I have posted occasionally on this forum and really value all the feedback from the knowledgeable folks. It's my discussion here that prompted me to look into laminate as a viable and elegant alternative for our flooring.

I am trying to finalize my flooring choice and just when I was almost certain to get a high end laminate (Pergo, Armstrong etc)., a friend happened to mention that laminates are made using a formaldehyde derivative and therefore off gas a quite a bit. This has basically sent me back to researching about safety aspect of the flooring.

I tried googling about laminate offgassing and found no conclusive information. Wikipedia has a 1-sentence mention of formaldehyde being used in laminates. However, if it is indeed the case, then I was surprised to find no formaldehyde free choices, even at a higher price. With good deal of awareness of this issue and availability of low-VOC paints etc. it was surprising to find no low-VOC flooring mentioned much.

So, essentially, I am relying on the knowledge and experience of this community again. I would appreciate hearing about : 1. whether it is true that laminates do offgas and 2. Are there any brands or lines available that do not? My choices are Pergo and Armstrong but I am open to any suggestions reasonably easy to find.

Thanks for the help in advance!

Found the following document from Armstrong that states the presence of formaldehyde :-(. I am pretty sure that others have it too; it's just that I found it under Armstrong.

http://www.armstrong.com/pdbupimages/2127188114.pdf
(Can be found after searching for "Formaldehyde").

For residents of california, the products need compliance with Carb 2 standard -- I am not familiar with other states' compliance requirements.