Laminate AC Ratings Explained

EN 13329 is the European standard for laminate floor coverings, the boards whose surface layer is based on aminoplastic thermosetting resins, and it sets out their characteristics, requirements and test methods, down to how they are marked and packed. Among those characteristics is abrasion resistance, and the standard classifies it in abrasion classes from AC1 to AC6. The European laminate producers' own environmental declaration for direct-pressure laminate states the property as "Abrasion Class EN 13329" with the range AC1 to AC6, and that is the whole of the scale.

Abrasion is wear by rubbing: grit under a shoe, a chair leg dragged across the same path, a dog's claws on the route to the door. The abrasion class describes how long the surface layer resists that before the decor beneath it shows through. It is a measure of the surface, and only of the surface.

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The same declaration usually carries a second classification, and it is the one that answers the question people ask the AC rating. EN ISO 10874 classifies floor coverings by the area and the intensity of use: classes 21, 22 and 23 for domestic use at moderate, general and heavy intensity, 31 to 34 for commercial use and 41 to 43 for industrial use. EN 13329 builds its own classification of areas and levels of use on that system. So when the question is "is this board right for a hallway", the use class is written to answer it and the abrasion class is one of the inputs behind it.

How the two relate is set out in the standard's tables, which are not reproduced here. What matters when buying is that the datasheet states both, and that the use class is the one written for the room.

The twelve laminate boards in the range share one specification: an HDF core, 8 mm thick, 193 mm by 1204 mm, a click joint with a micro-bevelled edge, abrasion class AC4, ten boards to a box for 2.32 m², listed as compatible with underfloor heating and carrying a 25-year manufacturer's warranty. The decision between them is the decor, from the greys of Rio and Arkansas to the dark browns of Alto and Inebolu, because the rating does not change from one to the next.

The use class for the boards is stated on the declaration that accompanies them, and that, rather than the AC4, is the line to check against the room.

Laminate has a wood-fibre core bonded with resin, so the declaration also carries an emission class. E1 is the class for wood-based products including laminate flooring; an E1 product releases no more than 0.1 ppm of formaldehyde into the air around it, determined by the chamber method of EN 717-1. It is a separate property from the AC rating and a separate line on the label.

Laminate is, in the words of the European producers' technical bulletin, by conception intended for floating installation; a full-surface adhesive bond is an exception for special circumstances and needs the manufacturer's confirmation first. A floating floor needs an edge gap on all sides, which the same association puts at 8 to 12 mm, and an underlay. For underlays under laminate EN 16354 sets the test methods, and the producers' bulletin says the underlay's impact sound value, ISLam, should be at least 14 dB. The MMFA groups what an underlay does under three headings: levelling small unevenness so the joints sit right, protecting the board from wear beneath and from residual building moisture, and improving impact sound, walking noise, heat insulation and comfort.

The abrasion class is about the top of the board. The floor lasts as long as the top, the joint and the underlay together, and two of those three are not on the AC label at all.

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Which rooms take the most abrasion depends on how a house is lived in, and that differs between a terrace with the front door onto the street and a semi with a hall. Browse by town and region.

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