Here's a little more from the upcoming full glossary of Laminate Floor terminology.     Laminate Glossary A-B Laminate Glossary C Laminate Glossary D Laminate Glossary E-G Laminate Glossary H-I Laminate Glossary J-O Laminate Glossary P-R Laminate Glossary S Laminate Glossary T Laminate Glossary U-the end    

Laminate Flooring Glossary of Terms: T

Taber-test – This is one of the AC Ratings test, covering abrasions. The machine rotates a test piece of the laminate under an abrasive source, and the number of contacts needed to get the surface to show wear determines the classification for this test.

Tap n Go - This is an older style of laminate floor installation, shown below. Basically each plank of laminate must be tapped in (with a mallet, so it's a bit more than a 'tap', but not quite hammering) to secure the connection between the planks. These are much less popular than they used to be, but there are still some being made.

Textured Surface - The opposite of a smooth surface, this will refer to the surface of any laminate which has been given a distressed look, hand-scraped look, or has any other kind of physical feature on the top. These can be high gloss or matte, and are likely not the sorts of floors over which one wants to slide in the socks.

Thermofusing - It has to do with resins, which used to have a lot to do with laminates. Heat and pressure are used to bond them into the needed substance.

Thermosetting Resins - These are heat safe materials, if not always microwave safe. They cure (see above!) via a chemical reaction, so that heat does not undo the chemical bonds as it might with a heat cured substance.

Three Strip - This is one of the main styles of wood look laminates, in which a single laminate plank is designed to look like three narrow rows of wood.

Thickness - With laminates the range of thicknesses is currently between 7mm and 12.2mm. You'll see some listed at 14.2mm, but those are counting an attached, 2mm pad. The range seems slight, just under 1/5 of an inch, but it's often the first factor on which people decide when looking at the technical specifications. A thinner laminate might be less durable (though not necessarily, as some of our toughest floors are 8mm Kronoswiss laminates).

Tile - In flooring it's a piece that is not significantly longer than it is wide, those being planks. These are usually squares but they can be rectangular. Tile could also refer to the very small pieces of wood used in making a parquet wood flooring.

Tile Look - Laminates with a "tile look" are meant specifically to look like ceramic or stone tiles. See an example above under Plank Design.

Tongue and Groove - This is a type of laminate installation which slightly differs from click together. The planks are connected to each other, and form a floating floor, but they do not click together with a locking mechanism so much as the 'tongue' end of one juts out and fits into the 'groove' cut into the end of another. Click together floors have mostly taken these over in laminates.

Traditional Style Laminates - This is our technical way of saying, "Looks like hardwood flooring". The first laminates were made to look like real wood while solving some of the issues brought by using such natural material, mainly how it responds to the environment. This category would exclude newer styles like the stone tile looks, or unique colors like greens, blues, deeper reds - even black laminates would likely be grouped as modern rather than traditional.

Transitions - Transition pieces get lumped in with trims, but the distinction is that a trim goes at the edge of a floor where it meet a wall or something else vertical. Transitions are designed to go through a walkway in between two sections of flooring. These would include things like t-molds, which go between floors of the same height, and reducers, which cover the gaps between floors of different heights.

Trims - Broadly this refers to both trims and transitions, but more specifically a trim is a narrow piece of wood cut to fit at the edge of a floor, usually where it meets the walls or any insets into the room.

Two Strip - In this style of wood style laminates, a single laminate plank is designed to look like two rows of wood.

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David is has written and made videos about flooring products and installation since 2011 at Floors To Your Home (.com), where he is also the PPC Manager, a Researcher, a Website & Marketing Strategy Team member, Videographer, Social Strategist, Photographer and all around Resource Jito. In my spare time I shoot and edit video, put together a podcast, explore film history, and mix music (as in ‘play with Beatles multi-tracks’). Connect with  W. David Lichty

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