Jump to content

Thoughts on laminate wood flooring??


Putty

Recommended Posts

Laminate is fairly durable, but it does have some drawbacks as does any product. If you damage a piece you have to tear up half the room just to get to that piece. You do have to be careful with water/snow/spills etc laying or pooling on the floor. Laminate is basically pressboard with a laminate on top, so it will swell if water is trapped under or finds it's ways in the joints.

 

A good quality padding/soundbarrier is highly recommended under any laminate floating floor, however it's not going to totally eliminate the plastic click clack sound when walking on it. It's not a wood floor.

 

Not knocking what you have pictured, but you get what you pay for when it comes to any product.

 

Most all these floor are designed to be a "Floating Floor" which means glueing them isn't necessary (unless specifically designed for that purpose). The joints are designed to be interlocking and most have a little adhesive strip on the male piece to aid in the adheasion.

 

As far as install.....as i said above these are Floating Floors which means they are designed to move during expansion and contraction which they will do. So do not butt up edges tightly against any object ex:wall, cabinet, jamb etc. always leave a slight gap.

 

As for your shoe mold pic, you must remove the shoe mold to install the new floor, obviously the new floor will be higher so your install of your shoe will be higher on the base. Again DO NOT butt the new floor tightly against the base. Also you will need to jamb cut the door jambs to slide the new floor under the jambs, don't cut around the jambs. As far as cutting a register out a predrilled hole and a jig saw is your best bet. Make sure you have good blades in any saw you use. and have acouple of them you'll ruin atleast one.

 

Make sure you also get any transistion pieces you may need where the new flor will end, so any doorways, basement doors etc.

 

Any figure atleast 10% extra for any defective pieces (there's always some), or miss cuts. I've done many installs on these floors and it never fails....you'll always have defective pieces.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 51
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

I am also confused on this part if I were to do myself. Here are my base boards...how do you get the wood under it like you see here??

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/CLovaR1/IMAG0471.jpg

 

Not sure if it has been answered, but I just laid Laminate flooring in my home last year. You can either pull up the base board and then put them back after the floors have been laid, or you can leave the base boards down and just use piece's of 1/4 round to cover the gaps. I went with tearing up he old base boards and putting new stuff down. It was a bit more work but it made it look much better (IMO).

 

 

 

Edit:

Also from my experience, I'm very pleased with the way my flooring turned out. I have 2 dogs and my living room sees lots of traffic. It's held up great, and make the house look so much cleaner. I know it's not "top of the line" wood flooring, but for the price and the ease of installation I don't think it's a bad investment at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a slab basement. Is yours darker than the 1st one I posted? My mom has been telling me about scuffs. Only thing she hates about it. I kinda want to keep carpet in my great room cause I lay on the floor playing with my daughter and shit, but the room is so big it would look nice as hell with wood.

 

 

It is about as dark as the dark spots in the first one. While dark looks REAL nice when it's kept immaculate, it'll scuff and scratch showing the nasty not so nice material underneath.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You guys have given me a lot of confidence now when it comes to doing this. I typically try to stay away from major jobs....cause once I rip my carpet up...I'm TOTALLY committed. I was hesitant to do my kitchen backsplash, but once I started, it was easy and looked awesome!

I was not sure of the measurements of my rooms for the wood, so I called Dominion and had them fax me the layout of my house with the measurements of all the rooms. I think what I am going to do is start small and do my dining room. No doors and one vent, perfect square room. If I am successful with it..I'll attack another section.

Thanks, guys and i'm sure i'll be pinging a few of you once I start...I may run grab the flooring for that room today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I went back today to get the flooring and was talked out of laminate. Mainly for the reasons some of you mentioned....the perception it gives at potential resale....cheap, even though it looks great. So I decided to go with bamboo locking pieces. I was told that with the non-locking ones I'd have to glue them to the underlayment as well as glue the pieces to one another. He showed me a glue that acts as a underlayment as well, but the shit was $223 for 5 gallons. So for 5 boxes of .99 wood @$148 plus $223 for glue then $20 for seam glue...I was higher than I expected, So he showed me this locking bamboo stuff where I could get 3 boxes for $318 then a cheaper $22 underlayment roll and be done with it. This is the route I am going. I then got puzzled on the color I need, so I just bought two samples to bring home and judge...I am leaning towards the darker one...You guys tell me...??

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/CLovaR1/IMAG0481.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/CLovaR1/IMAG0479.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/CLovaR1/IMAG0482.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/CLovaR1/IMAG0480.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah that's bamboo real wood..no laminate. I am buying from floors and more...I think that's the name. Its behind lowes off Cemetery rd..by dave and busters..its 2.99 sq ft.. you should look there..good prices.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

looking at lowes, 2.99 sq/ft doesnt seem too bad...they have boxes of 17 sq/ft for $85!

 

i sent you a message back on FB, just let me know when you wanna tackle it...ive got my nephew and the game tomorrow, should be free all day wednesday, until 630 thursday, most of fri, and all weekend AFAIK. ill just have to get some gas in my truck to pick up my stuff from my g/fs moms. i left it there caus i was about on E last time i got home, and im too lazy to go fill it up. lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I am kinda set on that bamboo I just posted. Now that everyone says the darker is better...I will probably get it tomorrow cause they say it needs to site a room temp for 3 days before you apply it. You can swing over and see what we're looking at. I'll break you off gas money to get your shit. Then maybe this weekend we can dive into it. Let me know.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you call up there and ask about yours? I'm getting excited to take this project on.

 

No I stopped in and talked with the mgr about it. I have a staple gun coming today will be testing it tonight if it works out good I will have the floor up and back in right probably Wed. If you need help laying the floor I can give ya a hand and bring all my tools as well but I thing Autumn has to work so the boys may be coming with me as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No I stopped in and talked with the mgr about it. I have a staple gun coming today will be testing it tonight if it works out good I will have the floor up and back in right probably Wed. If you need help laying the floor I can give ya a hand and bring all my tools as well but I thing Autumn has to work so the boys may be coming with me as well.

 

Very good! Was Autumn pissed off? Between me, you and Evan...we should be able to knock that room out with the quickness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a girl in there yesterday that told me the same thing. I had all the wood on a cart. I just so happened to walk to the other side and asked another guy a question on a different product and he gave me totally different info...what I told you. That changed the whole game plan for me.

I understand people get jobs and have to learn the lingo, but when you have people spending 1000s on home improvement shit...You need a person that knows WTF they are talking about....hence your situation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm getting ready to do my home office. I was going to do hard wood, then decided to save some money and do laminate. The final plan (unless it changes again) is to do bamboo. I'm not going to use the interlocking pieces, I'll go ahead and use a stapler and make mine permanent. That place "Floor and Decor Outlet" or whatever it is called run classes on Saturdays for all their different products. I thought about sitting in on one of them before I do mine. Right now I'm finishing up all the painting so the room will be ready for the floor. Edited by Richard Cranium
Corrected the store name
Link to comment
Share on other sites

that floor and decor store is the shit..

and putty if you need and air tools.. like brad nailer or stapler for your base board i have them and your welcome to borrow them. also i have circular saw, jigsaw, table saw if you need them as well.

 

my suggestion is that if you are putting it near a front door or something that will get some water, use a glue in the seams closest to the door just to help keep it more water tight.. or so i have been told..

 

i did 80% of my home in laminent and love it, especially with 3 dogs... everything else is tile. so it works out pretty good for what i needed. i wanted real wood, but knew it would get tore up with the dogs.

 

that bamboo looks great! it wont be bad at all to install.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

that floor and decor store is the shit..

and putty if you need and air tools.. like brad nailer or stapler for your base board i have them and your welcome to borrow them. also i have circular saw, jigsaw, table saw if you need them as well.

 

my suggestion is that if you are putting it near a front door or something that will get some water, use a glue in the seams closest to the door just to help keep it more water tight.. or so i have been told..

 

i did 80% of my home in laminent and love it, especially with 3 dogs... everything else is tile. so it works out pretty good for what i needed. i wanted real wood, but knew it would get tore up with the dogs.

 

that bamboo looks great! it wont be bad at all to install.

 

 

Hey Ryan is the stapler air or electric? I have me a brad nailer I am going to try but if i could snag the stapler if the brad nailer doesn't work out for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...