Everywhere you shop for flooring, you see that label waterproof. Waterproof vinyl, waterproof wood, waterproof laminate, and you may even see waterproof carpet. Have you ever wondered why this is so important? Is there really a good reason that everybody is shouting from the store tops "Waterproof Flooring!" Is that all we care about? Customers are so brainwashed, that this marketing is the only important feature? I don't think so.
When it comes down to a floor being waterproof, it is a nice feature to have in some cases. It isn't the only feature though. The idea of waterproof flooring came from numerous things that happened when laminate became popular. Laminate is an incredible floor, when it is made correctly. With its durability and ease of installation, a lot of people wanted to get installed in their home. With the high demand for the product, certain stores and manufacturers cut some corners to reduce the cost and make it even more affordable. Those cuts lead to a product failure over time with homeowners mopping their floors and finding out that the water would get into the joints and the core would swell up. This was a failure to keep the quality of a product high as well as the price to make it that way. To make it more affordable, the click joints were not as good to keep it together tight and the core wasn't made the same.
This put a sour taste in consumers about using laminate flooring in their home. They now believed that laminate could only be used in places that needed good durability, but would have to be far away from any type of heavy water use on it or around it. In 2012, a new product came to market. Coretec was introduced by US Floors. It was an introduction of a product that clicked together like laminate, but had a waterproof core. It directly fixed the stigma of what laminate had done. It was easy to install and it was waterproof.
Once US FLoors had created a product that fixed all the problems laminate had created, Coretec took off and a new flooring category had been created. WPC waterproof flooring became the thing to have. After 4 years of taking the market by storm, Shaw bought Coretec and brought it into the Shaw family of products. With the creation of a new flooring category, many other brands have begun to make their own waterproof flooring. The next step was the introduction of SPC waterproof flooring which made the product more impact resistant. Everyone has their own version of rigid core products now. Shaw introduced a line of waterproof flooring to the box stores so that homeowners could find the flooring that everyone wanted at a lower price. Other companies along with Shaw began the race to the bottom to sell more product.
Now we have new problems with rigid core waterproof flooring. Because one of the ways that you save on money is to make it thinner, it doesn't interlock as well when it gets to thin. It begins to come apart over time. Instead of making rigid cores, they make the whole plank out of vinyl, which is much more flexible. It is a cheaper way to make the flooring. Another cost saver is using a generic locking system that doesn't require a company to pay for patents for locking systems that are tested to work and keep water from going through them. This now has caused the industry to have problems and damage the reputation of WPC and SPC waterproof flooring.
If you want to stay away from all the heart ache and head ache from products that may fail you, go to your local retail flooring store such as BPS Southeast Flooring https://www.bpssoutheast.com/waterproof-flooring-info . It is important that you can get what you want in waterproof flooring, but that isn't the only feature that we look for in a flooring product. Durability is an important factor. How well does it hold up to scratches? Is it easy to install and will it stay together? How real does it look? What color options do you have? What kind of visual characteristics does the product have? Do you want to upgrade to a waterproof wood flooring?
There are so many different options other than waterproof when looking at a floor for your home. The market has tried to over correct the mistake it made and now they shout waterproof to everyone. If you take care of your floor and clean up behind spills, damp mop the floor, and just maintain your floor with regular cleaning, you can have any hard surface floor you want. We had gone years without waterproof flooring when everyone wanted wood flooring. You do have to be a little more careful, but it looks so much better than laminate or vinyl. There are options for waterproof wood flooring as well. Beautiful, durable, and waterproof vinyl and laminate are also good choices if you don't want to spend as much money on a floor that you are concerned it will be abused by all the traffic in your home. That is part of the beauty of laminate and vinyl. They can look like wood, without the initial cost of putting wood flooring in. Whatever you decide, don't make waterproof your main factor in picking out your flooring. Consider how it will look and if it fits your lifestyle.
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