Global Alliance Home Improvement Products Inc.

Your subfloor, or substrate, should be structurally sound, firm and capable of supporting the weight it will be called upon to carry. This will include the flooring itself, the furniture that will be placed in the room and the people who will use it. If the concrete is cracked and crumbling, your best bet would be to consult a professional who will be able to assess the suitability of the surface for your flooring installation and make any repairs that may be needed to ensure the success of the project. Your subfloor should also be clean, dry and level. Uneven concrete subfloor surfaces should be sanded with a concrete grinder to even out high spots and/or leveled off by using an appropriate leveling compound to fill in low spots, as needed. For best results, before installing your new laminate flooring you should make sure there is less than a 3/16 inch height difference every 10 feet. It always pays to make sure your subfloor is up to the task before installing your new laminate flooring, so it’s very important not to skip this step.

One of the biggest consumer misconceptions is that engineered hardwood is the same as laminate. While both products share a factory-made core of heat-pressed plywood or HDF, the top wear layer is very different. Laminate imprints a textured photographic image on top of a composite fiberboard/melamine resin plank that is man-made. The top layer of engineered wood is a natural log slab that is glued on top of the core boards.