Balterio Grandeur

Every so often a product will come along that you take one look at and you know immediately will be a winner. Balterio’s Grandeur is a product like that. It is a newly launched laminate floor and quite simply, it sinks the competition.

The most obvious difference is that the planks are extra long at 2039mm and nice and wide at 238mm. Grab a hold of a plank of it and you appreciate its superiority – it weighs a lot. None of the flimsy, bending in your hand nonsense that a lot of the big DIY shops’ laminates give you, this is a mighty plank and is 9mm thick on a hefty bit of HDF.

Superbly Wood Like Grandeur

The proof of the pudding though, is does it look much like wood? I’ll answer this right away – it looks a lot more like wood than any other laminate floor I have ever seen by a mile. Balterio have surpassed themselves with this gorgeous ‘Chromezone’ technology and the colour choice is oaky, but tremendous and ideally suited to these long, rustic planks. ‘Victorian Oak’ is the pick of the bunch to my eyes and I highly recommend this – way better than Quickstep’s 950 range and a step up from their new Largo range too, to my mind.

Balterio say: “Luxury class in every aspect. The fall down installation system on the short side of the planks guarantees quick installation and rock solid fixture. The Chromezone® technology that gives the planks a wonderful matt chrome finish, adds the finishing touch.”

Hermitage Oak

Their new ‘fall down’ system should make life easier and quicker and I will wait to hear what fitters make of it, but they rarely fail with their laminates so I expect it will work and work very well.

Bear in mind that I am not trying to sell you this product and I have no affiliation with Balterio – these opinions are my own and in this case it’s credit where credit is due. I recommend it very highly and I know that you will not be disappointed with it. Expect to pay around £25 per square metre for it.

(Originally posted 2nd June 2009)