The fact is that the flooring industry has changed a lot in the last twenty years. It seems there was a flooring store on every corner, but today they are harder to find.

There are a lot of reasons for this, from the housing market crash to the home centers making a concerted effort to grow the flooring side of their businesses. However, they weren’t necessarily offering the best prices on flooring.

In 1996, Pergo would introduce laminate flooring to the U.S. market and all of the sudden, more consumers were willing to buy the material and perform a diy floor installation. It was now much easier to do, and as time went on, a click laminate would be offered that required no glue. The boards connected at an angle then snapped down into place over a flooring underlayment. No nails, no adhesives, and as you can imagine, this made installation possible for most anyone.

Because of these new easy to install floors, this paved the way for internet flooring retailers to offer diy floors at a significant discount. The advantage was their not having the massive overhead associated with a retail location. The customer had to pay shipping costs, but the savings were still substantial.

The next several years would bring about even more changes with the flooring industry and the types of floors available. Not only were there more options, but you could now get almost every type of floor with a click locking system. Bamboo flooring, cork flooring, hardwood flooring and even vinyl flooring could now be purchased and easily installed by the customer.

Even if the consumer wasn’t performing a diy flooring installation, the floors were still easy enough to install where the customer could have a handyman or someone with little experience do the work and still get a professional looking installation without having to look for a professional flooring installer.

All this would eventually lead to the internet flooring retailer becoming a major force to be reckoned with. Like everything else, consumers were finding that shopping on the internet for flooring was proving to be a viable way to get big discounts. Floor buyers were saving hundreds, even thousands of dollars on new flooring for their homes.

Today, the concept has more than caught-on, as almost everyone is at least researching the internet before making a decision. Those who don’t might not care and would just prefer to have everyone do everything for them and are willing to pay the additional cost to just have it handled. But those willing to take an extra step or two could get big discounts on flooring.

With advancements in PVC technology vinyl became a viable option that was much easier maintenance than linoleum.

Overtime the vinyl because more and more realistic and very durable. However, when Pergo was introduced in 1996 that was the “death” of vinyl flooring of the past. Pergo and other laminate flooring introductions later became dominate in the market especially for kitchens and larger areas. Laminate floors were so much easier to install and had the look of high end hardwood and yet had the easy maintenance like vinyl.

From 2000-2008 vinyl was a shrinking market. However starting in roughly 2009 a new category of vinyl flooring emerged to finally give laminate floors like Pergo a run for the money. This new generation of flooring has a more realistic look and is combined with easy installation.

In 2011 there is the most important emergence of vinyl flooring in the last 50 years. The newest generation of solid vinyl plank floors that have the look of wood, yet the click installation of laminate is truly a game changer. This product done correctly has the ability to revolutionize not just the vinyl market but also laminate.

Just as laminate beat vinyl with a knock out punch this could be the revenge of vinyl against laminate.

Although there are LOTS of positives to this product there are an equal about of potential GOTCHAS.

Some of the points of differentiation to be wary of including the quality of the product itself, the recycled content (Because it could be toxic – THIS IS NOT A POSITIVE ATTRIBUTE IN MOST CASES), the thickness as it related to the click joint integrity, the finish surface durability, scratch resistance, color changing, ease of maintenance and so much more.

As always it pays to be informed. In the near future a BRAND WARS: VINYL FLOORING article will be published showing the differences between click vinyl floors to join the series of BRAND WARS articles that have been read my millions looking at laminate and hardwood flooring.

One of the most interesting things about that fact, however,  is that brands like Armstrong, Mannington, Pergo, Dupont, Shaw, Mohawk, Formica and many others continue to charge above market prices despite economic realities.

A recent study that compared “off brand” laminate flooring to the most recognized brands like those noted above found that the typical savings for the exact same product specifications was around 40%. The typical savings from the average flooring job was more than $500.00.

So if you have ever purchased the generic at the local grocery store for Tylenol instead of the “real” thing you should consider one of the emerging off brands that can save you big money on your project.

The designer made a great choice and the room for her family turned out great. To see the show the link below can take you to HGTV. Click on the Hometown Design to see the episode online.

Design Star – HGTV featuring iFLOOR flooring There are different “show parts” that you can scan to see the whole show. Parts 3 &4 really shows some of the challenges that Trish had to deal with. The young fellow who was the carpenter was clearly a hard worker and he did a great job on the mantle, but I would encourage him to stop by the store for some tips on a click together flooring for future needs. (he was only 3 weeks on the job so he did well considering that level of experience!) The other designers had an unfair advantage!

Now all of that sounds great, but the carpenter who was put on that job was quite a wild card. The footage of the guy installing the floor and literally clicking the floor in mid air and almost hitting himself in the face was enough to make me laugh and cry at the same time.

The floor was installed using a heretofore unknown technique despite installation instructions being available in the cartons and online and at the store. The inexperience showed through when he installed 2 rows at a time which was crazy considering the extra time it took and the look was not awesome compared to the individual strip look that the floor is designed for.

However Trish did a great job on the room and the overall look was tremendous. Great job to the team in Utica for getting them a great product on a tight timeline!

There is a large amount of change coming in the pergo line up.

If you have been shopping for pergo and getting set on certain styles or patterns now would be a good time to capture the inventory before it is either reformatted or discontinued.

Although I don’t fully understand some of the changes, in some ways they are perplexing, it is not uncommon for this to happen over the course of time.

Just wanted to share a quick heads up for those looking at the Pergo laminate brand.

Cool products, innovative design, spectacular engineering and prices that defy gravity!

Depending on your location iFLOOR is offering a Tax Free or Financing offer or in certain states just a financing offer. (*oac, restrictions apply, etc…) Either way there’s no better time to buy flooring.

With great bargains in Alloc, Contractor’s Choice, Exdura, Pergo, Westhollow and many more customers are sure to find the perfect floor for them.

Good luck on your flooring projects!

It is a mid toned stained red oak, with a well engineered multi-ply system and a very easy click locking system and can be used over radiant heat. (nothing funny about that – just good hardwood flooring.)

This is a web only special while supplies last. (no joke.)

The price does appear to be in jest since it is so low, however, presently it is at $2.99 per foot and we are down to the last 10,000 feet or so. I suppose it is possible that it will be gone by the time you read this; then the joke is on me. (ouch.)

Good luck for those who are lucky enough to grab some!

One of the things that I really like about the newer laminate stylings from Armstrong, Pergo, Westhollow, Quickstep as well as some of the other brands is the realism of the wood look. The gloss levels, texture, narrow width, bevels edges and overall decors are becoming very impactful.

The True Flooring – True woods collection is one of those lines. Although it is brand new and I am not sure even on display yet, I saw some of the advanced colors when the containers began to arrive in the United States. I am enthusiastic about design options available using this product line. I think the Pergo World traveler floors and the newer Armstrong flooring styles have a similar potential for beautiful interiors.

Pergo’s high end products have always remained very strong and I think still represent great values even today. This strength is in contrast to some of the other challenges Pergo faced both internally and externally.

Pergo Select and Pergo World Traveler are both examples of very fashionable floors that are still very tough for demanding households. Flooring is meant to be lived on so toughness counts.

Kudos to Pergo for creating a market so prolific that their dominance remains viable to this day in laminate.