Laminate flooring?

[Neil4Speed]

Has anyone put Laminate flooring in their homes? I hear its reletively easy and looks very close to hard wood? Any experiences, or places where I can get it for cheap? The best price I have found is $1.29 sq/ft at Ikea, but then again I havn't looked much.

[t-im]

you mean laminate hardwood right?..not just..linoleum...

I've seen it and it's not bad..but you can def. tell it's not real..

to me, I woudln't think Ikea would be the cheapest..but i could be wrong..home depot and rona? or i think i've seen it at this place in the NE and someone said it was pretty cheap there..one of those warehouse building stores

[ZorroAMG]

I don't think that ikea is the best in terms of quality...check Home depot

[boy1_]

i've helped do it before, not hard at all. go to the home depot, the guys there were alot of help.

[Mckenzie]

Our laminate floor is from Ikea and it looks great. It has been almost 11 years and it still looks like new. People always think it is hardwood...

Its cheap, easy to install and best of all, very easy to clean.

I'd say go for it.

[rockym20]

The Ikea stuff is made by a major manufacturer and just has the Ikea name on it. It is high quality stuff. However, if you want something that looks more "real", Timbertown and other places have a laminate where the edges are beveled to make it look more like actual hardwood. Its pretty cheap too - only around $2.50/sf.

[Z_Fan]

I've spent a lot of time looking at this stuff. To be very honest, there are a LOT of kinds out there, and almost all of them are done in the same way. Some of the stuff you pay $2.99/ft for are really built exactly the same as the 'cheap' stuff. I've yet to find someone who can actually PROVE to me the justification for the much higher cost. Often the only real difference is the thickness of the laminate and what is on it! So careful when you buy it, often there are very good deals on 'better' stuff at Home Depot even...if you've got even just 500 sq. feet to cover, 500 x 1.79 is a BIG DEAL to pay EXTRA. ($2.99 versus $1.29) So yeah, careful what you buy!

What I did find was that most of the 'nice' or more expensive stuff is the darker stuff. Most of the cheaper stuff tends to be the light colors. From installs I've seen, the reason is simply that the light stuff looks cheap, and the dark stuff looks rich or expensive. So, perception seems to have defined the cost of this stuff! Go figure.

Timber Town has a tonne of this stuff if you are looking for huge selection! I found the one in the NE had the widest selection. I'm talking, 10x the selection that Home Depot had...(no joke) This is the place to go if you want a big variety to check out.

The 'hardwood' look is really just printed. (Seriously) And then it is applied to the board with a laminate finish. Have a real good look at the different board structures, and eventually you wonder why anyone buys the 'expensive' stuff. It's all cheap - and a FAR cry from real hardwood IMO. But it is very popular, and seems to work very well from my experience. Definitely something I'd put in my basement, etc.

I had to install several hundred square feet of this in to my office. I purchased 'Q2' stuff, which is basically stuff the factory rejects for any number of reasons. Problems with the laminate rippling, edges slighted bumped, etc. In my case, this was acceptable because I plan on destroying it anyhow. (Heavy traffic, lots of heavy things getting dropped accidentally, etc) Q2 is cheaper, and in my case I found about 10% of what I bought to be truly unusable. I knew this going in, and bought enough to make sure I was covered. There are a lot of good pieces still in Q2. But if your area actually 'matters' - stay VERY clear of Q2 because it is cheap for a reason. $.99/ft if it suits your project...

Some people tell you this stuff is 'indestructable' - which is If you drop heavy things on it, it will 'crush' the laminate portion, causing a 'white' spot similar to a crushed spot on a windshield...you know what I mean. Though, you're not going to break boards by dropping stuff on them. You might break edges though, and then the laminate can peal away.

But totally agreed the stuff is easy to install. You just need a saw to cut it (at the ends where it's likely going to get tucked under trim anyhow) And then it just pops together - it's a breeze really, as long as you can keep things square. (Gets harder if you have a LONG room)

Good luck.

[Pete92SL]

You get what you pay for. Ask people who work in the industry, such as a store that only deals with hardwood, cork and Laminate...you know...professionals. ikea, totem, home depot and all the others are a joke in the industry.

Most of the replies so far are from personal experience (which is always different for different people when they do their own install) or what the sales guy at a hardware shop told them (who goes to a couple day training course on what they sell) Take that into consideration.

Z_Fan, the white marks after droping something on the floor is very common with the cheaper laminates. For about a dollar per square foot more you can get a laminate floor that would not make a white spot, but it would still dent. I agree with you on Timber Town in the NE. Good place for that price range.

If you have any questions PM me on it, I'm not willing to publicly place any information about flooring. I will tell you information on what is good or not privately, however I am not going to inform you on trade techniques. If you need to, I can put you in contact with the distributor and manufacturer of some floors.

I’m not throwing a sales pitch; I don’t sell to people who install their own product. I can recommend a few places though.

Good luck,

Pete

[vietdood]

laminate flooring is wicked, my uncle has it in his house. the first time i was over there after he installed it he was showing his friends that it was scratchproof, so he took a fork and started scraping it against the laminate

[statick]

i asked one of my friends named marko, he told me ikea is teh best for this.

[Davetronz]

Really easy to install if you have any kind of woodworking / measuring skills. Just make sure you take your time and ensure that everything remains tight, but has room for expansion against walls.

[sputnik]

If you want the fake hardwoods to look better longer... use carpenters glue along each edge of each section when you install it. It will take 10 times longer to do but it will be more resistant from having the seams seperate (a huge problem with the crappy "wood" floors).

Much better idea just to get a decent carpet or REAL hardwoods.

[Davetronz]

Originally posted by sputnik
If you want the fake hardwoods to look better longer... use carpenters glue along each edge of each section when you install it. It will take 10 times longer to do but it will be more resistant from having the seams seperate (a huge problem with the crappy "wood" floors).

Much better idea just to get a decent carpet or REAL hardwoods.

Yea I definately agree with the carpenters glue.
I did 1/4 of my floor without it and it doesnt look nearly as nice as the other 3/4 that I used the glue on.