit gains but that has not stopped consumers from purchasing certain styles and products more often than others. As with the best of times, the most popular style of laminate still remains the wood look. And like the wood sector, the most popular specie to be sold in laminate is oak.

“Oaks of all colors—including shades of gold, red and butternut— continue to rank among Pergo’s most popular laminates at specialty retail,” said David Small, marketing director. “We’ve noticed this trend for several years, and these décors show no sign of losing their appeal with consumers as they compliment nearly every type of home design. Of course, the prominence of oak décors is not exclusive to Pergo and extends across both the laminate and hardwood flooring segments.”

Roger Farabee, vice president of marketing, Unilin Flooring, said the top two SKUs in its Quick•Step division are Eligna in honey red oak and Country in rustic hickory. “Red Oaks are still the most widely used hardwood in the market, so it isn’t surprising that consumers still gravitate toward this look. Eligna has deep registered embossing that gives the wood grain authenticity and a color that works well with lighter, brighter room designs.”

Country is selling well, he noted, because “it is a beautiful, medium brown tone that works with a variety of design options and it has the most realistic rustic surface on the market today. It’s an excellent example of how Quick•Step products often look better than the original material they are emulating. Many of the hardwood handscraped looks available are very strong and lose their appeal quickly. Rustic hickory is rustic without being too aggressive.”

Tim Tipton, Formica’s director of marketing and product development, said Quintessa and Cordelia are the company’s top two lines on the market. Quintessa has been on the market since last June, but its 6- foot-long board in a 12mm thickness with four- ided micro beveled edge in a handscraped finish and the FormiLock Plus locking system have made it a winner at retail.

The mid- ange Cordelia was launched this summer and features a “soft-sculpted” finish that is a step below the “hand scraped” finish on the high-end Quintessa line. He said the “line has been embraced by our distributors— this has been by far the biggest product launch Formica Flooring has ever had.”

So much so that Ken Peden, COO of Formica’s parent, Kronotex added, “In my nine years exclusively in the laminate industry, this is the most dynamic product I’ve ever seen.”

At Shaw Industries, David Wilkerson, vice president of marketing for the hard surfaces division, explained, “Our best selling products would be Costa Rica and Salvador. These are both beveled edge styles introduced in January 2006.” Despite being around for more than a year-and-a-half, both feature exotic hardwood designs and smooth, “satin” finishes that emulate the visual found in many popular hardwood styles seen today.

Latest advancements

One of the areas helping to boost laminate sales is the use of innovations that either help make the product look and feel like the real thing or install easier.

“I consider the 5G locking system from Valinge a very important manufacturing advancement,” Wilkerson said, “as it takes locking system technology to a completely new level. I would also cite improvements in surface texture authenticity as a major advancement. For instance, registered embossed surface textures continue to improve and are now being complemented by increasingly sophisticated pressed edges.”

Formica’s Tipton noted, “Our innovation has been more the design front in Cordelia,” as well as on the installation end with FormiLock. When it comes to the softsculpted finish, it is not unique in terms of only Formica having it, but “there aren’t any other manufacturers providing this type of technology at the ‘better’ price point.”

With regard to FormiLock Plus, he explained it eliminates the need for a tapping block and pull bar and allows installation one plank at a time with just the touch of a finger. “This system uses a shim (or tension spring), so that when you engage the adjoining board, it causes the tension spring to retract. Once the board is fully engaged, the tension spring re-engages, providing both vertical and horizontal stability.”

Quick•Step’s Farabee said the company just introduced UniFix, a tool that makes floor repairs quick and easy, allowing the user to remove a single plank from anywhere in a room and replace it while leaving the rest of the floor intact without cutting planks.

“Separating the joints with UniFix loosens the plank on three sides,” he added, “making it easy to pop it out and insert another one. Once the new piece of flooring is in place, the installer simply closes the long and short side joints to secure it down.”