Today’s question makes several references to Steve’s Stage of Floor Shopping, which I highly recommend to folks who are just beginning their floor shopping experience. Adam also makes reference to Laminate Brand Wars II: A Laminate Showdown, which is another great article from Steve giving lab and experience based comparisons of many popular lines of laminate flooring.
Q: My wife and I, thought we were at Stage 4, but we’ve slipped back to stage 3. Part of our research into laminate floors, has been to visit local stores, as it’s easier to obtain a sample that way. We were pretty well set on Alloc Original, or Wilson Art Estate, until our last local store visit, when the salesperson started pushing the Berry Floor line, which I had previously never heard of (which just goes to show, I had not done enough research on Alloc). The sales person said that Alloc, while good, hadn’t innovated in several years (which seems in line with the laminate wars 2 article on your site, although the Alloc original, still rated high), and that the Berry Floor was also superior to the Wilson Art because it was thicker (by maybe 1 mm), and had a better joint locking system. Furthermore, he stated that the underlayment that comes with the alloc is not very good because it is so thin, and pointed out the brand of underlayment the store carries as an add-on (Silent Walk). However, as soon as I heard the price on the Berry Floor, I knew something was up, as it was considerably cheaper then both the Wilson Art and Alloc.
I went back home and started doing more research and found out that Alloc and Berry Floors are related thru the Berry group, Berry Flooring, while as thick as most HPL, is only DPL, and the warranty on Berry Flooring, while saying it’s a lifetime warranty, is pro-rated after 5 years. On the topic of underlayment, I realized that just because it’s thin, doesn’t mean it’s poor quality. The Sound6 underlayment that you carry, is extremely thin, but has better acoustic ratings (but also higher cost), then the Silent Walk.
So my questions to you, the flooring expert are:
• Excluding price, is my assumption that Wilson Art Estate and Alloc Original are better than Berry Flooring?
• What is the relationship between Alloc and Berry Flooring?
• How good is the attached underlayment on the Alloc Original? I was unable to find any specs so that I could compare it to the stuff in the store, or other options that you carry.
• Is there any truth in the statement that the Wilson Art joint system is an inferior quality?
Thanks
Adam Salvo
A: I am going to answer your questions a bit out of order, but I do have answers to them all. First off, Alloc and Berry Flooring are both owned by Beaulieu International Group. As we all know, many companies in the corporate world are owned by a larger parent company. In the case of flooring, 90% of all flooring comes from two companies: Mohawk and Shaw (assuming you include carpet in the numbers here). The relationship here is simply that Alloc and Berry are owned by the same parent company, but the flooring itself is different. Berry uses the Uniclic locking system made by the Unilin Group. This is the same locking system featured on Quick Step products and is essentially the best locking system in the industry.
Alloc is the wider known brand of Beaulieu International Group and has unique claim to fame in its use of a metal portion to its locking system. Alloc also had several innovations years ago where as Berry has simply used effective patented material to make their product. In saying this, Alloc and Wilsonart are not “better” than Berry on a brand level nor is Berry better than Alloc and Wilsonart, but rather think of them as each having their own benefits and that from collection to collection there will be different choices as to which is the better product. Berry’s benefit is that it is a lesser known brand so you see some savings from that end. This is similar to companies like Westhollow and Woodstock whom choose not to advertise themselves heavily in order to pass savings on to their customers while still providing a quality product.
The warranty being pro-rated after 5 years would concern me some, which I would be wary of before purchasing. Most flooring warranties have the same benefits for an entire time period so ensure you know all of the details about a warranty before making a purchase.
Is Wilsonart’s locking system inferior? Somewhat when compared to the Uniclic system, but keep in mind it is still a good locking system and Wilsonart still makes some of the best stuff on the market, especially the Red Label collection.
The attached underlayment on Alloc’s Original Collection is ok. This is similar to many products which feature an attached underlayment, where the underlayment is a good value, but not necessarily the best stuff out there when compared to premium underlayments like Cork and Sound 6. One suggestion that has worked well for customers in the past is to add a bit of additional underlayment, normally 3mm cork as it works as a much better substrate than foam based underlayments, then laying the floor with attached underlayment over the top. This gives you the added benefits of additional sound suppression and cushion while still being rather affordable. As far as performance is concerned for attached underlayment, it is heavily dependent on the laminate manufacturer, but these attached pads tend to work better than cheaper combination underlayments.
So let’s sum up here: Alloc and Berry flooring are owned by the same parent company Beaulieu International Group. When comparing brand to brand there is no way to say one is better than another as this is more opinion than anything else, instead, compare products at a collection level and you will be able to easily weigh the benefits of each product to determine which one is best for your project. The laminate industry has several different locking mechanisms and directly comparing them tends to show the Uniclic system as the best on the market, but the locking mechanism alone does not make one laminate better than another.
