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debodun
ANSWERS: 5
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Good question. Laminate is a plastic based material made to look like wood, brick, stone, cloth or any material of choice. Veneer is the actual material used as a cover on a counter or house. Over here, most houses are wood construction with a brick veneer. the brick is a facade.
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The difference between "veneer" and "laminate" is that with the first there is the implied assertion that the surface is the real--and usually more valuable--material, but it's not the same all the way through. One example is "brick veneer" house construction--where one sees and can touch real brick, but the load-bearing wall is something else, such as wood or steel--while another is "walnut veneer" plywood. One could even have "plastic veneer" if the surface was a layer of plastic bonded to something less valuable. But "laminate", used as a noun, acknowledges that the surface is one thing and the rest is something else and here the implied notion is that the surface is only made to "appear to be" (by looking or even feeling like) something it's not. So both terms pertain to a an object whose surface layer is one thing and the rest is something else, but "veneer = genuine" while "laminate (noun) = looks like". (Advertisements for "GENUINE, REAL oak laminate floors = oxymoron").
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Good answers. Jan. 23
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1-29-2017 Latin 'lamina' means skin. The English word means anything in a layer. The verb form just means an applied layer. It has similar meanings in botany and geology.
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this may seem redundant, but: veneer refers to the top, exposed layer whereas laminate refers to the entire item.
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