Product warranties

If you are considering purchasing new flooring, take the time to learn as much as you can about the products, but don't get caught up in the warranties. If you are buying a particular product because of its warranty, you are buying for the wrong reason. In this article I will attempt to explain the types of warranties and what they do and do not cover. The three types of flooring warranties I am going to cover are: Laminate, hardwood, and carpet. There are also warranties for manufacturing defects, most of which cover a one year period and will not be covered in this article. These warranties are the least important, primarily because defects are found at the time of installation.

First lets cover hardwood flooring. Hardwood flooring typically has two types of warranties. the first is a finish warranty. The finish warranty means that the finish will not wear through to the wear layer from normal use, for X amount of years. A finish warranty does not cover scratching, or gloss reduction in the finish due to high traffic or sunlight. Most finish warranties cover a 10, 15, or 25 year period. Occasionally, you will find some products that have a 40 or 50 year finish warranty. The only real difference between these warranties, is the amount of finished applied to the floor itself. In some instances, there may be no difference in the amount of finish applied at all. A 15 year product may have the same amount of finish, that a 25 year product has. If there is a difference, it is probably so minute that it would not be worth paying for. There are two main things that drive up the price of hardwood flooring. The first thing that drives the price up, is the type of hardwood. The harder the wood, the more expensive it will be. The size of the wear layer is the second thing that drives the price up. The thicker the top wear layer on an engineered product, the more expensive it will be. Availability, width of product and length structure play an important role too, but not as much as the type of wood and the size of the wear layer. Basically, if you are buying a product with a thick wear layer, and is a hard exotic specie, there will be a good warranty attached to it. The other warranty associated with hardwood is the structural warranty. Most engineered products have a lifetime structure warranty. This warranty guarantees that the wood will not buckle, cup, warp, or De-laminate for the life of the product. There are no structural warranties associated with solid hardwood flooring. There are many exclusions in warranties for hardwood, so take the time to read them, however do not base your purchase decision solely on them.

Carpet warranties can be be difficult to understand, so try not to focus on them too much. Most carpets have a 10 year, 10 percent fiber warranty. This means that the carpet will not lose 10% of its surface pile fiber, for a period of ten years. Even under the most strenuous circumstances this will never happen. Another warranty you will see on carpet, is the stain resistance warranty. This does not mean the carpet will not stain, it only means it will be easier to clean when it is new. All carpet will stain, however some types are more stain resistant than others. Polyester is more stain resistant than nylon, but tends to wear out faster. When looking for carpet ignore the warranties for the most part. Instead focus on threads per square inch, density, the twist of the yarn and the type of fiber. All of these things put together, make for a quality carpet. You can read my post on types of carpet, for further information.

Warranties for laminate floors usually only cover premature wear, fading and staining. Scratches and water damage are not covered under warranty. If you are in the market for a quality laminate, take the time to learn about the difference between high and direct pressure.
Visit http://www.wilsonartflooring.com/advantage.asp to learn about the differences. The three best laminates on the market are: Wilsonart, Alloc original and Pergo select.

Take the time to learn about the products you intend to buy and the warranties will speak for themselves. Unfortunately warranties are sometimes put on products, just so you will buy them. The best way to learn about the warranty of a product is to read its exclusions. I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
The Floor Man