If you shopped for flooring in 2015, laminate was the practical choice. It was cheaper than hardwood, tougher than vinyl, and came in convincing wood looks. Fast forward ten years and the conversation has completely flipped: COREtec and similar waterproof vinyl plank have quietly replaced laminate as the default recommendation for most NJ homes. Here’s what changed.
What Laminate Still Does Well
To be fair to laminate — it’s still a legitimate choice for bedrooms, living rooms, and anywhere moisture isn’t a major concern. The AC-rated wear layers on modern laminate are excellent. Prices remain friendly. For a rental property or a tight budget, laminate still works.
What COREtec Does Better
Where COREtec runs away with the category is in the five rooms where homeowners actually worry about their floor: kitchens, bathrooms, basements, mudrooms, and laundry closets. Three reasons why:
- 100% waterproof core. Not just the wear layer — the entire plank, edge-to-edge, top-to-bottom, will not swell when water gets on it.
- Kid-proof and pet-proof. The wear layer resists dog-nail scratches, dragged-furniture gouges, and sticky toddler disasters that would have wrecked older laminate.
- Installs over anything. COREtec’s rigid core floats over concrete, existing tile, old wood subfloor, or existing vinyl. You don’t rip everything up first.
Where We’re Seeing the Biggest Shift
Across our install work in Somerset County, Hunterdon, Bergen, and Morris, the story repeats: customers who would have gone with laminate five years ago now choose COREtec because they’ve either had a water incident (dishwasher, washer line, sump-pump failure) or they’ve heard from a neighbor who did. Waterproof flooring is a product category born out of real-world pain.
The Cost Question
COREtec is typically 20–40% more expensive than comparable laminate. But if you weigh that premium against even one water incident that destroys a laminate floor, the math almost always favors the waterproof upgrade. And for NYC apartments specifically, where a single leak can damage the unit below and expose you to liability, the calculation is even more lopsided — we wrote a dedicated guide for NYC apartment waterproof flooring.
When We Still Recommend Laminate
Three scenarios where we’ll still recommend laminate over COREtec:
- Rental properties with tight turn-over budgets where units get re-done every 5 years anyway
- Second-home bedrooms or attic spaces where the look matters more than the performance
- Projects with a hard-capped budget where the waterproof premium simply isn’t available
Ready to Compare?
Call us at 1-877-466-9929 or book a showroom visit. We’ll bring samples of both to your home — under your actual lighting, next to your actual furniture — and let you decide.
