Quick Step Flooring
When you are purchasing your flooring, along with style, colour, cost and ease of installation, one of the most important things to consider is longevity. Floors can be intrinsically beautiful, a warm canvas upon which to paint the décor of the rest of your room. But they are also fundamentally practical - they suffer much that other parts of your room do not. They are walked on, have objects dropped, and all sorts of liquids spilled, directly on them. And they must bear the weight of numerous articles of furniture, along with the endless comings and goings of your family.
So your Quick Step flooring must be capable of enduring such a punishing onslaught. Laminate floors are renowned for their hard-wearing properties, but how can you properly assess their robustness? Well, one independent measure, that any supplier of laminate flooring will happily provide you, is the Abrasion Class rating, or AC rating. This is assessed, and supplied by an independent body, with oversight of the entire industry- the European Producers of Laminate Flooring (EPLF).
This body has devised a series of tests that stress laminate flooring to its limits, to give the consumer confidence in the life-time of their flooring. Resistance to burning is measured, along with abrasion caused by legs and wheels of furniture, the general scratching and abrasion from everyday use and even impact resistance.
Once the tests have been completed for a particular product line, the ratings are combined into single values, known as the AC rating. This ranges from 1 to 5, where the lower numbers denote less robustness and the higher the more resistant forms of flooring.
AC1 makes sense for low-stress areas, such as bedrooms, where the amount of footfall is low, and furnishings are not placed under high pressure. AC2 covers those areas that experience a higher level of footfall, and more demanding stress from furniture and impacts. So use AC2 flooring in living rooms, dining rooms, and halls.
AC3 and AC4 are ranked to be used in more demanding situations, where there is a lot of traffic- this might make sense in a busy kitchen, or in lightly-to-moderately used offices or commercial areas. AC5 covers the most high-stress flooring environments, such as will typically be found in department stores or buildings open to the general public.
Of course, when you are looking to purchase your Quick Step flooring, you don't need to stick to these broad categories of expected use. If you are installing laminated flooring in your residential home, but want to ensure your flooring will last for as long as possible, then it may make sense to look out for the AC4 and AC5 ratings. They will remain in good shape, and beautifully presented, for that longer time span you seek.