Today laminate flooring, vinyl flooring and High End Resilient Flooring (HERF) have become some of the popular flooring options in Singapore. They portray a cost-effective flooring solution as compared to ceramic tiles, wooden parquet as well as expensive stone flooring such as marble.
Some consumers may often get confused between these three types of flooring as they look similar to one another on the outer. However, they are not the same. Let’s look at the difference.
Laminate Flooring
Laminate flooring is made up of compressed wood flooring with a layer of photographed design on the top surface. For most common laminate flooring, the wear layer is coated with aluminium oxide to enhance its scratch resistance. Most good quality laminate flooring comes with good safety and health standards such as E1 Formaldehyde emission and slip resistance. However, one of the common problems that laminate flooring experience will be water issues. Hence, homeowners will need to take extra care when using this type of floor.
Vinyl Flooring
Like laminate flooring, vinyl flooring is also produced massively. However, the material that is used to manufacture vinyl flooring is resin instead of compressed wood. It is widely installed in hospitals and institutions due to its flat surface layer and anti-static effect.
One of the toughest challenges of installing vinyl flooring is that you require a completely flat subfloor to install it. Most vinyl flooring requires glue during installation. When water seeps through, the adhesive might lose its ‘stickiness’ to hold the floor. And with the presence of glue, harmful emissions might emit from the floor after some time. However, as technology advances, vinyl flooring has evolved into a glue-less installation approach.
High End Resilient Flooring
High end resilient flooring is considered as a product slightly higher than the family of traditional resilient flooring which consists of vinyl flooring, linoleum and rubberised flooring due to its higher specifications. It is a strong substitute to traditional laminate flooring and wood parquet because of its 100% waterproof and wood alike features.
It is different from conventional vinyl flooring as it has a better wear layer. Although both vinyl flooring and high end resilient flooring has comparable slip resistant properties, good quality high end resilient flooring is often tested against volatile organic compounds to promise better indoor quality.
Since both “glue-less” vinyl floor and high end resilient flooring may appear to have similar properties, to find out whether the flooring is exactly high end resilient flooring or normal vinyl floor, homeowners should check whether the surface layer is made up of ceramic beads coating or not. Another method is to spot for any unusual smell. Good quality high end resilient flooring is usually odourless as compared to the lower quality ones.
In summary, it is important for the consumers to be educated about the differences between laminate flooring, vinyl flooring as well as high end resilient flooring so as to make a better decision in their flooring purchase.
For more elaboration, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at:
EVORICH R&D Building and FLAGSHIP Gallery: 16 Tampines Street 92 Singapore 528873 (Behind SAFRA Tampines)
EVORICH Furniture · Vinyl Pop-Up Store: 1 Tampines North Drive 1, #02-38 T-Space EVORICH Block, Singapore 528559 (In between IKEA, Giant & Courts)
WhatsApp: +65 8795 2118
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