Laminate flooring pros and cons

[wags]

I have over 1700 sq feet of 3/4in oak and love it! the other 1700 sq feet is tile.( kit, baths, hallways etc..) As mentioned before if there are ever stains that are so bad that sanding would not work you can have it replaced and stained. As for matching it's just a matter of wook size, you can sand and restain to get a constant look.

My old house had hardwood with wall to wall over it, when I bought it the 1st thing I did was remove the carpet and what I found wound make you sick. I called a local guy who came in and replaced 1/2 of the family room then sanded everything and stained it. I lived in that house for over 10 years with kids and pet's and the floors still looked good.

I would look at your long term plans for staying in the house and weigh the cost of real vs fake and go from there.

Just my 2 cents

 

[jeepbob47]

We had the Pergo that is glued when we built out house 16 years ago and it was awesome.The whole first floor was Pergo. It was a white wash plank. When we re-did the kitchen 5 years ago we went with a Shaw farm house plank. Again the first floor (including laundry room) was done. We have two kids and two dogs and both products have held up great. I highly recommend lam flooring.

 

[snow_dog]

Well that answered that not to much on the cons side.As for sealing what about gluing the snap style just by the landing to help with water and moisture?? i am looking in to lumber liquidators they seem to have some good prices. thanks for the advice on the scratch test good idea.It comes in different thickness 6mm all the way to 12mm i will measure and go from there thanks again greg

One thing I don't like about laminate, is that when it's installed using the recommended
padding or "quiet walk" as they call it, it has a degree of flex or movement when you walk on it. If you stand back and watch a 175lb person walk across the floor you can actually see it compress down underfoot due to the padding underneath.
This may not be a big deal to some, I personally don't care too much about the movement, but what does bother me is that that movement often leads to creeks or squeeks or worse yet a loud snap or pop when you step on a certain area.
I've experienced this snap sound on a few different laminate floors and I think it's pretty annoying. One floor snapped so loud it made you look down every time, thinking you just stepped on something and broke it.

 

[yamadooed]

If you have creaks or pops you either have subfloor or installation issues or manufacture issues... Most of the foam or pad under the lam floors is 1/16 to 1/8 thick so it should be very minor crush...I wouldn't hesitate to install the original Pergo again...

 

[polarisrider1]

Con: it adds zero value to your house. Realitor says you got to have a floor covering to sell. Carpet, linoleum, fake wood add zero. Do "real hardwood" or tile if you want to add to the value and have a product that lasts.

 

[tilesnake]

Wood?

 

[skidoolis]

well we picked up 400 sq feet of the french oak..its looks great so far (just one piece laying there)..Its a little more red then i thought but goes well with the furniture we are going to pick out and With the money we have saved she has already picked out some nice area rugs to warm the feel up even more.question on installing i read somewhere lock the entire length together let say 13 feet then snap into place using two people also do you stagger like installing shingles full strip half strip the quarter strip then start over.I Know not to have all the seams line up.Well thanks again.It going to be a honey do weekend out with the carpet in with the floor{LOL}.We could not sleep last night thoughts going a mile a minute on this floor.As for resale value we did take that in to consideration we are not going anywhere for a while this house is so upside down now .we did not want to put to much money into it and besides if the new owner wants hard wood floors they are there they can invest in restoring them thanks for all the help greg

 

[skidoolis]

We have all the material and ready to go.I just watched a really helpful video on you tube and they snapped a hole roll together then snapped it to the first row pretty cool ..we will see still debating on weather to run the long length or shorter.the original floor runs the shorter length we like that but running longer length makes the room look bigger from what the instuction say ..thanks greg

 

[skidoolis]

All i can say is WOW what a differents the floor looks great just a thanks to all the input.I will try to up load photos thanks again greg

 

[skidoolis]

momma could not wait to start swifting which is probably be allot with my fur ball helper lol

 

[polarisrider1]

Wow! Looks nice.

 

[skidoolis]

OK they look great... now we have to cover them lol well at least with a area rug any input????

 

[polarisrider1]

OK they look great... now we have to cover them lol well at least with a area rug any input????

why cover them? if they are cold I have the answer. we stock heated floor mats. that go under snap together wood.