Yes we do, Exact Flooring has been doing installations since 2005 and we have learned all there are to know in the flooring industry. Our installations are fully guaranteed for 2 years. The products guarantee depends on were it was purchased. You need to know what the differences are and what the aftercare services are of each. Some suppliers only supply you floorboards should you have a claim and others supply you the material and the labour. The second option is the people that I would like to be in business with.

No Laminate floors center core is made out of high density boars materials and when exposed to excessive moist it will swell in most cases. If you are going to install the floors in a high humidity area Exact Flooring suggests that you use a Vinyl product called Traviloc Allure. Please contact us for more information If you want more inforation on theTraviloc Allure produck click INFORATION or if you want to see samples clik  TRAVILOC ALLURE PICTURS

We all know that looks are important and that we can sometimes get special prices on Laminate Flooring but what else should you consider when choosing a type of Laminate Floor?

Here are some of the basic elements when it comes to choosing the correct floor for your home/office

• What should the effect be that the floor needs to create in your home? Some of the floors have a stronger character than others. If its warmth that you want to create with the floor then choose a warmer color. When you need a floor color to complement your current cupboards/furniture in you home you should be careful of the color you choose because you either need to match the color exactly or choose a contradicting color. If you have chosen a color that almost matches your excising cupboards/furniture then it might appear that you are “patching” your home together. I always suggest that you are saver choosing a contradicting color.
• What is the moist danger in your home? Unless you are installing your laminated floors in areas that have low humidity content then no extra care should be taken with your installation. REMEMBER kitchen’s bathrooms and sculleries are areas that special floors need to be installed. Yes Exact Flooring has in the past installed laminated floors in areas that are mention above and with great success BUT the responsibility are with the client ton keep the moist away from the laminated floors. Exact flooring would rather prefer  products like Travilock Vinyl flooring to be fitted in areas with a high humid content
• Remember that the Sales Representative does have the technical knowhow of the laminated flooring you are enquiring about and have great experience in fitting the floors BUT he can only advise you to the color and style of laminated flooring that would be best suitable in your home. The final decision needs to come from you the home owner.

These are some of the basic hints you need to know when choosing your laminated floor. Should you need more information please do not hesitate to contact our office

Laminate Care

Exact Flooring has always impressed its clients with the clean and hygienic factors of laminated floors

No – do not through away your vacuum cleaner, but you can get rid of your spaghetti mop.

You have chosen a particular laminated or wooden floor to create a specific effect in your  home, now you have to ensure that your new investment stays in a perfect conditions for years to come.

Once the installation of your laminated or wooden floor  is done you need to know how to look after your flooring that was installed by Exact Flooring

Yes you have a hard wearing floor but it still needs care and maintenance. Unless you have a hardwood flooring that have an oil protective system you just need to keep your floor clean. By achieving this you floor will look as great as when it were installed on the first day.

Dirt and dust is your biggest enemy of all floors. The cleaner you can keep your floor the longer life span your floors will have  

Yes when Exact Flooring did told you the truth when it said laminated floors and hard wood flooring is long lasting floors but is not in destructive.

Most dirt en dust can be removed with normal seeping, dry mopping or using your vacuum cleaner

Using your vacuum cleaner should be the quickest but make sure there are no metal or any other objects on your vacuum cleaner that can scratch your floor.

You are required to mop your floor from time to time. It’s of great importance that you use a damp mop. Remember that your laminated and hard wood floor does not take well to large amount of moist. Its only vinyl floorings that are moist resistant.

Because your laminated floors are stain resistant, you can use a special stain remover if you have a stubborn stain that does not want to be removed with normal laminated floor cleaner

Tips and hints, do’s and don’ts.

The best way to keep dirt out of your home, away from your laminated or wooden floors is to have proper loose carpets placed at all your entrances of your home. This will eliminated most of the dirt that are walked into your home

Furniture Felt pads is n great protective system for your laminated or wooden floors against scratches caused by furniture. You should be able to purchase different sizes of furniture felts pads at your local hardware store

It’s important to lift heavy furniture instead of dragging or pulling them.

Use pieces of carpet face down under heavy objects when moving them across your floor. Get a small army of helpers to move that pool table.

Never use abrasive cleaners, steel wool or scouring powder. 

Never flood your floor with water or any other cleaner.

You have a fully finished floor, that means that your floor does not need any floor wax or polish on your laminate floor.

Never try to re-sand your laminate floor. That’s a real no-no.

Care creates confidence.

With proper care and regular maintenance, we’re confident that your flooring will provide you and your home with many years of beauty, warmth and durability

Hard wooden floors – make sure you ask your consultant what is the special requirements for keeping your hard wooden floors clean.

What is the difference between Laminated and Engineered wooden floors?

Not sure what is the difference. Both look the same are they really different? Beside costing differences we are going to look at the different characteristics of these flooring solutions.

Impact Resistance 
Laminated floors are far more superior here simply because of the manner that these floors are manufactured. Both flooring systems are manufactured in layers. The core is made from high density Fibre boards (HDF). These high pressurized boards are very hard. Engineered floors are manufactured also in layers (normally 3 layers); the core board are natural wood and are much softer than the HDF boards. NOTE there are veneers floors like Kahrs Linnea and Parky-Lounge were the core also consists of HDF boards that are better gives better resistance to impact than Engineered Wooden floors.

Scratch resistance 
Laminated floors are clearly the better option here, because the aluminium oxide topping that gives them the better advantage. The only wooden floor that shares a high resistance to scratches is the Par-KY Lounge range with a diamond lacquer protective system. Laminated flooring has varies grades for different usage. In South Africa you should find grades AC3 to AC5. The AC3 grade is meant for domestic use only, AC4 for light commercial (like offices) and AC5 are meant for full commercial use. There are couple differences between the AC3 to AC5 floors but the biggest are the quality of the aluminium oxide topping that are of better quality on the AC5 that means it's of better resistant to day to day foot wear than the AC3 ranges Note for domestic use you need only AC3 but AC4 and AC5 can also be installed in your home.

Stain resistance 
this is one of the better characters of laminated floors. It's also in there guarantee that your floor will not stain. I used to use this feature to close my sales. Drawing a picture with a permanent marker on a sample laminated flooring, then spraying laminated floor stain remover over the drawing and this is where you would close the deal. Just wiping the sprayed solution you will remove the picture that were drawn just minutes ago. That's one aspect of laminated floors that sells itself. This is not something that normally should happen in your home, I only use this to show how resilient laminated floors are to stains. To my knowledge I am not aware of any engineered wooden flooring that has the same high quality protective layer on top of the wear layer. Yes you do get stain removers for engineered wooden floors but the protective systems on engineered wooden floors are not as durable as laminated floors. If you would like to view more pictures of LAMINATED AND WOODEN FLOORS PLEASE LET CLICK HERE

Colour resistance. 
Now this point of discussion depend what you like in your engineered wooden floors. Laminated floors should not change colour not even if it were exposed to the sun for the full duration of its guarantee. BUT engineered wooden floors DOES change colour as it is exposed to the sun. For me in person that is a great character of natural wood. Just take care that too much sun might damage your engineered wooden flooring. Engineered wooden flooring that has an oil base protection last longer in the sun as lacquer protection but also require more maintenance.

Maintenance.
To keep your floors clean from day to day - both are great finishes for your home, office, retail uses. Simple sweeping and normal washing of your floors is a breeze to do using the correct cleaning systems. Please make sure you have been properly instructed how to clean you're laminated and engineered wooden floors. However on engineered wooden floors that have an oil protection system you will need to oil the complete floor area from time to time. If you want to speak to a CONSULTANT PLEASE LIASE WITH US

Moist resistance  

Because the bottom side of all engineered wooden floors is exposed (not treated) it's more at risk to moist than laminated floors. Laminated floors bottom sides are protected with a layer of aluminium oxide. Both flooring types should be installed on top of a moist barrier for protection. Some laminated flooring manufactures covers the lock joints with some sort of wax trying to protect your floor from moist. My experience has been any wood that gets excess moist will expand. You will not get neither a laminated or engineered wooden floor manufacture that gives you a warranty against moist (understand that there are a difference in moist resistance and moist protected). The only product that I am aware at the time of writing this is VINYL FLOORING but more about this you can view in our Vinyl Flooring products

Refurbishing your floors

Don’t try this yourself unless you are a great handy man. Exact Flooring does have reputable companies that can assist you with the refurbishment of you wooden floors. ONLY engineered wooden flooring THAT HAS A WEAR LAYER OF 4-5MM can be sanded. Veneer engineered wooden flooring CAN NOT be sanded as well as any laminated flooring. Please make sure about your facts before instructing a reputable company to do your sanding. Engineered wooden flooring that are stained and have a natural hand scrape effect might lose its characteristic after it has been sanded. To see our low cost floors please GO TO OUR SPECIALS

Installation 
Both laminated floors and engineered wooden floors that we get uses click systems. NO laminated floors should be installed that uses tong and groove systems were you need to glue the panels together. Yes you might get some engineered wooden floors that might require glue on the tong and groove lock systems All commends here are my own out of my years of experience not what you will find in n book or written by any other person. Both types engineered and laminated flooring is not that difficult to install as long as you follow the instructions of the different manufactures. The biggest issues with installations are the quality of the finishing profiles and how well they are installed

Live expectancy

This is a difficult question to answer; I really do not know what the correct answer is. It depend what the quality of that flooring product that you have purchased. You get engineered wooden flooring and laminated floors that give guarantees from 15 years to 30 years I think the bigger issue here are how are you going to protect and look after your investment? I have replaced wooden and laminated flooring, older than 7 years that were abused. The better you look after your investment the longer your floors will last

Thank you for reading this article - should you require more information please do not hesitate to liaise with us.

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How laminated floors are made

All Laminated floors are made in a similar process.

The cost of your laminated floor boards depends on the quality of the material used to manufacture your laminated floor

Did you ever though why is it that laminated floors resemble real wooden floors so closely

Why are laminated floors scratch and stain resistant, can withstand high temperatures with no signs of burn marks unlike carpets.

Let’s start to answer your questions

The bottom layer, or backing, is a melamine plastic layer that lends dimensional stability to the planks and also helps guard against moisture from the sub-floor. (Moisture infiltrating any flooring, is the enemy.)

The next layer is a core board, generally made from high-density fiber board or particle board which may also contain melamine plastic resins that help improve the moisture resistance of the core.

Then a decorative layer or print film is adhered on top of the core board giving the floor its hardwood or tile look.

This decorative layer is a printed high-resolution photo-reproduction of wood grain, natural stone or laminate tile pattern. (Now you know how the look-a-like is born.)

The top is a durable wear layer, providing protection and stain resistance.

Now many wear layers also contain aluminum oxide, as well as melamine resin, and that creates exceptional durability. The kind that will stand up to the most active household – even yours.

All four layers are  combined in a high-pressure process.

Now we’ll take you through the manufacturing process of laminate, and easy does it -- one step at a time.

Step 1: the deck is stacked, with precision.

The process begins with the assembly of the 4 layers of raw materials in large sheets.

This typically takes place on a production line, where modern technology enables each layer to be stacked on top of another with incredible accuracy and precision.

How precise you may ask? Most manufacturers use sophisticated electronic calibrating equipment and digital camera systems to keep the sheets in perfect alignment.

The backing layer is first on the line, with the core board placed directly on top of that.

Next, the printed decorative layer is stacked on top of the core board. The final layer to be stacked on is the wear layer.

Step 2: start the big squeeze please.

Once the 4 layers have been stacked, they are ready for pressing.

The presses used to create laminate flooring have hydraulic rams that apply tremendous pressure to the stacks.

The stacks of layers are pressed at high temperatures reaching 400 degrees Fahrenheit, with up to 600 pounds per square inch of pressure for 20 to 30 seconds.

Manufacturers carefully monitor the time and temperature when pressing the layers to successfully cure and bond the stacks into a single sheet of finished decorative laminate.

If the laminate that is being manufactured is designed to have a textured surface, the press has specialized plates that imprint the textured pattern onto the sheets, creating more natural looking planks or tiles.

Step 3: it’s time for a cooling off period.

After the sheets are pressed they are left to cool to ensure that they fully cure and to prevent any surface imperfections.

Then the sheets are stacked and stored for a time so that they can continue to acclimate, thereby enhancing the stability of the boards.

Step 4: cut to the profiling scene.

Once the boards are fully acclimated, they are milled, or cut into planks.

The freshly cut planks then move on to be profiled. Multiple profiling saws create the tongue and groove edges on the sides of the planks that enable the floor to lock together with ease.

The blades on the profiling saws use electronic and laser systems that produce incredibly accurate edges for a perfect fit. Further assurance of the precision of your floor.

The finished planks then go through a quality inspection and are checked for color, texture, finish, size and correct interlocking capabilities.

Once approved, the planks are then stacked, packaged and loaded onto trucks for distribution. Your flooring could be on one of those trucks.

It’s your decision of course.

But now that you know how laminate flooring is made you can understand why it’s a beautiful, durable and cost-efficient flooring solution for many homes, and homeowners, across the county