How Does Thickness Matter in Laminate & Vinyl Flooring?

Many people, even professionals in the trade, mistakenly believe that the thickness of laminate or luxury vinyl planks determine the durability of the product.

In fact the thickness of the very top layer, the transparent wear layer is the most important. Certainly the overall thickness is an issue but more in terms of its insulating properties and its ability to cover irregularities in the subfloor.

In general thicker planks do have a proportionately thicker wear layer... but not necessarily.
Perhaps surprisingly the wear layer itself is actually very thin, typically between 10 and 30 mils.
Note that a mil is NOT a millimetre. The mil or thou, is a measurement commonly used in engineering and manufacturing for specifying the thickness of very thin things like paper, film, foil, wires and paint coatings. 1 mil is a thousandth of an inch. 1 millimetre is about 39 mils.

Wear layer coatings are made out of tough materials, typically a resin coated cellulose and aluminum oxide or melamine. Wear layers are given an abrasion class (AC) rating for durability. Look for an AC rating of 3 or higher for a hardwearing finish.

AC1 - Moderate Residential	Suits light traffic areas such as bedrooms and closets
AC2 - General Residential	Suits medium traffic areas such as living rooms and dining rooms
AC3 - Heavy Residential/ Moderate Commercial	Suits all rooms in a home and light traffic commercial spaces
AC4 - General Commercial	Suits all rooms in a home and medium traffic commercial spaces
AC5 - Heavy Commercial	Suits high traffic commercial spaces such as department stores

Typical          Typical
Overall          Wear layer                                            Typical
thickness      thickness          Suitability                   AC rating
6mm             0,3mm (12mils)   Domestic only               2
8mm             0,55mm (22mils) Minimum commercial     3
12mm           0,7mm (28mils)   Commercial                   4

In summary, thickness is not necessarily an indicator of quality. A 12mm laminate may seem like your best choice because you see more material, but without quality of construction you’re simply paying for more fiberboard.

Contact us for any enquiries at all.