What Is a Laminate Flooring Quality – Wear Rating?
While selecting Laminate Flooring, you just not to focus only on shade, colour, texture and style; you should check the wear rating. In laminate flooring, this rating indicates about the durability, scratch resistant, daily wear and tear. Current laminate flooring are very much eye-catching, robust and versatile, however, they can get scratched easily by daily use and foot traffic. Well, these laminate planks come with a wear rating which is generally called as AC (Abrasion Class). To categories them they scale from AC1 which is for limited traffic to AC5, for heavy commercial use.
AC – Abrasion Class Ratings
To categories them, there are five level of AC. Ranging from Level AC1 to AC5. Rating AC4 and AC5 are generally for very heavy commercial use, while AC1 to AC3 are for residential purpose. The AC ratings are as follows: AC5 rating is the heaviest in all and specifically used for commercial places like big departmental stores, government offices. AC4 is also designed for heavy use; however, they are only good for showrooms, shops, cafes. AC3 rating is for heavy use, high traffic residential areas like wet areas and kitchen. Even these can be used in small or light commercial places like rooms in hotel or small offices. AC2 is for fair traffic area at home which is like living room and dining area. AC1 is too much delicate in comparison with other ratings, so this can be used for places like walk-in wardrobe, bedroom.
Laminate Flooring Layers
Laminate Flooring is made up of layers. Top layer is the layer to protect wear is normally filled up with aluminium oxide, and this is the layer which will eventually guard the laminate for daily use. This is the layer which keeps the laminate away from fading, especially due to UV and even makes the floor to manage and mop easily. Next layer is basically a printed HD image, which gives a feel of real wood, tiles, or stone for a natural look of a floor. Third layer is a core layer which plays the most important role in entire structure, which prevents laminate floor from dents and ads up the stability. The last fourth layer is the backer layer which adds up more stability and support for complete structure to form a panel/plank.
Wear Layer – Top Layer
This top layer of the laminate is called as wear layer; on this the chairs get dragged, there will be foot traffic and for sure you will drop the things on it. This is what which takes the wear. These wears are marked with a rating, higher the rating longer the life. All of these rating from AC1 to AC5 represent an increase of 60% in wear for the next level. As AC2 is 60% durable than AC1 and AC3 is 120% durable than AC1. Higher AC5 rating is no doubt best in range in terms of durability but on the other hand the higher the rating the higher the aluminium oxide coating, which will impact the appearance of the image layer.
How to select the Rating
Lower Abrasion Class rating is less in price, however, you should also look for a use for lifetime. Life of a Laminated floor depends on many factors like AC rating, foot traffic and maintenance. In a house with small kids and pets, a higher AC rating will provide better life and the place where very little use and low traffic is going to use there you can install lower rating floor. Manufacturers provide a warranty of around 10 to 15 years commonly and some of them go as high as 20 to 25 years for high Abrasion Class. At the time of selecting the laminate floor for rating you should also look for budget and the lifestyle or usages as well.
At Interior Wizards, we can guide you the way for selecting the right product according to your daily use and budget. Contact us for a home visit or call us @ 9999022776