The hoopla over laminate flooring.

Like it or hate it - passions run high in both directions - laminate flooring is garnering a ton of attention in the trade and consumer media, and the wood products industry at large.

Proponents point to its ease of installation, durability, easy-to-clean-and-maintain virtues, and price as key benefits of laminate flooring. On the other hand, hardcore traditionalists find laminate flooring sterile looking and lacking in the character of hardwood floors, and are wont to criticize the "hollow" sound that walking on some laminate floors produces.

Of course, the ultimate judge and jury of a product's worth in this great free-enterprise nation of ours are consumers. This year, U.S. consumers are expected to spend between $80 million and $100 million on laminate flooring, which translates to about 1 percent of the U.S. residential flooring industry. That may not sound like much, but as E.C. "Bill" Dearing, president of the North American Laminate Flooring Assn., pointed out, "If you consider that four years ago the category share was really nothing and as little as a year and a half ago it was not measurable, this is a highly significant achievement."

Dearing, who is also manager of new product development for Perstorp Flooring, was among the presenters at the "Second Essentials of Laminate Flooring" technical seminar sponsored by NALFA, the Laminating Materials Assn. and Wood & Wood Products. The program, held Sept. 15 in Chicago, brought together some 100 interested manufacturers and suppliers for what Dearing referred to as "the most dramatic consumer product I have ever had anything to do with."

Dearing, who said he sees laminate flooring competing more against vinyl flooring than hardwood floors, said he thinks achieving 5 percent market share by 2000 is doable. "I have never seen anything grow this fast," he said.

Akin to RTA Furniture

In several important ways laminate flooring is shaping up as the next big thing since RTA furniture. Like RTA, the emerging laminate flooring market is dominated by a handful of major players, with enough breathing room for niche players to stake their claims.

From its humble beginnings as a low-priced, disposable product, RTA furniture has evolved into an improved-quality, design-conscious product sold at various price points. Similarly, laminate flooring is still undergoing myriad improvements in terms of style, durability and manufacturing technology.

Acknowledging that there is room for improvement, Dearing said the criticisms of laminate flooring should be viewed as opportunities. For example, he said the challenge to eliminate the "funny sound" is something that many laminate flooring companies are aggressively pursuing through research and development.

Underscoring Dearing's assertion that the laminate flooring industry is rapidly changing, Rick Ransom, product specialist for Stiles Machinery, noted that the speed of laminate flooring production lines have essentially been doubled over the last year through improvements in machine technology, tooling and methodology.

Who's Excited?

The prospect of a prosperous laminate flooring industry in North America has many companies licking their chops.

The decorative overlay industry is excited because of the promising growth potential for use of high-pressure laminate and melamine products, not only in the flooring products themselves but complementing baseboard mouldings as well.

Manufacturers of particleboard, medium density fiberboard and high density fiberboard have more than a few reasons to hope that laminate flooring booms. Many are targeting laminate flooring as a key avenue for parting with the excess capacity of composite panel that is coming on board in North America.

Most importantly, laminate flooring is exciting to the companies that have jumped on the bandwagon to produce laminate flooring here. Most of them, such as Wilsonart, Formica Uniboard and Pickering, have no previous experience in the flooring markets, but have solid backgrounds in the production or fabrication of laminates.

Perhaps the epitome of a non-traditionalist's entree into the flooring arena is Eurodesign. The midsize Southern California cabinet manufacturer is helping itself to a sliver of the laminate flooring pie. Eurodesign may well be the smallest player in the laminate flooring market, but as Senior Editor Larry Adams reports on page 57 of this issue, the company sees its niche serving the same builders that buy its European-styled cabinets.

This brings to mind the thought that not too long ago many in this industry predicted Euro-style cabinets would be a fad while others thought the European look would dominate the U.S. marketplace. In reality, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Will the same be said 10 years from now of laminate flooring?