Do you need a floor built for both adults and for kids? Calypso laminate flooring may be exactly what you’re looking for.
Calypso is part of Lamett’s AtroGuard line of floors. It combines the strength and look of hardwoods with the water resistance of vinyl plank.
And, if the product works, that’s the dream for any home with young kids or pets that have issues with keeping water in a bowl or juice in a cup.
There’s quite a bit to like about the Calypso line. But there is one potentially big red flag if you’re in the market for new laminate flooring.
- Who is Calypso Flooring and What Makes Them Different?
- What do Customers Say?
- What is the Overall Opinion About Calypso Laminate Flooring?
About Calypso Laminate Flooring
Easy installation
If you’ve ever tried to install your own laminate flooring, you know it can be a complicated process. OK, not necessarily complicated but labor intensive.
Removing even one step can make things easier. And if that step is laying padding then you owe someone something, because they were looking out for you.
Luckily, the underlayment is attached to the Calypso laminate flooring.
The planks themselves are 12mm thick, which is a nice size floor to work with. It’s not so big that it’s difficult to cut the planks. It’s also not so small that the planks are easy to damage.
By adding the pad, Lamett made the installation process easier. They also made the planks thicker by 2 mm.
Why are thinker planks better?
If your goal with the laminate is to recreate not only the look of hardwoods but also the performance and feel underfoot as you walk on the floor, thicker planks do that better. You don’t have the give and bounce in a floor that you can often get with thinner planks.
Great for large areas
In addition to thicker planks, the planks in the Calypso line are also wide: nearly 7 inches. Calypso flooring literally covers a lot of ground quickly. That makes this flooring ideal for those large spaces, like living rooms and larger bedrooms.
It’s not quite as optimal for small areas, like hallways or smaller rooms. This is because you don’t get enough boards in the space to create visual interest.
Another thing that makes it great for larger areas is the construction process used to create the planks. It’s something that Lamett calls SureCore.
It means the base material used to make the Calypso planks is denser than traditional laminate flooring. That makes it more stable and eliminates the need for transitions between rooms.
Nice variety of colors
Look too long at flooring online or in a brick-and-mortar store and it can all start to run together. It’s brown board after brown board after brown board.
So, seeing something that doesn’t look like everything else is always a nice surprise.
Calypso laminate floors come in eight colors, and, while they all live squarely in the brown family, there is a nice variety among them.
There are, of course, the traditional maples and oaks. But there are also some options that lean much more toward the grays.
Easy care and upkeep
The water-resistant finish on Calypso laminate flooring means it’s wet- and steam-moppable which makes this floor very simple to maintain.
So when the beloved family pet drips water all across the floor or the kids track in mud and grime, it’s easy to get this flooring looking like new without having to buy special brooms, brushes, and mops.
This flooring is water-resistant, including resistant to humidity. So it can be installed in other rooms in the house besides living areas. As a result, if you are looking for something that can be put down in the kitchen or in bathrooms then this is an option.
Good for heavy traffic
The water-resistant finish on the Calypso floors is very nice.
However, what may be more appealing depending on how many are in your house is this line’s abrasion class rating. Abrasion Class rating? Yep. It means how well does the surface stand up to use?
Calypso’s AC4 rating means this flooring is suitable for both commercial and residential uses. So, if you do have a lot of pets, or you house includes or hosts a lot of kids or visitors, Calypso laminate flooring can take the traffic.
Price
If you are concerned about laminate pricing, Calypso is an affordable choice, especially for all the plusses this product has. Online pricing is between $2 and $4 a square foot, and there are almost 18 square feet of flooring in each box.
Who’s Lamett?
The biggest red flag raised around the Calypso line of laminate flooring was, oddly enough, Lamett’s website. It’s the place you should be able to go to learn more about not only the Calypso floors but also the company that sells them.
The bad news is, you can’t. Yes, there is a site to visit, but the content is thin. There’s nothing there about the company at all or any of its corporate sustainability policies.
The company has not updated the site in YEARS. The centerpiece item on the site is a press release talking about new patents won in 2015. That’s three years old at this point.
For some consumers, an older site or a neglected site may not be an issue. But it’s something to keep in mind if you consider a regularly updated and maintained online presence a basic of doing business today.
There is a site that talks specifically about AtroGuard and its features, but, if, like me, you believe the more information you can get the better, especially on big purchases like these, note that it’s difficult to find substantive information on Lamett.
What others are saying
While there weren’t a large number of reviews of Calypso laminate flooring online, the few that were available were all positive, with one reviewer calling it the best laminate flooring they’d ever found. Not surprisingly, they pointed out that a large part of the reason they loved the flooring was because it was very wear resistant.
Conclusion
Not to sound like a broken record, but one of the biggest struggles with many laminate floors is the maintenance. They show dirt. They may not wear well.
So, finding a product that says it addresses both of those issues, like the Calypso line of laminate flooring, is intriguing. A wet-mopped laminate? When you’re on your knees cleaning the floor for the third time that day, it kind of sounds like a dream.
If only the parent company’s site were actually being updated.
