Waterproof laminate. Sound like an oxymoron to you? Like saying Sharp-Dull (which by the way, I just found out two minutes ago is the Greek root for "oxymoron")?
Yes, for years you had to keep laminate flooring far away from high-moisture areas. By high-moisture, we're talking about places that can flood. Places where you might end up with a high water mark. Places like basements (which can, and do, flood from outside sources) or kids' bathrooms (which can, and do, flood from inside sources...I'll say from personal experience that 5 year-old boys do not pay a whole lot of attention to where their stray water goes).
Oh wait, laminate flooring should be keep away not only from high-moisture areas, but even places with moderate amounts of moisture, such as bathrooms for grown ups.
So, what does the flooring industry have to say about all this? Typically, they lace their warranties with all kinds of prohibitions against installing laminate flooring in places that could get even an eyedropper's worth of moisture.
Or, they try to better seal up laminate flooring's seams, essentially preventing the moisture from even getting to the water-susceptible fiberboard core in the first place.
I have found two authentically waterproof laminates out there. One is Mannington ICORE, which patented the "waterproof laminate" idea in 2003. Another lesser-known product comes from Foresta Flooring.
What these waterproof laminates do is strip away the spongy, water-loving fiberboard core in favor of a water-shedding thermoplastic core.
Image: Mannington
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