Laminate life expectancy

I fitted some KAINDL the other day and noticed that it came with a 30 year guarantee.I was puzzled to see that especially with the fact that it was only an 8mm board.How can/does this become justified.

 

Those kind of guarantees come with a long long list of "terms and conditions".

Normally it only means that when used/lived on in a very normal way, installed according to instructions in areas suited for the product, the top layer should not show damages or delaminate.

 

Pergo floors come with a 50 year guarantee, from their website:

With a laminate floor its down to the quality of the engineering of the product, the quality of the picture, and the quality of the clear wear layers that you actually walk on that will determine how hard wearing, scratch resistant and stable the floor is and performs during it's life.

Personally I try to explain to customers that whilst a wear guarantee may indicate the 'life expectancy' of a product, the real term benefits are really the scratch and dent resistancy that the coatings offe, as it is this that will affect the appearance of the floor. A good quality laminate will perform well in most domestic and light commercial applications, it's the appeartance retention that will be the most important aspect of the flooring's performance.

 

I tend to be sceptical about these guarantees.I refitted a 30 year guaranteed "Kaindl" 8mm floor that was ill fitted and realised that it didnt like being uplifted then refitted again.I wouldnt like to think that it was given a commercial 30 year scale.It just helps the salesmen when taking money from customers.Fingers crossed that 9 out of ten customers dont come knocking on the complaints door in the next few years me thinks.

 

I have tried to claim on them before.. In many cases they will only cover the damaged board... They are warrantied for only basic things that they will almost alays stand up too.

in my experience the longer the warranty the longer your is likly to last...