Laminate flooring has been popular in Europe for more than 25 years but is a relatively new product in the U.S. It's completely synthetic, with a tough melamine wearcoat over a kraft-paper (or medium-density fiberboard) core. The beauty of laminate flooring is that it can be made to look like any material-stone, ceramic tile, wood, and more-at a fraction of the cost of the real thing. The effect is achieved in the second layer, which contains a photographic representation of the real flooring material. In its early days, laminate was faulted for looking unrealistic, but today's technology gives the surface of laminate planks the texture as well as the look of wood, tile, or stone. What's more, the construction of laminate flooring results in a stable product that can be installed below grade.

   Laminate flooring goes down easily-most products simply snap together and the planks float on a layer of plastic foam underlayment. You can use it where you can't use wood. You can install it without spreading the adhesives you'd need for vinyl or installing sheets of cement backerboard as you would for ceramic tile. The underlayment provides some resilience as you walk on it, which makes a more comfortable surface than stone, wood, or tile. The underlayment also helps deaden sound in the floor.

   In its early generations, laminate floors were available as pieces that glued together along the edges. Some manufacturers recommend glued laminate for kitchens or bathrooms, where watertight joints are required, or for hard-use areas like recreation rooms. Installations that snap together create a floor that's one large piece, held down around the edges by a baseboard or shoe molding. Because the pieces do not need to be nailed or screwed. By far, the most popular installations are of laminates that imitate wood. To the subfloor, laminates make a great floor covering for concrete and does not require expensive underlayment sub-floor.

   Laminate wear layers are tough and durable-made from the same polymer as laminate countertops, but thicker. They stand up extremely well to dents, but not as well to scratches, and scratches in laminate can't be rubbed out or repaired. That makes them a less-than-ideal floor for backdoor mudrooms and other rooms that are likely to receive rough abrasive treatment and get scuffed up from shoes coming indoors. The melamine finish is hard, resists dirt, and requires only periodic damp mopping.

   Durability is one advantage of laminate flooring. Another plus is that it can look like many different materials. You can buy planks that look like wood, wood inlay, or ceramic tile, as shown here. Some patterns are available as planks or square tiles, although the patterns available in tile may be fewer in some areas.
   Two pieces of laminate flooring can look identical but vary widely in quality. That's because of the thickness of the melamine wearcoat. The thicker the layer, the longer the floor is likely to last. But since the wear layer is virtually invisible, you have no way to tell how thick it is.
Warranties give you a clue: The planks with the thickest wear layer will also have the longest warranty—as much as 25 years or more. They will also be the most expensive, but at least you know why.