Bestlaminate Blog A helpful resource for your laminate, vinyl and hardwood flooring projects.
Anytime a major household purchase is made, the homeowner’s first question usually is, “What type of warranty does this product have?” Laminate flooring is a huge investment. Therefore you should understand what is and is not covered under the warranty provided. With numerous brands of laminate flooring on the market, familiarize yourself with your final choice, and have certainty what exactly your laminate flooring warranty covers.
Understand Your Warranty
Warranties are almost always provided with your laminate flooring. They will often come in spans of 10-25 years, and sometimes even have lifetime coverage. You will find that warranties cover fading and factory defects. In order to keep your warranty valid you must take good care of your flooring and install it in a correct manner. Being informed on what can void your warranty is the first step to protecting yourself down the road.
Ways Your Warranty Can Be Voided
- Installing your laminate incorrectly
- Not maintaining your flooring
- The most common issue is not wiping up liquid spills immediately. Leaving liquids to sit can warp your floors and void your warranty
- Using the wrong materials during floor installation
- This can include both tools and underlayment
- Installing on an uneven subfloor
- Installing laminate flooring for an improper use
- An example would be installing laminate outdoors
- Installing laminate flooring with an incorrect AC Rating
- If you are installing in a commercial setting, residential rated laminate floors will not stand up for long because of the immense foot traffic it will receive
When To Hire A Professional
After reading a few of these guidelines you should have a better understanding of your warranty. If you are STILL unsure and not confident to proceed with installation we highly recommend hiring a professional installer. Your professional should be able to asses your situation and determine if your flooring is in the correct condition to start and if the proper tools are present.
To keep your mind at ease we recommend keeping at least one label from your laminate flooring boxes and hanging onto receipts! If all else fails please feel free to call your flooring experts here at Bestlaminate 1-800-520-0961.
We installed a Dupont Laminate floor in our home. After five years there were visible problems like de-lamination and buckling in several areas. Our first intent was to replace the problem flooring during a remodel of part of the covered area that required us to purchase more flooring. Unfortunately ,what we discovered was ,even though the floor was warranted for25 years, the pattern was discontinued within 3 years of our original purchase. We were dumbfounded that a flooring product with such a long warranty was not available on the market so shortly after our initial purchase. The lesson learned is the length of the warranty does not imply the product will be available over the term of the warranty. I believe the unavailability of the product makes it much more difficult for the consumer to favorably settle a warranty issue with the implication being total replacement of an entire floor rather than several square feet of damaged area.