Flooring · Laminate
How long does laminate flooring last?
InterNACHI's baseline chart gives laminate 15 to 25 years. Pergo sells the same category under a limited lifetime residential warranty — but inside that document, the coverage for manufacturing defects runs six months, and water left standing on the floor for more than thirty minutes is outside all of it.
Updated
The gap: the paper says “Lifetime” — "Lifetime" is defined as: for as long as the original purchaser owns the flooring — and the document adds that the warranties "are not transferable. They extend only to the original end-consumer." What the term covers is five specific things: the surface will not wear through, will not fade, will not stain, will resist damage from damp mopping and everyday spills removed promptly, and the joints will stay secure. Manufacturing defects get their own separate six-month term. Excluded by name: flooding, leaking pipes, appliance leaks, pet urine, standing water left longer than thirty minutes, any moisture arriving through or under the subfloor, and damage from wet mopping, steamers or jet mops. Surface wear must be visible over roughly one square inch before it counts as wear at all. Typical service life is still 15–25 years. Warranty document (Pergo (Mohawk), checked 2026-08-27)
Typical service life: 15–25 years
The baseline chart's range for laminate is 15 to 25 years. Where a floor lands inside it is mostly a water question and a grit question: the surface is a printed melamine wear layer that cannot be sanded or recoated, and the core carrying it is fibreboard.
Tier 3 · baseline chart (undated) Range from InterNACHI — Standard Estimated Life Expectancy Chart for Homes, checked 2026-08-27.
Laminate is a floating floor, so it grows and shrinks as a single sheet with the humidity in the room. Houses that swing hard between a dry heating season and a humid summer are where the expansion gap at the perimeter earns its keep; where that gap was cut short or trapped under trim, the floor peaks in the wet season and gaps in the dry one, and neither is a defect the warranty recognises.
What the warranty paper actually says
Pergo (Mohawk) (Pergo XP Limited Lifetime Residential Warranty) publishes a “Lifetime” limited, non-transferable, conditional warranty. "Lifetime" is defined as: for as long as the original purchaser owns the flooring — and the document adds that the warranties "are not transferable. They extend only to the original end-consumer." What the term covers is five specific things: the surface will not wear through, will not fade, will not stain, will resist damage from damp mopping and everyday spills removed promptly, and the joints will stay secure. Manufacturing defects get their own separate six-month term. Excluded by name: flooding, leaking pipes, appliance leaks, pet urine, standing water left longer than thirty minutes, any moisture arriving through or under the subfloor, and damage from wet mopping, steamers or jet mops. Surface wear must be visible over roughly one square inch before it counts as wear at all.
The warranty document itself , checked 2026-08-27.
What shortens it
- Standing water — the paper draws the line at thirty minutes, and the fibreboard core swells permanently once it is past that
- Wet mopping and steam mops, excluded by name and the fastest way to drive water into every seam
- Grit at entries wearing through the printed decor layer, which has no coating that can be renewed
- A subfloor giving off moisture, which laminate has no coverage against in any direction
- Heavy furniture and hard castors, which dent the core and lever joints apart
Signs of wear to look for
- Swollen board edges standing proud along the seams, chipped-looking where the core has taken on water
- Joints that have opened and no longer sit flush, or boards that rock when crossed
- The photographic pattern worn to a pale blur in the traffic lane
- Peaking — board edges tented upward where the floor has run out of room at the walls
- A hollow clack spreading across the room as the underlayment beneath compresses
Other flooring materials
- Solid hardwood 100+ yrs
- Engineered wood 50+ yrs
- Luxury vinyl plank about 25 yrs
- Carpet 10+ yrs
- Ceramic and porcelain tile 75+ yrs
- Sheet vinyl about 25 yrs